Visits by Indian PMs to Washington elicit a few lines in 7th column on 23 page in US papers, but India's corporate media went wild with Hillary's visit. For a week it was abuzz and ill informed and ingratiating as usual.

I have tried to place the visit in the context of overall deteriorating world situation including fast decline in US economic house of cards based on exotic financial instruments and the worsening situation in Pak Afghan and Middle East region, which is seriously affecting India.

And how the Anglo-Americans with China by divide and rule strategy have kept India and Pakistan at logger heads. This is history repeating itself.

On the critical question of giving a free run to US in India's defense organizations, installations and military, it is the defense brass which added clauses in contract for intrusive inspections. Indians will sell the country for little personal benefits .Indians are a collection of individuals, looking for self nirvana in this world too, whose loyalties extend only to families and castes.

The concept of nationhood evolved in Europe after centuries of struggle against divine right of Kings, dynasties and barons. In India the divisive and heterogeneous feudal polity based on caste and religion; region and languages, in a degenerate state at the end of Moghul era, when the European trading companies came, was frozen. After the varnish of British imposed equality before law, which never went down than district level, disappeared after a few decades after independence. So we have reverted back to end Moghul era polity as can be seen in lawlessness, no rule of law and general lack of accountability and open looting of masses. Starting with law makers, every one is looking for how to break law or circumvent it. Bribe does it. As Supreme court Justice said in a seminar, 95 % of Indians do not trust the judicial system and do not go to it. The government with 70% of the litigation is the worst abuser of law courts.

An unsuitable electoral system, unwisely adopted from the two party British system, allows parties getting 25% of the votes cast garner majority. It is unrepresentative and against the basic tenet of democracy.

India's submitting to US dictates reminds me of a Turkish Deputy PM, who told me ' Mr. Ambassador, you cannot trust the Americans even on what they give in writing' And we have the spokesman of ruling party wanting to give Bharat Ratna to George Bush, India's highest award, even the Republicans would not give a major award to him. Bush knew what he was doing when leading Indians up the garden path.

Bob Chapman [Internationalforecaster.com] revealed that the US State Dept has advised embassies worldwide to stock up on a year's worth of the local currency in anticipation of collapse of the US dollar. Look for a temporary banking shutdown timed for around September 2009. 

Hillary Clinton Comes Bearing Greek Gifts

India has unfortunately become the "sponge" that protects us all--of the blows unleashed by those terrorist groups that treat it as a common enemy along with Israel, the United States, and the West more generally. To the chagrin of its citizens, India has also turned out to be a terribly soft state neither able to prevent many of the terrorist -- nor capable of retaliating effectively against -- their state sponsors in Pakistan--

The existence of unresolved problems, such as the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir, has also provided both Pakistani institutions and their terrorist clients with the excuses necessary to bleed India to "death by a thousand cuts." But these unsettled disputes remain only excuses: not that they should not be addressed by New Delhi seriously and with alacrity, there is no assurance that a satisfactory resolution of these problems will conclusively eliminate the threat of terrorism facing India and the West more generally.'-from a testimony for US Senate Committee.

"The United States has supported radical Islamic activism over the past six decades, sometimes overtly, sometimes covertly," and is thus "partly to blame for the emergence of Islamic terrorism as a world-wide phenomenon." Robert Drefuss, a US columnist.

"What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?". " Nonsense--" responded Brzezinski when asked in 1997 "If Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today." Brzezinski was President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser.

'For the first time since Partition, India, Pakistan and the US have a common threat (terrorism).' It is in the interest of all three to work together,' US envoy Richard Holbrooke to foreign secretary SS Menon and the Indian ambassador In Kabul, Jayant Prasad

'In fact, the "Afghan problem", the "Pakistani problem" and the "Indian-Pakistani problem" are all related.' From a commentary in ' The People's Daily ',China.

"One of the [my] accomplishments has been to de-hyphenate the India-Pak obsession that was present when I got here. We set out to do that," US Amb David Mulford in his farewell interview.

'The general view of the Mumbai terrorist attack was that it had destroyed the big-country dream of India', a commentator in Xinhua, China.

Pakistan Navy Chief Admiral Noman Bashir termed the terror attack as a failure on the part of the Indian Navy

"Give Bharat Ratna to Bush. I don't know what the rules are but I will officially do something," India's Congress party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi ( Bharat Ratna is India's highest civilian award, given for the highest degrees of national service.)

"Recently there have been unconfirmed rumors of a rollback in Pakistan's nuclear program, but all is not yet lost. If our leaders have our national interests at heart above all else, much can be achieved, but it requires commitment, honesty of purpose, efficiency, dedication and foresight." Abdul Qadeer Khan, a notorious nuclear "proliferator" but a "national hero" to Pakistanis, in May 2009. The US has dropped its demand for questioning A.Q. Khan

'It remains our view that the resolution (of Kashmir by India and Pakistan) will have to take into account the views of the Kashmiri people,' visiting US undersecretary of state for political affairs William Burns on 11 June, 2009.

The above statements sum up the sad and sorry outcome of following a slavishly US aligned policy by New Delhi since a decade.

'--Mahmood reached Somnatha in the middle of January, 1025, and found there a strongly defended fortress on the seashore. The Hindus, who assembled on the ramparts of the fort, were passing their time in merrymaking, fondly believing that Somnatha had drawn the Muslims there only to annihilate them for the sins they had committed in demolishing idols elsewhere. Their morale was high even though their leader had fled away in cowardice with his family to a neighboring island. The following day the Sultan began the assault--Next day-- the brave resistance offered by Hindus was of no avail-- Bands of Hindus in succession entered the temple to pray with all their hearts for victory, and then coming out of it rushed against their enemies, only to be killed. In this way more than 50,000 Hindus sacrificed their lives to defend the honor of their deity. The Sultan made a triumphal entry into the temple, broke down the Sivalinga into pieces and took possession of vast wealth. The temple was then razed to the ground. The fragments of Sivalinga were 'serve as steps at the gate of Jami mosque (in Gazni) -- 'Page 20 ,The Struggle for Empire, The History and Culture of the Indian people ,Volume five (1966), Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay. Ed.K.M.Munshi

Through out Indian history many Indian rulers and elite have remained fascinated with the idea that a supernatural power would save them. Now they believe that the erstwhile super power USA (fast declining) would come to their rescue and resolve India's problems. Most of the problems are created by them or have been aggravated with India not acting in time .Many times by not acting at all in the hope that the problems would sort themselves out or just disappear. Why take hard decisions or tell bitter truths!

So after 11 September, like those assembled on the ramparts of the Somnatha fortress, Indian policy makers, analysts, media pundits and politicians went on an orgy of declarations. 'We had told you so'. Now that the infernal terrorists had attacked New York and Washington, the centre of hyper power on the planet, USA would punish the 9/11 perpetrators and rescue India too.

Ruling party leaders like Home Minister LK Advani said that India and not Pakistan should be the front line state against terror incubated and thriving in Afghanistan and Pakistan. After the brutal rape of Mumbai on 26 November, 2008 for 3 days, that wish has been fulfilled and by all accounts India has also become the front line state against terror from Pakistan and elsewhere.

It is on public record that it was US led West and Saudi led Muslim countries with even China joining in, who in 1980s, financed the nurseries of terrorism (or syndicate of terror in Hillary Clinton's words) to the tune of more than $ 10 billon, trained and recruited young men from Muslim countries for Jihad against Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Former NSA to Jimmy Carter Brzezinsky boasted later that Soviet intervention was in response to US promoted subversive activities against the legitimate government in Kabul to revenge on Moscow , for American debacle in Vietnam. So leaving behind nurseries of terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan and its consequences, is only a collateral damage on India and other countries in the region. What a pity ! No moral accountability!

It should also be clear that the fear of Al Qaeda was exploited to win a second term for George Bush in 2004 and used in curbing freedoms and liberty of US citizens as new revelations bring out regularly. Not a single 9/11 like event has taken place on the US soil. But the capability of the Homeland security was exposed by its utter failure to handle Katrina disaster, never mind that the vast majority of sufferers were Blacks or Hispanics.

After 9/11 the Indian government went overboard in letting in US and UK into Indian intelligence data on Pak terrorist outfits, but one wonders what did India get in return. The 26 November terror rampage on Mumbai found Indian security structures totally clueless with no hard prior intelligence and exposed India's utter lack of preparedness and capability in handling 10 terrorist commandoes, making India a laughing stock around the world. Once again India opened its files to US and UK with intrusive visits from their leaders and intelligence personnel. It allows Washington to subvert Indian intelligence and other departments as many defections to USA prove.

It may be recalled that in 1990, Washington showed Riyadh doctored aerial photographs showing hostile intent of Iraqi troops in Kuwait, which was not the case. During the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, Washington, when it suited it, provided misleading intelligence to Iraq, whom all Arab countries, except Syria helped overtly and West including US covertly. Washington is quite capable of providing false information when it suits its purpose.

With US agents swarming all over Pakistan, specially around Karachi port, from where arms, equipment and other material for US and NATO forces are transported for fighting in Afghanistan, it is difficult to believe that Washington did not have precise and hard information on 11/26 attack. Is US intelligence that poor! The savage battering of India's honor and sovereignty created serious credibility deficit and enmity between India and Pakistan, which apart from the Pakistan military ruling elite suits Western powers as well. How US and UK media gloat over the two Hindustan cats squabbling and fighting!

By now it is quite clear that the so called hunt for Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was an excuse to occupy Afghanistan, put up bases in that country to control strategic space around former USSR republics and China with bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan which adjoins China. After succeeding in putting puppet rulers in Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine, when Washington, NGOs like National Endowment for Democracy, Soros and others tried to install friendly rulers through US franchised street revolutions in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, they failed as they had in Belarus. The US led Western efforts to occupy strategic space in Eurasia brought new purpose and vigor to Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a counter to US and NATO advance eastwards.

Hillary Clinton's visit to India

'Mr Ambassador, You can not trust the Americans even on what they have given in writing', a Turkish Deputy Prime Minister to the writer.

Do you recall husband President Bill Clinton's visit in 2000 and how honorable members of Parliament made an embarrassing spectacle of elbowing each other out to shake him by the hand or be near him. Since then whether it is the government of UPA or NDA, the Indian decision makers have rolled over without considering the consequences of their desire to please the Americans and even a third rate power like Britain.

B. Raman, an expert on security with a penchant for writing open letters to all and sundry (with little impact on US or other decision makers) wrote that Hillary Clinton's visit was essentially for "ego-massaging". (No, she came bearing Greek gifts like the Trojan Horse to entangle India in the US strategic policies.) India's inflated ego was hurt when Hillary went to China first in February and spoke positively about China. She might say some nice words to please India, but the reality is that Pakistan and China remain more important to Washington than India.

'Pakistan is important for preventing another 9/11 in US homeland and for preventing a catastrophic act of terrorism involving the use of weapons of mass destruction material. China is important for USA's economic recovery. Comparatively, India's utility to the US is limited. But Washington cannot ignore India because of its size, its democracy, its economic potential and the argumentative and politically active Indian-origin community in the US .[In this writer's opinion, Indians, specially NRIs first look for their self interests, unlike Jews in USA ] India should expect from her positive statements and gestures, but one cannot say definitely how sincerely-meant they would be. Indians have a weakness for flattery and tend to indulge in wishful-thinking.'

India has no culture of strategic-thinking and laser-sharp analysis based on cruel facts and figures. But we have a long-ingrained culture of wishful-thinking. All Hillary Clinton has to do is to make a few statements describing India as a great power, praising Mahatma Gandhi, highlighting the impact of Gandhiji on Martin Luther King and Barack Obama, India's IT genius etc, and Indians will be quite happy for some months till the next disappointment comes.

'Washington understands India better than it does Pakistan and its jihadi hordes. Pakistanis understand the US better than Indians. Hype and flattery will be the defining characteristics of her visit. Indian ego will remain tickled for some months. Ultimately, our people will continue to die at the hands of jihadi terrorists. Pakistan will continue to use terrorism against India to change the status quo in Jammu & Kashmir. Americans will continue to link terrorism with Kashmir.'

Hillary lays down the parameters for the visit

While speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations on US Foreign Policy before her departure for India, Hillary Clinton said the discussions in India would include a wide range of topics like foreign policy, strategic challenges, health, education, agriculture and economy. Then the usual spiel ,'We believe that India has a tremendous opportunity and a growing responsibility, which they acknowledge, to play not just a regional role but a global one as well." [Ego massaging]. "The present system for preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons is at an end, is bankrupt." Mohamed El Baradei , head of IAEA at Davos in 2006.

Clinton also noted that President Obama was committed to a world without nuclear weapons with planned series of concrete steps to reduce the threat and spread of these weapons, including working with the Senate to ratify the follow-on START agreement and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, taking on greater responsibility within the Non Proliferation Treaty Framework and convening the world's leaders in Washington next year for a nuclear summit.

"Now we must urge others to take practical steps to advance our shared nonproliferation agenda," Clinton added.

On the eve of Hillary Clinton visit, after the Sharm al-Sheikh NAM meeting, India bowed to US pressure and agreed to resume talks with Pakistan without the latter dismantling the terrorist infrastructure in place in Pakistan. In the joint statement India even agreed to a mention of Baluchistan, (on return to Islamabad according to Pak media PM Gilani had drawn the attention of the Indian prime minister to the complaints regarding Indian interference in Baluchistan, where a low-intensity insurgency is under way. The issue of interference in Baluchistan by India has come up in the Indo-Pak prime ministers' talks for the first time.) India thus became an accused instead of the 11/26 victim. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory ! The Pakistani media hailed the declaration as vindication of Pakistan's stand. Verily Washington has succeeded in reducing Pakistan and India to squabbling cats, much to Anglo-American's great delight.

Hillary Clinton was treated like a Queen by India's gushing and genuflecting media and businessmen in Mumbai and Delhi. She told reporters in Mumbai after arrival 'As events of 11/26 unfolded, the US stood with Indians, as Indians stood with America after September 11. These events are seared in our collective memories.'

Yes, but 9/11 was a blowback of US policies in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 1980s, while India has become an unwilling victim of collateral damage of the US policies. To add insult to injury, Washington has given tens of billons dollars of military aid to Pakistan  which is used or to be used against India.

She later lined up for breakfast Indian business lobbies to pressurize New Delhi to make concessions to various US demands specially regarding purchase of defense equipment and nuclear reactors. As part of public diplomacy her schedule was packed with meetings with a film star, agricultural experts, university students and rural women who work in cottage industries like textiles.

On 20 July, India and the US signed three agreements on science and technology, space cooperation and end-user monitoring accord that will pave way for more defense deals between the two countries. The agreements were signed between Hillary Clinton and the new Indian Minister of External Affairs S.M. Krishna.

At the signing meet, Hillary said that two sites in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh for US nuclear power reactors had been chosen. The US companies, however, will not sign contracts until India agrees to shield them from liability above $450 million in the event of catastrophic nuclear accident. Indian officials told Clinton they would press for the protection in the next legislative session.
US has built no nuclear power reactor at home since decades !

Alluding to India's vote against Iran, Hillary even declared that India's and US policy on Tehran's nuclear stand was similar, with Minister Krishna keeping mum. Iran is entitled to enrich uranium (6%) for power generation under the NPT of which Tehran is a signatory. The heads of the International Atomic Energy Agency based in Vienna have stated that they have no information that Tehran is pursuing a nuclear bomb policy (For nuclear bombs over 90% enrichment is required)
'Such an agreement (the end user monitoring) will enable defence and security trade between the US and India as never before, and will facilitate the participation of US companies in supporting India in transforming its military and homeland security apparatus," said a statement from the US-India Business Council (USIBC) that represents American companies doing business in India.
The biggest hitch on the 'standard text' for end-use verification, under negotiations for two years, is whether the inspectors would be allowed access to the equipment inside Indian military installations at will -- in other words 'physical onsite' verification.

'The Government of India agrees to make available through mutual consultation to authorized US personnel' access to American equipment used by the Indian armed forces, an Indian official said. The dates and venues are to be decided through 'joint consultation for joint security verification', the official said, reading from the 'standard text' that has not been made public so far
When Hillary was asked if the U.S.-sponsored NSG move undermined the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, her answer was surprising. 'As I understand [the] question, it was whether we oppose the transfer of processing and enrichment technology, well, clearly we do not,' she said. 'We have just completed a civil nuclear deal with India. So if it is done within the appropriate channels and carefully safeguarded, as it is in the case of India, then that is appropriate.'

'Ms. Clinton either misspoke or was badly advised about U.S. policy on the transfer of sensitive ENR technology,' ACA director Daryl Kimball told Hindu. 'The purpose and intent of the G-8 policy ' and the pending November 2008 NSG proposal ' is indeed to bar ENR technologies to states [like India] that have not signed the NPT Sibal. 'The U.S. will continue to obfuscate the issue so that the prospects of the U.S. nuclear industry in India are not hurt.

Later Minister Krishna told the Lok Sabha on 21 July, even as almost the entire Opposition, including the BJP and the Left parties, walked out of the House in protest, that 'the question of bartering of our freedom and sovereignty does not arise. What was being done at the high-end defence purchases is being done now. End-use clause was incorporated earlier," In his suo-motu statement on the visit, Krishna said, "We have agreed on the end-use monitoring arrangements that will henceforth be referred to in letters of acceptance for Indian procurement of US defense technology and equipment.

"This systematizes ad hoc arrangements for individual defense procurements from the USA entered into by previous governments," he added, even as he tabled a copy of the Indo-US joint statement made by him and Clinton on Monday. (Both countries have shelved a proposal for an overarching agreement, opting for a 'standard text' that will be attached to individual bilateral defense deals.)

Asked if US weapons inspectors would have access to Indian military installations, an official replied: 'Not necessarily.' The reply leaves room for US maneuver on installed weapons systems, although India seems to have managed to keep 'physical on-site' inspections ' a touchy subject ' out of the draft of the 'standard text'. This suggests that wherever weapons can be shifted, the inspections can take place away from military installations or even in third countries.

We all know that Indian officials have little resilience and bend when cajoled or pressurized. How ever some Indian politicians showed caution and gravitas. Up right Defence Minister AK Antony reportedly absented himself from Delhi to avoid meeting Hillary.

At a joint media meet, Minister for Environment Jairam Ramesh declared that India would not commit to a deal that would require it to meet targets to reduce emissions. "It is not true that India is running away from mitigation," he said. But "India's position, let me be clear, is that we are simply not in the position to take legally binding emissions targets." Clinton repeated the usual spiel "No one wants to in any way stall or undermine the economic growth that is necessary to lift millions more out of poverty .We also believe that there is a way to eradicate poverty and develop sustainability that will lower significantly the carbon footprint." ( In post Cold War era ,poverty has increased in the world including in USA)

Carbon emissions, global warming and related ills are the results of the west's ruthless consumerist industrialization and annihilation of natural resources. Now they want India to share their burden disproportionately .China once said that the Western proposals on emissions would allow them to drive gas guzzling personal automobiles while Asians could not even use buses for transport.

Indians' awe and complex of white Anglo-Saxon after centuries of colonial rule is ingrained and depressing . Bharat Verma , editor of Indian Defense Review, says ,'An average Indian does not constitute a nation but is merely an individual. His personal well-being overrides all other considerations including the national interests.'

Ambassador MK Bhadrakumar wrote on the visit that India had (so called) ' dream run during the Bush era holding something like 50 military exercises with the US during the past five years. The top items on Clinton's agenda were to secure an investment protection agreement and an end-use monitoring deal with Delhi that gives ' US intrusive rights . New Delhi's 'response to the US-Iran standoff over Tehran's nuclear program has been to atrophy India's close and friendly ties with Iran. Its response to the US's containment strategy toward China has been to identify with the strange idea of a quadripartite alliance with the US, Japan and Australia. ' The Obama administration is determined to bring the nuclear deal within an overall architecture of global nuclear non-proliferation.

For the US, the centrality of Pakistan in its regional policies in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf in is vital. India's regional influence in Central Asia is almost negligible.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has confirmed reports that Islamabad is expanding its nuclear arsenal. The CRS said: "Pakistan's nuclear arsenal consists of approximately 60 nuclear warheads. It continues fissile material production for weapons, and is adding to its weapons production facilities and delivery vehicles." Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a Congressional hearing on May 14, had confirmed that the US had "evidence" of the expansion plans. The "evidence" consisted of satellite images pointing to construction of additional nuclear reactors.
General Observations;

A strategy to occupy Iraq with its vast oil resources, build bases to control energy rich Middle East region, was planned and finalized by neo-conservatives, most of them Jews, who control USA, even before George Bush was elected in 2000, under the Project for New American Century .It was implemented under false charges against Iraq in 2003 against the UN charter and the Security Council views. Terrible damage has been inflicted on Iraq and the region destabilized. But the US forces are caught in a quagmire. Even before the illegal invasion, many respectable think tanks and organizations including many in CIA and in UK had predicted that the Iraq invasion would provide a training ground for terrorists .And so it has proved to be. A Pandora's box has been opened in the Middle East and it is impossible how and after how much more violence would the region be stabilized and calmed. The results would be similar in Af-Pak, after the so called 'surge', with Afghanistan having been a grave yard for empires in the past. The destabilization and chaos which has been brought to Middle East is being spread to Af-Pak region.

However do not expect any quick exit in two years in spite of a US agreement with the puppet Iraqi regime. The US bases are still there. Vigorous efforts are being made to tie up exploitation of massive Iraqi oil resources by granting control to energy multinationals. Only a fast collapse of US economy as predicted by many economists will lead to the withdrawal of US troops.

Afghanistan still remains a vital strategic area in Western eyes for strategic control , in order to control Russian and Chinese access to Pakistan , India and the Indian Ocean and for building energy pipe lines from central Asia and Iran. But a long simmering resistance, now getting fiercer by Pushtoons straddling Afghanistan and Pakistan along a border the Durand line, which the Pushtoons never acceded to and which in any case lapsed in 1983, is ready to blow back in the face of US led West with its shot gun alliance with the Pakistan military after 9/11. Afghanistan remains hopelessly divided since early 1980s. Pakistan, ruled and kept united by its military force to serve Western (and Chinese) strategic objectives of keeping India contained, has failed to create even a territory based identity .The Pathan lands are unlikely to be ruled from Islamabad, Baluchistan has been in rebellion and is now being even eyed by the West as it eyed Montenegro and separated it from a rump Yugoslavia. West North Afghanistan and Baluchistan would provide energy corridor and keep China away from energy wells in the Gulf .

The monkey and the cats

The Anglo-Americans must be delighted with the success of their old age imperial policies of divide and rule .They have South Asians where they want ;in the crosshairs of each others anger ,enmity and killing squads and machines. Records in UK's archives have shed light on how the British government used Mohammed Ali Jinnah to partition Hindustan and create a weak Pakistan ever reliant on the West to protect its oil wells in the Middle East specially from Moscow. Add to that oil wells from the Caspian basin. That policy still holds good.

Iraq vs Iran =Pakistan vs India

For all his faults, Iraq under Saddam Hussein was united and a peaceful and prosperous state and certainly much better off even in personal freedoms than after the callously called operation Iraqi Freedom and brutal occupation by US troops.

And do you remember how US led West had helped Iraq with money and poison gases in 1980s. USA had loaned billions of dollars for food imports so that Baghdad could use its oil revenues for arms imports .What ever for ! To fight an aroused revolutionary Shia Iran with covert support from the western world and full overt support from West's Sunni allies and puppets in the Gulf trembling with Khomeini's Shia martyrs ready to defend Iran. Saddam Hussain was encouraged and coaxed by Sunni Arab neighbors and West into invading Iran. Iraq and Iran lost a million young men in the 8 year war and their economies were shattered.

The Shia revolution was incubated by repressive policies of Shah of Iran whose intelligence services Savak , were trained in torture by CIA to throttle any patriotic or nationalist aspirations after a popularly elected nationalist government of Mohammed Mossadeq was over thrown for nationalizing oil industry , overtly by CIA and British operatives in 1953. Like Pakistan, Iran was a bulwark against Moscow's ingress into the Middle East oil wells and functioned as West's gendarme in the region. After the revolution, Israel has become West's gendarme in the Middle East , which becomes everyday more and more obstinate and is steadily grabbing Palestinian land and water resources.

The aroused Sunni Jihadis in Pak-Afghan region are a result of policies of US led West since early 1980s , who are threatening the region and perhaps at some stage Europe and even USA. The ruling Pakistani military and narrow ruling elite dominated by Pakistani Punjabis with some leavening of Pathans has a symbiotic relationship with Pentagon since late 1950s. To add some fun ,the Anglo-Americans tell the Punjabi Muslims that one of them is equal to four Hindus . Such a fine recipe to keep Indians and Pakistanis fighting and at each others throat .

And now the Pathans in the frontier region of Pakistan and Punjabis are fighting each other. The overflow of Jihadis to attack India would keep the two nations carved out of Hindustan, squabbling and fighting like two cats in the fable wherein the monkey keeps benefiting.

Great speculators in metaphysics and matters of soul, Indians through out history have shown little strategic acumen and the ruthlessness or the resolve to implement strategic objectives. Some thing goes wrong in the sycophantic climate of Delhi and Hindustan, whether the leaders are Hindus or Muslims. In the history of Hindustan, there have been very few rulers with strategic understanding and skills. These were the Mauryas who with their capital at Pataliputra kept the crown prince at Ujjain to guard against enemy ingress from the Hindukush and meet the invader on the route chosen i.e. Sindh- Gujarat or Punjab and the Himalayan foot hills.

So were the early Moghuls who kept the crown prince in Kabul.  Akbar having built his beautiful capital at Fatehpur Sikri spent a decade camping near Lahore watching Mongols and others invaders gathering across the Hindukush. In modern times we had Indira Gandhi, who instead of pleading around the world (as we are always doing) against refugee influx from East Pakistan, took advantage of the situation and broke up Pakistan into two. There were some other rulers also, like Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Tippu Sultan but their canvas was rather limited.

A wag said that except for the legendry King Porus and his forces who put up a valiant fight against Alexander the Great, the area between Panipat and Peshawar has always remained 'porous' for invaders from north west. Survival against all odds is the quality of the people in the region. They are dynamic, hard working, good managing directors but not perspicacious enough to be the chairmen of the board. They rarely founded a big enough kingdom as Rajiv Gandhi observed when Pakistan had upped the Sikh insurgency in Punjab, except that founded by Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh at Lahore. Ask any Pathan, he has mostly disdain bordering on contempt for Punjabi Pakistani and his fighting prowess.

The people now dominating Pakistan, throughout history have felt jealous of the riches of the rulers of Hindustan with their capital on Jamuna in Delhi or Agra. The religion was immaterial. They had invited the Moghuls when Afghans were ruling Delhi. Later they invited Afghans and Persians when Moghuls ruled in Delhi. And the Punjabis joined in the loot or robbed the invader if he did not succeed. For its strategic defense, Hindustan should control Kabul if not Kandhar as was done by early Moghuls. Once Kabul and Kandahar were lost, Hindustan became a plaything of invaders.
So India must proclaim its interests in Afghanistan for its security and be prepared to pay the price. To counter China, New Delhi should have established close relations with Vietnam and given it all help including in the nuclear field. But such bold decisions are beyond India's ruling corrupt elite dominated by dynasties and urban riffraff and village yokels intent on enriching themselves and their families. Hindu mind cannot comprehend equality before law, which evolved in Europe after centuries of struggle and revolutions against Kings and barons. India resembles Moghul India during its last days.

The rulers in Pakistan starting with Ayub Khan and outside powers have exploited the same geo-political matrix of South Asia. It started with the British, who after dividing Hindustan to create a weak aligned Pakistan to protect its oil wells in Middle East from possible Russian ingress passed on the torch to the new western overlords, USA. Even China continues to exploit the same geo-political equation. The leaders of Pakistan, mostly the military brass, for their short term gains have allowed their policies to be shaped by UK, USA, China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and others.

Pakistan's policies have created the Frankenstein monster of terrorism, with its Kalashnikov culture and billions dollars worth of narcotic trade and addiction among millions. It survives on infusions of money from outside. Tens of billions of dollars were poured by US and others during 1980s and 10 billion dollars since 11/9 when US coerced Islamabad to join US led west against the so called war on terror, but most of the aid has enriched the establishment dominated by the Pakistan army and ISI. Other major source of wealth remains the opium grown in Afghanistan, from which also the Pakistan establishment takes a major cut. So chaos suited the ISI and others. But if the Taliban took over Pakistan, where would the so called liberal beer drinking intelligentsia and middle classes of Pakistan go to.

Conclusions

History of Western colonization up to second world war followed by neo-colonization before the Fall of the Berlin Wall and since then under the garb of free trade and globalization demonstrate a policy of divide and rule to dominate and exploit the nations of Asia, Latin America and Africa and by their control of weapons of mass destruction including nuking of two Japanese cities. Another important lever has been control of weapons of mass disinformation to brainwash colonized natives and their descendents and even their own people.

Just look at the spins, half truths and blatant lies and propaganda in western media regarding its naked aggression on Iraq against UN Charter and brutal occupation and destruction of that country. False propaganda and lies continue from Winston Churchill down to Tony Blair and US leaders led by Vice President Dick Cheney. In Cairo Obama said 'In Ankara, I made clear that America is not ' and never will be -- at war with Islam.' Then what are US wars on Iraq and Afghanistan for, peopled by followers of Islam.

Mercifully all things bad or good come to end in spite of the praise of colonial rule by those who benefited and continue to do so by virtue of imbibing their language and the culture in India and elsewhere and now collaboration in economic exploitation by the Western powers .The excesses of flagrant capitalist exploitation from the sweat of workers in conjunction with natural law of rise and decline of big powers and empires, USA and Europe have reached a low point, from which it is impossible to regain the power it appeared to exercise till 2003, when Washington was even described as the New Rome. USA's GDP which was 50% of world GDP at the end of the WW II has now been much reduced because of the role of US dollar as the reserve currency and looting of resources in the Middle East and elsewhere..

Global GDP as AT DECEMBER 2008 IS ESTIMATED AT $60 TRILLION OF WHICH US GDP IS ESTIMATED AT $13 TRILLION. This is the real economy of goods and services.

But the "GDP" of the shadow banking system is estimated to be in excess of $600 trillion (official figures of the Office of the Comptroller of Currency of the USA). At the most conservative, if 5% gets wipe out it is a big fat hole of $30 trillion!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a time of great transformation which occurs once in a few centuries .West is declining fast . Power is shifting away from G-8 .US is cautiously trying to build a G-2 group ie Washington and Beijing . Clinton would be co-hosting on July 27 and 28 an inaugural meeting of an official strategic and economic dialogue with China .Will it succeed. Beijing would be most effected by the fall of US power and dollar.

Why should India put all its eggs in a fast sinking basket!

K Gajendra Singh, Indian ambassador (retired), served as ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies. Copy right with the author. E-mail-kgsingh@yahoo.com