India steps up on Afghanistan, on the SysAdmin--non-military--side
Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 1:41AM WORLD NEWS: "India Befriends Afghanistan, Irking Pakistan: With $1.2 Billion in Pledged Aid, New Delhi Hopes to Build a Country That Is 'Stable, Democratic, Multiethnic,'" by Peter Wonacott, Wall Street Journal, 19 August 2009.
The opening bit:
After shunning Afghanistan during the Taliban regime, India has become a major donor and new friend to the country's democratic government--even if its growing presence here riles archrival Pakistan.
From wells to toilets to power plants and satellite transmitters, India is seeding Afghanistan with a vast array of projects. The $1.2 billion in pledged assistance includes projects both vital to Afghanistan's economy, such as a completed road link to Iran's border, and symbolic of its democratic aspirations, such as the construction of a new parliament building in Kabul. The Indian government is also paying to bring scores of bureaucrats to India, as it cultivates a new generation of Afghan officialdom.
India's instincts here are right on the mark, acting like the regional and global power it is becoming.
I've spoken now for a very long time about how Afghanistan only gets solved when the regional pillars take co-ownership. "Impossible!" I am told.
Then China sinks that $3b into a copper mine and you read this bit on India and Russia's offering to have a military role.
The strategic imagination of these great powers is leaving ours behind in the dust. We still argue only about how many troops we need, how many deaths American citizens can stand, and how much help we can still get from NATO.
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