Dateline: in the loft at Nona's, Terre Haute IN, 8 April 2005

Steff again catches this one. What is it about women and search engines? My wife can find anything. Guess I just don't like asking anyone for directions. . .

This piece is interesting for its horizontal thinking. You get it right off the bat: why would Chinese and American admirals care about this bus service?

World > Terrorism & Security posted April 8, 2005, updated 1:40 p.m.

Footsteps heard at sea
As Indians and Pakistanis cross Kashmir's 'peace bridge', US and Chinese admirals take note

By Jim Bencivenga | csmonitor.com

For the first time in decades Thursday, Kashmiris from India and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir took steps towards each other across a 220-foot-long bridge rebuilt in the last two weeks. The bridge, now called the Peace Bridge, was destroyed 50 years ago in a battle during the first of three wars fought between these rivals on the Asian subcontinent.

History will record that American and Chinese admirals took special note of those footsteps . . .

For military planners around the globe, the significance of any long-term easing of tensions between Pakistan and India lies in allowing India to shift a greater proportion of its defense budget to the pursuit of a more assertive maritime strategy, says Express India . . .

[then a bit about NYT story today on Chinese naval build-up (balanced, but nothing new)]

[then a string of quick entries on famous naval battles in history]

[then the piece ends on this:]

Which kind of navy India develops is still an open book, writes Thomas P.M. Barnett of the US Naval War College.

But clearly, for India to achieve a world-class navy, its leaders have to move beyond viewing the fleet as a supplemental tool in New Delhi's long-standing rivalries with its neighbors, toward an expansive security vision that takes into account the nation's global economic status as an emerging information-technology superpower

In the meantime, not only admirals will keep listening for footsteps on the Peace Bridge spanning Pakistani and Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Pretty cool how the piece links to an Indian website (Bharat Rakshak) where my old Proceedings piece that I wrote upon returning from the 2001 International Fleet Review (described in PNM at some length) in Mumbai (Bombay) India, where I was a guest of the Indian Navy and government. And where I gave what, in many ways, was one of the earliest versions of my current mega brief, Presentation to the Indian Navy - Feb 01.

Still the Naval War College benefits by association to me after driving me away!

I mean, nice reference, but the author needs to only Google me. Still, I wrote the piece when I was at the college, so . . .

Read the full CSM piece at http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0408/dailyUpdate.html

Between this and the Bombay piece, I'm feeling very Indian today.