Datelineóabove the garage, Portsmouth, 12 April

The Easter Bunny was very good to the Barnett household yesterday: lotsa chocolate from Newport Chocolates. But all India got was "chopped liver."

When I got my first edit back from the Washington Post's Outlook staff on the piece that eventually came to be titled, "Forget Europe. How About These Allies?" I realized that the "Chopped liver?" reference to India had been left in. I thought it was a bit cheesy (being from Wisconsin), but what the hell! They left it in. As soon as I saw it survived the first cut, I just knew I'd get a reaction from the Times of India. It ran the same day. And here it is in full:

The Times of India Online
Printed from timesofindia.indiatimes.com > World > The United States

Former Rumsfeld aide slams US-Pak alliance

PTI [ SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 2004 11:37:20 PM ]

WASHINGTON: As the US feels the heat in Iraq, a former official with defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld has slammed the administration for granting the Major Non-Nato Ally status to Pakistan, a ìdesperately failed stateî instead of closing a strategic deal with India that would have led to some 17,000 Indian peacekeepers in Iraq. ìWhat the US really needs to concentrate on is developing an entirely new alliance with such emerging powers as China, India and Russia,î said Thomas Barnett, who served in the Office of the Secretary of Defence from 2001 to 2003. ìMessy wars require allies who don't mind getting dirty. Last year, India almost sent 17,000 peacekeeping troops to Iraq. Imagine what a different coalition we would have today if we had been able to close that strategic deal,î said Barnett, the author of The Pentagonís New Map: War and Peace in the Twentyfirst Century. ìWhat would it have taken on our part? Probably a much closer security relationship with New Delhi at Pakistanís expense.î

Now, you gotta know that they're going to jack it up as much as possible. I have never met Rumsfeld. He knows of my work, and yes, I am familiar with his, but to call me his "aide" is a real stretchólike I was always hovering around his shoulder just out of the frame or something. Every other country in the world has a Ministry of Defense that small, but ours is gawdawfully huge. Plus I worked for a living legendóArt Cebrowski, the father of network-centric warfareówho naturally translated upward any good material I managed to generate for him. And when someone that cool offers to carry your water now and then, well . . . frankly you just genuflect before leaving his office and then count your lucky stars on the way out. So no, I was not Rumsfeld's aide. I worked in his "office," along with several thousand other civilians. But the Times is having fun, so such fine nuances are left to another day.

Did I "slam" the alliance? Well, there I guess I did. Is Mushareff trying hard? Sort of. Is this "alliance" a reward for his efforts? Definitely. Is it a better choice than India? Hell, no.

And that was the main thrust of the article. We need to think downstream more and focus less on catching Osamaólike that will end the war or something. Look at Madrid! These guys are only peripherally connected to al Qaeda. Believing we'll take down all that machinery around the world simply by killing Osama is like believing you could disable all of the McDonald's franchises around the world simply by taking out Ray Kroc (God rest his soul). We finally have a networked opponent to wage network-centric warfare against. And so we need to align everyone in our network to the task at hand.

In my mind, the Functioning Core of globalization is THE network of power in the system, so getting both Old and New Core powers aligned to the tasks of the Global War on Terrorism is absolutely crucial. Instead, we spend all our time on the Old Core and relegate the New Core powers like Chinaóagainst whom the Pentagon still prefers to plot war for some distant future date (never actually fight it, mind you, just build for it like crazy, which is much more fun)óto the grand strategy equivalent of "chopped liver."

Eat crow? Hardly. I'm just looking for some crackers Ö