Riding The Tide
The US endorsement of Pakistan's position on Kashmir bolsters Musharraf's fortunes even as anti-American outrage gathers steam.

Powell And Patience
President Bush's invitation to Vajpayee for a one-on-one in Washington next month makes up for the disappointment in New Delhi in the wake of Colin Powell's visit.

Autumn Of Turmoil
The Northern Alliance waits and watches the US moves in anticipation of a post-US-attack power struggle with the Taliban.
A look at the mood and the ground realities in Kabul.

EDITORIALS

The Natural Ally

This is the time America can afford any number of friends. America is at war and it is very serious about making it a just war, with full endorsement from the civilised world. For Washington, it is not a military rejoinder to Islam, and a diplomatic nightmare in the form of a pan-Islamic backlash is the last thing the warrior can handle at this moment. So whirlwind US diplomacy is at work in West Asia, in Europe and in South Asia with the message-see, the enemy is not America's alone. And one country that knows it all too well is India. True, India hasn't suffered a tragedy as tall and as spectacular as the World Trade Center. For India, it has always been there, as blood and death in Kashmir, and it has become a stoic part of the national life. US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was in Islamabad and Delhi last week, could not have been unaware of this.

But he was in the subcontinent for something else. Islamabad, after all, is America's most useful friend at the moment. And the General is dancing to the American tune-he seems to be in a risky mood to go on as long as there is ground beneath his feet to dance on, or to stand on. There is even a Washington-Islamabad consensus on the architecture of post-war Afghanistan. Also, Powell believes that Kashmir is a central issue between Pakistan and India, both America's good friends today. India has a problem here, being a friend as good or bad as Pakistan, and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh in his joint press conference with Powell was too diplomatic to underline it. The problem is not about American pragmatism versus Indian idealism.

It is all about a common destiny and a common enemy. If the war is against terrorism, Pakistan as an ally is a violation of principle, for in this war principles matter a lot. An unevolved state whose very birth is a result of religious separatism, Pakistan continues to make Islam a political cause, what with Pervez Musharraf's position that terrorism in Kashmir is a liberation struggle. Pakistan is a sponsor state of terrorism and democratic India is a seasoned victim. This reality alone should make Washington and Delhi natural allies, democratically qualified to be on the right side of history. For that to happen, America should stop seeing virtue on the wrong side of the border.

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