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| The Alliance |
| Jim Hoagland: Diplomacy without vision |
| 2001-10-03 |
They have recruited to fight terrorism regimes that practice or tolerate terrorism as a matter of policy. The inclusion of such states at the center of the coalition undermines the sweeping and noble war aims enunciated by Bush, who has promised not to divide terrorists into bad and good camps. The difficulties of keeping that promise -- and the huge stakes this still-developing campaign has for South Asia -- were blasted home Monday by a car bomb and guerrilla assault that wrecked the state assembly in Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir. At least 38 persons were killed in a gruesome attack on a building that, for Kashmir inhabitants, matches the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in symbolic value. You would think the radical Islamic guerrillas who claimed responsibility for Monday's attack -- the Pakistani-based Jaish-e-Muhammed group -- might deserve to be at least called terrorists. India implored the United States to put the group on its terrorist list for earlier outrages. But Washington declined out of fear that such action would undermine the regime of Gen. Pervez Musharraf and complicate U.S. diplomatic goals. This is diplomacy without vision and without the roots needed for a long, difficult struggle against terrorism. It is delusional to think that the United States can reform the Musharraf regime or elements in the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan into responsible partners to fight terrorism. It is also delusional to think one can accomplish more than one task at a time, or at least to do it well. Sometimes one thing lays the foundation for the next. Once the greater of two evils is disposed of, the remaining lesser is not only proportionately greater than what remains, but also weaker. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |