Saturday, November 29, 2008
Bush Supports India
Bush says he “pledges full support of the United States as India” recovers from recent terrorist attacks. He seemed to encourage the people of the US that this conflict will be resolved, stating “The people of India are strong. They have built a vibrant, multi ethnic democracy. They can withstand this trial”. How India's democracy will enable them to beat terrorism went over my head, but at least their government is united enough to begin conducting investigations and to begin seeking some sort of recovery/resolution. Either way, they have our help, as FBI agents have been sent to India and others are monitoring the situation. Speculation reveals that the group responsible is “a previously unknown Muslim group with a name suggesting origins inside India”. Although, the sole surviving member of the terrorist group is Pakistani. Therefore, India has jumped to blame Pakistan for the attacks while Pakistan “vehemently defended itself against allegations that it was involved in the attacks”. In addition, Pakistan seems hurt by the charges, as Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Husain Haggani was quoted stating that “it is unfair to blame Pakistan or Pakistanis for these acts of terrorism even before an investigation is undertaken”. So now the US is concerned about the tension between India and Pakistan, since the finger pointing has begun. Nonetheless, even American counter terrorism officials have found clues that are consistent with the style of Pakistani militant groups. These groups have been known to fight with Indian troops in the disputed region of Kashmir on the outskirts of the Himalayas. It seems to me the America's involvement can't be helping the tension between India and Pakistan. Furthermore if India has such a swell democracy they should be able to resolve the conflict themselves without our involvement. What do you say?
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7 comments:
honestly i think that there are two primary reasons as to why Bush is helping out India in the terrorist crisist. it is because they were able to set up a democracy, and it is also because we both share terrorism as a common enimy. i just feel like the us has this stong desire to be the police of the world but only when it benifets their own issues. we just closed our eyes and pretended like the Holocauset, and the genocides in both Darfur, and Rwanda didnt exist. we didnt step into ww2 untill we saw that we neaded to open up our own sphere of influence an post war europe.
The line about Pakistan and India being two "nuclear armed rivals" jumped out at me. Of course I know that the US is not the only country with nuclear weapons, but I don't know which other countries do, besides North Korea of course. I think personally, no one should have them, call me a tree huger if you'd like. Anyways, I think it is none of our business to get involved. I think in genocides, the US should get involved, but as this is not a genocide, we have no business, the US has somewhat of a bossy attitude, as if we are the most mature and everyone else is babies and that is not the case.
I thought the line by Bush "And as the people of the world's largest democracy recover from these attacks, they can count on the people of the world's oldest democracy to stand by their side." was actually pretty good, which is a shocker.
While it would be nice for the US to be able to ignore the situation, India remains an strong US ally. India's rival, Pakistan, is also a strong US rival. Any conflict between the two would be horrible for several reasons. First, they are both nuclear-armed states. Second, Pakistan is the key to defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan. Third, a strong US ally in India provides a counterweight to the growing influence of China (do you want two nuclear-armed, billion+ person powers to be in an anti-US bloc?). Fourth, Indian-Americans make up the wealthiest minority group in the US. This is not a demographic American politicians want to ignore, as their influence in growing (Bobby Jindal anyone?) Thus, America has not only strategic and humanitarian interests in the outcome to this crisis, but political ones.
The situation in India is tense not just because of the initial violence in Mumbai, but because of the political ramifications. Nationalist Hindus are already loudly pronouncing anti-Pakistan and anti-Islamic rhetoric. This is not good for India-Pakistan relations. Then, there are elections next week in India, and these attacks may prompt a strong anti-Muslim reaction. This would hinder further peace talks with Pakistan.
The United States needs to be careful when dealing with India and Pakistan. The two nations have a very delicate relationship and have warred in the past. I was nervous that when the Indian government blamed Pakistan, they would blame the government. However, they did not, so Bush's decision to support India is indeed a stance against terrorism. I was also suprised to find out that the Indian government was warned about the attacks... and did nothing....
I was watching ABC, and Brian Ross was talking about Al Qaeda as having an effect on terrorists responsible on the attacks. Note that they particularly attacked areas with ties to Western nations and cultures(the Taj Mahal Hotel, a Jewish center). I don't know if Al Qaeda was directly responsible for the attack, but I think they may have had an influence. Al Qaeda is probably the most well known and vocal, if not violent, terrorist group. Although Bin Laden is somewhere in a cave, people are still influenced by his words. This is where Al Qaeda's power lies; they are able to spread the message.
Furthermore, I don't think President Bush, or even President-elect Obama, is going to do anything about the situation in India. The attack shocked the world, but our country will, as it rightfully should, focus on issues that hit closer to home.
Of course we are going to look out for our ally India because that has been our policy for the last 50 years all the way back to the Truman Doctrine, even though there are no communists. India is one of our important Middle east constituents because they are a huge country with many citizens residing in the U.S. We have to show support.
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