Hyphenation to Parallelism

Last updated on: March 6, 2006 at 4:36 am By Desh Kapoor

This is an interesting article from Brahma Chellaney - an intelligent Indian analyst... he makes interesting point on how the US relationship with Indian and Pakistan is moving from Hyphenation to Parallelism. The truth is that the Bush policy has gone beyond hyphenation to parallelism. The new approach involves following parallel tracks with India and Pakistan. In effect, this permits the US to push its interests better. It also allows the US to quietly bolster Pakistan without causing a crisis with India. Consider the following stark parallels in US actions: * No sooner had the US initiated the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) with India in early 2004 than it caught New Delhi unawares by designating Pakistan a Major Non-Nato Ally (MNNA) under the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act. What India guilelessly saw as America’s courtship turned out to be parallel relationships. Fidelity is a concept alien to US geostrategy. The more Bush claims he is not pairing India and Pakistan, the more it is evident that he is gaily two-timing. Read more

Osama calls himself a Prophet

Last updated on: March 6, 2006 at 12:09 am By Desh Kapoor

So the guy is positing himself with Prophet Mohd. - now, does he qualify as a Muslim anymore? A Pakistani millionaire held at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay testified that he met Osama bin Laden twice, and that the al-Qaida leader called himself 'a prophet'. The testimony of Saifullah A Paracha was included in thousands of pages of transcripts released Friday by the Pentagon because of a successful Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The Associated Press. The material was also made public last year in court filings by Paracha's lawyer. Paracha, a New York Institute of Technology graduate, testified in English. He said he owns seven businesses, including a news agency, a construction agency and a manufacturing company in Pakistan and travel agencies in New York, Chicago, Washington and San Francisco. Read more

Things to remember

Last updated on: March 6, 2006 at 12:00 am By Desh Kapoor

I write down everything I want to remember. That way, instead of spending a lot of time trying to remember what it is I wrote down, I spend the time looking for the paper I wrote it down on. Read more

Humility

Last updated on: March 5, 2006 at 11:58 pm By Desh Kapoor

What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left. Read more

Secret of Life

Last updated on: March 5, 2006 at 11:57 pm By Desh Kapoor

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well. Read more

Safari

Last updated on: March 5, 2006 at 11:56 pm By Desh Kapoor

Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water. Read more

Assertions

Last updated on: March 5, 2006 at 11:55 pm By Desh Kapoor

The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning. Read more

Common Sense

Last updated on: March 5, 2006 at 11:54 pm By Desh Kapoor

Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. Read more

Bureaucrats

Last updated on: March 5, 2006 at 11:52 pm By Desh Kapoor

Bureaucrats write memoranda both because they appear to be busy when they are writing and because the memos, once written, immediately become proof that they were busy. Read more

What made Bush Sing(h)?

Last updated on: March 5, 2006 at 8:51 am By Desh Kapoor

An insider's look at what transpired between Bush and Singh. Ahead of Bush's arrival, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice telephoned the prime minister to complain that the Indian negotiators were making 'impossible demands' and pressed for greater flexibility by them. Dr Singh stood firm in backing his team. As millions watched on television, Bush put his arm around Dr Singh; the two men engaged in an animated chat for several minutes with their principal aides standing nearby. The focus was the unresolved differences between the negotiators. The US President told Dr Singh, who had made a departure from protocol to receive him, that he never engaged in negotiations. Read more