Quote Originally Posted by Dayuhan View Post
LOL, actually and literally.

This article seems based on the premise that Taliban/Pakistani control of Afghanistan would pose an unacceptable threat to India. That premise, however, is not supported. What threat would a Taliban-led Afghanistan pose to India that does not already exist?
Answered in the preceding post.

Also unaddressed here is the potential cost to India of sustaining a prolonged military occupation of Afghanistan, especially with the access limitations that would be posed by a hostile Pakistan. Attempts to pacify and stabilize Afghanistan are notoriously prolonged, expensive, and unsuccessful... why would one expect India to succeed where the Soviets and Americans failed?
One cannot for sure state that India will succeed where the USSR and USA failed.

But one thing is for sure, the Indian approach will not be like on the lines of the missionaries of yore which the US and the USSR adopted of trying to 'bring civilisation to the savages'!

US imposing her ideas of democracy and modernity on the lines of the West and the USSR her ideas of governance on a Communist model.

Since India does not have any ideological agenda, that itself would be a headstart.

If one is keen to know one may check on the Somalia comparison of Indian effort and the US effort and that would be adequate to understand the difference in psyche and approach.

Example of Indian manner of approach.

What adds to the annoyance of the Taliban and Pakistan is that India's involvement in Afghanistan - unlike that of other countries there - is winning it support among people.

India is Afghanistan's fifth-largest bilateral donor and is involved in an array of projects in the country. It is constructing roads and setting up power transmission lines, sinking tube wells and building schools, hospitals and public toilets. It is constructing the Afghan parliament building and is engaged in repair and construction of the Salma dam project in Herat province. It has gifted Afghanistan with buses and is providing food assistance. It has trained civil servants and police and is extending scholarships to Afghan students to study in India.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JD24Df03.html
It is important that one gives assistance based on what the Afghans want and not what Think Tanks abroad feel what should be done for Afghanistan.

Modernity can be brought to Afghanistan but it cannot be based on a superimposed model. Democracy cannot be imposed on a Nation that has no idea of democracy in the western sense. It has to be based on the Afghan model, where there is intrinsic democracy, but based on autocracy and tribal leadership at the regional level.

Further, India has an advantage that the Americans and the Russians did not have. There are and were many Indians in Afghanistan and there are and were many Afghans in India. Therefore, the interactivity would be smoother.

Aside from the very substantial cost, isn't it possible that the risks to India's security posed by military involvement in Afghanistan, including the possibility of escalation to war with Pakistan, would exceed the risks posed by a Taliban return?
Maybe.

Before entering Afghanistan, India would surely enter into agreements with other interested powers and countries since it would not make sense to be the sole knight in shining armour!

There are many around the periphery who would not want Islamic fundamentalist around them, and then there are those who are suspicious of Pakistan.

Certainly India would love to see the US stay in Afghanistan: the U presence gives the jihadi community both a distracting target and an incentive to keep their heads down, and if the US pulled out the jihadis would likely turn more of their attention to India. I'm not sure it makes sense for the US to stay there for that reason though... and the likelihood of democracy taking root any time in the near future has got to be pretty low.
India can handle jihadis, but the nub is can the West take on another 9/11?

The main target of jihadis will not be India, it will always be the US and the West more so, after the knocking of their larger than life icon, OBL.