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“Kashmir is a void in U.S. foreign policy, all the more noticeable for its absence in our diplomats' discourse,” writes Joshua Gross, a former “director of media relations for the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington,” D.C, USA, in a November 6, 2009, post at Foreign Policy’s AfPak blog. Adds Mr. Gross:
Ashley Tellis, a former political adviser in the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, told journalist Steve Coll earlier this year that the best advice for the Obama administration was to "keep hands off." The conventional wisdomholds that prospects for peace are too fragile for a ham-fisted American mediation that pushes India and Pakistan too hard, too fast. In a region where capitulating to the Americans is political suicide, our good intentions would surely backfire.
However, the "hands off" approach ensures the prolongation of a perilous status quo. A perpetually unstable South Asia flooded with jihadi groups, with two combustible nuclear powers, undermines U.S. national security. In the interim, American troops are caught in the web of a conflict dynamic that extends far beyond the borders of Afghanistan.
Mr. Gross thinks “The Obama Administration must finalize the next steps for America's strategy in Afghanistan with a regional perspective. In the quest to stabilize Afghanistan, breaking the diplomatic impasse over Kashmir is a necessity, not a luxury."
If you want to read more, please see “The forgotten front."
