USA: News in the Making

US more at ease with India's rise than China's ascent

Chidanand Rajghatta says the is more comfortable with the rise of India than it is with the ascent of China, the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) 2010 has revealed. It recognized ''a more influential role in global affairs'' for India including in the Indian Ocean region and beyond based on its commonalities with the US, while expressing Washington’s concern about the nature of China’s military development and decision-making processes.

The rise of China and India is a prominent theme of the latest QDR, a four-yearly strategic review document that offers a broad outline of US security posture. It jettisons the long-held goal of being able to fight two conventional wars at once (just when India is considering it). At the same time it recognises a new range of threats including
terrorism, the review also spells out US views of the two countries (China and India) which it says will shape the international system in the years to come.

Source: TNN, 3 February 2010, WASHINGTON
URL: http://timesofindia .indiatimes. com/world/ us/US-more- at-ease-with- Indias-rise- than-Chinas- ascent/articlesh ow/5530577. cms

Soviet Lessons From Afghanistan:

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of Soviet Union, writes on the Afghanistan is in turmoil, with tensions rising and people dying every day. Many of them have nothing in common with terrorists or militants. The government is losing control of its territory: of the 34 provinces, the Taliban controls a dozen. The production and export of narcotics is growing. There is a real danger of destabilization extending to neighboring countries, including the republics of Central Asia as well as Pakistan.

He says: ‘What began after Sept. 11, 2001, as a seemingly appropriate military response aimed at rooting out terrorism could end in a major strategic failure.’…

Source: New York Times NYT February 4, 2010
URL http://www.nytimes. com/2010/ 02/05/opinion/ 05iht-edgorbache v.html?ref= global

Goodbye, America

Shekhar Gupta in his column writes on the talk among global leaders about “exiting”. from Afghanistan, or ‘more accurately, the Af-Pak quicksand.’ This question overshadowed the minds, and discussions, at two global meetings of top leaders last week, the Afghanistan conference in London and the World Economic Forum in Davos. He concludes that the big powers have decided in principle on the issue of whether to exit or not. The questions that now remain are, when, and how. Public opinion in Britain and even in the US is tiring of the war. Clearer indication of this came from a statement made by UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband at the London conference that this war had already gone on longer than World War II…
Source: Indian Express, Feb 06, 2010
URL http://www.indianex press.com/ news/goodbye- america/576354/ 0