Stardate 20011025.1133 (On Screen via long range sensors): This editorial was just published in India and basically accuses its government of acting servile to the Western powers. It presents a view of the situation which bears little resemblance to what I had come to understand about it. For example, it describes Tony Blair's visit to Pakistan as being primarily intended to plead for the protection and release of the missionaries being held by the Taliban. In actual fact, Blair's main purpose in being there was to convince the Pakistanis to let the US and UK use their air space and air bases for attacks on the Taliban, and to reassure Musharraf that any post-Taliban government in Afghanistan would not be polarized against Pakistan.
Equally, it accurately describes how India offered air bases and cooperation to the US, but it characterizes that as "old habits" of bowing before white-skinned foreigners. I didn't view it that way at all; I saw it as India's attempt to try to ingratiate itself to the US so as to try to polarize us regarding India's decades long struggle with Pakistan. Until now, the US has tried to stay neutral in that struggle and to remain friends with both sides; I saw that offer by India as an attempt to try to make the US favor it over Pakistan. It was a political move, not an act of servility.
On the other hand, it says that India's offer (though not rejected) was not really utilized, which is true. It explains that as being the result of contempt by the West, which is not true. The real problem is that those airbases would have been useless without permission from Pakistan to use Pakistani air space. There's also the fact that with three aircraft carriers sitting in the Sea of Arabia, as well as existing airbases in Oman, Turkey, Qatar and Diego Garcia, bases in India didn't actually provide any capability which we didn't already have. (And the existing airbases already have the facilities we need in place, especially in the form of operating supply systems.) We didn't snub India, it's just that the offer was largely useless and had strings attached. (discuss)
