Not really a surprise, as noted before, no one really wants to get sucked into The Quagmire of the new millenium. After Dumsfeld went around Old Europe trashing all our allies in NATO, all the future allies took note of the tone and demeanor of the administration and the policies it was following. Seems that we did a pretty good job of throwing a party and getting stood-up.
After weeks of high-level discussions with the United States, India today rejected an American request to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq, saying it would only consider doing so under an "explicit" U.N. mandate.
The announcement following a cabinet-level security meeting this afternoon was a setback to the Pentagon's efforts to bolster its forces in Iraq with contributions from allies. For the past several weeks, India has been seriously considering the deployment to Iraq of a full army division -- about 17,000 men -- which would have been the second-largest foreign contingent in the country after that of the United States.
Some senior ministers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had argued that such a contribution would advance India's economic and strategic interests both in the gulf and in terms of its relations with the United States.
A point I have to agree with. India is the world's largest and poorest democracy. They tossed the Brits out at about the same time everyone else did in the late 40's, and by a quirk of fate (an stupid US Foreign policy) became a Soviet Client state, even though they were a democracy through and through. For all the years of the cold war, they were always a political enigma to most Americans, but remained a democracy nonetheless. Here they have a chance to potentially "redeem" all those years of being on the "wrong side" of the Cold War, and are giving it a big pass because like many rational actors they realize that when Commander Codpiece and the 1600 Crew are but a memory of the electoral vaguaries of the US, we might still be in Iraq and so might they...and it's not a comforting thought.
If Iraq's invasion [is] unjust immoral and illegal, how can its occupation, caused by the invasion, be just and acceptable?" columnist Praful Bidwai wrote in the latest issue of Frontline, a liberal newsmagazine here. "It is completely illogical to oppose the war on Iraq, as the Indian government and Parliament did, and then support its occupation and become part of it."
I think many others in the coalition of the bought are feeling the same way...they just can't afford to send the same kind of numbers in terms of troops and support. Now let's see how long it takes for the 1600 Crew to turn on the Indians, both at home and abroad. Does anyone put it past the vindictive little thugs?
