FUBAR'd in South Asia

Some seriously fucked up politics here:

In a thinly veiled message to the US, Pakistan officials have threatened to withdraw troops fighting Islamists along Afghanistan if India builds up forces along the border it shares with Pakistan. Furious Indian officials have linked the deadly Mumbai terror operation to Pakistan. "If something happens on that front, the war on terror won't be our priority," a Pakistani senior security said ominously. "We'll take out everything from the western border."

His threat was clearly aimed at pressuring the US to temper India's response to the attacks, reports the Times of London. The US is faced with a dilemma of appeasing both nations, while India's vulnerable coalition government is under pressure to respond swiftly to the terror attacks in the run-up to the national elections in spring.

The bigger picture is that the recent Mumbai attacks were certainly orchestrated by the PTB, with hopes of destabilizing this fragile nuclear-armed region.

I wonder if this is the beginning of the "manufactured" international crisis that Joe Biden mentioned a couple months back as a test for Obama.

These are perilous times, and it looks grim. But as someone with extensive personal ties to India-- my wife is from India, and I work with Indian nationals-- I can only hope for the best here.