March 31, 2005
WHAT IF NO ONE HAD NOTICED THAT NIXON WENT TO CHINA?:
Going Out for Indian: By helping India become "a major world power," the administration is showing the global seriuosness of the Bush Doctrine. (Tom Donnelly, 03/31/2005, Weekly Standard)
WITH THE NEWS from Iraq relegated to the back pages recently, last Friday's State Department briefing--especially since it was not devoted to Condoleezza Rice's latest fashion statements--attracted little attention. The subject: the evolving strategic partnership between the United States and India. The news? It is the "goal" of the Bush administration "to help India become a major world power in the 21st century."This is indeed a monumental and welcome development; it's the clearest sign to date that the Bush Doctrine has a genuine strategic logic, that it's more than a justification for the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. To realize the president's goals, particularly the commitment to spreading freedom that was the core message of his Second Inaugural Address, the United States needs a workable, how-to plan, one that bends the instruments of international politics--most notably, the tools of "hard" power like military force and political alliances--to American purposes. A U.S.-India strategic partnership, if fully developed, would be the single most important step toward an alliance capable of meeting the 21st century's principal challenges: radical Islam and rising China.
Unlike our almost erstwhile allies in western Europe, India shares an equal strategic concern with both these challenges. Perhaps even more important, India shares a commitment to democracy that transcends ethnic nationalism--Hindu nationalism, in this case, will not suffice to govern a state that includes 120 million Muslims--and an understanding of the necessity for armed strength. India's position in South Asia puts it in an essential geostrategic location from both a continental and maritime perspective. In sum, the United States could hardly dream up a more ideal strategic partner.
Fifty years from today the forging of this alliance will rank only slightly behind liberalizing the Middle East among the President's accomplishment's yet the MSM has barely even noticed it. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 31, 2005 9:31 PM
In 50 years who will remember the MSM?
Posted by: erp at March 31, 2005 10:08 PMThe media are blind to anything that makes the President look good - or smart.
Posted by: oswald booth czolgosz at March 31, 2005 10:09 PMGive me India, Israel, Australia and maybe Britain and y'all can have the rest.
Posted by: Rick T. at March 31, 2005 10:23 PMOne doubts if most all the MSM could find India on a globe. They are certainly ignorant of the impact Indian immigration has had in many technical fields in the US in the past 40 years, and they also do not understand how much India has changed in the past 10-15 years.
Posted by: jim hamlen at March 31, 2005 10:42 PMWanna get the big media outlets interested in doing stories about India? Just start talking about call centers and high tech industries that have moved over there, and make sure you only include the past 4-plus years. Their convetional spin is India as an economic rival sucking away American jobs, not as a strategic ally, as long as there's a Republican in the White House (though to be fair, they and Pat Buchanan are thinking along the same lines nowadays, so maybe they'll reassess how badly they treated him in 1992).
Posted by: John at March 31, 2005 11:08 PM