> Speaking as a guardian of the American Empire, I wouldn't mind a
> little border skirmishes as long as they won't get way out of control
> right at this moment.
What are the US interests in South Asia at this moment?
> I would like both India and Pakistan to jockey
> themselves to curry my favor in their struggle with each other.
What you would like and the US would like are necessarily identical. In any case, what the US would like is not decisive. India is not jockeying for any favours from the US. North Koreans are fed by the US. Not Indians.
> I'd
> also like to see them oppress and alienate their respective
> minorities; I should like to play a defender of minorities in other
> nations, though I don't care for them too much in my own
The treatment of minorities in South Asia is grounded in the South Asian realities, just as treatment of minorities in the fSU were grounded in the Soviet realities. The US continues make noises about people in Tibet and Xinjiang. But what the US does or think, is not decisive.
> >This is not in the US interest. The US gains nothing by debilitating two
> >countries. The notion that the US is trying to debilitate the developing
> >nations always and everywhere is not convincing.
>
> Not always and everywhere, but sometimes, somewhere -- Iran and Iraq,
> constituent republics/nationalities of Yugoslavia, Israel and
> Palestine, etc.
I could talk about the role of fSU in the Afghan tragedy. It was a disaster.
> Were I a guardian of the post-Cold War Empire, I'd
> want to prevent an emergence of any ambitious regional power that
> does not depend on my favor at all, so I'd make sure that losses on
> the part of Pakistan wouldn't become gains of India (or any other
> power's, for that matter), and vice versa. Besides, I'd like to
> present the Empire as the indispensable mediator; with no conflicts
> anywhere in the world, I wouldn't be able to do so.
This could be said about any part of the world. That doesn't mean it is true. If I were Hu Jintao,"I'd want to prevent an emergence of any ambitious regional power that does not depend on my favour at all".
Ulhas