Kashmir and Obama

If Pakistan had urged the US Administration at the recently concluded Strategic Dialogue at Washington to use its clout, as India’s friend and the solitary superpower, to compel India to honour its long-standing commitments on the Kashmir issue, it would have been quite a justified move. Seeking a solution in line with the relevant UN resolutions would place the US in a strong moral position that would also enable it to meet the wishes of the people of Kashmir and Pakistan. It would turn back the presently rising tide of hatred of the US in this part of the world, and its pledges of abiding friendship with Pakistan would be readily taken at face value. Not only that. In the eyes of the international community and the oppressed people everywhere, it would raise the stature of the US as a country that could be expected to use the strength of its being the reigning superpower in pursuit of justice and fair play, two of the prerequisite to durable peace in the world. And didn’t Candidate Obama, trying to project his image as a genuine peacemaker, promise the US voters, who had become sick of the wars his predecessor had led the country into, that he would chalk out policies that would bring for them a breath of fresh air. And hasn’t President Obama for some time, at least till well after he had addressed the Muslim World at Cairo, given this impression?
However, if Foreign Minster Qureshi’s reportedly formal call on the last day of Strategic Dialogue stipulated a mediation effort by President Obama, it is totally devoid of foresight. Two years into the presidency and facing midterm elections barely two weeks away that are widely predicted to make for a Republican comeback into the Congress, Obama, sadly, is a changed man, broken into pursuing the murky considerations of US national interests and the imperialist desire to keep the world under American sway. Sacrificing his ideals, he has launched himself into the vain exercise of containing China. And rightly judging Pakistan an unhelpful ally in this misadventure, he has gone all-out befriending India, showering it with favours even in violatation of its cherished international treaties – Nation