holbrooke’s appointment is a positive step. he is a brilliant diplomat and someone of his caliber is what we need in south asia. however, where his appointment falls short is the breadth of his portfolio. we choose to focus on the apparent “problem children” in the region without any reference to the big daddy of south asia – india. btw here is a great article about how that came to pass.
the pakistan-india conflict is at the epicenter of much of what we see today and kashmir is what keeps that conflict boiling. if some kind of pakistan-india accord could be brokered it would take the steam out of the pakistan army, the ISI and the whole concept of asymmetric warfare that gave birth to the taliban. it would strengthen pakistan’s civilian government.
another thing that would help of course, would be our abandonment of the latin american model of supporting military dictatorships in pakistan. the time has passed for that approach.