Pakistan fights India on its disputed Kashmir border. On the other side, it fights the Taliban on its western border. If the country is now emerging with a wishy-washy image regarding battling terrorism, it is because Pakistan is preoccupied with disputing India over the Kashmir region, when its Afghan border is the concrete illustration of the West’s battle in the war on terror. The hinterlands on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border are purported to be the hiding place of Osama bin Laden, the poster boy for global terror.

If the West truly wants Pakistan to help, it will minimize its pressure on Pakistan to vomit the terrorists that blasted Mumbai, and, instead, motivate it to forge partnership with India in order that the two can fight terrorism together. India will also need to stop pressuring Pakistan in all this fingerpointing carnival. The real enemy is far greater than the country of Pakistan with regards to who the real terrorists are. India and Pakistan, and above all the United States, should not lose sight of the real enemy.

Something strategic should be happening here but it is not. Kashmir is the key. India and Pakistan should resolve the Kashmir issue posthaste because the real enemy is at the gates. Pakistan may be found tolerating terror groups but the country is not a terrorist nation. It is, likewise, being pestered by terrorists itself. India and Pakistan are grossly missing the point. The Kashmir issue has unsettled both countries. If they let this otherwise solvable issue continue to fester, they are only allowing the true enemy to get stronger. The Taliban has sharply risen in power and strength over the past three years. Islamic terror merely continues and prospers.

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Via International Herald Tribune