Watching India

Blake Hounshell, at the Foreign Policy magazine’s blog, captures the political forces in play right now in India and Pakistan:

It’s amazing how quickly India appears to be falling into the terrorists’ trap.

It seems obvious that Pakistan’s civilian government, led by President Asif Ali Zardari, has no interest in stirring up trouble between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. And it seems equally obvious that any elements of the ISI, Pakistan’s notorious intelligence service, who might have been in some way involved in the attacks in Mumbai would have done so in order to undermine rapprochement between Islamabad and New Delhi.

[ . . . ]

Yet one can already see public anger in India leading political developments in a direction the terrorists wanted. Some Indian politicians have been less than careful in saying the terrorists were sent by Pakistan, the state, rather than that they came from Pakistan, the country (which hasn’t even been confirmed yet, anyway). India is considering halting talks over Kashmir and ending the five-year cease-fire along the Line of Control. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has vowed to “go after” those responsible for the attacks, which could box him into the dangerous step of taking action against Lashkar-e-Taiba within Pakistan-held territory.

The whole thing is worth a read (as is his earlier penned piece on the contradictory accounts of the attacks themselves).

Update: Juan Cole offers a good companion piece to the article above, focusing on what Pakistan needs to do (and putting it in useful historical context).