Pakistans obsession with India has damaged it in three ways. First, it has given its generals too much power. Pakistans army, at 550,000 men, is too small to match Indias 1.1m, but too big for Pakistan. The armed forces eat up 16% of the governments budget, whereas education gets 1.2%. Because the armed forces are powerful, the government is weak; and the soldiers frequent interventions in Pakistani politics exacerbate this imbalance and undermine democracy.
Second, it has shaped Pakistans dealings in Afghanistan. In the 1990s Pakistan helped create the Taliban partly in order to undermine Indias allies in northern Afghanistan. Although it signed up to fight the Taliban after September 11th 2001, Pakistan has continued to protect some of the Taliban in order to counter Indias influence in Afghanistan.
Third, it has led Pakistan to foster Islamist terrorismespecially the Lashkar-e-Taiba , a Punjab-based outfit whose purpose is to attack India. After the LeT attacked the Indian parliament in December 2001 Pakistan banned it, but it has survivedeither because it has grown too successful to crush or because the Pakistani armed forces continue to help it covertly. Either way, India is not the only victim of this murderously stupid policy: terrorism within Pakistan is being fuelled by splinter groups from the LeTand is going global.
As India grows in wealth and power, so do fear and obsession in Pakistan. Yet India, too, would benefit from a solution. The tension with the minnow to its west distracts it from the rise of the giant to its north, and China will surely dominate its security horizon in the 21st century. America also has much to gain from a saner subcontinent. If Pakistans world view were not distorted by India, it might be able to see straight on terror.
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