Birds of a feather flock together

PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s 36-hour whirlwind visit to India last week was designed to show Americans how adored abroad their president really is.

Unluckily for Trump, his campaign stop proved a fiasco.

First came the new coronavirus that so far has killed fewer people than the weekly toll on China’s roads, but the whole world went into a panic.

The US stock market, the underpinning of Trump’s popularity at home, dipped even though the president-physician assured Americans the coronavirus was only a cold.

Next, riots in India left many dead or injured. A not very well briefed Trump had just lauded India for its harmonious communal relations. The riots were sparked by an immigration bill.

But all was not lost. Trump signed a deal to sell US$3 billion of arms to India and got to visit the Taj Mahal. The parade-loving president also viewed a fine display in Delhi of Indian martial prowess.

The latest US military helicopters will be sold on credit to India. They could be particularly useful in the high mountain regions along India’s tense borders with Pakistan and China.

Trump and American hawks dream of unleashing India against China. India and China have a long, disputed, ill-demarcated border across the Himalayas and Karakoram mountains that divide them.

They are rivals over Tibet, Ladakh and Myanmar, and Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan. India and Pakistan have already fought three wars over Kashmir. But Indians are clever and cautious and will not allow the US to push them into a big war against China.

For more on this topic, my geopolitical analysis of the region, War at the Top of the World, is available through Amazon and used by general staffs, intelligence agencies, and universities.

As I’ve long warned, this littleknown but highly strategic Himalayan region, the source of India’s and Pakistan’s major rivers, could well spark nuclear war between them – possibly joined by China.

Many Americans could not even find Kashmir on a map and care nothing about a war there that could ignite a nuclear conflict and contaminate the entire globe.

But none of this matters at election time. Trump wants to show he is beloved by the outside world.

He has now forged a very close alliance with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the front man for the RSS, which was modelled in the 1920’s after Mussolini’s Fascists.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is denounced as a “Jewish fascist” by many on Israel’s left, has joined Trump and Modi in a de facto rightist alliance.

At the same time, India has drawn very close to Israel, its principal supplier of arms and nuclear technology. Israel has opened doors for India across Washington.

Interestingly, in a quid pro quo the White House has allowed massive Indian immigration to the US. There are now an estimated four million Indian immigrants in the US. They are designed to offset Muslim immigration and sway US politics in Trump’s favour.

There is nothing new in his immigration game. The Democrats encouraged large numbers of Latino and Irish immigrants, who reliably voted for them. Many of the Indian immigrants are educated and fairly well-off. They cluster in IT, banking and journalism, bringing much value to both fields.

Instead of heightening tensions between India, Pakistan and China, the US should be promoting a fair settlement over the Kashmir dispute.