Al-Anon, for those unfamiliar with the name, is an international organization that helps the relatives of family members who are addicts. Many relatives of addicts unwittingly 'enable' the addict in myriad ways; for an alcoholic, giving into his pleas for money to purchase just enough alcohol to stave off the physical agony of withdrawal symptoms; for a gambling addict, giving into his pleas to pay off his debt to a loan shark so the shark doesn't kill him.
Al-Anon practically invented the term 'tough love' to help family members deal with the cunning of a desperate addict in their midst. The Al-Anon message to relatives of an addict is also very tough: The family member's first step to getting the addicted relative to accept real help is to recognize the co-dependent aspect of repeatedly allowing an addict to wreak havoc on his own family.
The destructive situation of a family held hostage by an addicted relative is finding unfortunate parallels in the Indian government's deepening relationship with the U.S. one. Washington is grabbing onto Delhi as a means to stave off making significant changes in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship.
Technically the U.S. is not 'addicted' to Pakistan yet the net effect of the relationship is that of an addiction. And the U.S. is now asking India for help so it can keep enabling Pakistan's military, and because India is going along with this request, it's becoming an enabler. Meanwhile the Pakistani military is enabling terrorist groups inside Pakistan.
So what we have here is a kind of conga line of co-dependents, with people wearing suicide vests instead of party leis bringing up the rear.
India has already done itself enough damage for one day by going ahead on Friday and signing a memorandum of understanding with the USA before obtaining vital agreements from the U.S. on key points. The MOU pertains to the joint Counterterrorism Cooperation Initiative. "The initiative will expand collaboration on counterterrorism, information sharing and capacity building. The initiative looks at closer working arrangements on transportation security; money laundering; maritime, port and border security; cybersecurity; and mega-city policing."
Yet the U.S. "virtually" rejected India's demand for a monitoring mechanism on U.S. aid being given to Pakistan's military for the fight against terror. This, despite the fact that:
... The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said that there are concerns about “the links the ISI has” [with terrorist groups]. He admitted that there is a lot about the Pakistani spy agency that the US does not know and added that the matter is being taken up in all “engagements” that the US has with Pakistan.I'm not joking when I say that someone needs to send Al-Anon literature to India's ministry of defense and do this 'yesterday.'
This comes after the Indian government revealed that there is fresh evidence to show the ISI and LeT [terror organization[ planned and executed the terror attack in Mumbai together.[...]
