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The Alliance
Varadarajan on the two kinds of allies
2001-09-19
  • Opinion Journal/Wall Street Journal, by TUNKU VARADARAJAN
    In the war against Islamic terrorism--and not merely in the impending strikes against its practitioners in Afghanistan--the U.S. should be aware that there are two classes of ally among the many states to which it will turn for cooperation.

    The first is the kind whose common cause will emerge, ad hoc, with each battle, and whose enthusiasm for an antiterrorist crusade will depend on the regional or strategic contours of each engagement. This kind of ally might accurately be described as opportunistic, or mercurial, and an example would be Pakistan, whose military dictator, Pervez Musharraf, has formally--albeit through gritted teeth--offered logistical support to U.S. ground and air forces.

    The second, truer kind of ally is the one whose support for any war on Islamic terror is not opportunistic, but instinctive and philosophical. Its fight against this terror is driven by the deepest conviction; indeed, its fight is driven also by dire need, for not to fight would spell doom for its society, and for its civilization. A perfect example of this kind of state, and ally, would be Israel.
  • Posted by:Fred Pruitt

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