Kashmir needs to be put on the international agenda: MacShane

APP

LONDON - Pointing out the importance of Kashmir in the overall context of regional situation, a British parliamentarian has called for putting the disputed Himalayan State on the international agenda. In his article for The Observer Labour MP Denis MacShane said the burning issue of Kashmir, where 70,000 Muslims have been killed since the Indian army took over full control of the disputed region 20 years ago, needs to be put on the international agenda.

He underscored the channelling of diplomatic and development aid to be redirected to Pakistan and India as well as to China and Iran to remove the widespread feeling among Muslim communities that West is again seeking to control the lives of people whose customs and needs they do not understand.

Macshane called for the British troops to be called home from Afghanistan saying 'it is time to stop the blood sacrifice of our young soldiers in Afghanistan.

He wrote In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev described Afghanistan as a "bleeding wound". Last week, US general Stanley McChrystal called it a "bleeding ulcer". Britain has no general, no "master of strategy". War is too important to be left to generals. Unfortunately ministers past and present have flinched from thinking strategically. If the object is to stop Afghanistan from again becoming a base for al-Qaeda to launch attacks, there are alternatives to sending out men on foot patrols to be blown up by hidden bombs or shot by snipers who fade back into the hills.

In Canada, the Conservative government has confirmed its troops will leave next year. There is new thinking in the Netherlands, one of Britain's key NATO allies, where the government collapsed over Afghanistan. NATO has new duties to guard its Baltic flanks and ensure that the melting Arctic becomes a sea of trade and peace. It no longer needs to define its existence by occupying Afghanistan.

MacShane criticised the remarks of Defence Secretary Dr.Liam Fox who on his recent visit to Afghanistan described that country as a '13th century nation' and said his patronising contempt has done a serious damage to Britain's influence in Kabul.

"The White House is clearly looking for an exit strategy," the Labour MP said. "Britain also needs to begin prime ministers' questions without a roll-call of the dead and maimed. We have done our duty.

It is time to come home."

Meanwhile, the same paper has also reported that Prime Minister David Cameron has convened a secret meeting of military experts, ministers and Tory MPs on Tuesday to review strategy on Afghanistan amid growing signs of division over the mission's objectives.

The paper has reported that there is increasing scepticism in both political and military circles over whether some of the original objectives in Afghanistan are achievable.