There is no doubt that the times they're a changing. Just read this list of recommendations the Cato Institute included in last year's"Handbook for Congress". Fear that the US will adopt them may just be behind recent Indian - Pakistani rapproachment.

The U.S. government should:

** focus on democratic India as a leading diplomatic and economic partner of the United States in South Asia and as a strategic counterbalance to China,

** reassess economic and military ties with Pakistan as part of a policy of U.S." constructive disengagement" from that unstable military dictatorship,

** reject plans to establish a long-term military presence in Pakistan,

** treat India as a central player in the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism and the radical Islamic forces in South Asia,

** refrain from pressing India not to use its military force against terrorism emanating from Pakistan, and

** resist calls for an activist U.S. diplomatic role in mediating the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

The full chapter can be read here.

Thanks Ram Narayanan