Mideast pattern, now in Kashmir

Bitter disputes over territory. Suicide bombings. Threats of retaliation. International attempts to calm roiled passions.

The Middle East? Yes – and South Asia. Although there are important differences between the Israeli–Palestinian struggle and the standoff between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, the similarities between the situations are striking.

And perhaps the most important similarity is this: In both cases, the stronger party has had some success in defining its aim as the defeat of terrorists.

That has complicated the US war on terrorism, drawing the Bush administration more deeply into crises that are flaring on the periphery of its fight against Al Qaeda.

It may also have brought the stronger parties – India and Israel – more US support than they might otherwise have received.

"Both India and Israel have turned 9/11 to their advantage," says Dennis Kux, a retired State Department South Asia specialist and a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

In both the Middle East and South Asia, the basic confrontation is the same: a regional power is struggling with a smaller, determined foe over land issues.

In both cases, militants from the smaller power have resorted to unconventional means – suicide bombings and other random attacks on civilian targets – to try to counter their foe's larger conventional strength.

In both, the leaders of the smaller powers – Palestinian chief Yasser Arafat and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf – have disavowed their militants' actions. Yet questions remain about the leaders' desire and ability to control radical elements.

And in both, the stronger power in the standoff possesses a distinct advantage in conventional force. Israel and India have used tanks in the past to invade their foe's territory in an attempt to preempt bombing attacks. They threaten to do so again, if necessary, and now liken their military efforts to the US invasion of Afghanistan.

"In each case the justification for taking action and the kind of actions are very similar," says Rahul Mahajan, author of "The New Crusade: America's War Against Terrorism".

That said, there remain significant differences between the Middle East and the Kashmiri crisis.

Pakistan is not Palestine, for one. It has been a sovereign nation for over half a century and possesses both nuclear weapons and conventional forces that are significant, if smaller than India's. Pakistani troops have held their own in two of the three wars that have erupted over the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The border between Israel and Palestinian territory is relatively short. The territory is flat and arid. The border between Indian and Pakistani-held territory is long, and the geography mountainous – making it a much more difficult region to pacify.

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