Vir Sanghvi drives home the point that We are all alone in our moralistic and righteous struggle against Pakistan. US has its own interests to mind and presently, it cannot afford to antogonise Pakistan, for such a move would jeopadize all its 'war on terror' moves. Therefore US is willing to sacrifice the goat of Kashmir at the altar of Musharaff, to applease this demigod and to win his all too mighty help to keep Taliban under control in Afghanistan and to keep chasing Osama around. Vir Sanghvi spells the all too obvious, but he narrates the facts to drive home the point that even though India might enjoy growing better relations with the US, it would not be of any significance in our lonely battle. We have to do the job ourselves of defeating Fascism, Terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism in our part of the world

It would be too cynical to suppose that Kashmir is the perfect area for America to demonstrate that it is not anti-Muslim. But it is certainly true that were America to aggressively back India in the Kashmir dispute, it would confirm the view of the US as anti-Muslim. And nobody in Washington wants that. So, the US position on Kashmir remains, at best, even-handed ? it is a disputed area whose future India and Pakistan must decide through dialogue.
Where does all this leave Indo-US relations? Until 9/11, relations between Delhi and Washington had improved to the extent that Pakistan had become peripheral to American interests. Osama bin Laden changed all that. And until that problem is sorted out, America is going to have to treat Musharraf as an important ally.