FRINGE BENEFIT?

NEW DELHI (AFP) Apr 13, 2004
The US-led war in Iraq prodded nuclear rivals India and Pakistan to launch a process to resolve their disputes over Kashmir, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said in an interview published Tuesday. . . .

“The war in Iraq was a warning to all developing countries (that) we needed to resolve our disputes peacefully and speedily amongst ourselves,” the 79-year-old Vajpayee told the English-language daily.

I don’t think the Bush Administration deserves credit for this, exactly, since I rather doubt it was a factor in deciding to go to war against Iraq. (Though the impending war may have concentrated their minds on keeping other areas quiet.) But in assessing the results, it has to figure in.