Pirchner and Schneider in India

In early April, AFPC President Herman Pirchner, Jr. and Pentagon Defense Science Board Chairman (And AFPC Advisory Board member)) William Schneider, Jr., traveled to India for a meetings with top officials in New Delhi.

Their seven-day trip included travel along India’s troubled northern border with Bangladesh, as well as a two-and-a-half hour meeting with India’s Defense Minister, Shekhar Dutt, in which the evolving nature of Indo-American relations was discussed.

The visit served to highlight the common threats now facing Washington and New Delhi. India has endured terrorism form Islamic extremists for many years, with almost weekly casualties. The resulting affinity that average Indians felt with the U.S. following September 11 is one of the reasons our two countries are increasing strategic cooperation.

This point was driven home shortly after Pirchner and Schneider’s return, when a terrorist attack in Mumbai (Bombay) killed 200 people. Almost unmentioned in the American press was the fact that ten years earlier, a terrorist attack in Mumbai killed 250 people and that smaller numbers had been killed by terrorists in between those major acts of carnage.

As in the case with most contemporary acts of terror, the current batch of Mumbai terrorists appears to have received help from supporters based in another country (Pakistan). This foreign support, as elsewhere (e.g., Iran’s support of Hezbollah), ensures that acts of terrorism in India will not end any time soon. In their discussions with Indian officials, Pirchner and Schneider underlined the growing U.S. cooperation with India in the long fight to defeat Muslim extremism.