The Afghanistan-Pakistan-Kashmir conundrum continues to confound. In Afghanistan, the Americans are more confused now than they were ever before, with their military campaign stalled and increasingly looking like getting nowhere. US is unable to hit upon the winning formula that will either give victory or, at the very least, a face-saving solution that is more than a gift-wrapped defeat. At the heart of it is the AfPak policy which is excluding Kashmir.
As you may have noticed above, Kashmir is bang in the centre of this problem. Unfortunately, the Americans don't want to see it that way because they think they need happy India for economical reasons. So, they have conveniently lopped off Kashmir from their maps and are treating it as a discrete problem between India and Pakistan with little or no direct linkage with what they are facing in Afghanistan.
The real problem in the Afghan war is India, Pakistan and Kashmir. The horrific six-decade confrontation between India and Pakistan over Kashmir cannot be ignored. Northern Alliance is backed by money and weapons from India, and militant groups among the southern Pashtuns are backed by Pakistan. Ignoring Kashmir, as the US is doing, will not solve the conflict in this region. The US has to include Kashmir in the picture, and then it would all make sense.
