Hmmm,India may never have been a past ally of the US,nor has it been an enemy.If you want to know about a pretty interesting phase in Indo-US ties,do a bit of research from the years 1962-late 64.India had just been defeated by China in a border war,where the Soviets stayed neutral & where the US helped,but in a limited sense,given it was tied down with the Cuban missile crisis.After the war,the US increased military aid to India,held joint air exercises(the recent ones were held after 40 yrs!!),trained special operations forces consisting of Tibetans & undertook joint surveillance of Chinese nuke assets(which had just been tested in 1963).At about the same time,someone in Washington had a brainwave & decided that Pakistan was the best bet for the US as most "experts" in the US predicted tthat a democratic & diverse India wouldn't hold together,while a dictatorial & Slammic Pakistan would serve US interests far better.Moreover Pakistan was close to Iran,the then centrepiece of US middle east policy.So the US supplied a submarine & F-104 starfighters to the Pakis & along with the Brits,denied the same stuff to India.At the same time,the Soviets invited the Indian armed forces to look at their weaponry & were very liberal in showing the Indians around.The 1965 India-Pak war(where Pakistan ,flush with US supplied weaponry launched a pre-emptive strike on India) & the coming to power of Indira Gandhi in 1967,firmly put India on the Soviet course.
But the Pakis being your allies,I have no qualms with that-but don't forget they are the world's largest nuke proliferators & along with their Saudi buddies,helped lay the seeds for Al-Qaeda & the Taliban-a pretty trustworthy ally,right??
Bout India's stance on Taiwan,I think Ive told you earlier,that it would depend on the state of Indo-US & US-Pak ties.Besides,I hope you know where US allies like Australia,Great Britain,Singapore & even South Korea stand on Taiwan-all of them are behind Beijing & are averse to participating in clash on the straits.
I personally have no affection for our government's position vis-a-vis Pakistan as an ally -- clearly, the relationship has always been one of convenience and not one of conviction -- and I would personally be happier if we did instead have India has our major ally in the region. Despite the earlier calculation that India was unstable, it has proven that Pakistan is the far more rockier of the two. Even the ascent of the BJP, which had caused some concerns over this way, has worked out well from our viewpoint.
But the Pakis being your allies,I have no qualms with that-but don't forget they are the world's largest nuke proliferators & along with their Saudi buddies,helped lay the seeds for Al-Qaeda & the Taliban-a pretty trustworthy ally,right??
I have plenty of qualms about Islamabad as an ally, starting with the fact that it is one assassination away from being an openly radical Islamist state which has an aggressive history; as it is, the ISI is indeed still the Taliban's best buddy as far as I can see. I don't think that Pakistan is trustworthy, and I certainly don't believe they would be anything other than China's friends in the event China seizes Taiwan.
Bout India's stance on Taiwan,I think Ive told you earlier,that it would depend on the state of Indo-US & US-Pak ties.Besides,I hope you know where US allies like Australia,Great Britain,Singapore & even South Korea stand on Taiwan-all of them are behind Beijing & are averse to participating in clash on the straits.
Indeed, we have discussed this issue, and I agree to the extent that our relations are in a period of flux, and thankfully very much an improving one. But at the current point (and I think Taiwan/China is very currently in play), my best guess is that India must lean toward China on this issue, as you point out, as so many other countries also already do. India, and indeed all countries, recognize geopolitical realities even what they are not always obvious to their populace.
And who knows? I could very well be wrong -- maybe India will feel that choosing the U.S. in the event would be a better move. While I don't think it would be enough to push the U.S. into an active defense of Taiwan -- at this point, our leaders have likely recognized that it is not in our interest or even ability to do so -- if the signals went out, maybe it would have effect on China's current bellicosity. As I said in the earlier posting, if we did take out Iran, I personally think that it might cool China's jets a bit also.