Trump's Kashmir Slip

After the Pahalgam bloodbath, Donald Trump's ignorant remarks reveal a bigger story: America's long history of missing the plot in Kashmir.

- Ahsan Maqbool

Donald Trump's latest gaffe about Kashmir would almost be funny if the stakes weren't so bloody.

Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump claimed India and Pakistan have been fighting over Kashmir for “a thousand years.”

The American President made it sound an ancient war when in reality, the two nations have been locking horns over Kashmir since 1947, when they were carved out of British India.

But Trump’s blunder is not just a one-off slip. It’s a symptom of something bigger: decades of American blindness to a conflict that’s shaped South Asia’s destiny. And the timing could not have been worse.

Just days earlier, Kashmir had seen one of its bloodiest attacks in years, setting off fresh fears of escalation between India and Pakistan. The US response? A confused, half hearted statement calling for “restraint on both sides.”

And now, Trump’s careless remarks have only deepened the sense that Washington still does not get Kashmir, and never really has.

From the very beginning, America’s approach has been a mess of missed chances, half-measures, and wishful thinking.

After the 1947 partition, when Kashmir’s Hindu ruler chose to join India despite a Muslim-majority population, Pakistan sent tribal fighters to seize the territory. India responded by airlifting troops. A brutal war followed, ending with a UN-brokered ceasefire and a divided Kashmir.

The UN called for a plebiscite, a vote for Kashmiris to decide their fate, but that never happened. India refused, Pakistan protested, and the US, already distracted by Cold War calculations, started picking sides based on convenience rather than principle.