WHILE US Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm Mike Mullen has frankly admitted that the US build-up of troops in Afghanistan will indeed cause Pakistan to be further destabilized, it has been reported that, despite all their apparent enmity, Pakistan and India are cooperating on intelligence matters because of American prodding. The War on Terror, it appears according to the US, means that states must give it priority, even if it means harm to their national interests. Here are two examples of transitory US interests taking priority over Pakistani interests. As Admiral Mullen said so bluntly to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the planned US troop build-up in Afghanistan is likely to lead to insurgents crossing over into Balochistan. Admiral Mullen might have assured the Committee that the US military is making contingency plans, but that really means that it has no idea of what to do, and will leave Pakistan to handle the mess as best as it can. It appears that countries like Pakistan are supposed to do the American bidding in the War on Terror, because while the Americans are going to threaten its stability by the planned increase in troops, it has been prodding Pakistan to cooperate with India on intelligence, according to a Wall Street Journal report. According to it, there has been a sharing of intelligence, using the CIA as a conduit, on the Lashkar-i-Taiba, and on Taliban commanders. Now, intelligence sharing is direct, though the CIA is still kept within the loop. Yet all of this, which has involved Pakistan giving intelligence it has carefully accumulated to India, has not involved any quid pro quo, even though the USA was involved. Pakistan should not regard intelligence-sharing as just another confidence-building measure, meant to placate the USA, but as something which can only be given away if the USA helps make India solve the Kashmir issue in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people. If nothing else, it will make clear to the USA, if indeed it needs convincing that the Kashmir issue is at the core of Indo-Pak relations.