Afghanistan has no intrinsic strategic value and US engagement cannot pay a commensurate positive return. Pakistan is the heart of the problem, not part of the solution. The strategic--and moral--future lies in shifting American regional priorities fully toward a multi-dimensional alliance with India, while drastically curtailing US support of and engagement with Pakistan. We worry about the wrong issues, support the wrong leaders, and pursue outdated priorities. For its part, India must overcome its own obsolete prejudices and critically examine its internal resistance to closer ties with the US. Future historians will be bewildered that the world's two largest and greatest democracies are not already bound together in an unshakeable alliance."