Skirmishes between India and Pakistan over Kashmir worries outgoing US NSA

Outgoing United States National Security Advisor Susan Rice feels that constant skirmishes in Kashmir between India and Pakistan, some of the Russian actions, Syria along with North Korea are some of the less probable but catastrophic scenarios globally.

Nuclear powered India and Pakistan are constantly skirmishing in Kashmir, the outgoing US National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, said identifying some of the Russian actions, Syria along with North Korea and South Asia or a pandemic flu as some of the less probable but catastrophic scenarios globally.

"I worry about Russia. And then there are the less probable but catastrophic scenarios. A pandemic flu, frankly, is a major concern. North Korea continuing to advance and perfect its nuclear missile program, or even an unforeseen conflict between India and Pakistan, both nuclear armed nations that are constantly skirmishing in Kashmir," Rice told PBS News in an interview.

Rice was responding to a question on some of her biggest nightmares.

"I've a number of worries. I wish I had one. But in all honesty, this is a world where the nature of the threats is very diverse and the challenges are multiple. So let me list a few," she said.

"I think anybody in my position would worry about a catastrophic attack on the homeland or on American personnel abroad. So that's nightmare number one. And particularly if it were, God-forbid, to be combined with some form of weapon of mass destruction with a biological... especially WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and terrorism," she said.

"Secondly, I think we need to be very concerned about the potential, deliberate or inadvertent, for Russia to miscalculate and provoke a conflict in the European theater," she said.

"I say that because Russia's actions have been increasingly aggressive, whether its surveilling our diplomatic personnel and harassing them, making very unsafe approaches on the seas and in the air, and I think it's unclear what Putin's intentions are, particularly after the annexation of Crimea and the illegal occupation of Ukraine and, in fact, also, the atrocities he's been a party to in Syria," Rice said.

Rice asserted that the longest American war in Afghanistan has ended in terms of combat.

"The Taliban is continuing to fight. And our world now for two years has been limited to training and advising and assisting the Afghan government forces to deal with the Taliban and to go after the terrorist threat as it remains," she said.

"And there is a residual terrorist threat, an Al-Qaeda residual which is quite small, an ISIL presence, that we will continue to work with the afghans to defeat. I can't say with certainty how long that will be, but I think the Taliban is proving, as you know well, an enduring adversary for the Afghan government," Rice said. 

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