WASHINGTON - As the Obama administration reviews its Afghanistan strategy, a leading US daily suggests that Washington needs to understand that the road to stability in Afghanistan runs through Pakistan and India.

The devastating terrorist attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul last week signals a new sense of urgency to the Obama administration’s deliberations over Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s assessment of the war in Afghanistan, an opinion piece in Christian Science Monitor said.

McChrystal is the top commander of US and allied forces in Afghanistan.

“To diminish the mistrust and hostility that destabilises Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, the US needs to take a holistic regional approach,” it said, suggesting that the president should commit the US to a gradual troop surge.

A surge will send a strong political message and prevent hedging by ordinary Afghans - not to mention the Pakistani and Indian security establishment - who are trying to gauge American resolve, said Joshua Gross, a master’s candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

A phased troop build-up will signal US long-term commitment to stability in the region, he said, suggesting with such assurances, Pakistan’s security sector will be empowered to act more boldly in purging extremist elements from their midst.

Pakistanis, Joshua said, are reluctant to confront the reality that havens in their own country provide Taliban fighters with weapons, training and the protection of Pakistan’s intelligence service.

The US must focus on pressuring Pakistan to shut down these havens. Even the most dangerous elements of Pakistan’s government will be more circumspect when they realise that the 60,000 plus US troops in their backyard aren’t going anywhere.

But the US, he said, cannot stabilise Afghanistan without addressing the insecurities of the Pakistani military elite.

That said, a harder line on Pakistan will only be effective if it is accompanied by reciprocal pressure on India, Joshua said.

Suggesting the Obama administration should take the extra step of insisting that the US military contractors looking to cash in on the $100 billion modernization of the Indian military pack up and come home, he said: “Massive sales of US military technology to India could upset the region’s fragile balance of power.”