A follow-up

This is a follow-up on my last post. I just saw an article by Praful Bidwai - he is one of my favourite authors, by the way - on Rediff. Seemed so apt for the occasion and so thought I would share it with all of you.But I saw it after I posted my short note - honest!!

A normal day

I just thought I would send in some of my musings for the day, sitting in the comfort of my home and with a steaming mug of coffee close to hand. Felt very expansive - good enough to once again use the services of e-mail to post to my blog. Hope I have a better experience of it than last time, when I had a tough time getting the material in the proper format.

The latest on the Net has been about the magnanimity of the Israelis in agreeing to stop aerial bombardment of Lebanon for 48hours. I had been planning on sounding off on this issue for quite some time now but had been exercising a bit of restraint. But this latest seems to be the last straw. If there is one lesson that the Israelis have not learnt - and along with them their US friend(s) and along with them, their British friend (so what is new, do I hear somebody saying ??) - is that they are not going to buy peace by going to war, neither with the Palestinians nor with the Hizbollah.

I had thought that Sharon had finally learnt that - the hard way - but then, apparently the pressure was too much for him and he popped a vessel, the poor chap ! If at all the attack - I am loath to use the word war - has had any effect, it has been to antagonise the large number of young Palestinians and Lebanese who had been beginning to think of a peaceful co-existence with Israel. Olmert with his 'regret' over the obscenely large number of civilian casualities is not going to win hearts - if he had any intentions of doing so, in the first place. What I find even worse is Rice's statement that she agreed with the assessment that Israel needed another ten days to a fortnight to wrap up their campaign - what is surprising me is why it is taking the Israelis so long !!

If the US agrees that 'hot pursuit' of the Hizbollah 'terrorists' who have taken Cpl.Shilat captive, is the done thing, then I have a couple of points to suggest to the Indian army and air force. The North-west Frontier Province in Pakistan should perhaps be bombed to hell and back. While we are on it, why not the port city of Karachi and perhaps on the side, Peshawar, too ? Of course, it goes without saying that Muzzafarabad and a couple of other cities in POK should also be taken out. Perhaps, this is Rice's and Bush's subtle way of hinting to the Indian leaders a way for establishing 'a permanent, lasting and enduring peace in the region' !! But then, again what applies in the Middle East does not apply to South Asia. I wonder what it will take to drive the point into the heads of those in power in Washington and elsewhere - this is one war that you cannot win by the use of power. They have proved it to themselves time and again - be it in Afghanistan, Iraq or elsewhere. It is only going to get worse and engulf a larger portion of the world's population. Maybe, that is what they want ??!!!