“There is a limit to our restraint. We have all options open before us on the table”—Pranab Mukherjea
“Our restraint must not be construed as our weakness. Pakistan must act on its promises or we are well within our rights to defend our countrymen by every possible mean”—Manmohan Singh
“Pakistan is ready as always to defend itself from any type of aggression. Pakistani nation stands united at these times of crises”—Y R Gilani
“Pakistan Army will launch counter-offensive within minutes, if attacked on eastern front”—Gen, Ashfaq P. Kayani
These are the words of top leadership of two nuclear powered neighbors of south Asia. These words, if taken seriously, may send a person in cold shivering, if he thinks of the confrontation escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.
But, I request you all not to be afraid. India is not going to wage a war with Pakistan, for sure, in near future. Neither will Pakistan. These war cries are as hollow as has been our leadership’s promises. War mongering politicians may seem you attracting but they are not so. They are jingoistic in nature to feed the unabated war mongering of news channels, to address those people who are demanding that India must teach a lesson to Pakistan. But I assure you that leaders of both south Asian neighbors will only wage war of words and nothing more. Ground realities will not let them do so.
The world is facing serious economic crisis. It’s a crisis of century. It’s a crisis of faith, of trust in our global financial institutions, the IMF, World Bank, WTO etc. World leaders are busy negotiating to deal with crisis of immense effect. So had been our politicos before 26/11. They had been giving sound bites of assurances that India will easily tide over the crisis. In fact, our PM had been assuring of the soundness of Indian banking system, every other day. The crisis is still there, deeply entrenched. Indian state will need more funds to have more social stimulus packages. Government will have to give help to various sectors to face the economic crisis arising from the US. Depleting forex reserves, shrinking exports, rising oil import bill despite crash in crude prices has just added to the woes of the Indian Government. The US, UK and other western countries are announcing bailout packages as their daily finance bulletin. India does not have that kind of money to help itself dig out of this economic swamp. It will have to maneuver its limited resources to get over this crisis. No one can fathom the depth of this crisis. So, no one can predict the amount we will need to handle it. How can the Indian leadership then have the gut to wage a war?
It’s another issue that despite assurances from our services chiefs we very well know that our forces are not capable of carrying out surgical precision strike against Pakistan. They may be able to win a war in the longer term due to sheer number, but a short, well targeted precision strike is not and has not been our armed forces’ philosophy. We have not equipped them for this short term target achievement. Neither any country has equipped its forces for surgical operations. They are not meant to succeed. We have Israel as an example. Despite having most capable commandos, they have not been able to fully root out enemies of Zionism. The US had initiated war in Afghanistan to do the same thing and look what they have got as result. India won the 1971 war not because of it’s forces’ capabilities but because of weariness of Pakistan armed forces stationed in the then East Pakistan and also with the help of MuktiBahini, consisting of local people. We can commend Field Marshal Manekshaw for utilizing the situation in our better interests. How can we forget the Kargil episode. A few Pakistani army men entrenched in snowy mountains needed fighter jets to be uprooted. And also think of the human and economic cost of Kargil war. We lost lots of our forces which in any normal warfare would not have been.
Now let’s move towards Pakistan.
Pakistani government is begging from all those it can for economic help. President Zardari went from nowhere to everywhere. The US had to recommend IMF to grant a loan of billions of dollars with no strings attached. Because world can’t afford to have a failed Pakistan state . The inflation rate in Pakistan is running as high as 25 per cent. The holiest institution of Pakistan, It’s army has recently stalled many up gradation programs due to lack of funds. Pakistan army was building a brand new Headquarter building for itself in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Work on the site has stopped, as they have no funds. Think of an army lacking such paltry sums saying it will give a befitting reply to its enemies.
On another front along the Durand Line, Pakistan army is facing another problem. Large scale desertions. Its cadre fighting Taliban are surrendering to Taliban. They are very demoralized. Since last two years, Pakistan army and government have had to negotiate with Taliban/Al Qaida fighters many a times to keep it’s cadre’s sagging morale up.
I had my own logics, which I have put before you. Draw your own conclusion and send me comments on this article.
“Our restraint must not be construed as our weakness. Pakistan must act on its promises or we are well within our rights to defend our countrymen by every possible mean”—Manmohan Singh
“Pakistan is ready as always to defend itself from any type of aggression. Pakistani nation stands united at these times of crises”—Y R Gilani
“Pakistan Army will launch counter-offensive within minutes, if attacked on eastern front”—Gen, Ashfaq P. Kayani
These are the words of top leadership of two nuclear powered neighbors of south Asia. These words, if taken seriously, may send a person in cold shivering, if he thinks of the confrontation escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.
But, I request you all not to be afraid. India is not going to wage a war with Pakistan, for sure, in near future. Neither will Pakistan. These war cries are as hollow as has been our leadership’s promises. War mongering politicians may seem you attracting but they are not so. They are jingoistic in nature to feed the unabated war mongering of news channels, to address those people who are demanding that India must teach a lesson to Pakistan. But I assure you that leaders of both south Asian neighbors will only wage war of words and nothing more. Ground realities will not let them do so.
The world is facing serious economic crisis. It’s a crisis of century. It’s a crisis of faith, of trust in our global financial institutions, the IMF, World Bank, WTO etc. World leaders are busy negotiating to deal with crisis of immense effect. So had been our politicos before 26/11. They had been giving sound bites of assurances that India will easily tide over the crisis. In fact, our PM had been assuring of the soundness of Indian banking system, every other day. The crisis is still there, deeply entrenched. Indian state will need more funds to have more social stimulus packages. Government will have to give help to various sectors to face the economic crisis arising from the US. Depleting forex reserves, shrinking exports, rising oil import bill despite crash in crude prices has just added to the woes of the Indian Government. The US, UK and other western countries are announcing bailout packages as their daily finance bulletin. India does not have that kind of money to help itself dig out of this economic swamp. It will have to maneuver its limited resources to get over this crisis. No one can fathom the depth of this crisis. So, no one can predict the amount we will need to handle it. How can the Indian leadership then have the gut to wage a war?
It’s another issue that despite assurances from our services chiefs we very well know that our forces are not capable of carrying out surgical precision strike against Pakistan. They may be able to win a war in the longer term due to sheer number, but a short, well targeted precision strike is not and has not been our armed forces’ philosophy. We have not equipped them for this short term target achievement. Neither any country has equipped its forces for surgical operations. They are not meant to succeed. We have Israel as an example. Despite having most capable commandos, they have not been able to fully root out enemies of Zionism. The US had initiated war in Afghanistan to do the same thing and look what they have got as result. India won the 1971 war not because of it’s forces’ capabilities but because of weariness of Pakistan armed forces stationed in the then East Pakistan and also with the help of MuktiBahini, consisting of local people. We can commend Field Marshal Manekshaw for utilizing the situation in our better interests. How can we forget the Kargil episode. A few Pakistani army men entrenched in snowy mountains needed fighter jets to be uprooted. And also think of the human and economic cost of Kargil war. We lost lots of our forces which in any normal warfare would not have been.
Now let’s move towards Pakistan.
Pakistani government is begging from all those it can for economic help. President Zardari went from nowhere to everywhere. The US had to recommend IMF to grant a loan of billions of dollars with no strings attached. Because world can’t afford to have a failed Pakistan state . The inflation rate in Pakistan is running as high as 25 per cent. The holiest institution of Pakistan, It’s army has recently stalled many up gradation programs due to lack of funds. Pakistan army was building a brand new Headquarter building for itself in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Work on the site has stopped, as they have no funds. Think of an army lacking such paltry sums saying it will give a befitting reply to its enemies.
On another front along the Durand Line, Pakistan army is facing another problem. Large scale desertions. Its cadre fighting Taliban are surrendering to Taliban. They are very demoralized. Since last two years, Pakistan army and government have had to negotiate with Taliban/Al Qaida fighters many a times to keep it’s cadre’s sagging morale up.
I had my own logics, which I have put before you. Draw your own conclusion and send me comments on this article.
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