Playing games

[RAENORTH]

After three weeks of media exclusion, the Pakistani Army lifted a corner of the veil on Thursday, flying in a group of journalists to a barren hilltop in deepest South Waziristan, to explain how swimmingly well the campaign was going. It was duly rewarded with favourable headlines, such as is in The Guardian, which carried title, "Pakistan hails progress in Waziristan", slightly marred by the addition: "But will it stop the suicide bombers?"

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[Bleepless]

Had the newsies been treated this way by the Pentagon or MoD, there would be stiff words -- stiff, I say! -- in editorial pages. This would have led to unpleasant results for those responsible.

[Watchet]

British foreign secretary David Miliband ... in January of this year on a visit to India ... made the ... observation that: "Resolution of the dispute over Kashmir would help deny extremists in the region one of their main calls to arms and allow Pakistani authorities to focus more effectively on tackling the threat on their western borders."

Such was the hostile reaction of self-interested Indian politicians to this home truth though, that Miliband's intervention was widely branded as a "gaffe".

In Indian eyes it certainly was a gaffe, because to HIndu Indians Pakistan should still belong to India, though somewhat illogically these strong territorial feelings do not seem to require Bangladesh & Myanmar to still be part of India. So anything that reduces - ideally eliminates - Pakistan's ability to stand firmly as an independent nation is to be supported/encouraged. What is the cause of this blindspot? Religion. This time Hinduism - on of whose major features is the worship of "Indianness", India's geography, & the great natural diversity of nature etc to be found in India (sacred cows, unchastisable ownerless dogs, & monkeys etc).

If a nuclear standoff has failed to bring any sense to this situation, then little problems for Pakistan with the Taleban etc are all power to the Indian cause. In many ways, it's rather a pessimistic situation, but that's what separates tribes & peoples from each other - sounds rather like Europe, doesn't it?

Watchet

[RAENORTH]

British foreign secretary David Miliband ... in January of this year on a visit to India ... made the ... observation that: "Resolution of the dispute over Kashmir would help deny extremists in the region one of their main calls to arms and allow Pakistani authorities to focus more effectively on tackling the threat on their western borders."

Such was the hostile reaction of self-interested Indian politicians to this home truth though, that Miliband's intervention was widely branded as a "gaffe".

In Indian eyes it certainly was a gaffe, because to HIndu Indians Pakistan should still belong to India, though somewhat illogically these strong territorial feelings do not seem to require Bangladesh & Myanmar to still be part of India. So anything that reduces - ideally eliminates - Pakistan's ability to stand firmly as an independent nation is to be supported/encouraged. What is the cause of this blindspot? Religion. This time Hinduism - on of whose major features is the worship of "Indianness", India's geography, & the great natural diversity of nature etc to be found in India (sacred cows, unchastisable ownerless dogs, & monkeys etc).

If a nuclear standoff has failed to bring any sense to this situation, then little problems for Pakistan with the Taleban etc are all power to the Indian cause. In many ways, it's rather a pessimistic situation, but that's what separates tribes & peoples from each other - sounds rather like Europe, doesn't it?

Watchet

And it is unsurprising that Pakistan is "paranoid"? They have a giant, powerful neighbour that wants to see their country destroyed.

[In2minds]

Hilary Clinton said - "I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to."

At the time the IRA had arms dumps on both sides of the Irish border neither the British or Irish armed forces seemed to be able to locate them. At the time the Irish were on 'peace keeping' duties in Lebanon.

Richard North said - “If, instead, the West chooses to play games, we should not be surprised if Pakistan does the same”.

I think we play games all the time now.

[cause4concern]

Certain agendas require an enemy... but in the case of Pakistan, they walk on the edge of a knife. Try too hard they have a serious civil war on their hands; be seen to try too little and they face many foes.