Oops, I didn't see the previous posts in the thread addressed to me
Redleg said:
But it would have been nice if you only post links to the images next time, so visitors using dial-up can have a chance to open and view the thread as well..
(I've changed them for you now)
Cool, thanks Redleg
I'll post links to pictures from here on out
Lupos said:
Nice job Raj,
Maybe you and Xion can answer my question for me. If the US asked India, would they help out with Iraq and the rest of the War on Terror?
Thanks
Sorry in advance to my long answer to your question, but I think the Indian position needs to be put clearly out in the open.
Well, your question really assumes that India isn't contributing to the wider war on terror already. Since 1980, over 60,000 Indian civilians in Kashmir state alone were killed by Pakistan-based (and -backed) terrorist groups affiliated with al-Queda.
Not to go into that topic, but as Xion suggested, the general sentiment, not at all unfounded, is that the US is unsympathetic to Indian security and terrorism concerns. For example, even after 9/11, America still wouldn't even declare known Pakistani-backed and al-Qaeda terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, etc. until those same groups 'magically' manifested themselves in Afghanistan and started attacking coalition forces there.
Despite having Musharraf in a vice grip to the balls, Pakistan still has not clamped down whatsoever on the anti-Indian (and anti-Afghan) terrorist infrastructure, camps, and groups which still operate freely and openly in Pakistan (and their statements, operations and goings-on are still widely reported and lauded by even the
government-controlled Pakistani press.)
Though terrorism in Kashmir is down (hence the withdrawal of some COIN units), its not because of any Pakistani 'effort', but instead is because of the huge leaps in the capabilities of the Indian military and state police forces in the last year and a half, in terms of both perimeter surveillance and tactical reconnaissance (from the fencing of the entire Line of Control, to the deployment of advanced sensors and UAVs), to the sizable modernization and equipment of the troops themselves.
The terrorists are still operating at wanton in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and they are still attempting to cross the border -- and in fact in
greater numbers than before 9/11 -- however, the only difference is they are now being exterminated by the Indian Jawan at the border itself instead of after they have grenaded a school bus in downtown Srinagar.
What Pakistan is doing, in the name of the ‘War on Terror’ is simply attacking a domestic control problem, i.e. attempting to extend their writ into the Tribal areas which has only nominally been controlled by the Pakistani government. In the name of the ‘War on Terror’, they are persecuting an operation that was inevitable and long due. Bombing random tribal guerillas in Wana and once in a while giving up a long-detached al-Qaeda middleman is doing
jack squat to combat the source of terrorism.
Both India and Afghanistan are yelling hoarse that Pakistan continues to promote terrorism in their respective border regions, and all the bombed out mud huts in Waziristan account for diddly squat when the likes of the Sipah-e-Sahaba deobandis recruit openly for Kashmiri jehad on Pakistan military bases!
America can and does have the ability to force Pakistan to really halt all linkages to significant terror groups but it does not. What is worse is that America is using every leverage against India it has to prevent India from rightfully steamrolling over these wackjobs. America is narrowly focused on its own direct interests and not the wider, the global, war on terror.
That itself is bad enough, but when America publicly, even if its not materially, entertains the idea of rewarding Pakistan with conventional strategic weapons that will only be used against India (F-16s, TOW missiles, etc.) for its bullshit 'War on Terror', well, then, what is India to take of this? Is this really the act of a friend who has a friend’s interest at heart?
India is fully committed to its own war on al-Qaeda, which involves far more troops and far more lives at stake than in Iraq and Israel combined. IIRC India politely declined an American request to Iraq (America wanted India to commit an entire armored division to Iraq), citing 'operational constraints' due to India’s own ongoing war.
Friendship is a two way street, and America cannot expect India to materially, massively commit itself to what is essentially an American manufactured (however rightfully) conflict when America will continue to hold in contempt India’s terrorism concerns and by that the lives of Indian citizens.
What needs to be done is that India and America must coordinate their policy so that they are in harmony. However, for propping up Pakistan, and for ridiculing the now proven fact yelled by India for over 30 years, that Pakistan is the epicenter of global Islamist jihad, it is America that owes India to make the first move.
India and America are ideological, social, economic and culturally the best combination of allies of any trans-cultural American relationship with of
any nation in the world...
but for America's own myopic geostrategic policy.
Is it really fair that India commit needed manpower to fight American-specific terrorists if America will not do the same for India?
Of course not.
Now added to the above, is it more fair that America expects India to do so, even as America is granting largess of offensive weaponry to the scum India is fighting?
Hell no.
Let me ask the Americans:
How would you feel if India gifted INSAS rifles, Akash SAMs, and Arjun MBTs to the "indigenous" Sunni Wahabi al-Zarqawi "militants" of Fallujah, during the ongoing Operation Iraqi Freedom? Why, because al-Zarqawi's group heroically attacked Shi'ite "terrorists", killing 50 in Karbala, thus decreasing the terrorist count by 50 in the world. And are thus now India's frontline ally in the Global War on Terror, felicied daily by PM Manmohan Singh and the entire Indian press?
Of course, those Akash SAMS and Arjun MBTs are going to only be used, Zarqawi states empatically, for the Global War on Terror, and not at all, ever whatsoever, never one bit on the American and British troops. You have his word that Zarqawi's going to use it shoot down that massive Karbala Shi'ite airforce and armored columns. Right?
What would you say if the above happens....
and then.... India asked America to commit the 3rd Infantry Division to COIN operations under Indian command in Baramula district.
And then India pouts and questions America's sincerity to the Grand Great Global War on Terror and threatens economic curbs when America says no dice.
You tell me.
How would
you feel about that request.
All the best,
Raj
