PRITHVI DATTA CHANDRA SHOBHI writes: A few days have passed since the Bombay and Srinagar blasts. We all have weighed in on how India should respond to the spectre of terrorist violence, with Israel’s strongarm tactics being the preferred option for most.
For nearly a week now, Israel is trying to blast Hizbullah from the face of the earth. Gideon Levy who covered Middle
East for nearly forty years for The Guardian writes a sobering piece on the folly of trying to be the neighborhood bully. Can nation states behave in such a fashion?
Even if strongarm tactics are justified, who does one strike against? In seeking to eliminate Hizbullah terrorists, Israel has to attack Lebanese territories, and even while bombing carefully chosen targets, risk causing large collateral damage to civilians. So airports are destroyed and Lebanese people are killed.
My point is not to blame Israel. It’s a terrible situation to be in, but as Amal Saad-Ghorayeb writes from Beirut in The
Guardian both sides have been playing a terrible and dangerous game, something that doesn’t offer any hopes of a resolution any time soon.
In the meanwhile, can we afford to be neighborhood bullies?
India miserably failed to dismantle and dismember Pakistan in the three wars it fought, in which it had an upper hand. Compare this to the what the Israelis did after the three wars with the Arab states.
Look at how smart the chinese are, they built a marvel train line, knowing fully well that the majority Han chinese will swamp Tibet. In a few decades Tibet will lose it’s culture and her ethnicity. They will do the same in the moslem (uighurs) areas of North western china. This is a more subtler form of warfare. The chinese mind is one to be respected and feared.
The point I’am driving at is that Indians, all through their History have shown a profound inability to understand and master organized violence. They have and still are paying a huge prize for it. The question is not whether India should bomb her neighbors? The proper one would be, Does the Indian pysche have the ability to inflict irreparable harm on people inimical to it’s existense. From what little I know, that is not even a possibility. Only Indians can come up with inane concepts such as panchsheel and satyagraha!!
By the way KP, Do you still have to moderate my comments? So, Okay, I said a few uncharitable things, but My record on the whole is pretty good. SO how about it?
If forced to use a parachute, would you, a non-Muslim and non-Jew, rather float into Israel or into Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon?
If you have to support a side, that is the side you should support.
We Indians love to sit on the fence and watch the fun. Doesn’t work here, my friend. The Hezbollah are part of a radical theology that is out to get us too.
I’d like the Indian government to consider sending troops to help the Israelis. That way, we might pre-empt the Hezbollah radicals from eventually reaching J&K or Delhi or Maharashtra.
Isreal is doing terrific job. I like the way they handle the situation in middleeast. India must take the help of Isreal to tackle POK.
Wow PDCS, you are on a roll…broadband, huh ? ;)
We will never, well let me capitalize it, NEVER do what Israel is doing. There are several reasons. We LOVE our “peace loving Gandhian” image. Remember the story where someone slapped MK Gandhi and Mr. Gandhi showed his other chin, so that the guy can slap him on the other side as well. It’s just a coincidence that we have another Gandhi at the helm of affairs today. irrespective, we will never ever do what Israel did.
Forget Congress, if at all, we could ahve expected BJP to do “something”. Look what Vajpayee did during the Kargil war. “No no no let’s not cross LoC, I want to show the World that we are good people”. If BJP did that, can you ever expect Gandhi sin family to do anything about this ? Puhleeeeze.
And, above all, do you think Big B will be quiet ? Rememebr the “Nukes for Mangoes” deal ??? Big B will obviously pull the strings to make sure Indian Government does not do anything “foolsih”. Israel trying to denigrate Hezbollah is very importnat for Big B, essentially it’s a proxy war and that’s a public secret. But, is India trying to get rid of LeT any importnat to the big guy ? No sir, no. That just complicates the matter completely. Get this, Big B still needs our step brother and thus we will never be allowed to do anything outside our borders, period.
“RealMenDontFear” – LOL, I like the nick…I bet you wear Jockey’s ;) Come on dude, however much we like your option, it’s just not practical. India takes Israel’s help and the entire world looks at us with awe, huh ? Foirst of all Israel has no time or enthusiasm to help India. It’s problem pot is full, that needs to get emptied first.
Whether or not we wish to be neighbourhood bullies to save our own skin, the fierce anti feeling we have towards Pakistanis, irrespective of whether they re the actual perpetrators in all cases exixts.
But this reminds me of a casual comment that a friend had once made. Want to know how to wipe out Pakistan, he had asked me nonchalantly. And before the guessing game could begin, he said. ‘Simple. Just send in our fleet of BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) buses and they will run over the entire population!!!!!!!! However, no offence is intended by the blogger!!!!