Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness

Mocking Taliban

That Taliban needs to be defeated is not in dispute among the civilized folks. But beside the prologed war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, what other tactics could be effectively employed against a brutal, fanatical regime?  The Indian magazine Pragati suggests an intriguing answer: Mock them!

Idiot's Guide to Pakistan's Security Forces

by AW

In Foreign Policy, Nicholas Schmidle writes a tongue-in-cheek Idiot's Guide to Pakistan that is more specifically a guide to the numerous army factions, border security forces, security agencies and paramilitary groups operating in Pakistan. Though punctured by humor, this article gives a clear sense of a country on the verge of collapse.  Securing the tribal areas was a problem even the colonial British could not address.

If you see a newspaper dateline from a town inside FATA, chances are that the Pakistani Army organized a field trip for reporters. Those traveling unaccompanied into, say, South Waziristan have either a death wish or a really good rapport with the Taliban, who effectively run North and South Waziristan and large portions of the other agencies and frontier regions. The recalcitrance of the tribesmen is hardly something new. In the words of Lord Curzon, the former viceroy of India: “No patchwork scheme -- and all our present recent schemes, blockade, allowances, etc., are mere patchwork -- will settle the Waziristan problem. Not until the military steamroller has passed over the country from end to end, will there be peace. But I do not want to be the person to start that machine.”

"The Call of Conscience"

by Anurag Wadehra

For your spiritual reflection, you can do no better than read the posthumous editorial of Lasantha Wickramatunga, the editor of the newspaper Sunday Leader in Sri Lanka. He was killed two weeks ago for his fierce criticism of the Sri Lankan government's handling of its war on terror against LTTE (the separatist terror group also called the Tamil Tigers).

The Power of Parody

by Anurag Wadehra

Stop This Viscious Slaughter is an excellent satire by Martin Lewis on Huffington Post comparing the current Hamas-Israeli conflict to that between England and Germany in the Second World War. Unlike political op-eds where each side lays out its arguments in critical, logical terms, with ad nauseum debates on definitions and premises, the parody relies on the rhetorical power of similarity and association between the two situations.

More on guns...in India

by Reena Kapoor

Another interesting take on gun control in India.  I post it because this debate is relatively new to India and its people and it's interesting to see it being discussed now.  Gun laws for ordinary citizens are not being loosened in India anytime soon and as I pointed out below such a loosening would be fraught with problems; but that is no excuse to not revisit these unduly draconian laws for the cause of improved security through civilian resources e.g., registered security guards for hotels, malls, cinemas, etc.

Guns vs. Terror

by Reena Kapoor

Shikha Dalmia of Reason presents an interesting case in WSJ with her article Arming India against Terrorism where she talks about how and why Mumbai a city of 18 million was held hostage for nearly 60 hours by 10 gunmen in the recent attacks. She says that part of the reason terrorists ran free in Mumbai was that no one else was armed properly - not the police, not the private security of the establishments under attack and certainly not the citizenry - thanks to draconian anti-gun laws.  Putting aside for a moment the libertarian stance for gun ownership by all citizens, even anti-gun ideologues should be able to see that victims in this attack would have fared much better if at least private establishments (in this case hotels) had properly armed security guards.

India & Secularism

by Reena Kapoor

An excellent analysis India's Dangerous Divide by Ramachandra Guha in WSJ today outlining the history and current challenges faced by India as a secular nation espcially vis-a-vis its Muslim minorty; such a minority which is 150 millions strong presents unique challenges (because of the bloody history of partition of India into India and Pakistan in 1947 on the sole basis of religion, and the continued exploitation of communal loyalties by India's ugly politicians) and yet is an unprecedented opportunity for India to set an example for the world! Muslim and Hindu populations in India have been manipulated by the two major political parties (known as Congress and BJP) for votes; Congress has largely done this by appeasing the most radical elements among the Muslim minority and the latter by fanning fanatical elements among Hindus.  Both wrong and both bad for India -- and for the cause of peace everywhere. What will India choose?

Pakistan: Delusional, yet some hope?

by Reena Kapoor

A number of media clips from Pakistan TV are making the Internet rounds that show how Pakistan's media is treating the Mumbai attacks as a creation of the Indian government! Reminds me of the conspiracy theories that abounded in the Arab world post-9/11.  I've pasted a few links here; note the liberal use of Urdu may prevent them from being fully intelligible to all of you (although even with a decent knowledge of Urdu the rants are not entirely intelligible to me!)

Slain Terrorists Denied Stairway to Heaven

by Anurag Wadehra

How we respond, as individuals, to a crisis reveals our character. How we react, as a community, to a crisis reveals our ethos: what a group will stand for and fight against. In this light, here is a profound and symbolic gesture by the Mumbai Muslim community, as reported by NDTV (Indian media).

Musilm organizations in Mumbai deny burial for slain terrorists....

Terror & Silence

by Anurag Wadehra

The article on the heroism of Taj employees (also linked in Reena's previous post) recounts numerous incidents indelible in their poignancy.