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Cooling the Rhetoric of War
Decades-old hostilities bring India, Pakistan close to the brink

Friday, January 11, 2002
(1:00 AM ET)
By Kathleen Kenna
The Toronto Star / South Asia Bureau

“If the U.S. has the right to bomb terrorist camps in Afghanistan, then why doesn’t India have the right to bomb terrorist camps in Pakistan? The moral imperatives are exactly the same.”
Hindustan Times news editor Vir Sanghvi writing in Times magazine

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Source
The military standoff between Pakistan and India was seeded by an awfully familiar pattern of terrorism.

Suicide bombers bypassed national security checks to attack a world-renowned symbol of democracy, the red sandstone Parliament in New Delhi.

Innocents died. So did all the terrorists.

The killers are alleged to have belonged to extremist groups intent on destroying democratic institutions and imposing their political will and religious ideals on civilians in another country.

The world's largest democracy vowed retaliation against those who finance and shelter suspected terrorists. It threatened massive military action against training camps.
(More: The Toronto Star News Source)
2002 © Toronto Star Newspapers Limited.

Regarding Vir Sanghvi’s “moral imperatives,” India’s worldwide free market center was not attacked out of the blue killing hundreds of visiting international representatives on their home soil, nor do they have the backing of this same free world to seek retribution for the largest terrorist attack in all history, nor are hostilities even required at this point.

Pakistan has taken great strides in the past few months, understanding now the true power of the West, and will likely disband its larger camps on its own. This is a bit of a reach, but is well within the realm of possibility. Open discussion with an unbiased moderator would grant the sovereign nation of Pakistan the chance to clean up its own act. This is an show of minimum force, all that is really required to achieve the desired solution. Pakistan at least appears to be interested in peace in the Middle East.

If this is incorrect, harsher measures would need to be employed, including sanctions, and possibly military activity within the borders of Pakistan.

Certain Indians, I’ve noticed, seem to still be carrying a grudge for Pakistan’s secession from the nation over 50 years ago, and the arguing that has continued between the two countries ever since, ranging from shouting matches at the U.N., to open firefights across their borders.

Dan