Ajmal Amir Qasab, the solitary terrorist captured in the Mumbai terrorist attack has revealed the locations of where he was trained to carry out the attack (Source: NDTV website). It is not a stretch of imagination to assume that a lot of others are being trained there too. So why aren't we demanding Pakistan raid those places? Personally I think Pakistan is an out and out terrorist state and will not agree to such an operation under any circumstances. The fact that this is due to an ineffectual government doesn't change a thing. Pakistan claimed that the terrorists were stateless. This should give it complete moral authority to raid these terrorist training camps as it would not constitute as an attack on its own citizens. But it will not and this is because the terrorists are Pakistanis and the Pakistan government knows this. It would much rather play a game of cat and mouse with the Indian government while Indians die rather than take any affirmative step that attempts to eradicate the sources of these problems.
What options does this leave us with?
Negotiating and trying to acheive results diplomatically has never worked with Islamic terrorism. When people are brainwashed from a young age they do not see any reason in anything other than what they have been told is right. As far as I know, wars that have been fuelled by religious ferver have never been quelled diplomatically. India-Pakistan diplomacy has never been effective in quelling terrorism and once again we are resorting to this to solve our problems.
What about an out and out military action like invading Pakistan? I don't think this will do any good either due to many obvious factors. As a friend of mine (Duh) rightly pointed out, the disparity in military might between India and Pakistan is not enough for us to achieve a speedy result. Furthermore, the fact that both countries have nuclear weapons will make the rest of the world shit in its collective pants and we can expect a lot of effective pressure to prevent a war (sanctions etc?). Furthermore, this will make it extremely easy for the extremists to recruit more terrorists.
I think selective bombing of the terrorist camps is a middle ground that we absolutely have to resort to. There is a reason we are seen as a soft target. It is because we never resort to military action proactively. This is definitely good upto a certain extent. We have been turning the other cheek long enough now. I think it is time to show the world and Pakistan that we have the resolve to kill if need be. I agree that there will be civilian casualities which will once again make it easier for extremists to recruit terrorists. However, this is the collateral damage that we have to accept in order to send a message. One is a fool to think there can be military action without civilian casualities, especially if these terrorists turn out to be like the Palestian extremists who hide in civilian populated areas knowing that when Israel bombs them there will be an international humanitarian outcry against it. Our plane is hijacked and we do nothing, our parliament is attacked and we do nothing, our institue of higher learning is attacked and we do nothing, our economic centre is attacked and we do nothing. What lines do these people have to cross after which we think pre-emptive strikes are warranted? To those who think this is still too extreme, I want them to tell me the number of innocent Indians that have to die after which such an action is okay.
Everyone is blaming the Indian politicians. I agree that they are very much responsible for being an incompetent bunch letting the country go to the dogs just to satisfy their selfish needs. But shouldn't this anger come after the anger towards Pakistan? Shouldn't we be trying to come up with ways to get to the root of the problem? Do people really think setting up a new terrorism task force or getting some politicans to resign will change things at a fundamental level? Imagine you are walking on a street and some guy shoves you down so hard that your arm breaks. What we are doing is ignoring this lunatic completely and going back to our negligent mother and blaming her for not feeding us enough calcium as a child.
I think I know why we do this.
We are scared to offend our muslim brethren.
People say that "terrorism knows no religion". What is this supposed to mean? That we should ignore the religious aspect of the attacks? Sorry but if 15 guys come from a muslim majority country into a Hindu majority country that has had strained relations with it rooted in partition (that was once again on religious lines) and specifically target a jewish settlement amongst others, while letting a Turkish couple go free because they are muslim, it has every fucking thing to do with religion.
If I was a muslim I would be insulted by those who say that this has nothing to do with religion. It has everything to do with religion, especially the wrong and maligned way Islam is used to brain wash the extremists. I would want to know that people understand this. By not talking about this at all, it makes me suspect that you secretly think I am somehow responsible for the actions of these terrorists. I would be offended because you assume that I put my religion before my country and so you dont want to offend me by bringing up religion. Sure India has its own communal problems, but is this really the time to be politically correct? In fact, is there any good time to be politically correct? I am confident that when the Imams of India refused to bury the terrorists, there was atleast one person whose wrong convictions about how all muslims in India are against India were atleast shaken a bit. I feel like this is the most effective path. We need to walk down this path to get to the root of this problem.
Now comes the question of personal responsibilty. Would I be willing to put my money where my mouth is? Which is to say, if India does end up bombing strategic parts of Pakistan and these events lead to a war, would I be willing to give up my cozy life in the US and go back to India to enlist and fight for my country? I honestly dont know. Anyone reading this can blame me for being a hypocrite and I accept the label. What I will stick by though is that this action is what I think is best for my country in the long run. Me being a hypocrite doesn't change the validity of my argument. To those who are ready to dismiss this option just based on my hypocrisy, I ask them what would their response be if a high ranking general of our army had put forward this?
We are being attacked and innocents are dying so often that it literally has become just another day in our lives. I really hope atleast this changes things and we will adopt a more effective approach to solve this problem rather than resort to impotent diplomacy!
