The world this week

I am amazed at how international politics works. So, what has been happening in the Middle-East this week ? On Wednesday, the Hizbullah guerillas raided the Israel border, took a couple of Israeli soldiers hostage and in the attack, killed eight others. Israel then proceeded to unleash hell upon Lebanon, with the Hizbullah holding their own in this battle. While the efforts to retrieve their soldiers is highly commendable, though the means questionable, what really caught my attention was the comments of our beloved Mr. Bush and the American government's stand on the issue.

The Seattle Times has quoted Tony Snow, White House Press Secretary, as stating that, Bush, "believes that the Israelis have the right to protect themselves, and that in doing so they should limit as much as possible so-called collateral damage, not only to facilities but also to human lives". Chirac and Putin on the other hand are pretty disturbed with the turn of events and are demanding the violence stop.

But Israel is not just content with removing Lebanon from future world maps. They have gone on to give Syria an ultimatum of 72 hours to get the Hizbullah to stop activities on Israeli borders or face dire consequences.

Now we all know what Israel will do, if Syria acts defiant. Bomb the hell out of them as well !

And what does the US have to say about this? Simply this - "The US cannot rule out the possibility of an Israeli strike in Syria". oooh... wouldn't the US just love it, if Israel would take care of that little problem for them. Remove the thorns, and the middle east is almost taken care of!

Now, what anguishes me is that despite the fact that the Lebanese Prime Minister has appealled for a cease-fire, and despite the fact that Lebanon was not responsible for the capture of the Israeli soldiers, the Security Council took no action on Lebanon's request. Wow... what a surprise!

Now, let us take this little incident and try and draw some up some scenarios for our very own subcontinent and if anyone can shed light on the following, kindly do so.

Forget about kidnapping, but when 15 BSF soldiers bodies were handed back to the Indian Government by the BDR Commanders, they were found to be mutilated beyond recognition. And what do we do ? We simply lodge a protest! There is no doubt that the LeT and other terrorist outfits operate out of Pakistan and we are convinced that the ISI is also involved. So, if we too, inspired by Israel started bombing the shit out of Bangladesh or terrorist camps in NWFP, how do you think the world would react to us ?

Would Bush, be smiling, while asking us to keep civillian casualty to a minimum? If Pakistan went running to the UN, would they shrug their shoulders and look away?

Perhaps, the fact that India and Pakistan are nuclear would definitely catch the entire world's attention. But, even if trigger happy Pakistan, with their attack first policy, did decide to launch a nuke, it would mean disaster for India and eventual annihilation for pakistan, and consequently further loss for India. So, somehow I don't think a nuclear war is something either party will seriously consider.

But why can't India have a show of force? Why can't we remind these terrorist outfits that they are dealing with a country that will not cower down to mindless and barbaric acts? Why can't we prove a point to the world and to ourselves, that we will not sit back and bear the torture that terrorism has unlesashed upon us for so many decades? Why can't we really prioritize clamping down on these organizations, local and across the borders and simply obliterate them?