Peace or War???
The objective of war is not to die for your country, but to kill the other bastard (from across the border) for his……
This is India’s 9/11 : John Mc Cain.
Rightly said Mr. Mc Cain, this is indeed India’s 9/11 and maybe war seems to be an option now. Who can forget America’s war against terrorism and the way they assaulted Taliban and Iraq. Almost five years later India seems to be in a similar state of affairs.
If the destruction of world trade centre transpired one of the biggest battles of the century than what should be the answer to almost 64 blasts in a year?
Every Indian and every Pakistani by now knows that we two countries can’t stand each other. In fact there are very few neighbouring countries in the world who can claim to be peace-loving and supportive at the same time. Sorry Shakespeare Sir, we modern fools completely disagree with your famous statement: love thy neighbour, like thou love yourself.
And to prove this fact we have a written record and a gory record of three wars with our neighbouring country. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that once upon a time we were part of one country. Following is a brief history of the wars fought against Pakistan.
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965: It was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between India and Pakistan. This conflict became known as the ‘Second Kashmir War’ fought by India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir, the first having been fought in 1947. The war began following the failure of Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was designed to infiltrate forces into Jammu and Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency against rule by India. The ‘five-week’ war caused thousands of casualties on both sides. It ended in a United Nations (UN) mandated ceasefire and the subsequent issuance of the Tashkent Declaration.
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The 1971 war was a major military conflict between India and Pakistan. The war is closely associated with the Bangladesh Liberation War (sometimes also referred to as the Pakistani Civil War). Although there is some disagreement about the exact dates of the war, hostilities between India and Pakistan commenced officially on the evening of December 3, 1971. The armed conflict on India's western front during the period between 3 December 1971 and 16 December 1971 is called the "Indo-Pakistani War" by both the Bangladeshi and Indian armies. The war ended in the surrender of the Pakistani military after armed hostilities on two fronts.
The Kargil War: The Kargil War also known as the Kargil conflict, was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir. The cause of the war was the infiltration of Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants into positions on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LOC), which serves as the de facto border between the two states. During and directly after the war, Pakistan blamed the fighting entirely on independent Kashmiri insurgents, but documents left behind by casualties and later statements by Pakistan's Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff showed involvement of Pakistani paramilitary forces, led by General Ashraf Rashid.
The Indian army launched its final attacks in the last week of July; as soon as the Drass sub-sector had been cleared of Pakistani forces, the fighting ceased on July 26. The day has since been marked as Kargil Vijay Diwas (Kargil Victory Day) in India. (Is it a mere co-incidence that the date when we achieved victory is the same as the day of the attacks?)
Current situation:
We all know what the current situation is. It’s clear where the terrorists are from. It also somewhat seems obvious that there is a Pak hand behind the attacks. So what do you’ll think? Is war the only option left?
Let me give a brief idea about the military prowess of the two nations:
India has around: 1,325,000 active troops
Pakistan has around: 620,000 active troops
India's territory: 1,269,345 sq miles
Pakistan's territory: 310,403 sq miles
Yes it’s true that India has the upper hand, but a war between the two nations will surely manage to involve the other superpowers like USA and China. And a war will definitely take India 10 years back.
And as our Prime Minister and Defense Minister have rightly stated no one wants war. As Erasmus has rightly stated “war is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.” What do we civilians know the meaning of war? The right step at this time is to wage a war against the terrorist’s camps rather than the country because even we don’t have concrete evidence right now to establish a Pak Government connection in the terror attacks.
But if when and where we find a Pakistan connection then my friends “WAR IS THE ONLY OPTION LEFT. And war won’t determine who is right or wrong but only who is left…..”
- Archer Akshay
