On Tenth Anniversary of 9/11

Friends, on the tenth anniversary of "9/11" -- the  famous term used for the day of the attack on World Trade Centre and other three sites in the United States that was carried out on 9th September 2001-- i want to share with you all an article that has been published in STRATFOR, a geopolitical weekly. The article is an explanation that why America has been successful in preventing another 9/11 and which carries a great lesson for us. Please read on:-

9/11 and the Successful War

By George Friedman


It has been 10 years since 9/11, and all of us who write about such things for a living are writing about it. That causes me to be wary. I prefer being the lonely voice, but the fact is that 9/11 was a defining moment in American history. On Sept. 12, 2001, few would have anticipated the course the resulting war would take — but then, few knew what to think. The nation was in shock. In retrospect, many speak with great wisdom about what should have been thought about 9/11 at the time and what should have been done in its aftermath. I am always interested in looking at what people actually said and did at the time.


The country was in shock, and shock was a reasonable response. The country was afraid, and fear was a reasonable response. Ten years later, we are all much wiser and sure that our wisdom was there from the beginning. But the truth is that, in retrospect, we know we would have done things superbly had we the authority. Few of us are being honest with ourselves. We were all shocked and frightened. Our wisdom came much later, when it had little impact. Yes, if we knew then what we know now we would have all bought Google stock. But we didn’t know things then that we know now, so it is all rather pointless to lecture those who had decisions to make in the midst of chaos.


Some wars are carefully planned, but even those wars rarely take place as expected. Think of the Germans in World War I, having planned the invasion of France for decades and with meticulous care. Nothing went as planned for either side, and the war did not take a course that was anticipated by anyone. Wars occur at unpredictable times, take unpredictable courses and have unexpected consequences. Who expected the American Civil War to take the course it did? We have been second-guessing Lincoln and Davis, Grant and Lee and all the rest for more than a century.


This particular war — the one that began on 9/11 and swept into Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries — is hard to second-guess because there are those who do not think it is a war. Some people, including President George W. Bush, seem to regard it as a criminal conspiracy. When Bush started talking about bringing al Qaeda to justice, he was talking about bringing them before the bar of justice. Imagine trying to arrest British sailors for burning Washington. War is not about bringing people to justice. It is about destroying their ability to wage war. The contemporary confusion between warfare and criminality creates profound confusion about the rules under which you operate. There are the rules of war as set forth in the Geneva Conventions, and there are criminal actions. The former are designed to facilitate the defense of national interests and involve killing people because of the uniform they wear. The latter is about punishing people for prior action. I have never sorted through what it was that the Bush administration thought it was doing.


This entire matter is made more complex by the fact that al Qaeda doesn’t wear a uniform. Under the Geneva Conventions, there is no protection for those who do not openly carry weapons or wear uniforms or at least armbands. They are regarded as violating the rules of war. If they are not protected by the rules of war then they must fall under criminal law by default. But criminal law is not really focused on preventing acts so much as it is on punishing them. And as satisfying as it is to capture someone who did something, the real point of the U.S. response to 9/11 was to prevent anyone else from doing something — killing and capturing people who have not done anything yet but who might.


Coming to Grips


The problem is that international law has simply failed to address the question of how a nation-state deals with forces that wage war through terrorism but are not part of any nation-state. Neither criminal law nor the laws of war apply. One of the real travesties of 9/11 was the manner in which the international legal community — the United Nations and its legal structures, the professors of international law who discuss such matters and the American legal community — could not come to grips with the tensions underlying the resulting war. There was an unpleasant and fairly smug view that the United States had violated both the rules of war and domestic legal processes, but very little attempt was made to craft a rule of warfare designed to cope with a group like al Qaeda — organized, covert, effective — that attacked a nation-state.


As U.S. President Barack Obama has discovered, the failure of the international legal community to rapidly evolve new rules of war placed him at odds with his erstwhile supporters. The ease with which the international legal community found U.S. decision makers’ attempts to craft a lawful and effective path “illegal and immoral” (an oft-repeated cliche of critics of post-9/11 policy) created an insoluble dilemma for the United States. The mission of the U.S. government was to prevent further attacks on the homeland. The Geneva Conventions, for the most part, didn’t apply. Criminal law is not about prevention. The inability of the law to deal with reality generated an image of American lawlessness.


Of course, one of the most extraordinary facts of the war that began on 9/11 was that there have been no more successful major attacks on the United States. Had I been asked on Sept. 11, 2001, about the likelihood of that (in fact, I was asked), my answer would have been that it was part of a series of attacks, and not just the first. This assumption came from a knowledge of al Qaeda’s stated strategic intent, the fact that the 9/11 team had operated with highly effective covert techniques based on technical simplicity and organizational effectiveness, and that its command structure seemed to operate with effective command and control. Put simply, the 9/11 team was good and was prepared to go to its certain death to complete the mission. Anyone not frightened by this was out of touch with reality.


Yet there have been no further attacks. This is not, I think, because they did not intend to carry out such attacks. It is because the United States forced the al Qaeda leadership to flee Afghanistan during the early days of the U.S. war, disrupting command and control. It is also because U.S. covert operations on a global scale attacked and disrupted al Qaeda’s strength on the ground and penetrated its communications. A significant number of attacks on the United States were planned and prosecuted. They were all disrupted before they could be launched, save for the attempted and failed bombing in Times Square, the famed shoe bomber and, my favorite, the crotch bomber. Al Qaeda has not been capable of mounting effective attacks against the United States (though it has conducted successful attacks in Spain and Britain) because the United States surged its substantial covert capabilities against it.


Obviously, as in all wars, what is now called “collateral damage” occurred (in a more civilized time it would have been called “innocent civilians killed, wounded and detained”). How could it have been otherwise? Just as aircraft dropping bombs don’t easily discriminate against targets and artillery sometimes kills innocent people, covert operations can harm the unintended. That is the nature and horror of war. The choice for the United States was to accept the danger of another al Qaeda attack — an event that I am certain was intended and would have happened without a forceful U.S. response — or accept innocent casualties elsewhere. The foundation of a polity is that it protects its own at the cost of others. This doctrine might be troubling, but few of us in World War II felt that protecting Americans by bombing German and Japanese cities was a bad idea. If this troubles us, the history of warfare should trouble us. And if the history of warfare troubles us, we should bear in mind that we are all its heirs and beneficiaries, particularly in the United States.


The first mission of the war that followed 9/11 was to prevent any further attacks. That mission was accomplished. That is a fact often forgotten.


Of course, there are those who believe that 9/11 was a conspiracy carried out by the CIA in order to justify interference in our liberty. But an organization as capable as they believe the CIA is would not need a justification to abridge liberty. That was a lot of work to justify something, and the truly powerful don’t need to justify anything. Nor do they need to leave people who are revealing the truth alive. It is striking that the “doubters” believe 9/11 was created in order to crush American freedoms but that the conspirators are so incompetent they cannot shut down those who have discovered the conspiracy and are telling the world about it. Personally, if I were interested in global domination triggered by a covert act like 9/11, I would silence those revealing my secret. But then I’m not that good at it, and the doubters all have reasons why they are blogging the truth and are not dead or languishing in a concentration camp.


I take this detour for four reasons. First, doubters should not be ignored but answered. Second, unless they are answered, they will be able to say the CIA (or whoever they think did it) needed one attack to achieve its goals. Third, the issue the doubters raise is not the structural integrity of a building but the underlying intent of the CIA in carrying out the attack. The why is everything to them, and it is important to point out that it is their explanation of motive that makes no sense. Finally, I am engaging the doubters here because I enjoy receiving an abundance of emails containing fascinating accusations and the occasional threat.


Considering the Failures


But to return to the main theme, it is important here to consider not only the successes but also the failures of the war, and here Iraq comes to mind. There is a case to be made that the Iraq campaign was not irrational, but even more interesting, I think, is the fact that no war is without its disastrous misjudgments, even successful wars. In my mind, the U.S. invasion of the Philippines in 1944 was a major mistake. It did little to contribute to the fall of Japan, cost far more than the 4,000 American lives lost in Iraq, and it could have actually delayed the end of the war. It was opposed by senior commanders and was essentially something Gen. Douglas MacArthur insisted on for political reasons. The Battle of the Somme in World War I cost 600,000 British and French casualties, with 60,000 in one day. Their total gain during the battle was perhaps six miles. And in the American Civil War, the federal drive into Virginia turned into a disaster.


Every successful war is built around a series of defeats and miscalculations. The perfect war is built around deeply flawed and unnecessary campaigns. My own personal selections are not as important as the principle that all successful wars contain massive mistakes. If we simply write off Iraq as one of these, that in itself does not change the fact that the American homeland was not attacked again. Did Iraq contribute to that? This is a question that warrants a long discussion. But conceding that it had no effect simply makes the post-9/11 war normal and, in that normality, tragic.


What has not been normal has been the length of the war. Heavy fighting continues in Afghanistan, Iraq is not quite done and new theaters for covert operations are constantly opening and closing. It is the first U.S. campaign — Afghanistan — that actually poses the most vexing problem, one that is simple to express: When is the war over? That, of course, depends on the goal. What is the United States trying to achieve there?


The initial goal of the invasion was to dislodge al Qaeda, overthrow the government that had supported it and defeat the Taliban. The first two goals were accomplished quickly. The third goal has not been accomplished to this day, nor is it likely that the United States will ever accomplish it. Other powers have tried to subdue Afghanistan, but few have succeeded. The Taliban are optimized for the battlefield they fight on, have superior intelligence and have penetrated and are able to subvert government institutions, including the Afghan military. They have the implicit support of elements in a neighboring major nation — Pakistan — that are well beyond American means to intimidate. The United States has no port from which to supply its forces except the one controlled by Pakistan and only complex and difficult supply routes through other countries.


On the other hand, the Taliban cannot defeat the United States, which can stay in Afghanistan indefinitely. But the major U.S. mission in Afghanistan is concluded. Al Qaeda has not used Afghanistan as a primary base since 2002. Al Qaeda in Pakistan, according to the United States, has been crippled. The Taliban, products of Afghanistan for the most part, have no international ambitions. Al Qaeda has relocated to other countries like Yemen and Somalia.


Given this, continued combat in Afghanistan cannot be linked to al Qaeda. It could be said that the reason to go to war in Afghanistan was to prevent al Qaeda’s return. But the fact is that it doesn’t need Afghanistan, and if it did return to Afghanistan, it would be no more dangerous to the United States than it currently is with its bases elsewhere.


In wars, and especially in counterinsurgencies, the mission tends to creep upward. In Afghanistan, the goal is now the transformation of Afghan society into one that is democratic, no longer corrupt by American standards and able to defend itself against the Taliban. This goal does not seem attainable given the relative forces and interests in the country.


Therefore, this war will go on until the United States decides to end it or there is a political evolution in Kabul in which the government orders us out. The point is that the goal has become disengaged from the original intent and is unattainable. Unlike other wars, counterinsurgencies rarely end in victory. They usually end when the foreign forces decide to leave.


There is talk of a long war against radical Islam. It had better not be. The Islamic world is more than a billion people and radical Islam is embedded in many places. The idea that the United States has the power to wage an interminable war in the Islamic world is fantasy. This is not a matter of ideology or willpower or any other measures. It is a matter of available forces, competing international interests and American interests.


Ultimately, there are three lessons of the last decade that I think are important. The first is the tremendous success the United States has had in achieving its primary goal — blocking attacks on the homeland. The second is that campaigns of dubious worth are inevitable in war, and particularly in one as ambiguous as this war has been. Finally, all wars end, and the idea of an interminable war dominating American foreign policy and pushing all other considerations to the side is not what is going to happen. The United States must have a sense of proportion, of what can be done, what is worth doing and what is too dangerous to do. An unlimited strategic commitment is the definitive opposite of strategy.


The United States has done as well as can be expected. Over the coming years there will be other terrorist attacks. As it wages war in response, the United States will be condemned for violating international laws that are insensate to reality. At this point, for all its mistakes and errors — common to all wars — the United States has achieved its primary mission. There have been no more concerted terrorist attacks against the United States. Now it is time to resume history.



Reprinting or republication of this report on websites is authorized by prominently displaying the following sentence, including the hyperlink to STRATFOR, at the beginning or end of the report.


"9/11 and the Successful War is republished with permission of STRATFOR."

Two Dominions Were Born

Published below is an image of a newspaper clipping dated 15th August 1947, the day when India got independence. The headlines of the newspaper are self explanatory. The independence came at a cost because on 15th August 1947, India not only achieved independence but was also partitioned into two parts and which has proved to be the biggest historical mistake that our political leaders of that time committed. Two nation theory was considered as the basis of partition, where it was argued, that while Pakistan, as an Islamic Republic, will inhabit majority Muslims, India, as a secular state, will inhabit the rest of the non Muslim population, albeit,  with Hindu majority. But actually more Muslims stayed back in India than the sum total of the Muslims of East and West Pakistan.  The partition of India not only resulted into large scale bloodshed on both sides of the borders, dividing the two nations, but also created a dissatisfied and an unstable small nation on its western as well as eastern flanks as west and east Pakistan respectively, (though the eastern part of Pakistan got liberated later in 1971 and became an independent nation as Bangladesh). The dissatisfaction of Pakistan in its share after division was reflected by its claim over the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which had become integral part of India through accession by its ruler, like other numerous erstwhile princely states had done. Pakistan not only laid claims on the legitimate Indian territory but also launched an attack and captured a large chunk of Jammu and Kashmir which is now called Pakistan occupied Kashmir. That also resulted into three conventional wars between the two countries and since Pakistan met humiliating defeat in the later two wars it took a resolve to bleed India through a thousand cuts in the form of fomenting terrorism.This also gave the western countries, particularly America, an excuse, ostensibly, to prevent the two adversaries from fighting a nuclear war but actually, which served their own interests to maintain their dominance in the region.

Pakistan, instead of developing into a self sufficient responsible state, became a stooge of the western world, receiving trillions of dollars to help them fight terrorism. But actually instead of using that aid for its intended purpose, Pakistan used the same to run terrorist camps on its own land, primarily, with an aim to exporting terrorism not only into India, but also into other parts of the world.

To conclude i have nothing to say but quote a famous Urdu couplet :-

"यह वक़्त भी देखा है तारीख की घड़ियों ने 

   लम्हों ने खता की थी, सदियों ने सज़ा पाई" 

"Yeh waqt bhee dekha hai taareekh ki ghadiyon ne

Lamhon ne khata kee thee, sadiyon ne sazaa payee"

"The annals of history bear witness to the times when, for mistakes committed in moments, centuries had to pay the price"  

Click on the image to enlarge.

Osama or 'Raqtbeej'

 By killing Osama Bin Laden, America has eliminated the Frankenstein monster that it had once created to act against the then USSR, but who turned against America itself after the USSR withdrawal from Afganistan.  So, nothing great in that except the style of doing it, ie., killing the monster in a covert operation without the knowledge of it's misguided brat Pakistan, whom the US has been nurturing in its arms and nourishing him since long and in whose backyard the monster was living in style. The Americans chose a code word 'Geronimo' for Osama.

( Geronimo--June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909, was a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who fought against Mexico and the United States for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars. Allegedly "Geronimo" was the name given to him during a Mexican incident, but his real name was Goyaałé from the Chiricahua language meaning "one who yawns"; often spelled Goyathlay or Goyahkla^[2][3] in English.
After an attack by a company of Mexican soldiers killed many members of his family in 1858, Geronimo joined revenge attacks on the Mexicans and later against the United States. He became known for bravery and daring feats and was revered by the Apaches as a warrior with spiritual powers. In 1886 Geronimo was eventually tracked down by U.S. authorities and surrendered. As a prisoner of war in old age he became a celebrity but was never allowed to return to the land of his birth. He later regretted his surrender and claimed the conditions he made had been ignored. Geronimo died in 1909 after being thrown from his horse.
--Source Wikipedia).

If India was to carry out such an operation and if i was to choose a code word for him i would have chosen 'Raqtbeej' after the name of legendary demon, who fought with the gods in the famous battle of gods and demons (The Indian legend has it that 'Raqtbeej' was blessed with a boon that if he was killed in the battlefield, his every single drop of blood will give birth to another form of his. When the gods got frustrated after finding that Raqtbeej was not meeting his end and that every time he was killed by the gods, his blood drops turned into many more 'Raqtbeej' after coming into contact with the earth. They all implored goddess Kali who had to drink all the blood oozing out from the body of 'Raqtbeej' before it dropped on the earth to form numerous other demons and thus the gods got rid of  'Raqtbeej' and ultimately won the battle with the demons)

So America and rest of the peace loving world will do better not to slip into complacency after the death of Osama. Although his 'will' mentions that he did not want his sons to join Al Qaida and become terrorists like him but there are many more mad men who will carry the blood of 'Raqtbeej' and will try to avenge his death and take the jihad ahead declared by Osama.

Any present day god, goddess, god man or god woman around who may be ready to drink the blood of the modern day 'Raqtbeej' to prevent the blood drops turning into numerous other such 'Raqtbeejas ??? 

Who is a Terrorist ??

Who is a terrorist?

I picked up this definition from wordnet
" terrorist (a radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells; often uses religion as a cover for terrorist activities).

But what i understand from the term "terrorist" is:-

"the one who spreads terror or terrorises the common public or the administrative machinery by resorting to violent means, acting himself or through the organised groups, consisting of his followers to achieve any motive -- linguistic, religious, political or just ideological."
Some of our politicians have terrorized people of our nation any number of times, resulting into loss of life and property. Every time the whole lot of police and some times paramilitary forces and even the Army has to be deployed to save common man from this type of  terror. The citizens are not as much scared of bomb blasts or gun attacks, as of the goons of these terror mongering political parties.
These political, religious or ideological terrorists are more dangerous because they are not only constantly present in the midst of us, but they also have the support of the perverts in the society and some times even of the governmental machinery.  They don't have to cross any borders, or smuggle any weapons. They just activate their sleeper cells at regular intervals and keep creating havoc amongst the public from time to time at the slightest pretext, some time just to gain one up man ship against their political rivals or against the break away group of their own party. But the one who gets terrorised is the common man. The property that gets damaged belongs to the public. They not only disturb the peace and harmony of the society and spoil the nation's image in the eyes of the world but also give a chance to the nation's external enemies to encash the disturbed law and order situation and further disrupt the country's stability and progress.

Shouldn't the leaders of these political terrorist groups be put behind bars ???

We Can Bring the Change

Today we observe the first anniversary of that fateful day which has gone down in our history as "26/11", the name given to that three day trauma suffered by Bombay city in particular and by the country as a whole, which is also called Mumbai carnage. It's name as 26/11 (date/month) became more popular because it sounded like the US 's 9/11 (month/date). (We are in the habit of copying names from the west, for example, our film industries in various cities end with "wood" e.g., Bollywood, Tollywood, Mollywood etc. after Hollywood and we also try to call our scams as 'gates' after 'Watergate" of Nixon era).

Though, previously we also had 7/11 (the serial bomb blasts in the local trains of Bombay on 11th July 2006 which took away 200 lives of innocent travellers of Bombay suburban trains) as well as series of bomb blasts in different cities during 2008 itself, but somehow the world was not much convinced, may be because in the 26/11 attacks the targets were the elite crowd, including the foreigners, the Five Star hotels and the elite restaurant with the only exception of the attack on Bombay VT station where the causalities were common passengers.

9/11 changed the way the world looked at terrorism before the twin towers of World Trade Center in New York came down crashing after the attack by the terrorists.

Did 26/11 produce same kind of response and result ? Well it did but only briefly when large scale public outrage was exhibited not only against the terrorists and their handlers, sitting across the borders, but also against the political and administrative machinery of our own country who needed to be woken up from a deep slumber.

After one year of that event if we take stock of the situation, can we say that things have changed for better or are we just using good words to sound reassuring and are actually still struggling at square one ?

Frankly speaking, though, till today we have been lucky enough not to have experienced re occurrence of a terrorist attack of such a magnitude but it seems to be just co-incidence rather than our concerted efforts in averting the same.

Much has been said in the print and electronic media about apathy of our 'powers that be', regarding gearing up the security and administrative apparatus against such attacks in future, but let us ask ourselves that as common citizens, have we really contributed towards improving our security systems.

Security is a word which is very commonly used in our day today life. In today's environment where the threat to life and property is increasing day by day, this word 'security' has gained all the more importance. It has not remained limited to the security forces but has become part and parcel of our daily lives.

Security is not new to the man as it has been existing right since the inception of the human race. In fact the security is inbuilt in the Nature itself. Every object of Nature has its own security or defence system. A rose has its thorns. An insect has its sting. The plants have their sticky or smelly sap with which the enemy is either trapped or repelled, respectively. The animals have their claws, their teeth and their sharp horns etc, etc. As far as the human being is concerned the security has been part and parcel of his life right since Stone Age when he used to chisel arms and weapons out of stone to hunt as well, as to fight the danger lurking around him. He never forgot to keep a big bolder in front of the entrance of the cave where he lived, to ward off any wild animals that may come and eat away his family. As the world around us made economic and social progress, the threat to the life and property also developed and the need of security also increased in the same proportions.

Let us ask ourselves a few questions :

Do we remain aware of our surroundings ?

The first and foremost necessity to maintain secure environments around us is to remain aware of our surroundings. Be it our home, our office, our work place, a train or a bus or be it a market place, the awareness about our surroundings will help us to a great extent to give warning about any untoward incident which may take place. If we have kept an eye over the normal, we will definitely come to know if there is some thing abnormal around us. For example if you find any unattended object near your home or office, near your seat in a train or bus or even near a shop in the market, you must immediately bring it to the notice of others so that appropriate authorities can be informed about the presence of such object and preventive action can be taken before the damage is done. Same thing should be done if a stranger is observed loitering around in an area where he or she is not supposed to be. It has been the experience in the past that many a times the breach of security had been noticed by the members of the public in advance but since the same was not immediately reported to the appropriate authorities, no preventive action could be taken and the perpetrators of the crime succeeded in causing the damage and achieving their aim.

Do we Co-operate with the Security Staff ?

In our country the Security set up has been made so much subservient to the VIP culture that the security staff has become more used to saluting the persons entering a premises rather than checking and frisking them. The more luxurious the car or brighter the neck tie of the person entering an institution, the crisper the salute by the guard. I am sure Kasab and his friends, while entering the five star hotels, with their bags slung over their shoulders, must have been ushered in like VIPs and must have been saluted by the tall turbaned and moustached durwan at the gate of the five star hotels. And it is not durwan's fault. He has been conditioned into doing so because if he does not do that, the threat to get him transferred or suspended by the high and mighty hangs over his head like a Damocles' sword.

Therefore, it becomes imparative on our part to cooperate with the security staff in carrying out the security checks, regardless of our status as VIP (Very Important), LIP (Less Important) or UIP (Unimportant) personalities. The security guard is duty bound to do the same and is doing so in the interest of security and not out of his pleasure. And it should also be ensured that if the security staff is found lax then no hesitation should be shown in kicking him hard by ticking him off or reporting his laxity to the appropriate authority.

We are all responsible citizens of our country and it is our duty to make our society a safe place. As charity begins at home, let us start by making our own home and our work place safe by adhering to safety and security norms so laid down. This will go a long way in making our country and the whole world a safe place, which we owe to our children. And that will be the true homage to the victims of the carnage.

Killing in the Name of God or Religion

Today's newspapers carried a disgusting news. A Major in the American Army killed twelve of his colleagues in a shooting spree. No, the news about killing or shooting was not disgusting. It is happening daily on a routine basis in some or other corner of the world. But the disgusting part was that before shooting innocent unsuspecting fellow men, the killer shouted "Allah Hu Akbar" which means "God is Great".

If we look into statistics, we will find that most of the present day killings are taking place in the name of God or religion. Though, no religion preaches enmity or hate against any fellow human being or even against any living being.

Why do killers invoke God before killing HIS creatures? Is it to obtain strength for doing such a ghastly act or do they ask for HIS forgiveness in advance. One can only remember God before killing someone if one is doing the act in cold blood. If the killing is the result of a heated exchange of blows or gun fire or any other weapon, there is no time for one to remember God.

Here we may argue that even the war cries in the battle fields are also after the names of God. That is true. For example, Indian Army infantry regiments are based on different regions, communities, religions or races as India has many of them. Their war cries are all based on the names of different gods or goddesses. A Dogra soldier will shout "Durga Mata Kee Jai" (hail goddess Durga) while running over an enemy post during final assault or while pushing his bayonet into the intestines of the enemy during close quarter battle. Similarly, the jawans from Sikh regiment will shout a war cry of "Jo Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal" (One who utters it, remains blessed as the truth is immortal). And there are battle cries like "Har Har Maha Dev", "Jai Bajrang Bali" etc., etc. But such war cries are justified in a battle field where the enemy is equally heavily armed and if the soldiers don't kill the attacking enemy then they get killed themselves. Hence, there, the helping hand from God is very much necessary. However, having served in the Indian Army, i personally felt that the Indian soldiers, regardless of their religion or race, should shout "Bharat Mata Kee Jai" as their war cry. But then it is the name of God which provides them the killer instinct.

Gone are the days when the wars were fought for women (Sita and Helen of Troy), for wealth (invasions over India by Gaznavi and Gouri) or for kingdoms (no need for examples). The next major war will be fought in the name of religion or say, God (please mark my words). Personally i don't wish for that but one can't deny the fact that many of such fights are already going on, though on a small scale, in many parts of the world.

Does being religious mean being intolerant of others?
Should we stop being religious if it is creating hate in our minds against our fellow human beings?

The question is open to all.

A Rejoinder to a Pakistani

On my previous post, a comment was left by one ' Luscious One' supposedly a Pakistani national. I had given a befitting reply to that, not only on my blog, but also on one of her latest blog posts as i believe in hot pursuit. One Mr. Mustafa did not like my comments there and posted another nasty comment addressed to me on her blog post. This post is a reply to Mr. Mustafa's comment. I am posting it here for the benefit of my blogger friends.

Dear Mr. Mustafa, while we Indians have won a number of battles and wars, it is but natural for us to celebrate our victories as well as warn our adversaries not to mess with our Army and my post had precisely done that.

Frankly speaking, Mr. Mustafa, the very foundation of Pakistan is HATE and only HATE. There was no logic behind the division of India in 1947 on the basis of religion because number of Muslims left behind in India was more than the sum total of Muslims of West and East Pakistan. But Pakistan could not sustain even that and your country got further divided, giving birth to Bangladesh. And it is your sheer misconception that India engineered the division of East and West Pakistan. It was due to the oppression of Bengali Muslims of east Pakistan over a long period of time, that they had to take up arms against West Pakistan and you had to loose them.

No country can cause the division of any other country if its people are united. You have tried it with Punjab in 1980s and now are doing it with Kashmir since 1990. Let us see how successful you get. Kashmiris have gone to elections this month as a mark of deep roots of Indian democracy, whereas Pakistan is still on the path of fragmenting into further smaller pieces. And for God's sake please teach the correct history to your children otherwise they will curse you for misleading them. What Pakistan is teaching to its kids is evident from the following link http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pakistani_textbooks_build_hate_culture_against_India/articleshow/3898659.cms

I have served in the areas in Ladakh which were captured back from Pakistan's occupation in the 1971 war. The villagers around in that area used to respect the Indian Army personnel as gods, because they said that while they were under the administrative control of Pakistan till 1971, the Pakistan Army men would come to these villages only to take away their daughters and sisters, whereas the Indian Army was distributing medicines, rations and other essential items, which were not available there.

You can read these sentiments in the blogpost of a level headed Pakistani here.

You have said in your comments that we Indians are insecure. Yes Mr. Mustafa, we are feeling unsafe and insecure because some dangerous wild animals have been let loose from the neighbouring jungle. That jungle has to be purged of such animals urgently, otherwise these animals may become a threat to the very existence of that jungle (Pakistan) only.

Mr. Mustafa, it is a fact that Pakistan was never satisfied with what they got in partition in 1947, so your Army and ISI keep leading your country into occasional misadventures, get hit hard, keep licking the wounds for days, months and years to come and then again invent some other misadventure. That is why you people have not been able to progress because your focus is not at right place. The only agenda of your successive governments (be they elected representatives or military dictators) is to create hate against India and then survive on that hate. The only industry that you run is terror industry which is funded from the money provided to you for developmental work and more recently for fighting terror by your mentors like 'Uncle Sam'.
After the Mumbai terror attack in which the Pakistani nationals were involved, there was an opportunity before your government to crack down on the terrorist camps which are run in your country. But your leaders raised the war bogey to divert the attention of the world from terror. Pakistan having doubts about the Mumbai terrorists operating from their soil can hear it from a Pakistani's mouth at this link http://www.razarumi.com/2008/12/30/dark-forces-still-potent-year-after-bhuttos-slaying/#more-1250

Despite all the troubles that India has been facing from the perpetrators of terror, we have reached the moon. You waste no time in copying India whenever we test a weapon system. Why didn't you copy us in sending your space craft to the Moon immediately after we did ??

Pakistan's President Mr. Zardari, in his speech on 26th December 2008, has agreed that his country is infested with cancer ( read terrorists). He further went on to say that he will take his own time in treating that cancer. Let me remind Mr. Zardari that cancer has different progressive stages and if not treated in its incipient stage, it is bound to go out of control and will become a terminal disease not only for his country but also for the humanity. It is high time that you cure yourself of that cancer, stop producing terrorists and live and let the whole world live in peace.

Now come on Pakistan, make that a New Year's Resolution.

Wish you a happy, sane and safe new year.

Rhetoric Over, Brass Tacks Now

After the recent terrorist strike in Mumbai we have seen enough happening in the country in past few days. The incident has also exposed many a weakness that our system has, most of all the tone, tenor and style of functioning of our political class. While so many symbolic gestures have been made at various levels which included resignation by or removal of some ministers, rallies at public places by common citizens and a series of group discussions by celebrities on the electronic media, little has been done to prevent such tragic events happening again. Slowly we are slipping back to normalcy and hence, complacency. It is high time that we put our act together and get down to Brass-Tacks NOW. In view of the above, may I appeal to our countrymen, belonging to different strata of society, to take certain urgent measures to prevent recurrence of such events.

Appeal to the powers that be:-

1. I will appeal to all our real as well as pseudo VIPs to remove those beacon lights from top of their cars. The vehicles with beacon lights enjoy certain immunities as far as security checks are concerned. Since beacon lights are available dime a dozen in the market, these can be fixed by terrorists on their cars which can be then driven unchecked into any high security area. This was done by the terrorists who attacked the Indian Parliament. Let only the ambulances and fire tenders display the same. They have to be given the right of the way as they rush to save someone’s life. VIPs do not. At the most they are going to attend some meeting where it would be decided that when will the next meeting be held.

2. Send back those gun totting commandos, walking behind the VIPs, to their barracks. They need to get training and remain battle worthy to save precious lives of the common citizens and not of the so called VIPs who have made enemies by shooting off their mouths at some public meeting or the other. Let the politicians make their own security arrangements and pay for the same from their party funds.

3. Create a central agency to gather intelligence as well as to investigate terrorist related incidents and put them under the unified command of the three defense services.

4. Place crack commando units at all big cities. Give them dedicated jet air crafts and not propeller driven ones to maintain lightening mobility for inter city movement at the time of need. They may also be provided with dedicated assault helicopters.

5. Withdraw all .303 rifles and other obsolete weapons and equipment from the armed police, Railway protection and other such forces that are responsible for guarding the public life and property. Equip them with automatic weapons and the latest equipment.

6. Bring a constitutional amendment to make a legislation that during an election rally or a public meeting, the speeches of the politicians should contain the achievements of own candidates or of their party and not negative remarks on the opponents which often creates bad blood without educating the voters about anything.

7. Put behind bars anyone creating hate in the minds of one community or class against the other. Such a person should be treated as a traitor and dealt with accordingly.

8. Give the right to the citizens to recall an elected candidate if he/she does not perform.
Appeal to the citizens:-
9. It seems (as circulated on the net) that there is a system in our constitution, as per the 1969 act, in section "49-O" of chapter on "Conduct of Elections," that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his/her identity, get teh black mark on his/her finger and convey to the presiding officer that he/she doesn't want to vote anyone. In a ward, if a candidate wins, say by 1000 votes, and that particular ward has received more than 1000 " I VOTE NOBODY" votes, then that polling will be declared null and void and re-polling will be held. The candidature of the earlier contestants will be removed who will not be able to contest the re-poll, since voters have already expressed their decision on them. This would force the political parties to look for genuine candidates for contesting elections. ( I got it in my mail and needs to be verified for correctness, and if true, it can change the face of our political class)

10. And finally, I will appeal to all the citizens to kindly co-operate with the security officials wherever they are posted and go through the security checks of the respective place or installation religiously. In December 2002, at Frankfurt airport, I had to go through the Door Frame Metal Detector several times, only because while i had parted with all the metallic things like ring, coins and keys etc. on my person, i was still ignorantly carrying a small pocket diary, the cover of which had tiny brass corners. That is the very reason that there has been no second 9/11 or 7/7. But yes, don’t forget to tick off the corrupt or slack security or police official and report to his higher ups immediately.

Don't Bounce Back to Normalcy Please

In the Army, after every battle or even after simulation of a battle situation, a session is held that is called "Lessons Learnt". The aim of the exercise is to do an introspection on the operation and bring out the weaknesses that led to the situation and also to correct the mistakes done during the operation itself. Our country has come out victorious out of a battle today. Before slipping into congratulatory mood for too long, we have to get into the "Lessons Learnt" mode first. Let me enumerate a few of the lessons which i think have come out of this exercise which has certainly given us a bloody nose..

1. Instead of pointing at the foreign hand, every time we are hit by the terrorist, we should concentrate on strengthening our security mechanism. The nature has given defence system to every object. An insect has its sting which it activates when in danger. The beautiful rose has thorns. Even birds are careful enough and look around ten times for any danger before approaching a food item that has been laid out for them to eat. As far as the human being is concerned, his security system goes right back to the stone or the cave age. He, in addition to sculpting arms and weapons for his safety, would invariably keep a big boulder on the door of the cave to prevent any wild animal from entering and eating up his family. While we can't kill all the man eater, dangerous wild animals, we can certainly strive to make our cave safe.

2.We have our intelligence agencies, our boarder security, our coastal security and other para military forces who are responsible for keeping an eye on our land and maritime boarders in the peace time. Smugglers cross the boarders and coasts of our country freely, carrying drugs and other contra bands, after bribing the corrupt officials of the forces which are meant to keep a check on them. So if contra bands can be smuggled , then why not arms and explosives.

2. Further, our police and security system is badly subservient to the VIP culture that we have in our country. The flaunting of beacon lights on the cars and the company of a group of security or protocol personnel walking behind, has become status symbol rather than necessity for our so called VIPs.

3. More than half the strength of the police force of a city is busy looking after the security of the VIPs instead of taking care of the same for the common citizen. The other half who are actually responsible for the security of the citizens is either armed with docile lathis or the vintage .303 bolt action rifles which will take as much time to load and fire one round as the emptying of one full magazine by the bullet spraying machine guns of the terrorists.

4. At the five star hotel gate, a guest will feel insulted if the tall liveried durwan with turban and moustaches does not salute him/her and more so if a security fellow asks for searching the body and the baggage of the guest.

5. At the air ports the VIPs throw tantrums if subjected to security checks.

6. Even a common citizen cares a hoot if he/she notices an unattended object or a suspicious person loitering around.

7. Whenever a security gadget is installed at an office or a public place, the first reaction of the common man is how to by pass the same.

8. Mobile SIM cards are distributed by the service providers without much verification of antecedents of the customer which are most of the time used for nefarious activities.

9. The land lords don't bother to verify the correct particulars of the tenants. Same goes when contract employees are recruited by companies without getting any police verification done for them.

10. Our vote and note hungry politicians are busy washing their dirty linen in public instead of concentrating on the real issues staring in face of the country's security.

11. We have been in the grip of terrorism since last thirty years or so, if we leave the nexalite and other insurgencies aside. The back bone of any security system is prompt communication, lightening mobility and right type of weapons and equipment to deal with the situation. While the NSG commandos were quick enough to pounce on the targets, it is sad that it took them ten hours to reach the trouble spot because they were stationed at Delhi. Placing of crack commandos at every metro and other big cities should be the first priority. And please don't ask where is the money. As per the Swiss Bank reports, Indians are heading the list of depositors with them and i don't need to elaborate that which category of 'Indians' maintain their accounts in the Swiss Bank. And then instead of doling out the financial awards to the widows and orphans after every such incident by the government, the same money can be spent on strengthening the security system which will prevent them from becoming orphans and widows in the first place.

12 Every time the terrorists come and blast away our behinds, we cry in pain for sometime, massage our backs and get back to work as usual. We try to compare ourselves with the USA and other developed countries. They value their precious lives. And that is the very reason that after 9/11 in the US and 7/7 in the UK, not a single terrorist incident has taken place there. It is high time that we also start valuing the lives of our countrymen.

13. I will hate to read the headlines in the papers tomorrow that Mumbai bounces back to normalcy. Normalcy in our country will mean all that I have mentioned above. We have to deal with times abnormally. Our country is on the path of sustained economic progress which is not liked by every one around us in the world.

14. Pakistan, a cry baby in our neighbourhood who has not been satisfied with what he got in the partition of the house sixty years ago, keeps trying different stunts to trouble us. He got hard slaps from us thrice and was also cut to size once, but unfortunately, he has the support of the big wigs of the world. Though, of late 'Uncle Sam' and his other godfathers have started to realise that he was plucking the hair from their beards only while they nurtured him in their laps. As a result they hit him on his knuckles once in a while but that is not sufficient. He may turn into a Frankenstein monster for them all one day.
But let us not waste time on fretting and fuming over that too much. Please, please tread cautiously. Get back to work but don't be in a hurry to bounce back to normalcy -- the normalcy that i have explained above.