Posted on 05/19/2002 6:39:42 AM PDT by maquiladora
Islamabad, May 19. (UNI, PTI): Pakistan has said that its defence preparation equals India's and is ready for a full-fledged war if attacked, Pakistan's Defence spokesman Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi was quoted as saying by leading newspaper The Nation today.
Observing that retaliatory action in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) or a limited war could take the shape of a total war, Qureshi said, "We are ready to face all sorts of situations and India is also well aware of the results."
Regarding the possibility of conflict in PoK, Qureshi claimed such a war would be fought from the heights and India would not be in a position to gain anything from the "superiority" of its air and mechanised forces.
Referring to the continuing skirmishes on the LoC and expulsion of Pakistan's High Commissioner from India, he charged India with trying to destabilise Pakistan before the General Elections in October.
He also accused India of aggravating the situation by asking Islamabad to withdraw its High Commissioner to New Delhi, and said that he believed India might not launch a full-scale war against it but could attack Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
"I think India will not launch a full-scale war but there is a danger of an Indian attack" on PoK and the "Working Boundary" Qureshi told editors and senior journalist in Lahore yesterday.
Qureshi, also Press Secretary to President Pervez Musharraf, however, said he was not ruling out the possibility and probabil ity of a full-scale war.
New York, May 19. (PTI): As tensions mount on the Indo-Pak bor der, American officials are increasingly worried that India might carry out an air or commando strike on training camps for mili tants in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), a media report said today.
More than 70 camps have recently sprung up, staffed by groups that Pakistan ostensibly banned, but they have regrouped under different names, the New York Times reported.
Describing the Indian government decision asking Pakistan High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi to leave the country as a "diplomatic slap" to Pakistan, it quoted a senior Indian official as saying that this was just a preliminary step with more weighty decisions yet to come.
"This is a signal to both Pakistan and the West that India is serious about doing whatever it takes to bring this menace to an end," he said.
Such talk, the Times said, is stoking fears among American offi cials that war may be looming between India and Pakistan, both of which have nuclear weapons.
Noting mobilisation of troops on the border, the paper said "India now seems to be taking the steps needed to go to war."
It quoted experts as saying that an armed conflict between India and Pakistan could endanger American forces searching for Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives in Pakistan and spiral into a full- scale war between the two countries.
In Terms that is easier to understand is that the World would Not have to support <>1.9 Billion two legged A*s Backward Animals anymore...
Thoroughly debunked here many times.
The problem with the hardass Indian position is that it's going to be ultimately unsuccessful, and counterproductive. A conventional war between two countries with nuclear weapons has never been fought, and this isn't the place to see how that will turn out.
A better approach might be to have some confidence-building measures between India and Pakistan. Take Musharraf's pledge to root out terrorists at face value and offer assistance. Put Musharraf to the test.
Instead, India is threatening the Pakistan armed forces and cutting diplomatic ties. If an Indian invasion could solve anything, I'd be for it. But it has the potential to make both sides losers, with only the terrorists coming out ahead. India should not play into their hands.
What is India supposed to do? Last week the families of their army officers were murdered on a bus. In December its parliament was attacked. Pakistan's ISI has been sponsoring surrogate attacks in India for years. I would like to say that Pakistan has the power or will to reign them in but so far there is very little evidence to support that position even if their usefulness to Pakistan has passed on since Pakistan is now being held accountable for their surrogates' actions. Islamic extremists in Pakistan have reasons to inflame the situation and stir up trouble with India. For one thing it is a productive use of time for many hotheads who have been kicked out of Afghanistan. It also keeps Paki troops tied up on the Indian border instaed of chasing terrorists on the Afghan border.
I do agree that this conflict is likely to be much bloodier than either supposes and both overestimate the U.S.'s ability and willingness to influence the other parties. This is probably a good opportunity for the U.N. to take an active role as I think both parties are prepared to support a U.N. negotiated resolution or at least a management of the process.
While strictly true, both the Korean War and the Vietnam War were fought between the US and proxies of the Soviet Union. Conventional war between nuclear powers is possible, so long as it is understood by both to be fought for limited gains with limited means. India and Pakistan have already fought a number of wars whose conclusions did not result in complete victory for one or the other.
It cracks me up that people are disdainful of whatever the American press says, but lap at the trough of the Hindustan Times, as if that publication isn't biased.
A convoy of several hundred Taliban soldiers evacuate their northern foothold of Kunduz to surrender to opposing Northern Alliance forces earlier this week. NEW YORK, Nov. 29 — The United States took the unprecedented step this week of demanding that foreign airlines provide information on passengers boarding planes for America. Yet in the past week, a half dozen or more Pakistani air force cargo planes landed in the Taliban-held city of Kunduz and evacuated to Pakistan hundreds of non-Afghan soldiers who fought alongside the Taliban and even al-Qaida against the United States. What’s wrong with this picture?
THE PENTAGON, whose satellites and drones are able to detect sleeping guerrillas in subterranean caverns, claims it knows nothing of these flights. When asked about the mysterious airlift at a recent Pentagon briefing, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, denied knowledge of such flights. Myers backpedaled a bit, saying that, given the severe geography of the country, it might be possible to duck in and out of mountain valleys and conduct such an airlift undetected.
But Rumsfeld intervened. With his talent for being blunt and ambiguous at the same time, he said: “I have received absolutely no information that would verify or validate statements about airplanes moving in or out. I doubt them.”
SEE NO EVIL Western reporters actually in Kunduz in the days after it fell this week found much to dispel that doubt. Reports first appeared in the Indian press, quoting intelligence sources who cited unusual radar contacts and an airlift of Pakistani troops out of the city. Their presence among the “enemy” may shock some readers, but not those who have paid attention to Afghanistan. Pakistan had hundreds of military advisers in Afghanistan before Sept. 11 helping the Taliban fight the Northern Alliance. Hundreds more former soldiers actively joined Taliban regiments, and many Pakistani volunteers were among the non-Afghan legions of al-Qaida.
Last Saturday, The New York Times picked up the scent, quoting Northern Alliance soldiers in a Page 1 story describing a two-day airlift by Pakistani aircraft, complete with witnesses describing groups of armed men awaiting evacuation at the airfield, then still in Taliban hands.
Another report, this in the Times of London, quotes an alliance soldier angrily denouncing the flights, which he reasonably assumed were conducted with America’s blessing.
“We had decided to kill all of them, and we are not happy with America for letting the planes come,” said the soldier, Mahmud Shah.
IN DENIAL
The credibility gap between these reports from the field and the “no comments” from the U.S. administration are large enough to drive a Marine Expeditionary Unit through. Calls by MSNBC.com and NBC News to U.S. military and intelligence officials shed no light on the evacuation reports, though they clearly were a hot topic of conversation. “Oh, you mean ‘Operation Evil Airlift’?” one military source joked. “Look, I can’t confirm anything about those reports. As far as I know, they just aren’t happening.” Three other military and defense sources simply denied any knowledge.
Something is up. It certainly appears to any reasonable observer that aircraft of some kind or another were taking off and landing in Kunduz’s final hours in Taliban hands. Among the many questions that grow out of this reality:
* Was the passenger manifest on these aircraft limited to Pakistani military and intelligence men, or did it include some of the more prominent zealots Pakistan contributed to the ranks of the Taliban and al-Qaida?
* What kind of deal was struck between the United States and Pakistan to allow this?
* What safeguards did the United States demand to ensure the evacuated Pakistanis did not include men who will come back to haunt us?
* What was done with the civilian volunteers once they arrived home in Pakistan? Where they arrested? Debriefed? Taken to safe houses? Or a state banquet?
WHY NOT ADMIT IT The answers remain elusive. If the passengers were simply Pakistani military and intelligence men, and not civilian extremists, what possible motive is there for concealing the truth about their evacuation? Pakistan may believe that no one has noticed the warmth of its intelligence ties to the Taliban and even al-Qaida, but surely the Pentagon isn’t operating under this illusion, is it? This news organization has quoted U.S. intelligence sources as far back as 1997 as saying that ties between Pakistan’s intelligence service and al-Qaida, and links to the Taliban — a movement nurtured by Pakistan — are undeniable.
True, there is a total ignoring of the region. Foreign news doesn't get much coverage anyway except for Israel, the 6th Borough of New York.
That settles it for me.
For truth, India, and for ideology and a pep rally, ISRAEL! Debka, Ha-aretz, Arutz-sheva all rock!
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