Posted on 05/27/2002 7:50:34 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
Agreed.
As for the rest of your post, I guess it all comes down to this - how much of what Musharraf says about the Islamic nation is rhetoric meant to placate his domestic constituencies (Islamic hardliners), and how much of it does he really mean? I tend to lean towards the belief that most of it is rhetoric. You obviously disagree.
India on Monday said it would assess Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's televised address to the nation in "totality" and give its "considered response" on Tuesday.
"We have heard carefully the speech delivered by the Pakistani President. The content is to be analysed fully. We have to assess Gen Musharraf's statement in totality. What has been stated today has to be in the context of his January 12 statement and also Gen Musharraf's recent interviews," External Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao told reporters here immediately after the address.
She said the "considered response" of the Government will be stated by External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh at a press conference at 1530 hours tomorrow.
He'd better. Pakistan doesn't have many good options. It's pretty clear that Pakistan has been allowing, if not aiding and abetting, muslim insurgence in Kashmir and elsewhere in the region. They backed the USA in the move to rip up the Taliban and al-queda in Afghanistan, becasue if they had not the USA would have rolled them over too. He has probably taken notice that muslim insurgency and terrorism isn't being received very well in the world these days. If he can reign the barbarians in, he will survive to rule another day. Got to do a better job of purging his government of terrorist sympathizers. Seems to me that an agreement is possible in the region, but only if Musharraf can control the extremists. If not, he is toast.
Does wonders for the pucker factor...
Hitler seemed sincere in the beginning too...
Cross the Rubicon, Mr. Musharraf, it's what a stateman would do.
Right. Why should they? There is no past record of honesty to go by.
Musharraf has to prove that he's not sponsoring terrorism
Preferably by stopping it. Results = Proof.
India is offering all stick and no carrot.
You have to be kidding. India is the epitomy of all bark and no bite! It's consistently been attacked and caught off guard. It's record in that sense is laughable. But that's changed. You don't tempt a rogue, rabid dog with steak in order to placate it; you either use a stick or put it out of its misery.
This Islamic Bomb thing, makes Pakistan right now more urgent than Iraq, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan, or Libya.
Musharraf is a twisty little Islamic weasel, not as bad as some, but if he is all that separates the world from nuclear holocaust, we had better sell all and be on our knees in prayer from here on out.
Like it or not, an entity has been created, midwifed by Britain, called Pakistan, that cannot continue to exist as a sovereign state if the world is to be livable or even to continue to exist as we know it. It will have to be ruled by somebody else, be that India, the USA, the UN (heaven forbid), or even Israel, Europe, etc...
This place is just not capable of not being a threat. Even with some individual decent people in it, the entity itself is a time bomb and has very nearly done ticked out.
Its gotta go, we don't have years. I am sometimes not sure we have months.
Notice how he wears a military uniform while talking about how he wants peace. He is sending a message of belligerence with this outfit. Leaders of India do not dress up like this.
Islam has been called a "barracks religion"
Haunted and hunted. A high-stakes gambler about to see his game crumble.
Just my impression of the TV snapshots.
There certainly is a risk for Musharraf in being seen as too aligned with the Indians, and I don't think there's much chance of that, anyway. He never has expressed any fondness for them, and there's no chance than he'd ask for Indian help in actually arresting terrorists in Pakistan.
But, I think India is making a strategic mistake in refusing to talk to Musharraf. There is certainly room for negotiation on confidence-building measures on the LoC, and preventing insurgents from crossing it into Kashmir. India can neither ask nor expect Musharraf to take orders from India, but unless they are willing to talk, they might as well start shooting. This limbo with no achievable goal in the interim is not a logical or sustainable position.
There's no room for negotiation when you don't trust the other guy to keep his word. India doesn't trust Musharraf since he has a history of betraying Indian peace attempts in the past - for example, when he totally humiliated the BJP with his little Kargil stunt. It took President Clinton's personal intervention to bail India out of that one, and the BJP is not going to forget it.
Then tell me what India is demanding. It will be different from what I've read in every published account, so I'm looking forward to finding out the truth from you.
If the Pakistan government is still training terrorists, then I have no sympathy for it. So far, the only statements I have seen to that effect come from supporters of India. Given the bad blood between these two countries and the ongoing exaggerations and accusations that occur in their respective media every day, forgive me for wanting a second opinion.
Musharraf can't do what the Indians really want, which is to renounce any support for Kashmir separatists. That's something that will take years of good will between these two countries to achieve. That's going to be impossible to accomplish if they aren't speaking to each other.
If India will never speak to Pakistan, much less try to work together with it, then they might as well launch the nukes and see what happens.
He can try negotiations with someone else, later.
I doubt it. The Indian hardline position wasn't created by the BJP, it was created by the Congress, which is the BJP's opposition. The BJP is only maintaining it - if the Congress comes back, absolutely nothing will change. Heck, the most belligerent Indian leadership to date was a Congress leadership (Indira Gandhi).
I don't care enough about the region to fight all of you. Fire the nukes.
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