BitBender
12-26-2001, 11:20 PM
India and Pakistan Head Toward War
NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, Dec. 27, 2001
(http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/12/26/143146.shtml)
WASHINGTON – India and Pakistan are winding up tensions toward a full-scale war that could go nuclear with frightening rapidity and ease.
India announced Wednesday it was canceling its annual Army Parade, scheduled for Jan. 15 because troops could not be spared from the military buildup against Pakistan. It was the first time in the 55-year history of India as an independent nation this had ever occurred. Even India's three previous full-scale wars against Pakistan in 1947, 1965 and 1991 never required such action.
Muslim extremist terrorists Dec. 13 tried to slaughter members of India's government and other political leaders in a daring attack on the national parliament in New Delhi. Nine Indian security guards, including a woman, were killed foiling the plot, and all five attackers where shot dead. India holds Pakistan responsible, and Pakistan angrily denies the charges. On Friday, India expelled Pakistan's ambassador, known as high commissioner, from New Delhi.
Since then, both giant nations, the second and fifth most populous in the world, have been deploying their formidable conventional armies as if preparing for full-scale combat, especially on either side of the disputed Line of Control in Kashmir.
Nuclear Missiles 'in Position'
And on Wednesday, in the most ominous development so far, Indian Defense Minister George Fernandez announced that the nation's missile systems were "in position." Those missile systems are nuclear armed. So are Pakistan's.
Indian newspapers also reported Wednesday that Pakistan had beefed up forward deployment of some of its own missile systems.
The Hindu Times newspaper in New Delhi reported that Pakistan had moved forward its Hatf-1 and Hatf-2 short-range tactical missiles. The Hatf-1 has a range of 35 to 60 miles and the Hatf-2 can carry a 660-pound warhead 270 miles. However, the paper added, "It is clear that Pakistan, as of now, is not planning to mount nuclear warheads on them."
In 1998, both nations openly exploded nuclear devices within days of each other. Both are now openly nuclear armed.
India developed its own nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Pakistan was greatly aided in its missile technology and development by its historic ally China. Saudi financing played the dominant role in funding its nuclear program.
India and Pakistan have vast, mostly impoverished populations. Therefore, neither of them so far has had the resources to develop survivable second strike nuclear capacities or hardened missile silos to prevent their nuclear missiles from being wiped out by the other side in a surprise, pre-emptive attack.
That means that the threat level between them is comparable potentially to the hair-trigger tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and early '60s, before the combination of detente and second strike nuclear delivery systems removed the temptation, or feared threat, for either side to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike to render its arch foe defenseless with a single blow.
Second Strike
In an eerie, grim, reprise of U.S.-Soviet strategy in the 1960s and ‘70s, India is already devoting major resources to try to develop a survivable second-strike capability to give it the edge against Pakistan – and against China too, for that matter. The Indians are already seeking to emulate Israel's pioneering development of a submarine-based missile deterrent on the cheap.
Israel has bought three Dolphin class diesel-powered submarines, or U-boats from Germany that she has pushed ahead to deploy nuclear-capable cruise missiles on them. Fernandez is eagerly seeking to do the same thing, according to South Asian military and diplomatic sources.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India and President Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan grimly chose Christmas Day to make tough statements that sounded as if they were still determined to stay on a collision course.
"We do not want war, but war is being thrust upon us, and we will have to face it," Vajpayee said in a speech Tuesday.
That same day, Musharraf responded that Pakistan’s armed forces "are fully prepared and capable of defeating all challenges.”
India-Pakistan historic tensions have most of all been kept alive by the flashpoint issue of Kashmir.
The northern province, known as Jammu and Kashmir, is overwhelmingly Muslim, but has been controlled by India since 1947. Muslim guerrillas backed by Pakistan have for more than a decade waged one of the most bloody guerrilla insurrections in the world to try and drive India out.
Estimates of the death toll on both sides over the past 12 years start at 35,000 and go as high as 80,000. That is 20 times the number of people killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks that damaged the Pentagon and destroyed the World Trade Center.
The Pakistanis, including Musharraf, claim the majority Muslims in Kashmir are brutalized by the Indian military. India counters that its army is fighting merciless terrorist fanatics who slaughter entire villages of other faiths.
The acquisition of nuclear weapons by both giant nations has given a new dimension of threat to the conflict, especially as hatreds and tensions on both sides now appear to be at fever pitch.
Vast issues are at stake. The threat of nuclear war, like a colossal, glittering, cosmic sword of Damocles, continues to hover menacingly over 1.2 billion human beings in two of the largest nations on earth.
NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, Dec. 27, 2001
(http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/12/26/143146.shtml)
WASHINGTON – India and Pakistan are winding up tensions toward a full-scale war that could go nuclear with frightening rapidity and ease.
India announced Wednesday it was canceling its annual Army Parade, scheduled for Jan. 15 because troops could not be spared from the military buildup against Pakistan. It was the first time in the 55-year history of India as an independent nation this had ever occurred. Even India's three previous full-scale wars against Pakistan in 1947, 1965 and 1991 never required such action.
Muslim extremist terrorists Dec. 13 tried to slaughter members of India's government and other political leaders in a daring attack on the national parliament in New Delhi. Nine Indian security guards, including a woman, were killed foiling the plot, and all five attackers where shot dead. India holds Pakistan responsible, and Pakistan angrily denies the charges. On Friday, India expelled Pakistan's ambassador, known as high commissioner, from New Delhi.
Since then, both giant nations, the second and fifth most populous in the world, have been deploying their formidable conventional armies as if preparing for full-scale combat, especially on either side of the disputed Line of Control in Kashmir.
Nuclear Missiles 'in Position'
And on Wednesday, in the most ominous development so far, Indian Defense Minister George Fernandez announced that the nation's missile systems were "in position." Those missile systems are nuclear armed. So are Pakistan's.
Indian newspapers also reported Wednesday that Pakistan had beefed up forward deployment of some of its own missile systems.
The Hindu Times newspaper in New Delhi reported that Pakistan had moved forward its Hatf-1 and Hatf-2 short-range tactical missiles. The Hatf-1 has a range of 35 to 60 miles and the Hatf-2 can carry a 660-pound warhead 270 miles. However, the paper added, "It is clear that Pakistan, as of now, is not planning to mount nuclear warheads on them."
In 1998, both nations openly exploded nuclear devices within days of each other. Both are now openly nuclear armed.
India developed its own nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Pakistan was greatly aided in its missile technology and development by its historic ally China. Saudi financing played the dominant role in funding its nuclear program.
India and Pakistan have vast, mostly impoverished populations. Therefore, neither of them so far has had the resources to develop survivable second strike nuclear capacities or hardened missile silos to prevent their nuclear missiles from being wiped out by the other side in a surprise, pre-emptive attack.
That means that the threat level between them is comparable potentially to the hair-trigger tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and early '60s, before the combination of detente and second strike nuclear delivery systems removed the temptation, or feared threat, for either side to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike to render its arch foe defenseless with a single blow.
Second Strike
In an eerie, grim, reprise of U.S.-Soviet strategy in the 1960s and ‘70s, India is already devoting major resources to try to develop a survivable second-strike capability to give it the edge against Pakistan – and against China too, for that matter. The Indians are already seeking to emulate Israel's pioneering development of a submarine-based missile deterrent on the cheap.
Israel has bought three Dolphin class diesel-powered submarines, or U-boats from Germany that she has pushed ahead to deploy nuclear-capable cruise missiles on them. Fernandez is eagerly seeking to do the same thing, according to South Asian military and diplomatic sources.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India and President Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan grimly chose Christmas Day to make tough statements that sounded as if they were still determined to stay on a collision course.
"We do not want war, but war is being thrust upon us, and we will have to face it," Vajpayee said in a speech Tuesday.
That same day, Musharraf responded that Pakistan’s armed forces "are fully prepared and capable of defeating all challenges.”
India-Pakistan historic tensions have most of all been kept alive by the flashpoint issue of Kashmir.
The northern province, known as Jammu and Kashmir, is overwhelmingly Muslim, but has been controlled by India since 1947. Muslim guerrillas backed by Pakistan have for more than a decade waged one of the most bloody guerrilla insurrections in the world to try and drive India out.
Estimates of the death toll on both sides over the past 12 years start at 35,000 and go as high as 80,000. That is 20 times the number of people killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks that damaged the Pentagon and destroyed the World Trade Center.
The Pakistanis, including Musharraf, claim the majority Muslims in Kashmir are brutalized by the Indian military. India counters that its army is fighting merciless terrorist fanatics who slaughter entire villages of other faiths.
The acquisition of nuclear weapons by both giant nations has given a new dimension of threat to the conflict, especially as hatreds and tensions on both sides now appear to be at fever pitch.
Vast issues are at stake. The threat of nuclear war, like a colossal, glittering, cosmic sword of Damocles, continues to hover menacingly over 1.2 billion human beings in two of the largest nations on earth.