"Missile launch from Pakistan!" shouted Unni Krishnan
"Target?" snapped back Hari Dixit.
"Uncertain, sir. We won't know until re-entry".
"Warhead?".
"Not known."
"Time to impact?"
"Estimated three minutes. Do we launch?".
"Launch site?"
"Kagan. Northern Pakistan. 34 degrees 47 North. 73 degrees 36 East"
"Get me Hamid Khan".
"They're not picking up, sir," said an aide-de-camp.
"Permission to counter-strike, sir" said a voice which Dixit didn't recognize.
"Confirm number of enemy missiles?"
"Two,sir"
"Time to impact two minutes twenty-eight seconds"
"Waiting your instructions, sir".
(scene from the underground National Command Centre, Karwana, Haryana, India).
What are the circumstances that would lead to a nuclear war breaking out on the Indian sub-continent ? That is the aim of this fictional account by Humphrey Hawksley, a BBC journalist who used to report from Asia. Drawing on his years of experience and insight into diplomatic and military knowledge gained, the story is set in 2007 and describes a full-scale war between India on one side, and Pakistan and China on the other. The initial flashpoints of tension are Kashmir and Tibet with insurgency and counter-insurgency action escalating into initially conventional, then thermo-nuclear warfare.
Hawksley's setting is realistic enough, describing each nation's current command and control structures, the location of each nation's major military bases, the military hardware and technology, as well as the domestic political faultlines in each country that leads to war. Pakistan is in the grip of a military dictatorship, and Hawksley correctly points out that the Pak nuclear strategy, given the numerical inferiority of its conventional forces, is based on a first-strike capability. China is preoccupied with gaining regional and global superpower status and views India as a threat to its ambitions. India, facing attacks on both the western and eastern borders, is increasing forced to take more extreme measures, but out of principle, refuses to counter-strike with nuclear weapons.
Without giving the plot away, the novel shows what an outcome would look like. The war exposes divisions in the West, with the US and her allies divided on how to respond. Pakistan is finished as a nation state, and the world sees a new more potent cold war developing with ever shifting alliances.
A good read - 8 out of 10.
From whatever angle or perspective you look at it, a sphere has the same visual proportions. I am a constant - nothing more, nothing less...and my musings just that - random thoughts pulled from the recesses of my daily observations. Welcome aboard.
Saturday, 29 May 2004
Wednesday, 19 May 2004
Manmohan Singh
Today is a good day.
The news that Manmohan Singh, a fellow Sikh, is to become the next Prime Minister of India - has made me happy.
It's about time the world realized who Sikhs are. Sikh achievements in commerce, politics, the armed forces, arts and music, are out of all proportion to our minority status. I hope Manmohan Singh manages to knock some sense into the empty headed politicians in both France and the US.
If I sound partisan or tribalistic, or even nationalistic, then I unashamedly make no apologies. We've gone through a lot of crap historically, including attempted genocide by various rulers of India, the Anglo-Sikh wars, the 1947 Partition, the subsequent dismemberment of East Punjab into Haryana and Himachal Pradesh by the Hindi speaking lobby, the 1984 Delhi riots, the 9/11 backlash against innocent Sikhs etc.
Today is a good day. :-)
The news that Manmohan Singh, a fellow Sikh, is to become the next Prime Minister of India - has made me happy.
It's about time the world realized who Sikhs are. Sikh achievements in commerce, politics, the armed forces, arts and music, are out of all proportion to our minority status. I hope Manmohan Singh manages to knock some sense into the empty headed politicians in both France and the US.
If I sound partisan or tribalistic, or even nationalistic, then I unashamedly make no apologies. We've gone through a lot of crap historically, including attempted genocide by various rulers of India, the Anglo-Sikh wars, the 1947 Partition, the subsequent dismemberment of East Punjab into Haryana and Himachal Pradesh by the Hindi speaking lobby, the 1984 Delhi riots, the 9/11 backlash against innocent Sikhs etc.
Today is a good day. :-)
Wednesday, 12 May 2004
Yeh Zameen
One of my fav songs from Vital Signs...
Haste chehray, mehkay angan, thandee shaamain, raseelay sanwan
jo bhi kuch hai, isi se hai
Yehi hamari Laila hai
Yehi hamari Sohni hai
Yehi hamari Sassi hai
Heer bhi apni yehi zameen
Yehi zameen, yehi zameen, yehi zameen, yehi zameen, bus yehi zameen, yehi zameeeeeeeen...
Khushbo iski, rang iske, jeena marna sang iske, hum to lagge ang iske
Yehi hai gori ki payal
Yehi hai ankhon ka kajal
maathay ka teeka bhi yehi
Yehi hai haathon ki mehndi
Yehi zameen yehi zameen.....
Yehi rasta, yehi manzil, yehi kushti, yehi sahil, yehi jaan hai, yehi hai dil
Aao apnay jeevan main pahla is ka naam likhain
phelay is ki baat karain
jo apni pehchaan bani
Yehi zameen yehi zameen.....
Haste chehray, mehkay angan, thandee shaamain, raseelay sanwan
jo bhi kuch hai, isi se hai
Yehi hamari Laila hai
Yehi hamari Sohni hai
Yehi hamari Sassi hai
Heer bhi apni yehi zameen
Yehi zameen, yehi zameen, yehi zameen, yehi zameen, bus yehi zameen, yehi zameeeeeeeen...
Khushbo iski, rang iske, jeena marna sang iske, hum to lagge ang iske
Yehi hai gori ki payal
Yehi hai ankhon ka kajal
maathay ka teeka bhi yehi
Yehi hai haathon ki mehndi
Yehi zameen yehi zameen.....
Yehi rasta, yehi manzil, yehi kushti, yehi sahil, yehi jaan hai, yehi hai dil
Aao apnay jeevan main pahla is ka naam likhain
phelay is ki baat karain
jo apni pehchaan bani
Yehi zameen yehi zameen.....
Monday, 10 May 2004
Native Indian Philosophy
Sioux Indian war cry:
"Hoka Hey"....Today is a good day to die
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"In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and moon should man learn.. all things tell of Tirawa."
"All things in the world are two. In our minds we are two, good and evil. With our eyes we see two things, things that are fair and things that are ugly.... We have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, and we have the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things two, all two."
Eagle Chief (Letakos-Lesa) Pawnee
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"The Great Spirit is in all things, he is in the air we breathe. The Great Spirit is our Father, but the Earth is our Mother. She nourishes us, that which we put into the ground she returns to us...."
Big Thunder (Bedagi) Wabanaki Algonquin
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"Traditional people of Indian nations have interpreted the two roads that face the light-skinned race as the road to technology and the road to spirituality. We feel that the road to technology.... has led modern society to a damaged and seared earth. Could it be that the road to technology represents a rush to destruction, and that the road to spirituality represents the slower path that the traditional native people have traveled and are now seeking again? The earth is not scorched on this trail. The grass is still growing there."
William Commanda, Mamiwinini, Canada, 1991
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"A wee child toddling in a wonder world, I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan."
Zitkala-Sa
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"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children."
Ancient Native Indian Proverb
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