Could saber-rattling lead to war between India and Pakistan?

[Adsos Letter]

Source: McClatchy

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan is moving some troops away from its border with Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said on Friday, sparking renewed fears that last month's terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, could trigger a fourth war between the two countries, both of which are now armed with nuclear weapons.

Media reports in both countries, most unconfirmed and some false or exaggerated, have fueled rising war hysteria in India and Pakistan, and U.S. officials and independent analysts worry that any signs of preparation for war could trigger a conflict that neither country wants and that neither can afford.

The Bush administration has been trying to calm the situation, but U.S. officials worry that Pakistan's weak civilian government can't meet India's demands for a crackdown on Islamic militant groups without sparking a backlash from the country's powerful army and the directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, which have ties to some militant groups.

Stephen Cohen, a South Asia expert with The Brookings Institution, a center-left policy research organization in Washington who returned on Monday from a visit to India, said the coalition government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh doesn't want a confrontation, but is under considerable public pressure to retaliate against Pakistan for the Mumbai attacks.



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/58559.html

[babylonsister]

1. Wouldn't it be lovely if someone could broker some common

ground? Is there no one in the world with any influence?

[ohio2007]

4. You mean someone like the ISI ?

I doubt they will sit and listen to the POTUS without him restarting the "protection money" deal previously agreed to with the ex dictator of Pakistan.

btw
?
Why isn't Musharraf dead ?
He must hold or wield some powerful knowledge still.

[babylonsister]

5. No, I mean another country. Why is it always the US that's

responsible for doing anything? Don't India and Pakistan have common friends from other countries who might think it in their best interest to try to calm this down?

And your question about Musharraf is odd. Though I do agree, he is probably a threat to the US considering the cahoots they were in for years.

[ohio2007]

9. Cuz thats the way it is. You suggest maybe Tibet could step up to the plate?

and get China onboard with putting boots on the ground in Pakistan before they get their nose bloodied again by the largest democracy in the world ?
India would be ok with that plan imo but I don't think India should have to bend over and take it up the ass one more time by 'forces' operating inside the Pakistan government.

As far as the Musharraf comment, everybody knows that knowledge is power.
You don't share it or give it away without setting a price.

He cut a deal with China in late 2001 for a situation much like this but, imo, he thought it was a mutual defense pact with an emphasis on a new potential foreign threat coming to kick up some dust.

[Technowitch]

11. Right now, due to the still unfinished Afghanistan war...

...the U.S. is seen as one of Pakistan's most influential allies. And America's been giving billions of dollars in aid (including military) to Pakistan.

I've been living in India for most of the last 2 1/2 years, and it seems clear that the people here really don't want war. Unfortunately, the Pakistani government -- with its weak hold over its own military and tolerance of terrorist bases near the Kashmiri region -- isn't trying very hard to stop the cross-border attacks.

We're still reeling over here from the 11/26 Mumbai attacks, yet the responses I've seen so far don't even come close to the rage-filled aggressive militaristic impulses the U.S. went through post 9/11. Still, there's the sense that *something* urgently needs to be done. Time after time, there are horrific bombings and shootings -- and every one of them seems to be instigated by elements outside the country looking to destabilise India, both politically and economically.

That said, India's already put out the call for all of Pakistan's allies -- including China and Saudi Arabia, as well as America -- to please get them to calm down, stop the troop build-up on the India/Pakistan border, and to deal with the terrorist bases along the Line of Control (Kashmir).

[Adsos Letter]

6. I am amazed by the willingness of media (and not just that of south Asia)

to stoke tense situations with what the account records as news reports "most unconfirmed and some false or exaggerated, have fueled rising war hysteria in India and Pakistan..."

Is there no common-sense that can override nationalism? Will it take a nuclear exchange between nations of this size to get the point across: that war is something to be avoided if at all possible, not hyped as the spectacle media makes of it?

[Ghost Dog]

12. Chinese FM talks with Indian, Pakistani counterparts over phone

www.chinaview.cn 2008-12-26 23:22:25

BEIJING, Dec.26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi held telephone conversations on Thursday and Friday with his Indian and Pakistani counterparts, Pranab Mukherjee and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, respectively, pledging to push forward relations with the two South Asian neighbors in 2009.

During the conversations, Yang and the two ministers spoke highly of the sound development of China-India and China-Pakistan relations in the outgoing year and vowed to make concerted efforts in 2009 to score new achievements in bilateral relations.

The Chinese foreign minister also exchanged views with Mukherjee and Qureshi on last month's Mumbai terror attacks and the security situation in South Asia.

Yang reiterated China's strong condemnation of the attacks, noting that both India and Pakistan have voiced their determination to combat terrorism.

China hopes that India and Pakistan, both important neighbors of China, would bear in mind regional peace and stability, properly handle related issues through dialogue and consultations, and continue to improve their relations and to push forward the peace process between the two countries, Yang said.

China holds that stable, peaceful and sound ties between India and Pakistan are in the fundamental interests of both countries and peoples and at the same time are the common aspiration of the international community, he said.

Yang said that China opposes any form of terrorism and is willing to work with India, Pakistan and the rest of the international community to jointly safeguard peace and security in the South Asian region.

For their parts, Mukherjee and Qureshi expressed appreciation of China's stance on the issue and its efforts to maintain and promote stability in the region.

/. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-12/26/content_10565229.htm

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. If they go to war I fear nukes will fly

and even perhaps an August of 1914 feel, if both Russia and China decide to get involved

(On a personal note I fear the US Navy will recall personnel, for certain specialties, these two have navies, especially the Indians)

[billyoc]

3. It usually does.

Why would this time be any different?

[ohio2007]

7. holding nukes means understanding you can not use them

without being reduced to a burned out cinder yourself.

[balantz]

8. Here we go n/t

[McLowery]

10. Where is the news?

The clash between India and Pakistan is nothing new and the prediction for these two countries to be the first to execute a nuclear exchange isn't new either. The international community HAS to make it very clear to both Pakistan and India that such an exchange would be completely detrimental to both of their global interests.

[inanna]

13. Pakistan seeks to reduce tensions after troop move (AP)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan told India on Saturday it did not want war and was committed to fighting terrorism - a move apparently aimed at reducing tensions after Pakistan moved troops toward their shared border.

<snip>

"We ourselves have accepted that we have a cancer," said Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in a televised speech Saturday. "They are forcing their agenda on us."

Zardari has pledged to battle militancy, repeatedly reminding critics that his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was herself killed in a gun-and-suicide bomb attack blamed on terrorists.

More: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_PAKISTAN_INDIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-12-27-09-50-42