Posted on 06/01/2002 2:01:53 PM PDT by B.Bumbleberry
Says he is ready to meet Vajpayee in Almaty; rules out use of unconventional weapons
ISLAMABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf on Saturday said whatever the pressures, no sane individual could think of using unconventional weapons.
"I don't think either side is that irresponsible to go to that limit," he said in an interview with CNN. "I would even go to the extent of saying one should not even be discussing these things, because any sane individual cannot even think of going into this unconventional mode, whatever the pressures."
President Musharraf dismissed as "absolutely baseless" charges that Pakistan had moved nuclear missiles towards the border with India. "That Pakistan ever moved any nuclear asset or deployed its missiles is baseless, absolutely baseless," he said. "It was an absolutely baseless accusation that Pakistan ever moved nuclear weapons or deployed nuclear assets and that holds good even now. If India has moved their missiles, this is extremely dangerous and a very serious escalation, an extremely serious escalation. The international community must take note of this because you can't distinguish what is conventional and what is unconventional. Let us hope good sense prevails (and) this does not lead to escalation. It has not because we are restraining ourselves, and let Indians not test our patience and restraint because it will be very dangerous."
India has said it will not be the first to strike with nuclear weapons. Musharraf said that he would go beyond that. "We've called for a no-war pact (with India), that there shouldn't be any war," he said. "We've called for de-nuclearisation of South Asia, so we've called for a reduction of forces."
He said that Pakistan would fight militancy in any form. He insisted that "nothing is happening across the Line of Control" but noted that "it should not end there." "There has to be some movement forward," he said. "And the movement forward is certainly the issue of addressing, initiating the process of dialogue, and squarely addressing the dispute of Kashmir."
President Musharraf said that the Kashmiri separatists were engaged in "a genuine freedom struggle" for self-determination. He said that he was willing to talk to Vajpayee in Kazakhstan, where both leaders would attend an Asian summit from June 4. "It depends more on Prime Minister Vajpayee," Musharraf said. "I have no problem with meeting him, I have
been saying that all along so that question must be put to him."
Musharraf also had reassuring words for those fearing all-out war between India and Pakistan as tensions reach dangerous levels over alleged cross-border attacks into Indian-held Kashmir.
"In these five or seven days we must make up our minds that war is not the answer," the president said. "We should see the reality on ground and let us go and start addressing the core issue through a process of dialogue."
But he was careful to remind the world that Pakistan should not be considered a push-over, repeating that his army will strike back if attacked. "Let us also understand that this is not a run-through," he said. "We are not in a situation where Indian forces can run through and score a victory over Pakistan. We are going to defend every inch of Pakistan."
Musharraf also repeated his call for a Kashmir plebiscite, as promised in a United Nations Security Council resolution. "The world should help the Kashmiris to get the right of self-determination as promised by the UN Security Council resolution," he said. "We must think of long-term strategy to resolve this dispute permanently." The general's conciliatory tone is likely to be welcomed by the world community, with relations between India and Pakistan strained almost to breaking point
Bull...
| Weak Pervez triggers diplomat exodus |
| Saurabh Shukla (New Delhi, June 1) |
| The West’s fear of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal falling into irresponsible hands appears to have swelled to a sweeping alarm. The slew of advisories issued by Western governments asking citizens to leave India and Pakistan was triggered by genuine anxiety that General Pervez Musharraf might now be too weak to keep his nukes away from the hotheads in Islamabad. European diplomats based in New Delhi met on Saturday to discuss the shared assumption that India and Pakistan were on the brink of war. “Our assessment is that irresponsible elements in Pakistan might take control of nuclear weapons,” said a diplomat who was at the meeting. The assessment is intriguing — for it flies in the face of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's assurance to New Delhi that Musharraf would show results on containing cross-border terrorism within 10 days. Nonetheless, over a hundred Western diplomats and their families left India for home on Saturday. As more and more foreign nationals queue up at their missions to register their presence in the country, the exodus is likely to become larger. US mission sources said only about 15,000 of some 60,000 Americans in India were currently registered with them. Maximum-alarm bells went off in Western capitals after a US state department report concluded that hectic international efforts might not ultimately be able to ward off war between India and Pakistan. The conclusions foreign diplomats in Delhi drew were based as much on the US assessment as on Musharraf's weakened regime and India’s determination to act in the absence of Pakistani efforts to stop infiltration. “Our moves have been influenced by the heavy firing on the border. It's our job to act in the best interest of our nationals,” said a US diplomat. Indeed, whatever Straw might have said, 15 UK mission staff have already left India with their families. There are approximately 30,000 British nationals in India. Fifty US embassy staffers have already returned home with their families. Some 240 United Nations emplo- yees are expected to leave in a couple of days. Day’s Developments N-war unthinkable, says Musharraf The Pakistani President has told CNN that the world “shouldn’t even be discussing” a nuclear war, “because any sane individual cannot even think of going into it”.
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Completely right, sane, reasonable. It is India that needs to be deterred here, not Pakistan. Everybody wants to hate the Muslim and the dictator, but he is the one allying himself to us, doing what we ask, and acting reasonably. Meanwhile everybody wants to love the non-Muslim and the democracy - which is howling for war.
The difference between the justice upheld by states and the war of all against all sought by identity group politics, terrorist and parties alike, is that justice pays attention to what men *do*, not what they supposedly "are" or "have a propensity for" sociologically.
Yet we are treated to nonsense about this guy being Arafat, when Arafat has been a terrorist murderer for 30 years, while this guy (and the Pakistani military throughout the cold war, for that matter) has supported us. And is now bending over backwards to maintain peace, while the Hindu nationalists of the BJP are out for blood.
People thinking that muddily would have dumped the Shah - oops, they did dump the Shah, which first brought Islamic extremists to power. Then some tell us "it is an Arab trick" - demonstrating their collosal ignorance. Pakistanis are not Arabs. They speak Urdu, not Arabic. The Shah wasn't an Arab either - he spoke Persian.
What is really going on here is the third phase in the present overall war on terrorism, since the initial attacks (or fourth if you count them). The first phase was our taking the initiative in Afghanistan and overthrowing the Taliban. The second phase was the Islamic extremists stoking up the Israel-Palestine conflict, in order to polarize the Arab world and to block any move by us on Iraq with the diplomatic consequences of that. That was a defensive move for them, but one that recovered the initiative.
The third is this attempt to foment war between Pakistan and India. Which is meant to establish that all non-Muslims hate all Muslims and therefore every Muslim must side with the extremists in their war against the modern world. It is also meant to overthrow the present Pakistani government, to establish a new safe and better safe country for the extremists, and they hope to give them access to nuclear weapons. The Indians are playing right along, because the Hindu nationalists of the BJP are players of the identity group politics game themselves.
Wake up and look at the *strategy* of our enemies. They *want* us - and India - flying off at every Muslim and every Muslim country, regardless of how reasonable they act or how much they try to side with us instead of the terrorists. That is what gives Muslims no choice. Our strategy has to be to give Muslims a choice. Instead of treating all Muslims as our enemies, we must distinguish between those who *act* against us, and those who favor us and support reason and peace. Pakistan is clearly in the latter category. If it is treated as an enemy anyway, then we are telling the Muslim world they cannot make peace with us and are all with Bin Laden. Which is exactly what Bin Laden's recruiters want.
The logic of guerilla warfare is all about *aim*, about discrimination between true enemies and friends. By all means, wail on the true enemies, and be realistic about who is one. But wailing on friends because they *remind you* of enemies is stupid in a guerilla style war.
If you can't see this, just face facts about the workability of Bin Laden's strategy in the long run, if we act that way. Are we going to exterminate one billion people? We are not, and if you tried to you'd have a billion more enemies and I'd be among them. So the potential base of recruitment is not going to go away. If no Muslim is allowed to make peace and by our ally instead of our enemy, then any of them will fight us too. In the long run, it is not going to be possible to prevent every one of them from every having sophisticated weapons, if the thing goes on forever.
Just listen to what Bin Laden says when talking to his own side. He says every Muslim has a duty to seek weapons of mass destruction, and every Muslim has a duty to kill Americans by terrorism. Force every Muslim into his camp and that strategy will work.
Political struggles are won by dividing the camp of potential enemies, not by unifying it. It must be more attractive for masses of potential enemies not to be enemies, but to make peace and be friendly instead. It must above all be possible. If reasonableness and actions are just ignored, and only identity groups are noticed, then you play into the hands of your enemies, unite them and those they wish to lead, and lose.
War in south Asia can be prevented at the present time - but only by deterring India. Pakistan does not need deterring; she transparently does not want war. The same cannot be said of India. And somebody better notice it soon, or there will be a war anyway, and a disasterous one for our overall fight against the Islamicists.
If a nuclear war starts, it will likely be Pakistan to do so, but I don't think it will be Musharref to order it. He appears to be a sane man in control of an insane people.
Tell us what you see as pressure that would work with India - the threat of a nuclear exchange with Pakistan doesn't seem enough.
There is no such thing anymore. All attacks by such are acts of terror and must cease or be stopped. There are no freedom fighters. Only terrorists.
Assume for a moment that Bush adopts your solution. Talk about the domestic cost for Bush if Pakistan then launches first!
I imagine reasoning along this line:"Just a matter of time before a nuke goes off somewhere in the world. The adults will have to issue ultimatums then: 'Disarm and submit to our inspections or get nuked.' Unfortunately, humanity's survival will depend on this NWO, and the sooner we get some consensus for it, the better. And it will take a nuclear bomb going off somewhere to get it. Better India or Pakistan than the U.S. ..."
Ground conventional warfare systems that would matter would be things like counter-battery radars to locate Indian artillery the moment it fires, modern ATGMs to enable infantry to destroy Indian tanks, smart terminal-homing 120mm mortar rounds to let Pakistani light artillery destroy armor, superior night vision equipment to let the Pakistanis rule the night by seeing farther than the Indians, GPS systems plus laser rangefinders and simple communications gear to enable any Pakistani unit to call for artillery fire effectively, improved conventional munitions to enable the better Pakistani mobile artillery to fire "cluster bombs".
Without providing a single new major military platform (plane, tank, APC, or gun system), we could ratchet Pakistani conventional warfare capabilities to heights the Indians could not hope to match. The mere threat of this sort of aid ought to get the Indians attention. The more you provide the bigger the shift. You can "tune" it all you like.
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