Swaminathan

Submitted by Sword of Islam & The Babies of Beslan (United Kingdom), Sep 8, 2006 at 18:04

I don't doubt anything that you say on this subject but why do you regard this as something that the West is morally obliged to resolve? Preferably without rolling out colonial grievances that the civilised world has long gotten over. You wanted your Independence and you received it. The very definition of the word implies responsibility.

If you can't preserve the integrity of your own borders then that is hardly our concern. What is preventing India from dealing with the situation herself rather than expecting The West to resolve it on their behalf? There are conflicts all over the world. The Indian government officially condemned the war in Iraq and considered it illegitimate without the backing of the UN which showed that they had little genuine interest in fighting 'the war on terror'. Musharraf's motivations for co-operating with us may be suspect but it was more than India was willing or able to offer. It therefore seems a little hypocritical that any Indian should consequently expect any input by 'The West' on the subject on Kashmir to come from anywhere other than the UN.

There may be grounds for 'dealing' with Pakistan but it hardly seems logical for the US to confront Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea & Pakistan at the same time. We have a word for it. It is 'suicide'. Sometimes you have to pick your battles. But quite why you feel it incumbent for the US to resolve the Kashmir situation on your behalf, especially with such a long shopping list of threats to deal with, mystifies me. Most nations would feel humiliated by this prospect.

I would be very grateful for you to explain The Partition of India and Pakistan as I'm not sure that I understand it. I had thought that this was done along purely religious lines but this is obviously not the case. If it were, and if it had been done properly, you wouldn't have such a large Muslim population and disputes such as these wouldn't have arisen. Please explain this as I find the subject baffling. I'm sure that there is a simple explanation for my meagre Western intellect.

P.S. It would be helpful if you could directly quote some of the 'the utterings of Pak. minister' that you refer to.

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