« the ego has landed »

What does Brand India stand for ?

Culture, Mystic, Large / Huge (as in population), Elephant (slow ??? Hindu rate of growth), Peace / Non-violence (Gandhi / Ahimsa), IT (Sweatshop ???)

Frankly, as things stand today, there is nothing specific I can put my finger on when I think of an answer to this question !

Indian Express

Adopt ways of Gandhi: Wolfowitz to Palestinians

Sic ! I mean truly deeply madly sick !!!

Imagine one of the biggest hawks in the US Neo-Con lobby proclaiming that someone should adopt peaceful, non-violent means when the US administration itself in guilty of state terror !

Rediff.com

Rumsfeld: Helicopter Downing a Tragedy

Guardian Unlimited

``It's clearly a tragic day for America,'' the defense chief told ABC's ``This Week.'' He added: ``In a long, hard war, we're going to have tragic days, as this is. But they're necessary. They're part of a war that's difficult and complicated.''

The strike was just south of Fallujah, a center of Sunni Muslim resistance to the U.S. occupation. At least some of those killed and injured were members of the 82nd Airborne Division, headed to Baghdad International Airport to begin a two-week vacation outside of Iraq.

Reminds me of a song by Country Joe & the Fish performed @ Woodstock '69 with the backdrop of the Vietnam war

"com'on all you big strong men, uncle sam needs your help again, got himself into a terrible jam ... way down under in vietnam ..."

Well Mr Rumsfeld ... how many more are you gonna get killed ?

But ... who are they fighting in Iraq ?

In any kind of war or battle, the first step to a plan or a strategy is to know who your enemy is. The American / British are of late stunnded at the series of attacks being launched against them by so-called Iraqi rebels. These by various theories could be led by former Saddam officials, with Saddam at its head, and allied to groups of foreign jihadists and al Qaeda under a single command ! Well ! this looks to be straight out of the manuscripts of the next book by one of those thriller authors

The interesting aspect is to arugue whether Saddam would have planned for such a distributed & disparate guerilla attack force post his download. Almost makes me think of the post-nuclear apocalypse plans that the Western governments would have (The ARPANet as the Internet was known then was supposed to be one such distributed network which no nuclear attack can eliminate)

The coalition forces are losing the battle on many grounds. The local intelligence is pathetic to say the least (they are apparently planning to redoply people with Arabic knowledge who were earlier part of a 1400 man strong group that was looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction), they do not know who is hitting them ... an essential pre-requisite to knowing what & how they are doing it ... which is an absolute need if they are to win this battle / war !

Guardian Unlimited

Blame game in the US for the Iraqi muddle

What a mighty mess the self-proclaimed protectors of the world have found themselves in ...

Republicans Vs Democrats, CIA chief Vs the Vice president, Dept of Defence Vs the CIA Vs State dept etc etc etc

How many fingers does one man need to point the blame for a screw-up away ???

Mr Tenet, a Bill Clinton appointee, has found himself at the centre of an increasingly fierce firestorm whipped up by Republicans and Democrats desperate to assign blame ahead of next year's elections for the handling of intelligence in the run-up to the war.

Senior Republicans believe that George W Bush needs to make Mr Tenet the scapegoat if he is to fend off Democrat attacks during the forthcoming election campaign. Democrats are rallying round the agency, arguing that the true culprits lie within the White House and the Pentagon.

The CIA has come under fire from Republicans for failing to provide warning of the September 11 attacks and for allegedly supplying inaccurate analysis of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programmes

Telegraph - News

Israel, Palestine, Islamic Jihad & the endless downward spiral to lunacy !

Oh well ! Here we go again ... a Palestinian woman who watched the Israelis kill her brother dons the role of a suicide bomber and kills many israelis in Haifa, Israel in swift retaliation to this act decides to target so-called Terrorist training camps of the Islamic Jihad terror group

While actions and reactions like this have become a commonplace affair in the dirty game that is being played out in the Middle east between Israel and her Arab neighbours, this time the issue is of a higher order because the Israeli air-strike was targetted deep inside Syrian territory, the first such attack in a couple of decades

Israel claims the right to defend itself from the terror that is being perpetrated by the Jehadi terror networks. Quoting Ariel Sharon, the Israeli premier :

"Israel will not be deterred from defending its citizens and will hit its enemies any place and in any way"

, which no doubt is bolstered by the back-slapping being indulged in by George W. Bush :

"I made it very clear to the prime minister, like I have consistently done, that Israel's got a right to defend herself, that Israel must not feel constrained in defending the homeland"

For once, the trusted acolyte of the US, Tony Blair also chose to condemn the Israeli action !!! However, Syria, despite its best efforts in the UN has _NOT_ thus far been able to push a resolution through, and this might never be possible given the US's veto rights in the Security council

I, personally am at a loss to make up my mind whether this was right or wrong. If one were to put the road to peace in the Middle east as the predominant theme on which all parties involved in the conflict are to act, then the Israeli reaction is despicable, it probably puts any chance of a brokered peace deal back many a month ! However, if one were to look at the other side of the coin, then going by the logic that the only to fight back terror is to give it back in the same measure, then the argument takes a different turn

Drawing parallels to the secnario in the Indian sub-continent, it is not a mystery to anyone that there are Terrorist training camps belonging to the Lashar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-mohammed etc in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and elsewhere inside Pakistani territory (The Tribune, Outlook Magazine)However, the Bush-doctrine or the doctrine of hot pursuit does not seem to be available to India for a few reasons :

* The US doesnt want that to happen and thereby India keep waiting twiddling thumbs hoping Big brother would be able to tame his trusted ally in the war against terror (that this trusted ally - Mian Musharraf is one of the key drivers of the Terror networks in the recent past - pre 9/11 is another story to be told on a different day)
* The fear / threat of escalations in tensions between to Nuclear armed nations
* India lacks the will to do so

Sad to say, but true, all of these apply to the India-Pakistan case

What India probably needs to do is to launch a covert operation inside PoK and Pakistan and use the enemy's tactics to defeat himself. In the sub-continent's scenario, there never might be another "WAR" between the two warring nations, there would always be this state of hightened tensions ... victory (however empty that might be) would come through attrition, the International community would only be a mute spectator

The Hindu
The New York Times
The Indian Express

... and now ... proof that Blair also played the deception game !

Just came across a couple of very interesting snippets from a NYT article quoting from Ex-British Foreign secretary Robin Cook's diary

Prime Minister Tony Blair conceded privately that Iraq did not have the quickly deployable weapons of mass destruction that the British government cited as justification for war, former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook asserted today.
Mr. Cook, who resigned his post as leader of the House of Commons because of Britain's decision to join in the American-led war, said Mr. Blair also made it clear to him in a conversation two weeks before combat began that he did not believe Saddam Hussein's weapons posed a "real and present danger" to Britain

Isn't it becoming increasingly clear (far more so now, given that the US & UK allied forces have not been able to unearth the much spoken about Iraqi Smoking gun or any evidence of Saddam Hussein's much-maligned WMD program), that all the while in the lead up to the War against Iraq, US and UK had decided to go to attack Iraq and everything else that they were doing or saying was an attempt at mass-hallucination, making people see danger where it perhaps isnt and making this the reason to attack Iraq - probably because almost 2 years after their much-publicised pursuit of Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack, they are none the closer to getting OBL

Further, these events seen in the light of the observations made by the US appointed Weapons inscpector David Kay make this an even-mor intruguinbg prospect. While the report given by David kay states that though they have not found any Weapon of Mass destruction, they diud however find the intent to develop Nuclear, Chemical and Biological weapons. The game of deceit being indulged in by the US and UK administration becomes apparent when we examine statements made by the respective leadership of these countries in the lead up to the war and after, example quoting Bush from a report in CNN (Jun 9 2003) :

"Intelligence throughout the decade showed they had a weapons program. I am absolutely convinced with time we'll find they did have a weapons program"

Well President Bush ... You still have _NOT_ found it !

Quoting from a report stating Hanz Blix - Iraq is carrying out substantial disarmament :
Chief UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix reported to the Security Council today that Iraq's destruction of its Al Samoud 2 missiles constitutes a substantial measure of disarmament.

"We are not watching the destruction of toothpicks. Lethal weapons are being destroyed, Iraq is now providing inspectors with pro-active cooperation, The recent Iraqi cooperation which "can be seen as active, or even pro-active"

For more reference to quotes by the US administration which would help in understanding the double-speak check these links :
Whiskey Bar
Dissentvoice.org
The New York TImes

No WMDs in Iraq ... but ... they were "supposed" to there ?

Whoops ! Here we go again, an American Weapon inspector in Iraq states that they have not found any evidence of Weapon's of Mass Destruction in Iraq (much the same as what Hans Blix said, before he was forced to pull out of Iraq but the intransigent stance taken up US & England)

However, probably in an attempt to keep the myth that Saddam Hussein was eviil and therefore Goerge W Bush had done the right thing, the Chief inspector , David kay also stated :

"We have not found at this point actual weapons, We have found substantial evidence of an intent of senior level Iraqi officials, including Saddam, to continue production at some future point in time of weapons of mass destruction"

Give us all a break David ! For long is thing going to continue ! If you guys still can't prove it, accept that you all screwed it up and 'sexed' it up big time. The worst that you are going to get is a trial in a War crimes tribunal for the death of Innocent Iraqi civilians (since the Ist Gulf war in 1991)

The Hindu

India & Israel - Natural allies ?

The 'Jihad'isation of the (formerly known as) revolution for Palestenian Self-determination has left India with hardly any other option but to partner Israel in not only combating the menace that is terrorism but also in areas of Health, Technology and Trade

India should however be cautious when it comes to dealing with Ariel Sharon since the Israeli premier hawkishness (highlighted recently by the open threat to Yasser Arafat) are often known to catalyse Palestinian attacks

While it is rather early in the day to declare if India and Palestine are natural allies, it however makes eminent sense for both nations to start co-operating wiuth each other in combating terror

HipperCritical
nirajweb.net

Tehelka's new avtaar !

The last time people every hear of Tarun Tejpal and Tejelka, it indeed was one big storm which hit the Indian Defence and Government circles, causing many a heads to roll ... This time round too ... I wish then all the very best in Journalistic ethics and Investigative vigour !

In India over the last three years Tehelka has come to stand
for public interest journalism, exposes of corruption, and courage under fire.

For two years Tehelka has been victimised by vested interests and a largely
corrupt establishment. This has resulted in its complete financial ruination.
But Tehelka has refused to compromise, bend or sell-out.

This has earned Tehelka the most extraordinary goodwill and admiration
of Indians from all walks of life. It is being continually exhorted by them to continue with its aggressive, non-partisan, public interest journalism.

Tehelka is determined to do so.

Tehelka is now preparing to launch a varied and well-rounded independent
weekly newspaper with public interest journalism at its core.

The Tehelka paper will not be aligned to any political party or business house.
It will represent only the people’s interests. It will be The People’s Paper.

Tehelka