Stray thoughts.................
One would have thought a 'No-Fly Zone' over Libya by UN (which itself is questionable as the airspace over a country is its sovereign territory) would be just that - not allowing Libyan fighter jets to fly over Libya and bomb rebels, and if they indeed did so, then to take the jets out with firepower. Fair enough - as no country should be using its Air Force to bomb its own countrymen. But when has a 'No Fly Zone' become an authorization to bomb Libyan towns and ground forces indiscreminately? And why is the UN keeping quiet about this blatant violation of its mandate. US and other western power dont seem to learn from the mistakes they made in Iraq. The Iraq invasion was for oil - pure and simple. But 8 years after the act, US is all but kicked out of Iraq, still has not much access to Iraq oil and even teh Iraqi people are not getting the benefit of the oil, as it is siphoned off by a few crooks in the power. Next obvious question is 'what moral or legal right has any country in interfering in the internal affairs of another country?' as is being done in Libya. As despicable as Gaddafi is (I hold no brief for him), overthrowing him has to an internal affair of the Libyan people. They have to find a solution themselves. Dont tell me it is not possible. Popular uprisings changed regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, and seems to be on the verge of doing an encore in Yemen. The Libyan people have to be more organized in their protests to throw out the dictator. Other countries have absolutely no say in this. This is the same UN that kept quiet when Tamil Rebels were massacred by the Srilankan Army or when Bahrain crushed the dissidents with brute force, just to give a couple of recent examples. The bombings in Libya by the Western Countris is wrong and will only help to make the world unstable.
What did MMS - Gilani meeting achieve? Nothing. It has once again made us a laughing stock in front of the world for being soft towards Pakistan. Lame duck Prime Ministers get these urges to leave a legacy which should be curbed at all costs. When will the powers be realize that Pakistan hates us and would do everything in their capacity to cripple India. The very edifice of Pakistan is construcated on an anti India Platform. Only saving grace was that the ordeal ensure poor Gilani had to sit through and watch Pakistan losing. The guy went back humiliated. Dont tell me it was only a cricket match. The problem with Indian political leadership is that most of our top leaders are 75 plus who were born pre independence (and as in the case of MMS and L K Advani in towns which are in Pakistan now) and have nostalgic memories about the country. This is not a sentiment shared by the post independence born people (Pakistan has already made this transition - their current leaders are born post independence), who dont believe that India and Pakistan has the same umbilical cord connection. We need to be tough with Pakistan. We are in a position of strength. We are economically and politically superior. Pakistan needs us more than we need them. Take out the US aid and see where it leaves Pakistan! And one would have expected that in international negotiations it is the superior party that holds all aces. We dont seem to be, and that is because we engage Pakistan to bend over backwards to please US.
