NO TIME FOR WAR

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Published on Monday, December 22, 2008 by The Women's International Perspective (WIP)
No Time for War: A Call for Peace Amid Rising Nuclear Tensions between Pakistan and India
by Zubeida Mustafa
Peace activists in Pakistan and India are attempting desperately to be heard above the din raised by warmongers - elitist by all counts and claiming to be patriotic as well - in the wake of the Mumbai carnage. Jingoism is in the air - be it from so-called nationalists (posing as analysts on television) advocating a nuclear attack for the defense of their country, or the man on the street. Be they from Pakistan or India, they speak of war with great abandon as if it is child's play. For the electronic media it is a race for sensationalism.

Extremist and militant parties with fundamentalist agendas in Pakistan (Jamaat-e-Islami) and India (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghthe or the RSS) have also jumped into the fray. Mr. K.S. Sudarshan, the powerful supreme leader of the RSS (the military wing of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh or BJP) called on India to be prepared for war, admitting the situation could easily turn into a nuclear confrontation. He added, "Whenever the Aasuri (demon) powers start dominating this planet, there is no way other than war ... It will be nuclear war and a large number of people will perish ... But it is very necessary to defeat the demons. And let me say with confidence that after this destruction, a new world will emerge, which will be very good, free from evil and terrorism."

In television talk shows nuclear weapons are treated on par with conventional weapons, with some experts taking pains to explain the theory of mutually assured destruction and its deterrent effect that would presumably prevent the armies of the two countries from pressing the nuclear button. The line between sanity and madness is becoming blurred.

The fact is that Pakistan and India went nuclear in 1998 without ever educating their public about the horrors of nuclear war. With a low literacy rate, the region has poor understanding of what a nuclear holocaust means. Some have watched documentaries on National Geographic and other foreign channels (the local channels have no time for such irrelevant stuff) and have heard of Hiroshima but cannot relate to it in a personal way. As for the educated (who also happen to be the privileged class), their hope lies in fantasy. Many may have seen films like The Day After but they are convinced these horrors only befall only ‘others.' Warnings of the terrible destruction nuclear weapons can render do not make an impact. Small wonder then, that A.Q. Khan, Pakistan's father of the bomb, is a darling of a section of the country's media.

It is time the media in Pakistan and India, which have become informal but effective actors in foreign policy and defense strategy making processes, started behaving more responsibly. They must stop glorifying war and make the people aware of the human tragedy that war brings in its wake.

Apart from peace activists and human rights groups, there are a few brave individuals who are advocating sanity on both sides of the border. I am so grateful for these voices. Award winning novelist Arundhati Roy, India's most famous champion of India-Pakistan friendship, wrote in a recent newspaper article, "We have a military occupation in Kashmir and a shamefully persecuted, impoverished minority of more than 150 million Muslims who are being targeted as a community and pushed to the wall, whose young see no justice on the horizon, and who, were they to totally lose hope and radicalise, end up as a threat not just to India, but to the whole world ... What we're experiencing now is blowback, the cumulative result of decades of quick fixes and dirty deeds ... The only way to contain (it would be naïve to say end) terrorism is to look at the monster in the mirror. We're standing at a fork in the road. One sign says Justice, the other Civil War. There's no third sign and there's no going back. Choose."

In Pakistan, Irfan Husain, a renowned columnist, wrote in the most widely circulated English language newspaper, Dawn, "Most Pakistanis have become so accustomed to terrorist attacks on their soil that they have forgotten that this is not the norm elsewhere. Instead of asking, ‘What's the big deal?' they should be putting themselves in the place of the victims. If, as it seems very likely, the group that attacked Mumbai was trained and armed by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, it is a very big deal indeed."

I have always been a pacifist, but two personal experiences made me hate war actively. I became acutely conscious of the destructiveness of war in 1971 when the Pakistan army turned on its own people living in East Pakistan (which later became Bangladesh). After the military crackdown on Dhaka in March of that year, Mukti Bahini (the Bengali rebel forces) rose against the non-Bengalis who had been living in their midst for decades. The following month I met a woman who had been evacuated from the war zone to the relative safety of Karachi. When I learned of her story, the inhumanity of war hit me full blast. Just a few months earlier, this woman had been surrounded by a happy family, but was now mourning her ‘disappeared' husband and five-year-old son who was shot dead in front of her. Now she was alone, nursing an injured daughter, shot in the eye. But she was not the only one grieving her losses. There were many others like her.

Twenty-four years later, my aversion for war was reinforced. Emiko Okada, a 67-year-old hibakusha (survivor of the nuclear attack), visited Pakistan in 2005 as a member of the Hiroshima World Peace Mission on the 60th anniversary of the U.S. attack that left hundreds of thousands dead, injured and suffering from the painful effects of radiation.

Okada was eight years old when the bomb fell. Her entire family was exposed to the blast - its radiation left them badly burned and injured. Describing her own condition, she said, "Because I had breathed the radioactive gas, I was vomiting frequently and was very ill. I couldn't move for two days. I was bleeding from my gums and lost my hair. I often felt weak and had to lie down."

She also bore the emotional scar of losing her 12-year-old sister. Emiko recalled, "My mother would spend hours and hours searching through the rubble for Mieko. My parents had believed till the end that my sister was alive and they died without submitting a notification of her death to the municipal office. We don't have her remains and belongings (those who died instantly from the blast simply vaporized). All we have of her is a letter she wrote to her cousin looking forward to the end of the war."

Mieko could be one of us. She died waiting for peace. We should live to avoid war.

© 2008 The Women’s International Perspective
Zubeida Mustafa is a journalist from Pakistan where she works for a daily paper. She obtained a Master's degree in International Relations from the University of Karachi and has also studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

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mwildfire December 24th, 2008 5:12 pm
What an appalling piece, and many of the comments are even more so. Apparently there are huge numbers of people who don't understand that, quite literally, no one can win a nuclear war...because few if any would survive. It leaves me concluding that humanity needs to proceed to commit suicide as we're too dangerously insane to continue infesting this planet. But please--let's not do it that way, destroying most OTHER life on Earth along with ourselves! Let's use germs--much cleaner.

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donny December 23rd, 2008 12:04 am
Dennis Duncan, You are DUMB

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EKATON December 23rd, 2008 2:02 am
Well, donny, that was certainly helpful. Do you have any further considered and articulate input to offer?

-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw

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Dennis Duncan December 23rd, 2008 1:13 am
Sir, drop your name calling or at least back it up with facts. Otherwise, you're no less DUMB.

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RJKT1 December 22nd, 2008 9:32 pm
"Just another elitist author who doesn't know what she's talking about. Both countries will always live in terror hell unless the terrorists are held accountable and most so-called "peace activists" never bother. In fact, they'll sometimes even "defend" the terrorists.'

You've hit the nail squarely on the head.

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Dennis Duncan December 22nd, 2008 9:57 pm
Trust me. I don't want to see a war between those two countries. Like most other nations, those two nations are shackled with very corrupt governments, rising poverty, biased media, and just more dog-eat-dog mentality. I just don't see the so-called "peace activists" doing long term planning or another one of these terror attacks just wouldn't have happened and I'm well aware of attacks in both nations. The more weak planning and silly decorating they do along with religious and/or political bias, the more these two nations come closer to bloody hell.

As to the author, I read the article and a lot of it didn't make sense. Then I read the bottom info. It turns out she's another journalist and I don't trust media or the government.

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RJKT1 December 22nd, 2008 10:55 pm
I can tell you people such as I ,stuck right in the middle of what might well end up a war zone - like it far less.

Though perhaps being nuked out of existence would be a more 'merciful' end than the lingering , excruciating death that the rest of the world ( including the West ) will have to suffer thanks to the Nuclear Winter that will follow.

Few things could be more pitiable than the plight of all three countries viz. Pakistan , India and Bangladesh.

Robbed blind and looted for centuries by the Brits. Then cast off like used toilet paper to fend for themselves as best they could .Staggering under the burden of baggage and legacies of hatred - the sheer weight and magnitude of which , would have broken the back of even a then-doughty US.

As if that wasn't enough ,for 60 and odd years they became little more than marionettes - cynically jerked around by the Big Powers viz. USA , USSR ( and China.)

Pakistan ,embarked on a 'distinguished career' as the US's 'our good guy' :and therefore ended up the recipient of untold billions in military largesse .

( Not to be outdone ,the Chinese ,with their abiding hatred of India ,bequeathed Pakistan their entire range of missiles and nukes.)

India ( and later Bangladesh ) went on to equally 'distinguished careers' -but in an entirely different field viz. as the world's leading 'basket cases'. All thanks to their phenomenally corrupt political leadership that have made both by-words for corruption and mis-governance.

We in India though ,can perhaps take cold comfort in the fact that :while in the other two countries - the fruits of corruption are ,by and large, the exclusive 'privilege' of their ruling elites , in our case the fruits of corruption have 'trickled' down to 'benefit' a much broader base.

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Siouxrose December 23rd, 2008 12:39 pm
Sioux Rose

RJKT: Well stated. I am praying for that part of the world. A conflagration there would, as you related, spread like wild fire, the kind of fire that never goes out, for radiation leaves a lifeless legacy for centuries in its wake.

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RJKT1 December 24th, 2008 2:09 am
Sioux Rose : Thank you for your kind words. I am sure most hope and pray that both sides do not go to war. As the consequences would be too horrific to even contemplate.

However ,should there be yet another ISI backed strike on India ,the situation would then almost certainly escalate into an all out war between the two countries.

Can't help seething over the fact that the real villains of the piece viz. the West and China -who've cynically set India and Pakistan at each other's throats , and systematically armed both sides to the hilt -will go their merry way , continuing to rake in the armament megabucks.

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Dennis Duncan December 23rd, 2008 1:30 am
"the fruits of corruption are ,by and large, the exclusive 'privilege' of their ruling elites , in our case the fruits of corruption have 'trickled' down to 'benefit' a much broader base."

Interesting, I'm not sure what you mean by that but I take it that even the lower and middle class folks act so deluded and think they'll get rich quick they'll do the most pathetically idiotic things to get there? That sounds like my country.

On the issue of mass arming rogue nations, no doubt about it. This was a long term strategy and the so-called "peace groups" refuse to discuss it most of the time. Fly over to Washington to yell at a bunch of totally ignorant pols comfortably protected in their chambers they'll do. But tell them to put pressure on Congress and the White House against robbing taxpayer money and sending our weapons to rogue regimes all over the world and they'll say "It's not in our control. We can't help you. Sorry." If you tell people in this country that the US sends rogue nations billions in "military aid" to rogue regimes, they'll sneer at you as unpatriotic or even terrorist and even among those who acknowledge that fact, they'll invent lame excuses such as "well, if the US doesn't do it, then someone else will arm them. selling arms means more jobs and money, yup yup." The good news is more folks in this country (USA) are waking up to this madness. The bad news is figuring out how to stop this madness.

P.S.: I admire Kerela, India a lot from what I heard. Despite its very high population density, people aren't so unhappy and restless and the resources are used rather wisely and in interesting ways. If anyone needs to prove Walter Malthus wrong, Kerela's the best place to turn to. It's never the population numbers but bad policies that cause all the troubles.

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RJKT1 December 23rd, 2008 5:32 am
"I'm not sure what you mean by that "

The point i was making was that every beat cop , every petty bureaucrat is always 'on the prowl' - losing no opportunity to 'shake down' anyone and everyone ( who gets into their clutches ) for a suitable bribe.

"but I take it that even the lower and middle class folks act so deluded and think they'll get rich quick they'll do the most pathetically idiotic things to get there?"

I am not condoning our chasing after material wealth and prosperity . Often to the exclusion of all else.

But then can you blame us for doing so - especially as most of us out here ( often going back several generations) have never known any kind of 'real' prosperity for all our lives.

"I admire Kerela, India a lot from what I heard. .."

I'm from there. And let me tell you that behind its facade lies a reality that couldn't be more grim and sordid. The following passage from an article seems to sum it up to a 't' :

"But just as Kerala pole-vaulted onto every list of ‘50 places to see before you die’, my increasing familiarity with the place was leading to disenchantment. On an early visit for a reporting assignment for Time magazine, I had marvelled at its superb government-run healthcare system. Where else in the world do healthcare workers visit the homes of pregnant women to advise them on prenatal care in the months leading to child birth? The primary education system should be a model for the rest of India ....On subsequent visits, however, it was hard to miss the signs of unemployment and underemployment—the ubiquitous huddle of young and middle aged men unable or unwilling to find work hanging around near the cigarette shops and the movie theatres. "

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eileenfleming December 22nd, 2008 7:38 pm
"We live in a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants, in a world that has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. We have solved the mystery of the atom and forgotten the lessons of the Sermon on The Mount. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about dying than we know about living."-General Omar Nelson Bradley, Armistice Day, 1948

America has a nuclear arsenal of over 10,000 weapons and nearly 2,000 remain on hair-trigger alert ever since the end of the Cold War.

An estimated 150 – 240 tactical nuclear weapons remain based in 5 NATO countries and the United States is the only country with nuclear weapons deployed on foreign soil.

American taxpayers provide $54 billion annually to maintain WMD's, which is but a drop in the bucket of the overall U.S. military spending. The U.S. is also a co-conspirator in international nuclear apartheid and collaborator in Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity.

American money is imprinted with "IN GOD WE TRUST" but reality is we have become a nation of hypocrites, for by our foreign policy we expose that we live by the sword...

Many Americans live under the delusion that the USA is a 'Christian' nation.

If that were true, we would lead the way in nuclear disarmament and abolish war.

"Blessed are the Peacemakers: THEY are the daughters and sons of God."-Jesus, Matthew 5:9

Eileen Fleming, Author, Founder WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Producer "30 Minutes With Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"

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mediaho December 22nd, 2008 10:26 pm
Eileen ... thanks for pointing out our hypocrisy ! The Left in this country is only too willing to pontificate on nuclear ambitions of third world countries without for a minute acknowledging the big fat stick that we carry.

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Siouxrose December 22nd, 2008 7:33 pm
Sioux Rose

The line between sanity and madness was probably blurred from the instant the concept of an atomic bomb arose in enough brains to make the item a reality. The next blurring occured when it was actually used; and the next, the military "strategy" of M.A.D. And now this insanity has been exported to India and Pakistan where as the author noted, the general population is clueless to what such a war would entail. How pathetic that individuals speak of that outcome as a positive one. Mars rules goes global. Bush in his posture of force first, in his violation of The Geneva Conventions in devising CAUSE (fake) for a war of aggression, certainly set the bar lower, so that every other out-of-whack maniac who thinks he'll gain power or political popularity from speaking in grotesque militaristic language will do what he can to follow after this inexcusable example of animosity. Beyond tragic at this theoretical point in human evolution. Where might mankind have gotten had gunpowder never been invented?

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Dennis Duncan December 22nd, 2008 4:19 pm
Just another elitist author who doesn't know what she's talking about. Both countries will always live in terror hell unless the terrorists are held accountable and most so-called "peace activists" never bother. In fact, they'll sometimes even "defend" the terrorists.

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