STORY
The Toronto Sun
More than Bush bargained for? American involvement has South Asia on the brink of nuclear war
by Eric Margois
January 6, 2002
http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/margolis.html
COMMENT
One of the biggest factors any state should consider before taking any
action at all is the law of unintended consequences: Anything you do will
result in things' happening that you did not anticipate. Moreover, the
chances are that these unintended results will be harmful to your interests
rather than beneficial. The more radical the action you take, the bigger
and more destructive the unintended consequences will tend to be.
This page has attempted to show how the United State's intervention in
Afghanistan has had many consequences that the rulers of the Empire would
rather you not know about. Some of them were surely not unintended -- if a
certain action results in a reasonably foreseeable outcome, it's never
safe to assume that the outcome was not expected and even hoped for.
So I can't speculate on whether or not George Bush or his fanatical pro-war
subordinates anticipated that the following would happen, or whether or not
they find it desirable. What I can tell you, however, is that this is not a
good thing for the majority of Americans:
> India and Pakistan are on the edge of a nuclear conflict that
> could kill millions and spread radioactive dust around the
> globe.
>
> The chain of events that led to this crisis is now plainly
> visible. America's "war against terrorism" and invasion of
> Afghanistan upset the delicate balance of enmity between old
> foes India and Pakistan, who have fought three major wars. The
> Bush administration, seeking new allies for its crusade against
> Muslim opponents, rashly signed a military alliance with India
> to fight "terrorism." To India, "terrorism" meant Kashmiri
> independence-seekers battling Indian rule and their patron,
> Pakistan.
>
> The Bush administration, unaware of the dangers facing it, had
> inadvertently stumbled into the 55-year old Kashmir dispute
> between three nuclear powers -- India, Pakistan, and China --
> just as it was getting drawn ever deeper into Afghanistan's
> murky tribal politics.
Remember, before September 11, the "neo-conservative," (actually neo-
Trotskyist) faction was pushing hard for a confrontation with China. Well,
now it looks as if we may get it:
> Off on the sidelines, China, another player in this drama, is
> also urging restraint on all concerned. Yet, at the same time,
> China is growing increasingly alarmed by what now looks like a
> permanent presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and the threat
> of an Indian attack against its most important ally, Pakistan....
>
> The U.S. has aggravated Indian-Chinese tensions by sharply
> tilting toward India and winking at its secret nuclear programs,
> while keeping Pakistan under a punishing sanctions regime.
> Washington clearly intends to use India in the game of Asian
> strategic chess as a potential counterforce against China.
> Russia is levering its revived strategic alliance with India to
> advance its geopolitical interests in South and Central Asia,
> most notably in Afghanistan.
One thing that the writer of this piece doesn't point out is that India
and Israel have become bosom buddies. In fact Israel is supplying an
increasing number of armaments to India, which is good for both parties.
Israel wants the money, and their arms are generally of better quality than
those of the Russians, India's main source in the past. Both countries have
problems with Pakistan -- India over Pakistan's claim to Kashmir and other
issues, Israel because Pakistan has supplied Iraq with nuclear assistance.
And Pakistan, our former friend in the region and a long-time strategic
partner of the Chinese, is beginning to feel the pinch:
> As India continued to mass troops on Pakistan's border, the U.S.
> repeated threats, made in September, to ruin Pakistan by cutting
> off the foreign loans on which it subsists. Adding to these
> threats, the Indian Navy is poised to blockade Karachi,
> Pakistan's main port and principal entry point for oil. Spare
> parts for Pakistan's F-16 warplanes are critically short.
> Pakistan finds itself alone, facing the Russians to the north
> in Afghanistan, fire-breathing India to the east and ever-
> hostile Iran to the west.
Well, that's what they get for siding with the United State. Like
Perfidious Albion before them, the rulers of the Empire don't have any
problem throwing a formerly valued ally to the dogs if it's expedient. The
Indian regime, on the other hand, won't have any problem getting arms. The
Israelis will sell them all they want. Parts for their Russian-built
MiG 29s, roughly equivalent to U.S. F-16s, won't be an issue either: the
Russians need the money. Britain has happily sold India aircraft carriers
and the Harrier jets to fly from them, despite India's penchant for making
trouble for Sri Lanka through its support of the terrorist Tamil Tigers.
And the United State will no doubt, sooner or later, probably sooner,
extend credits to India to allow it to buy nice, fancy new American (and
Israeli) weapons with which to menace Pakistan, despite the Indian regime's
tacit approval of the growing violence by fanatic Hindus against native
Christians. One question that occurs to me is this: does the new
relationship with Israel have anything to do with the U.S. shift away from
Pakistan to India?
Human rights and anti-terrorism issues, such convenient pretexts for
causing trouble, sometimes become inconvenient when the regime you're
snuggling up to indulges in the same kind of activities you're using as an
excuse for persecuting other regimes. But not to worry. Bush and the
sweaty little neo-Trots gleefully pushing for more bloodshed won't have any
problem explaining this contradiction to the American people. That's
because our Ministry of Truth, the news media, simply won't tell us about
it.
But a possible fly in the ointment could be the outbreak of hostilities
between India and Pakistan, in which Pakistan, cornered and desperate,
resorts to the use of nuclear weapons. It will take a bit of spin-
doctoring to quiet people down if radioactive fallout becomes an issue --
not to mention the possible expansion of such a conflict into World War
III. Along with their monumental lack of maturity, restraint, and sense of
decency, neither the Bushies nor neo-Trots seem to have any sense of
history at all. But as they may yet discover, history shows that the Law
of Unintended Consequences can bite with very sharp teeth.
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