GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS
Looks like Pakistan has decided to do the expected, moving troops towards it's border with India, four weeks after the vicious attacks in Mumbai. As the New York Times explains:
"Pakistan is moving some troops away from its western border with Afghanistan, where the United States has pressed it to combat Taliban militants, and stopping many soldiers from going on leave amid rising tensions with India, senior Pakistani officials said Friday..."
In India, the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, summoned the leaders of his country’s armed forces to discuss the security situation, Indian media reported on Friday.
The developments added to the simmering tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors one month after the three-day terror assault in Mumbai left 171 people dead. Indian and American intelligence officials have blamed the Mumbai attacks on a Pakistani militant group that has long had ties to the Pakistan intelligence service. But Pakistani leaders reject that argument, saying they have been shown no evidence proving who carried out the attacks."
That this is happening is not a surprise, but more the "round up the usual suspects" kind of thing that both sides do after a violent attack against civilians in one of their countries. What's probably more of a surprise is that each side showed restraint in doing this for so long after the initial attacks.
The headline of this Economist article on the current state of affairs says it all:
Dec 18th 2008 | MURIDKE
From The Economist print edition
Pakistan has made a modest start against the likely culprits of the Mumbai killings. But fulminating against India is more fun."
"IF PAKISTAN’S leaders had ever united against Islamist militancy as they have against India over the past three weeks, their country would not be the violent mess that it is. Ever since India alleged, with subsequent corroboration from America and Britain, that Pakistani terrorists carried out last month’s mass murder in Mumbai, the country’s politicians, generals and fire-breathing journalists have been declaring themselves ready for war—if that’s what India chooses.
India’s government, despite huge pressure from its own bellicose
media, has been more restrained. It has said it does not intend to
attack its neighbour. But it has demanded that Pakistan dismantle an
anti-Indian militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), that has carried out
numerous atrocities in India, apparently including the outrage on
Mumbai.
It has so far relied on diplomacy, particularly through America
and Britain, to make this point."
The whole piece is worth reading in it's entirety. Here's hoping both sides decide to do the harder stuff this time and eschew a bit of fun.
Comments