Joe Shearer
PROFESSIONAL
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- Apr 19, 2009
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Sir would you really want to be dealing with the TTP insurgency? Keep in mind that if we had been Indian, the TTP would have come part and parcel!
Here's the catch.
If you had been Indian, your problems would have been Indian. The TTP problem would have been Indian. India has faced and curbed similar movements, not so violent, not so powerful, but similar, in Nagaland, in Mizoram for a short while, in Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand, currently still going on, and earlier, in the Punjab. I leave aside Kashmir; in terms of your specialisation, it is quite different.
As it stands, I personally believe that it is worth our while to help Pakistan in any way possible to fight the TTP. The TTP is a cancer, and idiots within India don't understand that the (possible but unlikely) succumbing of Pakistan to this cancer will mean an existential threat to India. The TTP winning puts the equivalent of an ISIS on our border; that is several orders of magnitudes worse than the Pakistan Army, which is still a disciplined military force.
There are hedge scholars and armchair strategists who will squeal in shrill tones for support to terrorists who terrorise Pakistan, with complete disregard for the need for all nations to unite against terrorism, wherever and however it occurs; they need not occupy our attention. Even without your being Indian, then, I believe that the TTP problem should be an area of concern for India, and that there exists a need for India to help Pakistan in whatever way it is possible. That help will be difficult to offer, given the history of mutual suspicion, and the deep-rooted anger within India at the blatant way in which terrorism in parts of India is supported by the Pakistani establishment. Unfortunately, giving in to our baser feelings and hoping that the TTP, or, for that matter, the Baloch nationalists will undermine Pakistan is cutting off the branch on which we ourselves sit.
Yes, we should help Pakistan now, with the TTP insurgency. Hypothetically, we should be ready to take direct responsibility for combating this deadly insurgency, in the imaginary case that we were considering a confederated nation.
Now wait for the screams of outrage.