Bharat Rakshak

Johann

Homosexuality is a crime in India too. Of course India is evil and we assume a recipient of your distaste. ..., the Kremlin I think would approve of your distaste. Well I'm so reassured that you can and will speak for the Kremlin. I've been waiting for a while to see how you might tie your Voice of...

Johann

Spinster, this is just like the old days - where your problems with what I have to say come out based on who I am and in the most random ways. Europe is a continent. South America is a continent. The Indian Subcontinent is a mini-continent. Very good, you can manage basic geography. These are cultur...

Johann

And now the two Jays will try to defend the use of army against a city full of their own civilians/citizens. Yes Rajiv, its much easier to speak for me than it is to listen to actually ask me what I might think isn't it? Because that might be inconvenient. Id be happy to hear your views on the use ...

Johann

Its not a buffer state if its actually incorporated as Russian territory. Which is irrelevant because you're doing exactly what I knew you would do, and recommended not to - dissemble about definitions. The baseline remains that since the early 1700s, Russia has always sought and maintained an east...

Johann

The article's title is silly, but its a useful introduction to the current Polish foreign minister's PoV. Germany and Poland are probably the two most active EU members on the Ukrainian crisis, with the UK and France taking a much less important role. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/04/30...

Johann

Wrong. Call it what you want - buffer states, annexation, or anything else. Starting with Peter the Great, Russia has always sought to have a territorial and cultural buffer between itself and western Europe. Eastern Europe is its cultural buffer. Its not a buffer state if its actually incorporated...

Johann

Shiv, There's clearly been improvements in India's CT performance, but the number of lower grade attacks suggests that the PA has been constrained from putting its full behind attacks big enough to embarrass India's political class. This is a little like the LoC ceasefire under Musharraf after Parak...

Johann

For some Indians like myself there are deeper civilizational concerns with the idea underlying Pakistan (and no, it is not the two-nation theory as usually understood), but for India as a whole, if there is some way Pakistan can be made to stop attacking India, in perpetuity, then they would be hap...

Johann

I don't dispute this but these young people can hardly solve the problem because excluded from the count of "progressive Pakistani youngsters who often study abroad" are about 75% of Pakistan youngsters who do not get much education and whose views are moulded by a mixture of jingoistic T...

Johann

But I would imagine that this gravity has to weigh on a Pakistani COAS's mind as well when it comes to their willingness to use spectacular attacks that would compel an Indian PM to consider the option. As it evidently does. Also, note the statements, it is not about destruction of our peoples, it ...

Johann

I fully agree with this.The white man has progressed to a post-modernist society wherein passports,visas do not matter.These SDRes with their group think and tribal passions,controlled narrative,caste system,their yearning for a dictator like Modi overlooking the million faultlines within India rea...

Johann

Johann, So why the instinctive hatred for Russia or the Russian system. There is little of that hatred for the Chinese system for instance, which has swallowed up more lands, been more irrational and long term is much more problem creating than Russia. My own suspicion is that the west too is insti...

Johann

In reality, Russia is maintaining a posture that follows the template of the era of Peter the Great. They have always sought a pliant buffer between them and Europe proper. What buffer states? That's something that emerged only after the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires collapsed at the end of ...

Johann

Shiv, 1) The red lines were listed by Khalid Kidwai, the man in charge of Pakistani nuclear planning and security at the height of the Parakram crisis in Dec 2001-Jan 2002. See section 5 here; http://www.pugwash.org/september11/pakistan-nuclear.htm They've generally been taken as seriously as India'...

Johann

Johann, let me provide a viewpoint from the 'the other side' so to speak. There's a substantial difference between just being a blind cheerleader of the socialist revolution, and being scathing about the general double standard of standing for liberty and self determination when and to the extent i...

Johann

Shiv, Again I think the reality of India's progress since the liberalisation of the 1990s, and its relative internal stability has had a powerful impact on the Pakistani ruling classes in undermining easy assumptions about Muslim superiority, especially given the larger state of the Muslim world. Ev...

Johann

Suraj, I do understand and I certainly don't want to make your job harder - if you notice my post for the most part avoided a normative discussion on the rights and wrongs of the situation, which is difficult in general and pointless given the current atmosphere on the thread, and focused instead on...

Johann

- The decision to use nuclear weapons will most likely be a political decision whether or not NFU is in place. The consequences are so enormous that it has to be the political leadership that makes the call rather than the military leadership. The only exception is if the political leadership is its...

Johann

Dear KLNM, Sorry for the hiatus, but I haven't forgotten your post. I don't see how it follows that this is good for India's interests. For India, it doesn't matter whether whisky-swilling koi-hai TFTA ashraf pakis are hating on India or it is their unwashed ajlaf TTP frenemies. With respect Johann,...

Johann

Dear Suraj, if you say that single line in a substantially longer post counts as an attack on an individual then of course I'm sure you're right. My views have been subjected to live vivisection many, many times in those of sorts terms often in the past. Its a great relief to know I can count on you...

Johann

Oh I don't mean the forum in particular. I mean the Cold War era. There was a cadre of third country nationals who got really excited every time the Soviets flexed their muscles and invaded Czechoslovakia, or Angola or or Afghanistan. I don't know what they thought it would do for them, but they rea...

Johann

Shiv, It takes money to put out a message. It takes money to sustain organisations. Johann you have provided a secular explanation for a religious issue and have tippy-toed around one vital aspect Two things here 1. Message 2. Money If the money goes the message will not go. It may just become dorm...

Johann

Its so nice to see how excited some people on this thread are for the Kremlin, and how they wildly they cheer them on. It really is just like the old days. But I digress. - As expected, the Russians have made it clear they aren't willing to openly invade eastern Ukraine if they think they might actu...

Johann

My takeaway from this discussion has been that Johann is not exactly saying "all is well" with Pakistan, but rather that there is some sort of non-state internal equilibrium in place. However Johann has consistently ignored the Indian POV, namely that (1) whatever the inner situation in P...

Johann

Johann: I think this is the report I have been waiting for: "Our troops used a guerrilla-style method to penetrate areas controlled by armed units of the Russian Federation and the separatists financed by Russia. I think that this will be reported within three hours or so and you will realize ...

Johann

Yes pakjab is stable; except the gigantic 786 size shoe that TTP has put in their a$$. The threat the TTP poses to Pakistan or Pakjab today is nothing compared to what it might become. The Sharif brothers have for years bought peace in northern and central Punjab by leaving the 'Punjabi Taliban' a ...

Johann

JEM In South Asia's case there's potentially very significant gains from any reduction in Tehran-Riyadh tensions in terms of reduced desire to support Sunni extremism in Af-Pak to flank Iran. The Chinese would benefit from that as well. In the case of the US its much more mixed. There would be a red...

Johann

I will take up three points that Johann made that are typical of the "current comfortable" western view of how all is well in Pakistan and no one needs to worry: ...I have been warning people on BRF precisely to recognise how a series of little bluffs from Pakistan, supported by western m...

Johann

Lokesh, Shiv, There are a lot of different discussion themes on this thread. Two of them are (a) how do things really work in Pakistan, and (b) can we see where things are going. Those are the particular ones I'm interested in participating in, both in terms of sharing and learning. Getting (b) righ...

Johann

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27018199 I said earlier on this thread, 40,000 troops isn't a lot to fight a conventional war. Even with a cadre of local sympathisers and advisors. You can do that either if you expect no organised opposition *or* if you're strengthening your hand at negotiation...

Johann

Continuing on the theme of the state (and I'm not talking about 'the nation' here). One of the reasons the state is in retreat in Pakistan (as it is in many countries) is that its actually a bloody nuisance if you're very powerful. It bothers you with laws and regulations. It wants you to pay taxes,...

Johann

- The real problem is that Russian troops were at the lead in the takeover of Crimea - the use of force to enlarge any country's territory is something Europe and the world in general has done its best to avoid and prevent since the end of WWII. I don't know if Putin has fully recongised the magnit...

Johann

Shiv, I'm not saying sectarian hatred will vanish. As you say, hurt and hatred can take generations to fade I'm being actually rather hard headed about what sustains *organised* violence however. It takes money to put out a message. It takes money to sustain organisations. The Saudi royal family is ...

Johann

For those who are trying to get a sense of what the 'state' means in Pakistan, and how it really works there is one book I'd *strongly* recommend. Its a (barely) fictionalised account by a Karachi police officer published by Pan Macmillan India called 'The Prisoner' by Omar Shamid Hamid. When it com...

Johann

Johann there was no real shia-sunni conflict until the Iran-Iraq war ended. That was followed by Zia massacring shias in Gilgit in 1988. Then Saddam went apeshit - and attacked Kuwait - so much for his putative role as protector of sunni monarchies. Finally it was Operation enduring freedom that le...

Johann

Actually what I specifically meant were the Saudis. Most of the rest of the world lost interest in what happened in Afghanistan after the Soviets pulled out in 1989. They didn't, and maintained full funding. Without that funding and support its unlikely the Mujaheddin could have advanced from the co...

Johann

Virupaksha, I'm afraid the shrillness of tone, the use bold text and exclamation points is not enough to dull Occam's razor. Or the basic reportage. What authority does any head of government have when they no longer have the support of the legislature, the armed forces and the majority of the publi...

Johann

the masked bandits/splitists the so called people's militia seem to be alarmingly well armed . I see photos of professional looking operators sporting dragunov rifles..not a kids toy. methinks ex-servicemen all. didnt ukraine have a 100% mandatory conscription based mil training? have armouries bee...

Johann

Gunjur, thanks for posting that. On top of the fact that now all major regional powers - India, China, Iran, Russia and the US have an interest in preventing the Taliban from returning to power, Karzai made real gains in persuading the Saudis to back him instead of the Taliban. The Pakistani Deoband...

Johann

Virupaksha, You seem to have strong feelings about these events. If you really do care so much about these events, then you should pay more attention to the details. You won't find those in the dueling superficial meta-narratives of RT and CNN. It comes from the wire reports - all of them - from the...

Search found 2073 matches