Let me share my random thoughts…When lust takes center stage, the thinking and rational behaviour flies out of the window. We live in a promiscuous age/world where America provides, apart from huge arms and war material, 80 per cent of pornography world-wide.
Now a question: Why is the USA pumping so much money in Afghanistan? It looks more like a case where a love-lorn or lust-stricken person puts at stake everything in life. How? For almost 60 years the USA had a steady wife in Pakistan and enjoyed a solid affair.
In the 1990s India started seducing America by disrobing itself and opening to market forces. The curves shown on business graphs were tempting and love and lust began to manifest itself at the same time.
In the Bush era India became bolder and virtually went to bed with America…Culminating in the signing of the nuclear treaty. Pakistan was now in the throes of jealousy and anger at this adulterous behaviour.
America went further to alienate Pakistan by taking its adulterous behaviour to Afghanistan, which happens to be Pakistan’s beloved step-sister, without the regular wife at its side.
Please remember that earlier it was Pakistan that rebuffed the advances of another powerful suitor (Soviet Union) and, assisted by Taliban and Islamic fanatic friends, threw out the previous suitor.
America seems to have gradually alienated from its wife, especially post 9/11, primarily suspecting that she is sharing its bedroom space with her old friends (religious fanatics). And the suspicions have grown on both sides.
A typical case of marriage gone sour.
So when America (in the form of US secretary of state) came visiting the new girl-friend (India) recently, it rebuffed its wife of several years standing by not even spending a day or night with her (Pakistan).
So the old wife, fed up with the neglect and soured relationship, may be preventing the husband from enjoying another adulterous relationships in its neighbourhood (Afghanistan) by committing adultery there herself.
The institution of family seems to be under attack.
If this lustful behaviour continues then America’s children will soon be crying hoarse for even basic amenities, such as housing, health care and food.
We have also begun to see the Freudian (see Wikipedia entry on Sigmund Freud here) principles come into full play: That the most basic human driving forces are war and sex.
I am bit worried now. Have you heard of Crime Passionnel (or crime of passion). “A crime of passion, in popular usage, refers to a crime in which the perpetrator commits a crime, especially assault or murder, against a spouse or other loved one because of sudden strong impulse such as a jealous rage or heartbreak rather than as a premeditated crime.” (See here…)
Well…well…well! In the case of America and Pakistan I am just keeping my fingers crossed!
These thoughts I shared in the comments columns of WSJ below the article: “How We’ll Win in Afghanistan”. See here…
Let me quote from some other comments:
Billy Laatsch wrote: “Wow! ‘Afghan forces will need $4 billion a year for another decade, with a like sum for development.’ And we will have to borrow every nickel from the Chinese. I really, really do not see how we can keep up all the foreign aid with essentially no money of our own. It is like giving to charity by having to see the Shylock to gather up the funds for our largess. Fundamentally, stupid, regardless how ever one looks at it.”
Thomas Boucher said: “Obama’s generals are now complaining Obama did not send enough troops to do the job. They are right. I believe Obama merely intends to make a show of force and then sue quickly for peace so that he can withdraw. The Taliban will, of course, retake the country.”
Russell Thomas wrote: “Again I see the the argument of needing to win hearts and minds to be victorious in war. I had always thought that annihilation of ones enemy is the quickest path to success. Since finding that restricting air warfare was a horrible idea in Vietnam, the US has again failed to utilize their military superiority and instead has marched troops into harms way for the sake of ‘Nation Building.’
“I am sick of this war of good feelings. War is hell and should be avoided at all costs; hence why a quick and decisive victory is the best course. We should be dropping every ordinance held in stockpile by the USAF before allowing one more soldier to walk the line into the valley of death.”
Bill Greenstein said: “Were the British and the Russians on the right side of history? Hardly. The Afghanis have been doing it their way for hundreds of years. No Western power is going to change that. The Russians propped up Najibullah in Kabul and you can see the results of that brilliance…no different than the US propping up Karzai.
“Kabul is an island. The Taliban control the countryside. Thieu controlled Saigon but unfortunately, one day, like Vietnam, the Taliban will march back into Kabul victorious. It will be unfortunate but not in the vital interests of the US.”
Joe Martin wrote: “The US would be more effective if we got out of Afghanistan and Iraq too. These two wars are sapping our resources. My Congressman, Paul Kanjorski, D. PA., wrote to me: ‘These people have been fighting amongst themselves for thousands of years’. Congressman Kanjorski also wrote to me that: ‘The war in Iraq was a mistake’. Yet Kanjorski is still voting yes on every appropriations bill and defense spending bill!!!
“I expect to see more people in the US suffering economically in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Maybe they will then demonstrate by the millions to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.