Before the Sep 11 Islamic Terror attack.
Islamic Terrorism in India, Israel and now the US.
NAM, NATO, Israel, Russia and India

A RELIGION OF PEACE? It's a contradiction in terms - 30 Dec 2002
(A Reply to Editorial Director Justin Raimondo of www.antiwar.com)

Date Written    :  Aug 15, 2001
Date Modified :   Dec 04, 2001

US Invititation to India, for the missile defence exercises

The United States has invited India to the missile defence exercise and demonstration to be held in the US. This invitation was extended to India during the visit of US Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Douglas Feith on Dec 3. Douglas Feith was in Delhi to continue with a US programme of a military relationship with India. Apart from NATO allies, only countries invited are India, Russia, Japan and South Korea. This is the first time that the Defence policy group (DPG) met after the sanctions against India when the nuclear tests of Pokhran were conducted in 1998.

The DPG and Joint Working Group (JWG) should now freqently meet and decide on the future military interaction between India and the US. The rapport built by the recent visit of Indian PM to US and significant meetings held so far need to continue further. The current DPG meeting has again indicated a move towards military alliance between India and the US. As of now, call it ties, relationship, cooperation or alliance; India and US need to go ahead with it.

Operation Enduring Freedom and Opening up of Indian Ports

With arrival of the US navy ship the USS John Young, it seems India may have rightly opened its ports to US naval vessels following an entirely informal agreement reached between the Government of India and US as part of  support for Operation Enduring Freedom. 

Military flights over Indian airspace may also have been agreed to in principle by the Indian government, with senior defence officials pointing out that the docking of  US naval vessels at Chennai port was part of the general understanding. The docking facilities for US naval vessels at all Indian ports extends to “rest and recreation” for the sizeable crew of these ships as of now.

Indian Defence Minister Fernandes said in the Indian Parliament that the government has received specific requests for assistance in connection with 'Operation Enduring Freedom' from certain friendly countries, including the United States.

After the November visit by Indian PM to the US,  the US and India have worked out a series of high-level military visits to further the agreement to cooperate at various levels.

November visit to US by Indian PM and the follow-ups

The US Ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill, who was in Washington during Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit on Nov 9, had described the meeting between Vajpayee and US President, George W Bush, as the most consequential of all bilateral summits so far. According to Blackwill, the bilateral relationship suggests that the US is treating India as a rising global power. Blackwill also said, the kind of cooperation that US would seek from India would be from joint exercises, military education, conceptual discussions about future challenges in Asia, etc and further said that "We see a bright future in US-India defence cooperation".

The visiting Admiral Dennis Blair, commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Command, said "We believe that a robust US-India defence relationship of a kind that is unprecedented in our bilateral history can play an important role in contributing to peace, security and freedom in Asia. We will develop our relationship with India on the basis of India’s emergence as a rising global power” Blair spelt out five areas of military activity the two countries have agreed to explore together in the short term. Blair said he expected resumption soon of joint military and naval exercises following Washington's move in September to waive sanctions on India  imposed three years ago when India had conducted the nuclear tests.

Looking at the near future, weeks and months, not years

Now that the US is looking forward to building an “unprecedented” military-to-military relationship with India, Indians need to be realistic in the assessment of the global  scenario and support the government if it goes for an official tie-up. Blair seems to be very clear when he says "We're looking at the near future, weeks and months, not years"

Blair's visit to India is seen as a follow-up to the meeting between the Indian Prime Minister and the US President in Washington on November 9.

Islamic Terrorism in India, Israel and now the US

India and Israel have been constantly facing the problem of Islamic Terrorism. The Arabic countries are actively supporting the Islamic Jihadis against the state of Israel, which is the closet ally of the US.  Even school going children are taking part in the Jihad against Israel.  Sponsored by Islamic countries, the active supporters of the  Islamic terrorism in India is Pakistan.   This very same country Pakistan has been asked for support to tackle the Terrorism.  US calls it Terrorism, which is in fact "Islamic Terrorism"  and which is called by the Islamic World as "Jihad".  

We do not know why people feel that "Islam is a peaceful religion"  whereas the reality seems to be something very different.  Even recently,  the UN Anti-Terrorism resolution  was not able to define "Terrorism".  Was it because most of the times Terrorism gets associated with Islam and countries in the world want to dissociate Islam and Terrorism.  But is Terror and Islam different?

Assuming that the attack on WTC and most importantly Pentagon  is called as "Terror attack", it needs to be condemned and world needs to be united against Terrorism, but what about the Islamic countries?  Most of the Islamic countries including Pakistan are actively sponsoring Terrorism.  Other countries which are some way or other involved in aiding Terrorism are Libya, Sudan, Syria, Iran, Iraq and an unending list of other Islamic countries.  Now as we say in democratic world,  that the majority decision is the ultimate decision, majority of the Islamic countries are sponsoring Terrorism and hence it needs to be called as "Islamic Terrorism".  Although this seems to a simple logical statement, but the democratic countries all over pretend to be not understanding this simple viewpoint.

Before Sep 11 Islamic Terror Attacks.

The various statements prior to the Terror attacks of Sep 11, 2001 had given  a positive signals towards the greater co-operation between US and India.

Earlier, a top Pentagon military official had acknowledged that the U.S. was aggressively seeking military to military ties with India. 

Major General Bruce Scott, commander of the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command, said at the Foreign Press Centre in Washington that the Bush administration was "trying to make inroads into relations with India, specifically."  He said: "I am hopeful that progresses continue to be made in that direction. I think it is important, from my perspective, that the more militaries cooperate with each other, the less likely we'll shoot at each other." ...  "So I am a big fan of cooperation in the military. I am encouraged by what I am reading in the press that (U.S.-India) relations are improving, and I'm hopeful of the future that we will have the opportunity to do more. But I await decisions made within the administration."

The visiting commander of the US Pacific fleet, Admiral Dennis P. Blair, at Colombo, Sri Lanka said on July 10, 2001 that Washington's military cooperation with India was "on an upward trend" and was beneficial to the region. He said increased cooperation with India addressed international terrorism, international peacekeeping, sea piracy and narcotics smuggling, "all issues where we have a common interest".

Earlier in the week ending June 24, 2001, in  his five-day visit to Australia,  Indian External Affairs and Defence Minister Jaswant Singh said that "military cooperation was possible" between India and Unites States of America.  

By saying this he  has probably hinted at allowing US military bases in India.  Asked about the possible new directions that Indo-US relations could take and whether American access to Indian bases was possible Singh said, "Military-to-military cooperation is also one of the complements of Indo-US co-operation. Access to bases is moving far too fast, yet. Let these things evolve over time."

Appreciating what he called the "greater recognition of the regional status" of India by the United States and countries like Australia he said it was "a recognition of reality".

NAM, NATO, Israel, Russia and India

India needs to proactively start working with  all democratic countries and especially countries like US, Israel, Russia and European countries so that this menace of Terrorism is finished once and for all.  In some respect the External Affairs Ministry is trying to work out some formula for this, but the time seems to be running out.  India had actually gained some points before the "Terror attacks" on US, but now the situation seems to be changing fast.  The US  may have already understood that in the long term,  coalition with the regimes sponsoring terrorism,  will be suicidal for them. Ultimately the "Sword of Truth" will triumph over the  "Sword of Islam".  This does not mean that India needs to be silent  and we hope that the Indians will realize it soon.

The successive Indian governments under the Congress party were reluctant  to have an alliance with US till now. This was to do with the Nehruvian policy of Non Alignment Movement (NAM) since the Independence of India.  Now that the cold war does not exist between Russia and US,   and that US President Bush from time and again saying that "Russia is not our enemy",  it is time for India to really rethink  on the Foreign Policies.   Jaswant Singh's remark may come as a surprise,  but if the rogue countries are to be controlled then a combined effort of India, China, Russia, Israel, EU and US needs to be put in place.  

Bush should not only think on giving a " nuclear shield"  to Europe, but India also,  and convince Russia and China  to be part of it for the good of Asian Nations.  Although Russia may not enter NATO officially it needs to work closely with the NATO.  British PM Tony Blair had earlier hinted at the entry of Russia in NATO.   The Islamic world gives it a "green signal" or not, Israel also needs to be in the global coalition. 

The common threat to the global peace is evident from the events happening all over the world.  The events happening in Philippines,  Sudan, Indonesia, Chechnya in Russia,  Kashmir in India, Xinjiang in China, Albanian Muslim terrorists in Macedonia, Gaza and West Bank in Israel,   the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, recent riots in oldham  and  a long such list gives us a clear picture of the terror of the "Jihadi"  tendency.  The terrorist organizations like  Taliban, Hizbollah, Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, Abu Sayyaf, Harkat-ul-Ansar, Jaish-e-Mohammedi, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizb-ul-Mujaheddin,  Students Islamic Movement of India etc., are the new faces of an anti-American  challenge.  The world needs to understand it fast and act accordingly. Since the challenge if Jihad is everywhere and can have a form of Al-Qaida network, why can not the countries opposed to Terror have a coalition against Terrorism.

There is no official declaration of an Indo-US Alliance, but now since so many top officials making similar and significant statements, India should push forward this Alliance to President Bush.  India should take the initiative, since it was India that initiated the anti-American move in the form of the Non-aligned movement (NAM) in the 1950s.  World and especially India needs to know that the common threat to human survival is to deal with the International Terrorism, Islamic Terrorism being the worst of all.  

Indo-US Military alliance needs  to welcomed by every Indian.

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