[thechat] Your Opinion is Required

[Syed Zeeshan Haider]

Hi Madhu,
I also don't want to discuss Pakistan-India relations on this forum
unless somebody oblige me to so.
Anyhow, how I, as a Pakistani, am still interested to listen the answers
to my questions from you (as an Indian). Because opinions must come from
a wider range of people. You can answer without involving any discussion
on Pakistan-India relations.
Thank you,
Syed Zeeshan Haider.
http://syedzeeshanhaider.faithweb.com/

----- Original Message -----
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 20:37:56 +0530
To: thechat at lists.evolt.org
From: Madhu Menon <webguru at vsnl.net>
Subject: RE: [thechat] Your Opinion is Required
Reply-To: thechat at lists.evolt.org

Hi John. Normally I avoid discussing politics, especially when it
involves
India (my country) and Pakistan. The usual result is a lot of flaming,
and
you don't seriously expect either side to budge from its opinion/stance,
do
you?

Saw this little snippet quoted below and I'd like to respond to that.

At 07:04 PM 5/29/2002, John H wrote:

>Bluntly, they attempted to prevent those programmes from occurring
>in India and Pakistan in order to avoid a future hypothetical
>situation where those two countries would start seriously considering
>using nuclear weapons as part of an armed conflict, the external
>consequences of which would be astonishingly profound.

As much as the possibility of such a nuclear conflict scares me (and
having
been through three wars, we no longer rule out armed conflict), the
probability of it is low. Unlike USA and the good ol' USSR, the two
countries aren't separated by a pond. In fact, they're right next to
each
other. If either country launched a nuclear weapon, they'd probably hurt
themselves as well. I also know that India has second strike capability
(Pakistan probably does too), so the retaliation would be swift, and
would
probably wipe out the whole of Pakistan, or about a quarter of India.
There's no point winning a fight if you're all too dead to celebrate
victory.

A nuclear weapon's primary purpose is as a deterrent. It's a "if you
attack
me, I'll blast you arse" veiled threat. (If you forget USA, of course -
the
only country ever to use a nuclear weapon.)

I really don't want to get into an India/Pakistan debate (i.e. flame
war)
onlist (mail me offlist if you're interested) so that's all I'll say
about it.

Regards,

Madhu

<<<   *   >>>
Madhu Menon
User Experience Consultant
e-mail: webguru at vsnl.net