Playing with fire
For the past few days two declared nuclear powers have been shooting at each other for the first time in history.
I had hoped that Pakistan's decision to return the Indian pilot who had been shot down over their territory would help to cool tensions.
But today shelling has resumed by both sides in Kashmir and innocent civilians on both sides have been killed.
I am not a pacifist. There are times when a fascist, totalitarian or barbarous regime like Nazi Germany or DA'ESH has to be confronted and the only way to stop them is to fight. Failure to confront a monster like Hitler, Stalin or Abu Bakr al Baghdadi can cost even more lives in the end.
But the older I get, the closer my son gets to the age, which he will reach this year, when his great uncle (my grandfather's brother) was cut down a hundred years ago in the Great War. And the closer I get to understanding how my great-grandfather must have felt when that happened. He died two months later: the Spanish flu epidemic was the immediate cause of his death but nobody will convince me that grief had nothing to do with it.
Sending young men (and, these days, young women too) to fight and die, knowing that some of them may return home in body bags, may sometimes be necessary as a last resort. But it should never be the first one.
Wars kill civilians as well. The same terrible logic applies. Fighting a war can be the least worst option against an existential threat or a monstrous regime with which no honourable negotiation is possible but it is never a good option because the human cost is too terrible.
The risks and costs involved in any war between nuclear powers are even greater, which is why up until now established nuclear powers like the USA, USSR, China and Britain have fought proxy wars but have never dared allow a direct conflict get to the stage of bombing each other's territory.
Neither country has anything to gain from the confrontation which could possibly be worth the risks they are both taking.
India and Pakistan are playing with fire. Both need to step back. Pakistan must deal with the terrorists operating from their country who have carried out murderous attacks in India. And India should give them the space to do so.
I had hoped that Pakistan's decision to return the Indian pilot who had been shot down over their territory would help to cool tensions.
But today shelling has resumed by both sides in Kashmir and innocent civilians on both sides have been killed.
I am not a pacifist. There are times when a fascist, totalitarian or barbarous regime like Nazi Germany or DA'ESH has to be confronted and the only way to stop them is to fight. Failure to confront a monster like Hitler, Stalin or Abu Bakr al Baghdadi can cost even more lives in the end.
But the older I get, the closer my son gets to the age, which he will reach this year, when his great uncle (my grandfather's brother) was cut down a hundred years ago in the Great War. And the closer I get to understanding how my great-grandfather must have felt when that happened. He died two months later: the Spanish flu epidemic was the immediate cause of his death but nobody will convince me that grief had nothing to do with it.
Sending young men (and, these days, young women too) to fight and die, knowing that some of them may return home in body bags, may sometimes be necessary as a last resort. But it should never be the first one.
Wars kill civilians as well. The same terrible logic applies. Fighting a war can be the least worst option against an existential threat or a monstrous regime with which no honourable negotiation is possible but it is never a good option because the human cost is too terrible.
The risks and costs involved in any war between nuclear powers are even greater, which is why up until now established nuclear powers like the USA, USSR, China and Britain have fought proxy wars but have never dared allow a direct conflict get to the stage of bombing each other's territory.
Neither country has anything to gain from the confrontation which could possibly be worth the risks they are both taking.
India and Pakistan are playing with fire. Both need to step back. Pakistan must deal with the terrorists operating from their country who have carried out murderous attacks in India. And India should give them the space to do so.
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