Neville Chamberlain and Atal Behari Vajpayee

Neville Chamberlain and Atal Behari Vajpayee
Subodh Atal, Ph. D.

Rewind six decades. There was a British PM named Neville Chamberlain. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he desperately and repeatedly tried to appease a murderous dictator - Hitler. The latter saw it correctly as a sign of British weakness, and at every sign of weakness he turned up his aggression another few notches. It took Winston Churchill, the military might of the US, and Hitler's opening of the Russian front to rescue Britain and Europe from the mess that Chamberlain left it in.

Back to the present. First it was Lahore, which resulted in Kargil, then there was the clueless ceasefire unnecessarily extended six months, which resulted in terrorists gaining ground and respect in J&K towns that they had never before. During this period have been incidents like Kandahar and other humiliations that Lashkar et al thrive on. It was already well known that India does not retaliate against any country that kills and tortures Indian citizens. Now we also know that as a terrorist, one just has to find a mosque to hide in - and to preserve its sanctity the Indian authorities will give one safe passage. Add this note to Chapter 2 of the jehad manual available in POK terrorist camps: "How to escape death in India - run to the nearest mosque..."

And now there is the Musharraf invitation. Vajpayee thinks he is going down the Nobel path. I think he is going down the Chamberlain path. Vajpayee calls it self-confidence, the jehadis know better.

Postscript:
Philippine PM Gloria Aroyyo has announced that she will pursue a "no ransom, no deal" policy with Abu Sayyaf rebels who are holding 30 hostages. Philippine military has attacked the terrorist hideouts today despite the presence of hostages. Abu Sayyaf is trained in the same camps as Lashkar and HUM.