41–49 of 49 posts
As a Pakistani I feel genuinely sad that so much is being spent on enforcing borders when there's so much poverty on either sides of the border in the southern regions.
And as a South Indian I feel cheated that the money I pay as tax is being wasted this way in what is essentially a North Indian problem.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Pakistan and Saudi Arabia both fund extremist Islamist groups, but no one seems to acknowledge it since both are US allies. I thought it was a well-travelled non-secret in U.S. diplomatic circles. The Atlantic ran an article [1] a few years ago that caused quite a stir, in part by showing that the U.S. has active invade-and-defuse ("render safe") plans for Pakistan. [1] http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/201…
Did Obama ever come out and condemn pakistani actions ? He criticized India for its backward views on women - and no words on the saudis. I view both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to be the most vile countries with extremely vile societies - I used to think its just the govt. But having lived in the middle east and known a lot of saudis and pakistanis I am disappointed to say that the people are not much more different t…
Obama took big risks in the 2008 campaign to accuse Pakistan of harboring Usama ibn Laden. Hillary and McCain both condemned him for telling the truth.
The national media and national security PR machine attacked Obama for saying it but Obama stood firm. Obama also promised he'd go into Pakistan and kill ibn Laden whatever the diplomatic cost and then he did it.
Obama also told us exactly why the Iraq adventure would be a disaster in 2002.
I don't like the police state policies Obama enforces at home, but we're lucky to have him. The next few presidents are unlikely to be as brave, honest, visionary, or competent when it comes to foreign policy. The Washington insider machine will be back in power far too soon.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You've posted many comments to HN that were uncivil, unsubstantive, or both. Now you've called (or almost called) for nuking Pakistan, which is beyond the pale. Please work on editing out the uncivil and unsubstantive from your comments, and please stop feeding flamewars on this site.
I didn't call for nuking pakistan. Just said they as a country needs a Hiroshima moment. Similar to how the Japanese though they were exceptional and then the Americans made them surrender causing a collective realization in their society. Pakistan thinks they are equal to the Indians. Not only the govt but also its people. This is why they need a Hiroshima moment. It could as simple as India being granted a seat at…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And as a South Indian I feel cheated that the money I pay as tax is being wasted this way in what is essentially a North Indian problem.
You could always put up a fence to divide yourself from North India, but then you'll just have to pay taxes to light that one up.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And as a South Indian I feel cheated that the money I pay as tax is being wasted this way in what is essentially a North Indian problem.
Then don't pay taxes. See, right now you have North India as a buffer against West Asian hordes like ISIS. If North Indians stop defending you, then you will have this border right up to your nose. Before you are overrun.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And as a South Indian I feel cheated that the money I pay as tax is being wasted this way in what is essentially a North Indian problem.
This sort of mindset is what is hampering India. Be Indian first, then think south or north. Soldiers at the border are from the entire country and they are protecting our entire nation, not "south" or "north"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but I'm not paying for the wars humans are waging all over the globe. I would rather have power in Bangalore than waste it this way.
AFAIK, you are. India has contributed millions in foreign aid to rebuild Afghanistan and contributes a significant number of troops to UN peacekeeping forces.
I wonder how many MW are spent on this border
Good question. Wikipedia entry claims 150,000 floodlights but I question the origin of this number. It showed up out of the blue, in a single edit, and none of the cited sources have the said number in them. Two pieces of information that the edit added are that there are (A) 0.15 million lights, and (B) 50,000 poles they're on: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Indo-Pakistani_bo... Trying to trace A or B ju…
this article http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2033886/India-Pakist... may give further insight. from the picture, one can estimate that lights are separated by approx 20 meters, and the length of the lighted border is about 2000 km. This gives about 100 000 floodlights, which is consistent with the Wikipedia figure. Those lights seem rather powerful. I would not be astonished if they were 1kW each (might be much smaller if made of LED, but the yellow-ish color suggests it's not). This gives 100 MW of lighting power. Crap, that's a lot.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This comment is so discriminatory. India and Pakistan basically have the same problems. Both countries are quite screwy. Read real books on both countries rather than just reading new articles and you would know this.
Nice for you to assume my ignorance. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia both fund extremist Islamist groups, but no one seems to acknowledge it since both are US allies. India has its problems but no where the level of Pakistan. The people of Pakistan are extremely brainwashed with religious extremism. I know that because I went to a school filled with them and also Indians. They openly justify terrorism - we are not talking…
Pakistan had its Hiroshima moment, when all the prisoners of war were repatriated from India after the Simla accords.
Don't think that "hazaar-saal-hukmrani" is totally unchallenged in the media there - I see people on Pakistani TV criticize it freely all the time. From the way you're going on about it you'd think the country was North Korea. It's not.