Tag: India

ISIS In The Shadows

Do not think for a moment that ISIS is defeated.

It may have gotten a bloody nose in Iraq and Syria but that is only a setback  not a defeat.

ISIS has announced the new “caliphate” being born…..the region of Kashmir on the sub-continent is a region of violence and what better place for ISIS to resurrect its barbarity?

In mid-May 2019 ISIS announced the establishment of a province in India. The newly dubbed “Wilayah of Hind” (Indian Province) was announced by its Amaq News Agency. The same statement claimed the infliction of casualties on the Indian Army in Amshipora in the Shopian district of Kashmir.

There are at least five things that are clear:

  1. There is no physical geographical “province” called “Wilayah of Hind.” The claim is not true and the so-called province is not real.
  2. While the claim of provincial establishment may seem preposterous, it is not so in light of the larger strategy. An austere and hardline form of Islam has roots in India as far back as the mid 18th century, often centered around the teachings of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi. ISIS is very likely attempting to inspire Indian Muslims with a very personal narrative regarding this iconic Shah.
  3. The combined statement of the very real and confirmed strike in Kashmir along with the illusory claim to have established a province in India are a continuation of the ISIS strategy of attempting to establish global meaning of regional conflicts and also to reinvigorate their ultimate victory narrative recently suffering dramatic setbacks in the Levant.
  4. The fact that ISIS claimed a province in India rather than Kashmir may indicate the interests of its financiers. The group’s report card is not looking good as a result of its territorial withdrawals and its financiers may be re-enthused by in-roads into India.
  5. The group is recruiting in Kashmir for strikes in India.

https://thedefensepost.com/2019/05/08/islamic-state-education-children/

There are ways of making sure that the ‘caliphate’ continues ….the education of children…..and ISIS has a sure fire system in place……

The so-called Caliphate has been territorially defeated, but Islamic State has left behind a dangerous legacy. Thousands of children are stuck in camps in Iraq and Syria, while some children of foreign parents have been able to return to their home countries. ISIS spent years indoctrinating them, including through a form of formal schooling. Textbooks used by ISIS show one part of its efforts to corrupt a new generation with its extremist ideology.

Islamic State had long harbored goals of becoming more than an insurgent group. Military victories through 2013 and 2014 saw it sweep across Iraq and Syria, capturing territory the size of Great Britain, and giving it the resources and population needed to start building a proto-state.

Among its state-like endeavours was a formal education system.

https://thedefensepost.com/2019/05/08/islamic-state-education-children/

Bombs and bullets kill the flesh but the hearts and minds is hard to defeat without a proper attack plan…..so far I have seen nothing to lead us to neutralize the damage this education does.

ISIS is not dead…just waiting for the time to re-establish itself.

Watch This Space!

Shades Of S.D.I. (Star Wars)

I read something the other day that made me think of the old Reagan Star Wars plan (the S.D.I.)…….but what was it?

In case you are too young to remember the plan……

https://youtu.be/XI-YkEIiUXY

Now that I have explained what I was thinking….how about the article that promoted all this contemplation….

India on Wednesday destroyed a low-orbiting satellite in a missile test that puts the country in the space “super league”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

He said India would be the fourth country to have used such an anti-satellite missile after the United States, Russia and China.

“A while ago, our scientists shot down a live satellite at a low-earth orbit. I congratulate all scientists who have made this possible and made India a much stronger nation,” Modi said in a rare televised address to the nation weeks before the national elections scheduled to be held in April and May.

“This is a big moment for India. Something that all of us should be proud of. We are not just capable to defend on land, water and air, but now also in space,” he was quoted as saying by NDTV website.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/india-shoots-satellite-joining-space-super-league-modi-190327071419578.html

There is history behind these attempts….

The United States performed the first anti-satellite tests in 1959, when satellites themselves were rare and new.

Bold Orion, designed as a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile re-purposed to attack satellites, was launched from a bomber and passed close enough to the Explorer 6 satellite for it to have been destroyed if the missile had been armed.

The Soviet Union performed similar tests around the same time. In the 1960s and early 1970s, it tested a weapon that could be launched in orbit, approach enemy satellites and destroy them with an explosive charge, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit research and advocacy organization.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-satellite-tests-factbox-idUSKCN1R80UW

And all those people that protested against the Reagan program, the SDI, only thought we had won a decisive victory when the program was abandoned (or so we thought)…..

It is time for a renewed push to make some things in space illegal…..maybe not this but then there is a plan for a Space Force for the US……there should be guidelines and laws governing and practice.

Sub-Continent Slow Boil

Things got a bit warm between India and Pakistan…..first a suicide attack within India and then India hits a camp within Pakistan and two Indian jets are shot down and a pilot captured…..then the back and forth about Kashmir and the rhetoric around the captured pilot…..https://lobotero.com/2019/02/20/the-sub-continent-smolders/

To ease the rising tensions the PM of Pakistan Khan has decided to return the Indian pilot……

Imran Khan has kept his promise. On Thursday, Pakistan’s prime minister vowed to release Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who’d been captured after his MiG-21 jet was shot down Wednesday by a Pakistani fighter over the disputed Kashmir territory. And on Friday, Khan made good, with video showing the 38-year-old fighter pilot walking over the border near the Pakistani town of Wagah, per Reuters. The Washington Post notes Varthaman was dressed in a “sharp suit” as he crossed back into India with lots of security nearby and hundreds of cheering Indians waiting to greet him.

“It is good to be back in my country,” were his reported first words, an official told the media, per NDTV. Even though Pakistan and India have long been fighting over Kashmir, Varthaman’s plane was the first to be shot down in such an “aerial dogfight” between the two countries in nearly a half-century, the Post notes. The pilot was said to have chewed and swallowed some of the maps and other sensitive papers in his possession after his plane crashed to keep them out of the wrong hands. Many hope that the pilot’s release will tamp down the India-Pakistan tensions that’ve been escalating over the past couple of weeks. Varthaman will be debriefed and checked out by doctors, Indian officials say.

Pilot is home but the tension remain high with cross border shelling…..

A Pakistani government official says Indian troops with heavy weapons have “indiscriminately targeted border villagers” along the two nations’ Line of Control in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing a boy and wounding three others. The official, Umar Azam, said Saturday that Pakistani troops are “befittingly” responding to the Indian fire, per the AP. He says several homes were destroyed in Pakistan’s part of Kashmir, which is split between them and claimed by both in its entirety. Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since their independence from British rule in 1947.

Saturday’s exchange of fire came a day after Pakistan handed over captured Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman to India as a “gesture of peace” to defuse tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors over the disputed Kashmir region. Meanwhile, officials say two siblings and their mother have been killed in cross-border shelling between Indian and Pakistani soldiers in disputed Kashmir. Indian police say the three died overnight after a shell fired by Pakistani soldiers hit their home in the Poonch region near the so-called Line of Control that divides the Himalayan territory of Kashmir between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

The world can only hold its breath and hope a peaceful solution can be found for this region does not need another war.

 

One Step Closer To War

This post could be about any country in the 21st century…..it seems that everybody is more than willing to go to war……but for this post it is the tensions between India and Pakistan…….

The usual tensions are over the Kashmir region which both countries have claimed and have fought several conflicts over the region……I wrote about the most recent clash of the two rivals…….https://lobotero.com/2019/02/20/the-sub-continent-smolders/

After I wrote that piece the tensions got more tense……Pakistan claims that it has shot down two Indian planes……

Pakistan’s military says it has two Indian pilots in custody, captured after the Pakistani air force shot down their aircraft Wednesday on its side of the disputed region of Kashmir. The military’s spokesman, Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor, says one of the pilots is injured and is being treated in a military hospital. He did not elaborate on the pilot’s injuries. Ghafoor says the other pilot is in custody. The military says the Indian Air Force plane was downed on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control in Kashmir—a boundary separating the disputed Himalayan region between the nuclear armed neighbors, the AP reports.

Officials say another Indian Air Force plane crashed in an Indian-controlled sector of Kashmir. Tensions between the two countries started to escalate Tuesday following a pre-dawn airstrike by India that New Delhi said targeted a terrorist training camp in northwest Pakistan. Pakistan says Indian warplanes dropped bombs near the town of Balakot but that there were no casualties. India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swara said the objective of the strike was to act decisively against the Jaish-e-Mohammed group, which claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a convoy of India’s paramilitary forces in the Indian portion of Kashmir on Feb. 14 that killed 40 troops. (Read more India-Pakistan relations stories.)

This situation deteriorates and the US has troops in the region….just how will that effect those troops?

The US does not need another conflict to manage……and without the proper diplomats in place a conflict to manage is what we shall get.

It is sad that this news gets no response…..our troops…..our sons, daughters, Moms, Dads and others could be at risk and NO one can take the time to acquaint themselves with this situation…..it is pathetic…..and to say they support the troops is a goddamn LIE!

The Sub-Continent Smolders!

Since independence India and Pakistan have been at each other’s throat…it all began in 1947….https://indianexpress.com/article/research/here-is-a-history-of-india-pakistan-conflict/

We are now in the 21st century and not much has changed on the sub-continent…..the latest incident around the region known as Kashmir is igniting more hostilities…..

The militant attack in India-ruled Kashmir has once again put New Delhi and Islamabad on a war footing. Analysts at the Munich Security Conference say it is a setback to those who wish to see lasting peace in the region.

41 Indian paramilitary troops were killed on Thursday in a suicide bombing in the Pulwama district of India-administered Kashmir. The Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which translates as “The Army of Mohammed,” claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, according to local media.

It was not the first time that the Islamist group allegedly perpetrated an attack in the Indian part of Kashmir, although the Thursday assault was the deadliest in the disputed region.

Read more: Fresh violence in Kashmir exposes the need for diplomacy

https://www.dw.com/en/why-kashmir-attack-could-spark-a-military-confrontation-in-south-asia/a-47541203

The Kashmir thing is a spillover from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan……https://original.antiwar.com/Nauman_Sadiq/2019/02/11/kashmir-insurgency-the-spillover-of-the-soviet-afghan-jihad/

The fact that India is in control of the mountainous region known as Kashmir just keeps the rhetoric between the two countries escalated…..back and forth the accusations fly and the newest incident is NO different……https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-india-kashmir-attacks-pakistan/pakistan-rejects-links-to-attack-in-indian-controlled-kashmir-idUKKCN1Q32RS

Each time there is an incident the closer these two, India and Pakistan, come to another armed conflict…..you did know that these two have fought a couple of “wars”, right?

It is hard to imagine that Kashmir, one of the most beautiful places on earth and inhabited by a peaceful populace, could be the bone of contention between India and Pakistan. Unlike similar disputed territories around the world, the main reason that Kashmir is at the center of strife has more to do with political reasons than with religious ideology, despite the fact that has been a melting pot of different religious faiths.

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-kashmir-conflict-1770394

Why do the hate each other so much?

https://youtu.be/yReaR1p-PV0

Then there is Kashmir……why do they fight?

https://youtu.be/IgAypF0rBGI

Those videos did more in a few minutes than I could do in 1000 words…..

I watch this region because it is one of those that could ignite into a shooting war and the US would be drawn into……we DO NOT need another war…regardless of what the neocons and the M-IC want…..why is this important? They are both nuclear powers.

Watch and Learn!

Turn The Page!

The Mysterious Sub-Continent

India got its freedom from the UK in 1947 and almost from day one they have been in conflict with their neighbors.

First it was their problems with their neighbor Pakistan…the first India-Pakistan War was in 1947….then came the wars of 1965, 1971 and 1999….and to this day there are regular incidents between Pakistan and India over the Kashmir District in Northern India-Pakistan border region.

But those are not the conflicts that I want to go into….these were given only to show the amount of conflict that India is always finding itself immersed in……the conflict that is most pressing these days…..China-India situation…..

There head butting began in 1959 and has carried forward to this day….and it has become more fierce than in the past…..

In mid-June, a remote area called the Dolam plateau in the Himalayas where the boundaries of China, India and Bhutan meet made headlines when Indian and Chinese troops began a standoff over a road construction project. China conducted a live-fire exercise in the area, and there have been false reports of deaths. Diplomatic efforts are underway to de-escalate the situation, but still the risk of war has been on everyone’s mind.

The terrain and weather in the area, located in a region called Doklam, are anathema to war. And yet, almost exactly 55 years ago, China and India fought briefly over this and other contested border areas. So what is the strategic value of this seemingly obscure plateau? And would India and China really go to war again over it?

Source: Are China and India on the Road to War? – Geopolitics | Geopolitical Futures

What has the players up in arms this time?

Chinese forces are holding an increasingly large series of live-fire training drills in Tibet, reflecting soaring tensions with neighboring India, while Chinese state media outlets suggest the nation is gearing up for a possible “long-term confrontation” with India over the border region.

The tensions center on the border region of China, India, and Bhutan. China was trying to build a road in remote Dokola, when Indian ground troops streamed across the border to stop them. The construction has stopped but it has left scores of troops from both China and India in the remote area in a standoff, with the risk of the world’s two most populace nations warring over it.

(antiwar.com)

This may ultimately all be bluster, as a war between the two large nuclear powers ought to be unthinkable, particularly over this largely worthless chunk of mountainous terrain. Yet mutual unwillingness to be seen as backing down could quickly lead both sides toward further escalations, with a major regional conflict resulting.

Is India Next?

America has had an off again, on again relationship with India….at one point we hated them for they were aligned with the USSR…then they were I buddies….now it is pretty much up in the air who likes who…..

Everyone knows how the US feels about AQ….well that is everywhere but in Syria……it looks like AQ is spreading its influence into the sub-continent, India to be more accurate….

: In the region, AQIS is a highly significant group. This is an assessment that’s shared by top officials within the U.S., such as General John Nicholson, Commander of American and NATO troops in Afghanistan, who talked about this recently in an interview with CTC Sentinel.

AQIS was formally announced in September 2014, but its origins go back before the formal announcement. Al Qaeda has had longstanding relationships in the region for some time, as is well known. The center of gravity for al Qaeda, and for its senior leadership, was in Afghanistan-Pakistan and South Asia for around 15 years, so the group maintained longstanding relationships, not just in the post-9/11 world but also prior to the 9/11 attacks. They were able to cultivate strong ties with sectarian and Kashmir-focused militant factions, and the network spans several countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.

Source: AQIS Fits Into al Qaeda’s Global Strategy | The Cipher Brief

This could a conflict in the making especially after the president and his cronies have made it clear that the US would use troops wherever needed….does that mean that we will be sending special ops people to the sub-continent any time soon?

 

Will A Threat Become Reality?

Out new prez has not even taking the office officially and he is looking at a couple of major situations…..I wrote about one of them this morning…Gambia and now it looks like their is more saber rattling coming from Pakistan over the region of Kashmir……

Pakistan’s Defence Minister has warned it will ‘eliminate India’ with nuclear weapons if the country ‘dares to impose war’.

His comments came as Pakistan blamed ‘cross-border fire’ from India for the death of two of its soldiers in the disputed region of Kashmir.

Fears are growing that the two old enemies may go to war again.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif reportedly told Pakistani TV channel SAMAA on September 26: ‘We will destroy India if it dares to impose war on us. Pakistan army is fully prepared to answer any misadventure of India.

‘We have not made an atomic device to display in a showcase. If a such a situation arises we will use it and eliminate India.’

This could be some sort of macho chest thumping or it could be the precursor to a larger problem…..
There is N. Korea threatening to use nukes and now the Pakistanis…maybe we should take all this chest thumping seriously until found otherwise…..
Now would be the best time to get ahead of this situation….if it occurs the US will NO doubt be ass deep in it.

Will India Emulate Israel?

There is always something happening in  the world of international relations that the media would like to ignore……

Bet that title is confusing to some, huh?

How could India possibly emulate Israel?  A good question and I am glad you asked.

The answer is simple……….Think settlements.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) argues that some 200,000 to 300,000 Hindus fled Kashmir during the armed revolt which began in 1989, and says they are building the settlements to encourage those Hindus to return.

Critics say the plan is effectively Israeli-style religious settlements with an eye toward bringing pro-government Hindus into a region with an active, predominantly Muslim, separatist movement.

Separatist leaders say the BJP’s move is aimed at further weakening the existing autonomy Kashmir has, and even the top Kashmiri Hindu organization accused the government of putting them at risk by singling them out into special, exclusive districts which would become a target for attack.

This is how you steal land and make it yours…..move in your supporters until there is no more room for the original inhabitants…….think West Bank settlements.

Back to those situations that the media chooses to ignore…….settlements.  The situation in the occupied West bank is getting out of hand and yet the MSM ignores the problem….and it will ignore India’s attempt to do what Israel is doing….stealing in the name of living space…….and if I am not mistaken there was a crazy little dude back in the 1930’s that used exact technique to gobble up territory.

Amusing how some things seldom change and justifications do not evolve.

The Little War That Could–Part 2

While the world was debating the benefits of war……China is creeping!

Kashmir has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan for years, even decades, to the point that they have fought several short lived wars over the region…….and more recently there has been a stand off between the two countries over possession of the region…….it is always a crucial conflict that the world needs to intervene since both countries have nuke weapon capability…….

But recently a new twist has been added to the conflict…..that twist is…….wait for it……… China.

Hundreds of Indian and Chinese troops have dug into positions on a high Himalayan plateau, leading India’s army chief to cancel a foreign trip and monitor a standoff that underscores deep differences between the Asian giants as they seek closer ties.

Military officials in New Delhi and Kashmir said on Tuesday that Chinese troops set up a camp about 3 km (2 miles) into territory claimed by India in the Chumar region of the Ladakh plateau more than a week ago.

The alleged incursion by Chinese troops into territory claimed by India dominated a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, overshadowing his pledges to invest $20 billion over five years and a bid to warm personal ties with new Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Indian government on Monday (September 22) cancelled the clearances of Chinese mediapersons coming to New Delhi for an interaction with Indian counterparts, after reports came about China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers pitching tents within the Indian territory.

India has deployed about 1,500 troops in the Chumar area and there are about 800 Chinese soldiers, an Indian government official said. The two sides are not in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation and are well separated from each other.
Small incursions are common across the Line of Actual Control between the nations, the de facto border that runs some 4,000 km (2,500 miles) across the Himalayas, but it is rare for either country to set up camp deep within disputed territory.

 

A situation that needs to be watched…….there are three (3) nuclear armed countries vying for control of a region……all it would take is one rogue general to start World War Three….is that important enough for you skeptics?