In defence?

The Israeli attack on Flotilla came as a shock to everyone. Use of force on this scale was unexpected and I must say, unnecessary. The incident took place in international waters, and that makes it more worrying. Is Israel going to stop at nothing? The Flotilla incident has resulted in widespread condemnation of Israeli action but this too, will be forgotten soon. No country in the world today dares to stand up to Israel. Why?

Today's The Hindu carried the statement of the Prime Minister that terror would be fought 'root and branch'. I wish that were really true! If you look at it, we have too many kinds of terrorist groups in the country. Islamic extremists, Maoists, the uncountable number of -ists in the north-eastern region... the list goes on and on. And we have poorly equipped police forces in most of the states. On top of that, there is severe shortage of manpower too. This is not the ideal way to go about the task if the PM really meant it.

The interesting fact is, everyone seems to know how to fight terror: use force against the terrorists and win the hearts and minds of the locals. The question is, why is no one able to do it?

I am worried about the rate at which Japan seems to be changing its PMs. The Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is stepping down as he could not fulfill his election promise of relocating a U.S Marine base. Quite sensible too, if you look at it. You are the Prime Minister of the country and you cannot get a foreign military base to be relocated, it doesn't make much sense to be holding the position, right? Thank God for the Non-Aligned Movement. That is one thing for which I will be forever grateful to Nehru.