How long … yet … is FREEDOM ?
Will this crisis be ever mitigated? Plummeted optimism can’t raise the phoenix, alone. What is the REAL cost of independence?
Sharad’s Sunday Sojourns (week # 489 | 29th August 2021)
“Global war is a clash of systems, not just battalions biffing one another in some godforsaken forest.” … Rick Atkinson.
Is America right in their decision to withdraw the troops from Afghanistan?
Is it too early?
Was India right in their decision to spend billions in the ‘renovation’ in Afghanistan?
Is it safe to hand over the reins of Afghanistan to the fundamentalists, howsoever ‘intrinsic’ they may be to the land?
As you may note, questions are just too many.
Answers, in contrast, seem too minuscule!
We have been there, time and again, to test and detest the limits of patience, the thresholds of human endurance, and the extent of rage, all at the same time.
Believe it or not, even though the subcontinent is nothing new to attacks from religious and non-religious rightwing fundamentalists, as time progresses, there seems to be gradual and steady progression towards the ‘point of no return’.
People say tolerance is the key. The question is, how much blood you need more, to rise up and say: “enough is enough!”.
The current POTUS is under heat at the moment, perceived to be inside the domain of his decision to withdraw the troops.
Arguments and counterarguments notwithstanding, there are implications.
For instance, I doubt that it could have mitigated the challenge forever, although with the presence of the US military, definitely it could have been delayed.
Again, it is not so difficult to fathom that the inevitable was precisely bound to happen one way or the other, as correctly predicted by the global intelligence (CIA, KGB, Mossad, amongst others).
As usual, the big daddy is going to defend his decision, as they always have.
Achieving the target at the cost of anything, for instance, breaching the sovereignty of a nation, may bring temporary relief from the oppression, but long term, it’s going to backfire.
This is now evident, time and again, from the global acts of extreme demonstrations, peaceful or with blatant violence.
What can be done about it?
With reference to Afghanistan, I doubt there is any room for middle path now. You can’t reason with the extremists, can you? If I have to speak my mind, I always expected the mayhem that is currently on display there.
Speak of remorse and nation building enthusiasm, you can’t really enforce a camaraderie and bonhomie with a deadly, venomous snake, can you?
And we need to remember that acts of radicalism, domestic or international, will be as perpetual as global pandemics.
You can subdue it largely, via extreme caution and vigilance, but you can’t wipe it away!
Too many factors influence the phase diagram of extremism, and adding local flavours to it, the equation can’t be approached with a rational mindset, not anymore.
Veins and arteries in the perpetrators are rotten with animosity just too large to make it calm again.
We are heading to a catastrophe … is perhaps the most blunt and outrageous understatement of recent times!
Whatever it is, lethargy is slowly creeping up.
Humans lives seem to dwell at the mercy of external factors!
One way, the virus will get you via physiological malfunction.
The other way, explosives are waiting at unknown places, ready to annihilate the trust, and lives!
Where do we stop? How does it stop?
I don’t know. Do you?
