Not Pakistan, But War Killed Her Father
A 20-year-old Delhi girl's extremely wisestatementthat, 'Not Pakistan but war killed my father,' is being viewed as anti-national.This young girl, Gurmehar Kaur, is being chastised by pseudo-nationalists and false patriots; this is terribly sad. Rather than learn from her and mull over her sage words on the utter futility of war, the whole country is condemning her. Why? Gurmehar Kaur is right. It's war, not Pakistan that killed her father who was a Captain in the Indian Army when the Kargil war broke out in the year 1999. Remember the sagacious words of the US General Douglas MacArthur, themost decorated soldier in modern times and a key figure in the Pacific duringthe Second World War: "There's no enemy country. I'll shake hands with the 'enemy soldier when there's no war and vice versa but both will try to kill each other during thewar." British Field Marshal Montgomery echoed the same sentiment, "Allnations are friends. War turns them into enemies." Ashoka the Great, after seeing the unprecedented bloodshed in thebattleof Kalinga, exclaimed, "Why did I kill so many innocent soldiers? Were they my enemies? The main enemy was the battle."The Pali concept of the Buddha, Yuddham Parabhootam', is that the very idea of war must be defeated, and not the enemies, because there isno enemy. War itself is the biggest enemy. The ill-timed and ill-inter- tree preted nationalistic fervour has germinated the seed of the "other country" being our enemy. India and Pakistan are surviving on this perpetual strife and idea of enmity. Weall seem to be hell bent on the perpetuation of this face-off, all this bad blood. French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte wrote to the British Admiral Horatio Nelson, "Admiral, whether youdefeat me or I defeat you, nothing will happen. But one thingwill remain forever intact: Not the countries France or Great Britain, but the battle that had its last laugh." Yes, a battle or war has the last laugh.War is death's dance macabre. We all must get rid of the apparitions of war from our consciousness and stop blaming the other country for killing. A country doesn't kill. War does. Stop encouraging and nurturing such ill-conceived ideas and learn from this young girl. The anti-warpoet Wilfred Owen aptly said, "War goes beyond country/Killing is its foremost duty." First of all,the whole world m think seriously about disarmamestopspending trillions of money weapons of mass destruction. Whwe letting ourselves become victithe machinations of thosewho thkeeping conflicts alive, like say, forinstance, the military-industrialplex? They don't want peace; theyus to wage war so that they can seTheirs is not to agonise over whorbe using the weapons and againstIf war is what kills people, notcountry A or Bor C, we need to risgeography and history; we need totogether, and work togetherto breof boundaries both physical andrWe're still not evolved and are ured by our troglodyte pastwhenkill each other at the drop of a hata scar on the escutcheon of mankian anathema we need to get rid of.Postyourcomments at speaking
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Sumit Paul views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: Sumit Paul Speaking Tree,Times of India
Not Pakistan, But War Killed Her Father
A 20-year-old Delhi girl's extremely wisestatementthat, 'Not Pakistan but war killed my father,' is being viewed as anti-national.This young girl, Gurmehar Kaur, is being chastised by pseudo-nationalists and false patriots; this is terribly sad. Rather than learn from her and mull over her sage words on the utter futility of war, the whole country is condemning her. Why? Gurmehar Kaur is right. It's war, not Pakistan that killed her father who was a Captain in the Indian Army when the Kargil war broke out in the year 1999. Remember the sagacious words of the US General Douglas MacArthur, themost decorated soldier in modern times and a key figure in the Pacific duringthe Second World War: "There's no enemy country. I'll shake hands with the 'enemy soldier when there's no war and vice versa but both will try to kill each other during thewar." British Field Marshal Montgomery echoed the same sentiment, "Allnations are friends. War turns them into enemies." Ashoka the Great, after seeing the unprecedented bloodshed in thebattleof Kalinga, exclaimed, "Why did I kill so many innocent soldiers? Were they my enemies? The main enemy was the battle."The Pali concept of the Buddha, Yuddham Parabhootam', is that the very idea of war must be defeated, and not the enemies, because there isno enemy. War itself is the biggest enemy. The ill-timed and ill-inter- tree preted nationalistic fervour has germinated the seed of the "other country" being our enemy. India and Pakistan are surviving on this perpetual strife and idea of enmity. Weall seem to be hell bent on the perpetuation of this face-off, all this bad blood. French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte wrote to the British Admiral Horatio Nelson, "Admiral, whether youdefeat me or I defeat you, nothing will happen. But one thingwill remain forever intact: Not the countries France or Great Britain, but the battle that had its last laugh." Yes, a battle or war has the last laugh.War is death's dance macabre. We all must get rid of the apparitions of war from our consciousness and stop blaming the other country for killing. A country doesn't kill. War does. Stop encouraging and nurturing such ill-conceived ideas and learn from this young girl. The anti-warpoet Wilfred Owen aptly said, "War goes beyond country/Killing is its foremost duty." First of all,the whole world m think seriously about disarmamestopspending trillions of money weapons of mass destruction. Whwe letting ourselves become victithe machinations of thosewho thkeeping conflicts alive, like say, forinstance, the military-industrialplex? They don't want peace; theyus to wage war so that they can seTheirs is not to agonise over whorbe using the weapons and againstIf war is what kills people, notcountry A or Bor C, we need to risgeography and history; we need totogether, and work togetherto breof boundaries both physical andrWe're still not evolved and are ured by our troglodyte pastwhenkill each other at the drop of a hata scar on the escutcheon of mankian anathema we need to get rid of.Postyourcomments at speaking
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Sumit Paul views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: Sumit Paul Speaking Tree,Times of India