Annie, Congressman Naishtat and Merisa
View Benchmark 2, Objective 1 as: |
Benchmark
2, Objective 2
ISSUES BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN
India and Pakistan have had blood between them since 1947. The reason for their hostility has roots in religion and history. Consequently a hazardous nuclear race has begun.
After the British Empire dissolved in 1947, the India subcontinent was separated into India and Pakistan. The territory of Jammu and Kashmir has remained in dispute, with India and Pakistan both holding areas. When the India “subcontinent” was segmented up there was severe rioting and people moving because they were living on the wrong side of the provinces. This caused an estimated half million deaths and many more to be homeless. The dispute of who Kashmir and Jammu are apart of has being going on ever since with Pakistan saying that they are apart of them because the majority of the state is Muslim and India says that the Maharaja (the one that was appointed to be in control of that area) decided to part with India.
The first time that the two countries went to war was in October of 1947. The cause of this war was because armed tribesmen from Pakistan invaded Kashmir. The Maharaja asked for assistance from the Indian government. Finally a cease-fire was called and Kashmir was right of entry from India. Then in 1965 the countries went to war again when Pakistan went across the cease-fire line.
There have been attempts made to try and settle the dispute of the Kashmir and Jammu areas. They refuse help to settle this saying that it should be done amongst themselves.
The arms race between the two rivals has since escalated in the 1990’s. Both by them testing nukes and missiles near each other’s borders despite what accords or treaties they sign. Sanctions were ordered against India and Pakistan. The U.S. and Japan froze money going to them and a few European countries followed suite. The UN Security Council urged the India and Pakistan to stop all nuclear weapons programs. “In 1992 Pakistan said that it had acquired the scientific know how to make a nuclear bomb.” Since then there has been more war and more agreements that were broken. Since the September 11th attacks Pakistan has agreed to go cooperate with the U.S.
Sources of information:
Leung, S. The History Of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Retrieved Mar. 28, 2003, http://www.geocities.com/notaswtangel/
(2000).Pakistan, War & Army. Retrieved Mar. 28, 2003, http://www.maeport.com/subtopics/w/countries/pakistan.html#details
India-Pakistan. Retrieved Mar. 28, 2003, http://news.bbc.co/hi/english/static/in_depth/south_asia/2002/india_pakistan/timeline/2001.htm
Benchmark 2, Objective 3
Recent information from an Indian based online newspaper suggested that China and Israel could become the next economic allies of the country. This somewhat questionably could lead to China and Israel to become military allies of India. This comes as disastrous news to some concerned individuals such as my self. Let's think about it for a minute, three countries, two with drastically large populations and all three have a much smaller ratio of Muslim populations than many countries surrounding them. Not to mention the rigid anti terrorism stands all three countries make. The other serious point is that China and India are self-proclaimed nuclear states. If nuclear weapons and or material were funneled to Israel it would prove to create the same situation the world faces in the Pakistan-India conflict that has plagued the countries for more than fifty years. This scenario would thus provide nuclear weapons simultaneously to the Middle East and South Asia, which in my book of bad things is up towards the top. Now to top it all off one must look to the fledgling military partnership between Russia and India. Which in the long run has the potential for nuclear biological/chemical weapons if not weapons grade materials to be bought by India from Russia and China. The other interesting point is that this would unite the three largest populated countries together. That in my mind is a extreme double edged sword.
This partnership/axis however you look at it could very well lead to the next World War and this is how. Israel who has obtained a large amount of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) from its new found allies of India, China and Russia is continually attacked by Palestinians in the ongoing holy war, Israel pressured and not wanting to continue this futile war decides to let the world know that they do indeed posses WMD. Now how they go about this is up for grabs, they could infect Palestine with small pox and not have to worry about infecting themselves as they would have bought a mass dosage of the antidote from there ever so powerful ally the U.S. Any way the point is that Palestine being the "Martyr" to fuel the ongoing Muslim outrage caused by the U.S. supporting the Israeli attack and in the new light of finding that the WMD did not in fact come from the Jewish country but from the Muslim oppressor India, China and Russia would truly spark a Jihad of epic proportions. Or Israel could buy nuclear WMD and plant a large bomb in the middle of Palestine having much the same effect on the Muslim community.
An Essay of Mass Political Attitude
Let us assume for one moment that that the United States is going after every country with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and ties to terrorism. This would include any Islamic country we haven’t already bombed and most South Asian countries that the U.S. hasn’t already paid off. This idea of course is a “factious” statement but it helps to provide a mindset. Anyhow with this world political view in mind let us pretend that the U.S. has already moped up what is left of Iraq and moved on to the next fish on the list, North Korea. Whose self-incriminating nuclear arms stand and repeated acts of defiance to U.S. and UN resolutions and treaties has given them the upper edge in being notorious. Then North Korea is pushed into the same exile or war situation by the world’s watchdog the U.S. At this point the rest of the world will reflect on what is about to happen while the U.S. government draws war plans and as most people would notice there is a large difference between Iraq and North Korea. For one North Korea is located in close proximity to two major economic strong points the China- Taiwan trade empire and Japan. So let us break down three scenarios.
1.Japan gets the WWII flash back.
This is a really bad situation. When North Korean Leaders faced with no way out and an overbearing U.S. opposition decides to take the world down with them and launch a nuclear device over what is essentially a really big pond the Sea of Japan. This not launch not only threatens millions of innocent Japanese but also endangers the fate of the world economy that is still in shambles due to the everlasting effects of 9/11. The real problem here is that no one but Kim Jong Ill could stop this from happening and he would be the first to pull the trigger.
2.North Korea shoots for the Eagle
This scenario is much the same as the last with a vastly more damaging ending; N. Korea also bombs China and Taiwan while they’re at it. This not only cripples the world economy it kills it.
3. N. Korea triple banks it
The last scenario I’m going to offer is this. N. Korea takes out S. Korea, China-Taiwan and Japan. The bombing of S. Korea doesn’t hurt the economy as directly as much as bombing the other countries it does harm and or kill a large population percentage of S. Korea.
While this is one side of Asia let us look to the South where for years Pakistan and India have literally been at each others throats for the fabled Kashmir area that they have forsaken the fate of their people and homeland just to be more right or wrong than the other. This leads to an even larger question can the world economy take the jolt of loosing Pakistan or India or mostly both. Which leads me to my next worse case retaliation scenario.
1.Retaliation is best served during the Apocalypse
After fighting rages for days and lots of posturing comes to no avail Pakistan in a 50 year slump of frustration does what it has promised to do countless times before and makes a mass attack of nuclear arms on India. Thereby nearly annihilating close to a third of the world’s population. The Indian government (or what’s left of it) in a blatant act of self-defense fires back at Pakistan and takes out the rest of the third of the world’s population.
"New
Delhi, March 26: Both India and Pakistan test-fired nuclear-capable, short-range
surface-to-surface
missiles on
Wednesday. India tested Prithvi, with a range of 150 km (90 miles). Analysts
say it is mainly intended to reach targets in Pakistan. A defense official
said it was a routine test of a missile already in use by the army.
Pakistan
also conducted similar test just hours after India. "Pakistan
has test-fired a short-range missile," Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz
Ahmed Khan told Reuters, without saying which model the missile was. "We
had informed the neighbors, including India, about the test yesterday."
The test was from a launch pad in Balasore on the country's eastern seaboard. "It's
just one of those routine tests," the official, who did not want
to be named, told Reuters. "It is the version that is already with the army.
There is nothing big about it."
The test came a day after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for stoking violence in Kashmir where 24 Hindus, including women and children, were shot dead by suspected Islamic militants late on Sunday.
The nuclear rivals were on the brink of war last year after India
blamed Pakistan-based militants
for an attack on its parliament in December 2001. The hostile neighbours massed
a million troops on their border for 10 months but tensions eased
gradually and the troops were withdrawn last October. India had said in January
it planned to test Prithvi along with a range of other missiles. That test,
however, was not conducted though defence scientists test-fired other missiles
including a shorter-range version of the nuclear-capable, surface-to-surface
ballistic missile, Agni. The Agni-1 version has a range of about 800 km and
is capable of hitting most of Pakistan, according to defense experts. A 250-km
(150-mile) range variant of Prithvi is also being developed but has yet to
be introduced into the armed forces"
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=20082#compstory
This article seems to be a little too coincidental. I mean nuclear weapons with out the war heads of course test fired almost simultaneously. This seems to prove that India and Pakistan are watching each other very closely.
Pakistan develops chemical weapon illegally 1 February 2003: Defying the Chemical Weapons’ Convention (CWC), Pakistan has developed a chemically-synthesized pellet (CSP) that can incapacitate a person in 20-60 seconds and cause massive casualties used in warheads that could have been developed by Pakistan ordnance factories. CSP contains an insoluble white crystalline powder that causes a burning sensation in the eyes and skin, breathlessness, and considerable irritation, and could have been developed with Chinese assistance. Pakistan signed the CWC in 1993 one year after a joint treaty with India against development, production or use of chemical weapons, and ratified the CWC in 1997. CWC allows production of related chemicals provided they are verifiably used for peaceful purposes.
Indian intelligence is alarmed by the discovery of CWC but it fits with Pakistani military planning since dictator-president, General Pervez Musharraf, said in a public speech that he had warned India of “unconventional war” if it provoked hostilities last summer. India’s updated second-strike nuclear policy reserves the option of using nuclear weapons against biological and chemical attacks.
Pakistan has also upgraded its defences against chemical attacks by developing a portable kit to detect warfare agents like nerve gas, mustard gas, hydrocyanic acid, and phosgene. While it has developed a quick-testing strip (QTS-24) like India to detect 24 biochemical agents, it has also put together a jeep-borne laboratory to test 15 samples at a time to recognise 50 cultures and distinguish 78 types of bacterial pathogens.
This article surely makes clear Pakistan’s intentions towards war. If any thing it proves that Pakistan has very little respect for national Law.