Indian military threatening Pakistan; Pakistani military posturing aggressively...sigh. I see things are back to normal, how dare this region and these two nations go a whole decade without war? Lets all kill each other to make up for lost time. At this point, virtually no one is taking even one second to think of the broader picture. Its the reason so many nations are at conflict; why peace is so desired, yet so unattainable for most. Peace and compromise requires effort, it requires a willingness to move past aberrations. Most nations, whether it is Israel and Palestine or Pakistan and India want peace, but on their own terms. Both, India and Pakistan, want everything they currently have and more; both want apologies for crimes and atrocities without issuing their own; both want a tangible reward for years of suffering they put themselves through. In their greed to come out as victor, they sacrifice the future generations and those nameless and faceless souls that defend the borders.
A beheading is a heinous crime and if it is a fact then it deserves to be condemned. But why does it take away from the fact that deaths, just as senseless and just as brutal, have taken place repeatedly on both sides. When an artillery shell blows a jawan into pieces, is that morally ok? As long as the intention wasn't to decapitate, but a mere side affect? The point is not to diminish the suffering of anyone, nor to shove the apparent beheading under the rug. It is, instead, to remind people: war is horrible business. While many claim to understand it, the fact that they are calling for blood, knowing full well it would result in the death of hundreds, reveals the lack of perspective only emotion brings. What has happened is terrible and both sides have suffered and instead of pressuring the India and Pakistani governments to curtail this suffering and fast track the peace process, the citizens are asking for revenge that would only exponentially increase the pain. Isn't ironic that the pain caused by the death of those soldiers is causing people to call for the death of more people. Unless the goal is to reduce more families on either side of the border to the hopelessness and suffering induced by the loss of a loved one, the bravado with which members are talking on this forum these days, is misguided and misdirected and wholly misses the mark.
