2019 Mar 03 - India and Pakistan
There was an especially high level of filler in the news this week, yet more articles about Brexit not to mention a selection of social and environmental stories that are about as newsworthy as if Fiona Bruce hosted a debate over whether to add the milk before or after the teabag. Yet in the mean time the world actually came pretty close to starting World War 3 this week when military tensions between India and Pakistan rose higher than an estimate for Jeff Bezos’ divorce bill.
The way that India and Pakistan were acting, you’d think that one of their cricketers had been tampering with the ball but in actual fact an Indian fighter jet crossed into Pakistan to attack militants who'd killed 40 Indian troops in a suicide attack. That's the official story although I don't personally understand how you kill people who've already been involved in a suicide bombing, at least not successfully. Cut to the chase and Pakistan shot down the jet and detained the pilot, later returning him as the situation was de-escalated. From what I read, India and Pakistan did both asked for Britain's help during the crisis but were disappointed when the UK interpreted this as a request for diplomatic assistance rather than a request for BAE systems to send a boat full of high-tech weaponry to help them settle the issue once and for all. That whole angle is especially confusing as I imagine that Theresa May would frankly jump at the chance to utilise nuclear was as a distraction from events back home.
In the mean time of course, Kashmir remains a fantastic Led Zeppelin track but it's also an unresolved and unending attritional conflict, like sticking a humidifier and a dehumidifier in the same room. And certainly while the peaceniks would like both sides to disband their nuclear weapons, the only way that's likely to happen any time soon is if they throw them away attached to the top of an dozen ICBMs. The first two world wars were of course mostly set in Western Europe, unless you watch the US directors cut where there's a bunch of extra scenes set in Japan. But most people expect the 3rd war in the franchise to have a new location, possibly Southern Asia. Except that like most film franchises it's all about the Chinese market and you only need to see the war machines they're building in the South China Sea to see that they've profoundly misunderstood the Hollywood hashtag of #meetoo
The way that India and Pakistan were acting, you’d think that one of their cricketers had been tampering with the ball but in actual fact an Indian fighter jet crossed into Pakistan to attack militants who'd killed 40 Indian troops in a suicide attack. That's the official story although I don't personally understand how you kill people who've already been involved in a suicide bombing, at least not successfully. Cut to the chase and Pakistan shot down the jet and detained the pilot, later returning him as the situation was de-escalated. From what I read, India and Pakistan did both asked for Britain's help during the crisis but were disappointed when the UK interpreted this as a request for diplomatic assistance rather than a request for BAE systems to send a boat full of high-tech weaponry to help them settle the issue once and for all. That whole angle is especially confusing as I imagine that Theresa May would frankly jump at the chance to utilise nuclear was as a distraction from events back home.
In the mean time of course, Kashmir remains a fantastic Led Zeppelin track but it's also an unresolved and unending attritional conflict, like sticking a humidifier and a dehumidifier in the same room. And certainly while the peaceniks would like both sides to disband their nuclear weapons, the only way that's likely to happen any time soon is if they throw them away attached to the top of an dozen ICBMs. The first two world wars were of course mostly set in Western Europe, unless you watch the US directors cut where there's a bunch of extra scenes set in Japan. But most people expect the 3rd war in the franchise to have a new location, possibly Southern Asia. Except that like most film franchises it's all about the Chinese market and you only need to see the war machines they're building in the South China Sea to see that they've profoundly misunderstood the Hollywood hashtag of #meetoo
There was an especially high level of filler in the news this week, yet more articles about Brexit not to mention a selection of social and environmental stories that are about as newsworthy as if Fiona Bruce hosted a debate over whether to add the milk before or after the teabag. Yet in the mean time the world actually came pretty close to starting World War 3 this week when military tensions between India and Pakistan rose higher than an estimate for Jeff Bezos’ divorce bill.
The way that ......
The way that ......