Hypocrisy

As an Indian, the stance taken by the U.S. and a lot of the western world regarding the "response" taken by Israel on Gaza smacks of double standards and plain ol' hypocrisy. When elements that originated from Pakistan held Mumbai under siege for 3 days (beyond any doubt has been proven, except for the fact that the Pakistan government refuses to accept it, even when the father of the only living attacker corroborated that it was his son), everyone including the U.S. through Condaleeza Rice's visit to India and Pakistan, urged restraint and let things cool down.

I understand that any rash decision by the Indian government to attack training camps within Pakistan (there was tremendous support for that from the people of India, no doubt, similar to post 9/11 in the U.S.) would have pitted two nuclear-armed neighbors in a battle that could have very quickly escalated. So, I was a supporter of letting cooler heads prevail before any decision was taken, putting sustained pressure on the Pakistani government to come clean and lead up to closing of the training camps within their territory. 

However, with the charade that the Pakistan government does, of detaining a few "leaders" (that previously didn't exist on their soil, by the way), and placing them under house arrest till the dust settles and be back to its own merry ways, really pisses me off. I am actually glad this time, there is at the least, a sustained media and diplomatic pressure on the Government of Pakistan by the Indian government. 

Coming back to the original point about American hypocrisy diplomacy, There are many talking heads from both the Republicans and Democrats, justifying Israel's response to mortar shelling from across their border. That's fair enough. One of them said, "Listen, wouldn't we (The U.S.) react if Canada were to lob bombs across the border on to Seattle?" and the other said, "Hey, How do you think We'd react if Mexico were to drop shells from Tijuana on to San Diego" and so went all the metaphors. Very fair, I think. Every sovereign country reserves their rights to protect their soil against any external attacks. 

However, If India were to actually launch a military offensive on Pakistan with the goal of destroying the terrorist training camps and taking out a bunch of their leaders etc, 1) It could easily escalate in to a full scale war that might go beyond conventional weapons 2) pakistan will have to redeploy its troops from its western border with Afghanistan to resisit India. Point #2 severely disadvantages the U.S. in their fight against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. I think I have a working understanding of geo-politics and I see why nations make decisions that they do. But when I see the Bush administration come out and flat out support Israel on their response and tell India to simmer it down, is bullshit. I am glad when Mr. Obama responded - on the heels of the Mumbai attacks whether he thinks India should respond to it the way U.S. did after the September 11 attacks - "Every Sovereign country reserves their right to defend it, on their own way of choosing, and I'll leave it at that". Thanks Mr. Obama for calling it like you see it.