Today, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen (right) went to Pakistan on an unscheduled visit to “defuse tensions between India and Pakistan.”
This comes as India deploys more troops to the Rajastan border and Pak military goes on red alert:
Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Pakistan, said the local media attributed its reports to military sources, who were confirming that the navy, air force and army were on red alert.
“The Pakistani air force have been seen visibly in a number of locations flying close to the Pakistani-India border in what is being described as an aggressive patrolling mode, following reports that India is planning pre-emptive strikes against locations in Pakistan,” Hyder reported.
“Chiefs of the three forces are meeting in what is being described as an emergency meeting in general headquarters in Rawalpindi.
“Only after the meeting is over will we come to know if it is a red alert or a heightened state of alert.”
Hyder said that observers are saying that the Congress party in India has lost prestige due to the Mumbai attacks and, therefore, may try a show of strength in Pakistan.…
Last week, Pakistan summoned a senior Indian diplomat in Islamabad to protest against recent alleged airspace violations by Indian warplanes.
Indian fighter jets had crossed into Pakistani airspace over Kashmir and Punjab province, the government said on December 13.
Pakistan said its own fighter jets were scrambled to chase off the intruders, but it also played down the incident by describing the violations as “technical” and “inadvertent”.
India denied any violation of Pakistani airspace.
Pak’s ‘heightened state of alert’ comes after weeks of rhetoric ranging from ambiguous to sabre-rattling from within India that continues to this day:
[Indian] Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee says that Islamic militant groups based in Pakistan endanger the entire world, and demanded that Islamabad permanently dismantle the “infrastructure of terrorism” on its soil.…
India says the gunmen who carried out last months terror attacks in Mumbai were Pakistanis, and were trained by a radical Islamic group, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, based in the country. Islamabad says New Delhi has given no evidence that the attacks were planned or carried out by extremists in Pakistan.
Mr. Mukherjee says Islamabad is resorting to a “policy of denial” and seeking to deflect the blame.
“We will expect from Pakistan to do whatever they committed to do, to fulfill their promises, to fulfill their commitments. As responsible members of the community of nations, no nation can shirk its responsibility to fulfill the commitment which it gives to the other nation,” he said….
The Indian foreign minister also says efforts by the international community to persuade Pakistan to clamp down on extremists based in the country are not enough. He says New Delhi is prepared to act alone and “will take all measures necessary to deal with the situation.”
“And in that process to pursue that objective, we are not freezing any option, we will explore the possibilities because the obligation is ours, our people have been killed, our persons have been attacked, our installations have been destroyed,” he added.
No one questions the cancer of ISI, Pak’s rogue intelligence agency, and incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry has recently said that Lashkar-e-Ta’iba (LeT) has “morphed into a more al-Qa’ida-esque and radicalized entity.”
The problem is that Sen. Kerry (monitoring Pak eletions on the left) criticizes Pak for this and ignores the biggest difference between LeT and al-Qa’ida: al-Qa’ida was closely related to the Taleban which ruled the State of Afghanistan; LeT is not at all related to the ruling civilian government of Pak. Sen. Kerry knows this and we know that he knows this, as he monitored Pak’s elections this year, backed the Pakistani People’s Party (PPP) PM and presidential candidates, and stated after the PM election:
“First and foremost, this election is a tribute to the Pakistani people,…
“The results underscore the importance of the United States having a Pakistan policy that centers on the people of Pakistan, not any one political leader. It is in our national interest to demand accountability for the investment of American aid, and it is essential to marginalize the radicals and extremists. This can be a decisive moment for the future of democracy in Pakistan if this election sparks a lasting transition to civilian democratic rule. We will watch closely in the coming months to ensure that the Pakistani parties seize on this historic opportunity.”
With the ambiguous sabre-rattling in India and from the Corporate War Party in the US, there are some people brainstorming sensible solutions such as Indo-Pak free trade to break down the nationalistic rhetoric, Pat Buchanan’s article making the case that war is what terrorists want, and pleas from regional organizations and scholars to not feed that terrorist propaganda with more war.
Little Alex in Wonderland 
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