Back in 1980, I visited Kashmir with my parents. This was before the troubles, and it remains perhaps the most beautiful place I’ve ever been.
Last week, India’s PM, Modi, abrogated clauses in the Indian constitution relating to Kashmir, which does not allow non-Kashmiris to buy property. As Margolis says:
Modi is clearly copying Israel’s Netanyahu by encouraging non-Muslims to buy up land and squeeze the local Muslim population. Welcome to the Mideast Conflict East. China is also doing similar ethnic inundation in its far western, largely Muslim, Xinjiang (Sinkiang) region.
Dai Lake, Kashmir
By their friends, you shall know them. I’ve never liked Modi, his demonitization was incredibly damaging to the Indian economy and hurt the poorest Indians. That he spends all his time buddying up to Israel’s Netanyahu tells you all you need to know about whether he’s more good than bad. (If it doesn’t, you need to self-reflect a bit.)
But Indians did vote for Modi in droves. It’s another episode of people, who are scared and have shitty lives, voting for the tough guy, thinking he’ll be tough for them, rather than for his core supporters. In Modi’s case, hard-right Hindus.
It’s worth remembering that the UN called for a referendum in Kashmir and that India never held it, because they know that, given a choice, Kashmiris would rather be part of Pakistan.
So, ethnic cleansing time! This is the world we live in, more and more, a place where the weak do as they must and the powerful do as they will (ever has it been thus, but sometimes it is less thus). For now, India’s the powerful one. Soon enough, it won’t be–because this BS is a distraction from actual existential threats to India, mainly around water. I can’t think of any major nation which is going to get hit harder than India.
Meanwhile, of course, both the Pakistani and Indian militaries are on hair-trigger alert, and both have nuclear weapons. Because India has a much larger army, if war does break out, Pakistan either goes to nukes or loses.
Brilliant.
450.org
How long until India and Pakistan go to war over Kashmir? I say within the next five years and the results of a nuclear war between Pakistan and India will be devastating for all of us, not the just the inhabitants of those two countries. Since diplomacy is dead, it is inevitable this will happen. It’s just a matter of when and that when is soon considering water scarcity.
That being said, Israel now has its sights set on Patagonia. Apparently a certain percentage of Israelis feel another Holocaust is imminent and Patagonia is the place they ought to be so they’re paving the way.
Hey Modi, don’t limit your Lebensraum to Kashmir. Give Argentina, and more specifically Patagonia, a try. There’s so much unexploited land (just ask Tompkins & Turner) to despoil and the Argentinian government is on the ropes and ripe for compromise. Who knows, maybe it’s where Epstein has retied after his suicide. You never know. As Donald Trump’s election win has shown, anything is possible in this brave new world except revolution. Silicon Valley is Kryptonite for revolutions.
Does Israel Have “A Patagonia Project” in Argentina?
Hugh
Well, not totally Palestine. Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Israel proper are now the majority in Israel-Palestine. This state of affairs only occurred in the last year, and I find it interesting how this fact has been buried in the US and the US press, –although not completely in Israel. One of the links when I was researching this was from Ha’aretz.
As our world falls apart, nationalism and sectarianism, both as agents and manifestations of this disintegration, are increasing. India/Pakistan/Kashmir are but one of many examples. I have said before that the only positive of the nearly twenty year US presence in Afghanistan is that it has served to suppress war between India and Pakistan. However, the US is seeking to wind down and end its involvement there. When this happens, the failsafe will be gone. I could see a war, likely nuclear, in South Asia in the 2025-2030 timeframe.
Tom
https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/gibraltar-orders-release-of-iranian-tanker-1.898567
Well this will hopefully calm this shit down right up till Bolton and Pompeo do another provocation in an attempt to start a war.
450.org
If India and Pakistan empty their nuclear arsenals on one another, this is what the bread basket of America and Canada will look like in a few short years, maybe sooner. A couple billion will starve due to famine. Turner & Tompkins will be fine in Patagonia with the IDF to defend them. There’s so much to look forward to, no?
This Bitter Earth