Obama, Osama, Dawood - read my lips

Applause. Can you hear it all the way from Washington as President-elect Barack Obama tells us that sovereign nations have the right to protect themselves? This was in response to a query about whether India could follow the same policy he advocated during his election campaign - of bombing terrorist camps in Pakistan if there was evidence and Islamabad refused to act on it.

He managed his politically correct hmmm…he did not want to comment on the specific situation involving India and Pakistan…but he did state that he and his appointees:

“share my pragmatism about the use of power, and my sense of purpose about America’s role as a leader in the world.”

Hello? Haven’t we made it clear that America’s role in the world is to stay out of it?

How does he define pragmatism in the use of power?

The following is part of the infamous speech he had made as Senator, which McCain implied referred to bombing Pakistan:

"I understand that (Pakistan) President Musharraf has his own challenges. But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al-Qaida leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."

Now, this is what India has to be careful about. The American agenda is to keep taking revenge for those 3000 deaths. The fact is they have used it to demolish nation states. What mountains is Mr. Obama talking about? If they knew the mountains they would not have targeted civilians in Afghanistan.

Now that Musharraf is out, he is talking with Zardari. What is happening now? Those mountains are killing people in the plains within Pakistan.

This is the same USA that buffered the Al Qaeda; it is common knowledge. Yet, fools that we are, we choose to forget or ignore.

A Democrat as president of America will change nothing.

Indians should understand this clearly. Let not someone fire the gun from our shoulder. They have managed it with Pakistan. We do not want the Marines within our borders.

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We are not likely to learn in a hurry. Now we want Dawood Ibrahim. We summon the Pakistan High Commissioner Shahid Malik and here is how it goes:

According to the MEA spokesperson, “He (Malik) was informed that the recent terrorist attack on Mumbai was carried out by elements from Pakistan. The government expects that strong action will be taken against those elements, whosoever they may be, responsible for this outrage.’’

So, what do you think is likely to happen? He will call up the guys in Islamabad and tell them to do something about “whosoever they may be”?

Another excerpt:

The Indian government has also reiterated its demand for Pakistan to give up 20 of India’s most wanted terrorists, led by Dawood Ibrahim and Maulana Masood Azhar, leader of the dreaded terrorist gang Jaishe-Mohammad. This demand was first made by the NDA government’s home minister L K Advani after the Parliament attack. Pakistan has never delivered any of them, even denying the presence of the fugitives on its soil in the face of incontrovertible evidence.

Okay. Do you realise that we make a demand for Dawood only when something happens and when the US issues a statement and starts ruffling some feathers? I have said this several times – it was the Pakistani press that exposed his whereabouts and activities in 2001.

What did we do? What did we do when his daughter got married in Dubai to Javed Miandad’s son? Our intelligence agencies reached there, our media reached there – we got a peek into the wedding card, the menu, the venue, some guests, the bridal couple…we got everything, and we paid for the government emissaries getting a free holiday.

We will not capture Dawood Ibrahim because there are too many undercurrents here. I have touched upon some aspects in this column.

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Isn’t it wonderful that Dawood’s hideout (which everyone knows about) in Karachi is named White House?