Wikileaks

Got a FB comment from a friend who is sad that Wikileaks did not screen its release and put lives at risk..

started responding to that on FB and realized it was longer than a blog post!

so here is my response..

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politicians lie, we go to war.. there goes our social security, kids education, tax dollars..all to support wars that make these guys rich. the people whose lives are actually lost, who is responsible for it? the same folks whose names are on the wikileaks.

seriously if our press had done this type of research there would have been no Iraq war. only an Afganistan war which had probably a chance of

a. getting osama
b. getting rid of taliban
c. social reform, womens rights in afganistan.

would have had a lot less lives lost, money lost.

the people who are shutting down wikileaks are not trying to do it because it risks lives. they are doing it because it might create a public reaction to stop the wars already there and prevent more wars..

less wars means less money for these folks.

:(

Wikileaks is releasing everything, sensational or not. it looks like there is no screening. if you let the press screen it, nothing will come out because they are all paid by the government.

you really think FOX news is going to release any of this info even if they had their hands on it?

there are people with money and power who abuse the folks without either. the only thing you and I can do is vote. we cannot even avoid paying taxes!

we can write.. we can put our thoughts out..mine seem to be consistent..

/2005/09/peace-in-action.html

/2006/10/time-to-make-difference.html

/2007/05/history.html

/2007/07/freedom-is-relative.html

/2007/08/friendship.html

/2007/10/divide-and-conquer.html

/2008/05/news.html

/2008/11/aaalum-velum-palluku-urudhi.html

/2008/11/caution.html

/2009/03/what-does-one-say.html

/2010/09/where-is-gwb.html

read all those old posts and looks like over 5 years

a. I am definitely for the Iraq war to end
b. don't trust the press to do its job
c. don't trust politicians to put people who elected them above themselves.

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damn.. that was a blog post!

It will be truly sad if lives were indeed lost because of the leaks. Still have to thank them for bringing more information to the common folk about the people who make decisions for them and how they make those decisions. Who knows, it might stop the wars?!

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India, Pakistan, Iraq, USA, gooooo Wikileaks! *

Finally got to a mirror site to read some Wikileaks. For some reason the links would not work on the sites or Firefox would scare me. Tonight the stars aligned and this site let me in..

This was nice reading. Was hoping to have a laugh at what came out of Delhi but found this one from Islamabad and it was interesting..

These two paragraphs really made it interesting..

Pakistan/India
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¶8. (C) Petraeus said the most important threat to Pakistan was on the western border and internally. Terrorists were an existential threat to Pakistan. Kayani agreed. However, Kayani observed that he had postponed a missile test. The Indians, he said, in contrast, had conducted one just a few hours before. Kayani said he had no intention to resume missile testing as long as the current tensions persisted. He promised to be transparent with allies about his plans and had briefed us about his move of 6000 troops to the Indian border. Kayani said he was determined to exercise restraint in his actions with India. He recounted that he had taken no
ISLAMABAD 00000155 003 OF 003
action the evening that Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had supposedly called President Zardari and threatened to declare war. Kayani asked to be alerted if the U.S. had any warning of another attack - he understood that the Indians had been warned about the Mumbai attack. He mentioned that discussion of the consequences of a follow-on attack made both India and Pakistan hostage to extremists and increased the likelihood of an attack. “If there is any clue about another attack,” he said, “please share it with us.”

and

Swat Valley
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¶5. (C) Kayani was clear that the GOP had lost control of the Swat valley. He said the police had no ability to come in after the army to “hold” territory. He recounted that half of the 600 police officers, supposedly from the NWFP’s elite police units, destined for Swat had deserted, largely because there was no command structure. Petraeus replied that the U.S. had confronted this same issue in Iraq, describing it as a “clear and leave” strategy, requiring the retaking of the same ground multiple times. Petraeus observed that the police are the most vulnerable, since they are exposed in communities. Petraeus noted that increased measures to control population movements would probably have to be put in place throughout the country, which would require considerable manpower.

Pakistan has similar issues like Iraq when it comes to controlling extremists.

The military leadership is patient enough to not go for war. That is great. Maybe, maybe there will be a lasting peace when India and Pakistan jointly fight extremists.

The USA for its part is playing both sides. Well, that is to be expected!

India could have hastily gone to war and would be in the same boat as the USA. Thankfully there was no war. Looks like India was warned by the US about the attacks and the Pakistanis could not do anything about it either.

Just go through this stuff.. you might even find out who in India was warned about the attacks and what they did when they were warned!

This is one treasure trove of information which shows you that inspite of all that press and google and facebook being ubiquitous and in our face.. the hows and whys are always wrong!

Educated folks react to information thrown at them by the "in your face" media. We assume so many things, sway to popular opinion or in cases where we think we are better than the person who gets their news from facebook friends because we read and read a lot.. well, we read garbage!

If the press did what Wikileaks exposed on a daily basis, a lot of war, bloodshed would have been averted! A lot of politicians would have been exposed and their true colors come to light. People, countries might be more civil towards each other...

Well, maybe..

Go read it!

*.. this one is equally interesting..

Where is GWB?

GWB seems to have gone missing much like old Tamil TV actresses!

Eight years of prime time and then he is not there to defend things like this or this.

The whole thing is depressing.

So many people are losing their jobs here and we all work our tails off trying to make ends meet. A significant part of tax money goes into fighting unnecessary wars instead of ensuring a decent future for us or our kids..

Is it possible that GWB is now a part of the rendition program?

Is it possible that he is in some unnamed eastern European country going through interrogation on how he let all this happen and for what?

Every time I used to see or hear Bush speak about "war on terror" or "winning" the image of Dhritarashtra from the Amar Chitra Katha's flashed in my head!

There were so many ministers in his court who were wise but none wanted to speak up and let the blind king know how Draupathi was being humiliated and wronged in front of everyone..

Looks like the Iraqi vasthra haran was done in front of 100 senators as they all watched as Cheyneyodhana and Rumshasana did their thing.. even the wise Vidhura types like Powell watched out of loyalty for the blind King?!

For the longest time my thought was that the dark complexioned Krishna.. err Obama will finally come to rescue Draupathi.. He is a long time coming!

I do not want to go further with the analogy. Tharoor already did this context switch with the Great Indian Novel!

Strongly recommend Rajaji's Mahabharatha (or even the Amar Chitra Katha version for that matter) to American readers who want to see how the Mahabharata ends.

Tragic really!

One thing is for sure. No point in recapping the Vastra Haran or having to watch reruns of it. So Censoring the images is a good move.

Will try to do our best as a family when it comes to doing some kind of Prayachitam by raising two American kids who believe in peace and not in War, who believe it is possible to serve your country loyally and sincerely without picking up a weapon!

There are people out here who are proud to be American and associate being American with speaking our minds, being able to believe in "the American dream" and be able to speak up. It is a crying shame that we are all tacitly complicit in the Iraq war, because we didn't push our representatives to reason enough before going to war, pay good tax money to fund the war and the troops or not help take this up when the American press failed to do their job!

We are now the Kauravas!

Somehow that does not have a nice ring to it..

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History

This post is about a thought provoking comment letter that was read out in the local radio news this week.

A listener had written in to compare today's Iraq to pre-independence India in the 1940's!

My intitial reaction was "bah"! After some thought, I realized that the comment was right on!

Both the countries were/are in a state of unrest caused by civil disobedience.
Both countries plagued by attacks on the occupiers (Brits/Americans).
Both countries dealing with separatists within, thanks to divide and rule policies and a furthering of various local interests (in India it was Hindus vs. Muslims and in Iraq it is the different Muslim sects!)

The point that was made based on these similarities was :

1. The British decided India was no longer a place they could occupy!
2. They came up with an EXIT STRATEGY!!!!
3. They got out a few weeks ahead of schedule and Lord Mountbattern just pulled out and handed over control to the Indians.

This resulted in the following :
1. Indians were forced to react!
2. They formed a govenment and learnt to embrace democracy and developed a system realtime.
3. They did go through a painful partition with a lot of bloodshed to appease the separatists.

It took a few decades, but finally, they got their act together and are a major player in the modern world!!

So, an exit strategy today might not be a bad idea after all!

Who knows, history might do the one thing she is best at doing.

Repeat herself !?

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