Opinion
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Letters to the Editor
Timely reminder
Sir, - With the aggressive retaliatory air attacks by Israel, the crisis in West Asia threatens to transcend the confines of the region. Consequently, the wedge carved between the Western bloc and the Islamic nations in the aftermath of September 11 is likely to deepen. Therefore, Ms. Malini Parthasarathy, through her timely article ``Self- defeating strategies'' (Dec. 6), has rightly voiced her apprehensions about the U.S.-led coalition's bombing of Afghanistan emboldening other nations plagued by similar terrorist activities to flex their military muscle rather than find a political solution to their problems. The bitter reality is that the U.S. is today bereft of any moral authority to sit in judgment, much less restrain countries indulging in aggression. Therefore, it seems to have given the green signal to Mr. Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, to adopt a pro-active stand in West Asia.
Ms. Parthasarathy has rightly pointed out that merely because the Palestinians happen to belong to the same religion as the Al-Qaeda, and radical groups such as the Hamas indulge in terrorist activities similar to it, the world can ill-afford to gloss over the Palestinians' fight for sovereignty. She has also rightly pulled up those preposterously attempting to draw a parallel between the Kashmir and Palestinian issues.
In the celebration over the liberation of Kabul from the Taliban, it was left to Ms. Parthasarathy to point out that the coalition is yet to accomplish its actual mission of bringing to book the Al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden.
However far-fetched it might appear to be, the fact that 80,000 Tamils were denied their right to exercise their franchise in Sri Lanka also seems to be a reflection of the U.S. `war against terrorism.'
Closer home, with the Kashmiri separatists disillusioned and confused by the opportunistic stand of Pakistan in routing the Taliban, Ms. Parthasarathy has a point in suggesting that the time was ripe to reach out to the alienated Kashmiris.
Nalini Vijayaraghavan, Thiruvananthapuram
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