Wars and their consequences

Over history wars have been fought among nations, with all their destructive fallout, but these wars have never contributed to the removal of the irritants and factors that caused them. The contentious issues leading to wars can be removed only through dialogue to avoid harmful consequences for the warring nations.
This is the lesson of human history. But regrettably wars keep on happening and mankind, despite having made phenomenal achievements in the fields of science and technology, has failed to evolve a foolproof mechanism to prevent wars. Therefore, another sordid and irrefutable historic reality is that nations perforce give more attention to their defence needs, commensurate with their threat perceptions.
Even the UN, which was created by the triumphant nations of World War-II with an ostensible objective to prevent wars and promote world peace, has failed to fulfil its responsibilities, mainly due to the arm-twisting antics of the big powers. These powers never tire of expressing concern over contentious global issues like Palestine and Kashmir, and their threat potential to world peace, but they have never made earnest and honest efforts to have these conflicts resolved. Their penchant for refashioning the world in conformity with their own worldview, subservient to their strategic interests around the globe, is actually the main stumbling block in the way of global peace. They remain criminally oblivious to the miseries and sufferings of Palestinians and Kashmiris in wars and armed conflicts.
Unfortunately India and Pakistan, ever since Partition, have been locked in incessant hostility towards each other, due to the intransigence of the former to resolve the Kashmir dispute in line with the UN resolutions; we have even fought three wars over it. The two countries have been engaged in a never-ending arms race with each other, spending a big chunk of their precious – and scant – resources on their defence needs rather than focusing on ameliorating the lot of millions living below the poverty line on both sides of the divide. India’s ambitions to establish its hegemony in the region through Pakistan-specific arms build-up actually forced the latter to come up with a matching response and even go nuclear to neutralise the tangible security threat from India.
It is a painful reality that India never reconciled with the idea of Partition and the emergence of Pakistan as an independent state, and consequently has been employing all sorts of overt and covert means to harm it and even browbeat it on the basis of its military might. The 1965 war between the two countries, foisted on Pakistan by India, is a ranting testimony of India’s aggressive designs against Pakistan. But like all previous military conflicts, Indian military strategists and political leadership miscalculated the prowess of the armed forces of Pakistan, their determination, resolve and morale to defend their motherland.
History is replete with examples where smaller nations have defended themselves against a mightier enemy through sheer will and national unity. It is said that between faith and fear, faith is greater than fear. Pakistan’s armed forces, fired by the electrifying force of their faith, thwarted Indian plans to capture Lahore and Sialkot. Chawinda proved to be a graveyard for Indian tanks where the biggest tank battle was fought since World War II. The Indian forces that launched repeated attacks in the Lahore Sector failed to cross the BRB canal.
When the war ended India was left heavily bruised with a loss of nearly a hundred planes. Both countries occupied each other’s territory. Pakistan did not prove to be a pushover as envisaged by the Indian military strategists. Keeping the five times bigger enemy at bay and inflicting heavy losses on it was indeed a proud moment for the armed forces and the entire Pakistani nation. The country exhibited unprecedented unity during the war; that helped lift the morale of the soldiers to face the mightier enemy fearlessly, imbued with the desire to embrace martyrdom while defending the motherland.
The Pakistani nation and its armed forces are determined and capable as ever to ward off the dangers and security threats to their territorial integrity from internal and external enemies. Pakistan has become a nuclear power and also almost enjoys parity with India in conventional warfare. But it does not want a military confrontation with India and would like to resolve all the disputes between the two countries, including Kashmir, through peaceful means.
The peace overtures towards India made by the PML-N government and its recalibrated narrative of friction-free relations with its neighbours with a view to promote regional peace and regional connectivity to create an ambience of shared economic prosperity, are ample proof of our desire and commitment to a peaceful South Asia.
However, that does not mean accepting Indian hegemony and seeking peace on Indian-dictated terms. Peace has to come about on the basis of sovereign equality and sincerity of purpose in resolving the outstanding issues between the two countries, including the core issue of Kashmir which needs to be resolved in line with the UN resolutions. It is really unfortunate that the Modi government has not responded positively to the peace initiatives taken by Pakistan and instead has chosen the path of confrontation, as is evident from the repeated violations of the LoC and Working Boundary by the Indian forces.
India needs to understand that this continued hostility towards Pakistan was harmful to both the countries and if, God forbid, it committed the indiscretion of a military adventure against Pakistan, it might have dreadful consequences. The Pakistani nation and its armed forces, while celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1965 war, have given a loud and clear message that they are fired by the same spirit as was evident in 1965 – to forestall the nefarious designs of any would-be aggressor and that they would not hesitate from giving a matching response to any act of aggression. At the same time we reiterated the desire to live in peace with India.
Therefore, the Modi government should revisit its strategy of raising tensions between the two countries, and try to settle disputes between the two countries if it really wants its economic goals to come true and the fate of the millions in India living below the poverty line to be changed. A war-like state can never achieve economic prosperity. The only way to achieve this objective is to live in peaceful co-existence with Pakistan and other neighbours. This is a fast changing world and the emerging regional and global realities also demand a paradigm shift in the outlook regarding each other.
Pakistan and India must stop treating each other as enemies and make earnest efforts to settle their mutual disputes through peaceful means. The onus for creating an ambience of bonhomie, however, lies more on India than Pakistan. The economic and political integration of European nations after WWII is a monumental example of enemies becoming partners in promoting common good and prosperity.
The writer is a freelance contributor.
Email: ashpak10@gmail.com