Thankfull

I slept well, the sleep of the innocent, however unjustified. I went down after the Sopranos last night, around ten-thirty, and slept right through to the alarm at zero five. I have the feeling that I have finally conquered the jet-lag, and there is no more travel on the horizon, except for a jaunt to the Maryland countryside this afternoon.

When I rose I was greeted by the gentle murmur of the BBC as I made the coffee. Two militants have attacked a temple in the capital of India’s only Muslim-majority state, Kashmir. The two used automatic weapons and grenades against the very soft target in Jammu. They have killed or wounded dozens. The Indians are already searching for the link to Pakistan, and for the others who must have assisted the two assailants. A third gun man had been reported slain in a possibly related gun battle. They view state-sponsorship of terrorist activity in Kashmir as an integral part of President Mushareff’s foreign policy, and have said so again this morning in the Parliament. The Indians  view Kashmir as the central issue in their relations with the Pakis. I heard that from virtually everyone I spoke to in Delhi, unsolicited, along with paeans of praise for the beauty of this vale in the mountains.

One of the radio commentators with rounded south-Asian tones spoke the usual words “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” and I expect I would hear the same sentiments in Islamabad or Lahore. The last incident was the attack on the Indian Parliament, and it pushed them to the verge of nuclear exchange. The fall-out from that is what drew me to Delhi. We will see what comes from this. There are already high-ranking delegations headed to Jammu to observe events on the ground.

I have always been captivated by India, by the majesty of the Raj and the richness of the history. An old pal took a job as Assistant Naval Attache (the title was grander: “American Legation, U.S. Naval Attache,” or, “A/ALUSNA.” He was there in the early seventies, when things still largely made sense and he took a VW Microbus up the Khyber pass to shop for rugs in Kabul. He rode to polo with the President’s Bodyguard (ex-Viceroy’s) and summered in Simla and Srinigar. It sounded like a romantic paradise, and things have been on a downward roll since then. I am thankful I got a chance to see it.

We can be thankful that the weapons inspectors will start their rounds in Iraq, and thanful that democracy in Latin America seems to work, with the Equadorans apparently returning a left-wing government. I can be thankful that my older boy returns from college for a break tomorrow, and I will pick him up at Dulles to deliver him to the house out in the County. We should be thankful that several plots of varying degrees of horror have been foiled.

We can be thankful we are not the Beauty Queens, fleeing Lagos for the secular security of London after Islamic militants were insensed by an editorial in a local paper saying that the Prophet would enjoy the Miss World pageant being held there. In Afghanistan there have been attacks on four girl’s school, only opened since the Taliban was expelled, and there are reports of activity targeting known musicians.

All of us feminists should be thakful that the Afghan government is reported resolved to continue their “moderate” policy, which treats women as though they were citizens. The cinemas are full for showings of Ballywood and Hollywood films, and the Indians marveled that the fundimentalists could love the movie and emerge on the street vowing to destroy the makers of it. There is something abroad in all the lands of the Prophet, wild-eyed and puritan, commited to the elevation of the Faithful and the subjegation, once and for all, of the Infidel.

I wonder how we can conduct an operation against only those holding weapons, when the message is shouted in the Mosques each day. The strict Wahabbis are funding the building of Mosques right here in the Land of the Free, spreading the the vehement version of the True Faith. This will be an interesting struggle, now that temples and churches and office buildings are considered legitimate military targets. I salute Governor Ridge, and would like to move out of this target city and deep into the country.

We can be thankful that they had Bonfire down at College Station last night, unsanctioned, but the students did it anyway, to celebrate their dead on the last official one, and to help build the spirit to Beat Texas. At least thankful that no one died building the stack of logs.

The holiday week is starting off with tumult and local travel. I’ll be leaving on our field trip after our brief to the new Boss, around 1130 EST. Then off to Fort Ritchey to see the Medical Intelligence Center and hear what good works they are doing in the war on terrorism.

If I had my high-speed DSL, I probably wouldn’t have lost the first version of this note, and I wouldn’t be behind the eight-ball already on this Monday. I had no idea how critical an element of my life broad-band connectivity was�.I’m not sure I can be thankful about that development…

copyright 2002 Vic Socotra