Front(al) Nudity

Those who talk glibly of war are not oblivious to its horrors. They are not unaware of the nuclear status of the two countries. They are not unaware that Pakistan has a formidable and fierce army which even in defeat can cause severe damage to India. Still, the impatience with diplomacy, the impatience with "just talking", the impatience with "inaction" mounts. Why can we not drop a few bombs on Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi even while trading telephone messages for restraint with Messrs Bush, Blair and Powell? Any deviation from the war-is-essential line is taken as cowardice or as calculated support for the enemy.

It is deeply puzzling. The Indian middle class watches so much TV war these days that it has probably got desensitised to the devastation the real thing inflicts. Given the awesome arsenal India and Pakistan possess, I would have thought that the case for war as the weapon of the very last resort is self-evident. Yet, people talk so casually and, yes, so longingly of war. The Mahatma must be turning in Rajghat.