IDR Blog
Syria: Two-faced in West Asia
President Obama’s plan to take military action against Syria can be legitimately questioned on legal, political and moral grounds. Syria has not, strictly speaking, violated international law in using chemical weapons against its own population. It has not signed the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, which Egypt too has not signed and Israel...
War over Syria: Imperatives, Ramifications and Implications
Despite the plain talk by President Barack Obama, there is still no clarity on ‘when,’ ‘how’ and ‘with what’ the ‘coalition of the willing,’ led by the USA would act against Syria and more importantly, with what aim(s). President Obama also minced no words when he stated that he would ‘act’ and that too ‘decisively,’...
If ever the twain should meet...
The attack across the LoC by the Pakistan Army on August 6 was soon after Pakistan Prime Minister called for better relations with India. This act and the continuing provocation is meant to convey to peace seekers in Pakistan that peace was possible only under certain conditions beyond the reach of a civilian Prime Minister. This heightened...
Will Iran face Biological mess?
In the Times of India of today, Chidanand Rajghatta writes that ihe US has fought some 70 wars since it birth 234 years ago, at least 10 of them major conflicts and that till 1947 the US Department of Defense (DoD) was called Department of War. He quotes George Carlin who said, “We like war … we are good at it. We are not good at anything...
Time for a hard look at the aviation industry
India has steadfastly refused to review the organisational model of the MoD, which remains frozen in time. Therefore, the inter-service rivalry results in wasteful duplications and a military-industrial complex that is only accountable to its bureaucratic masters and not to the ultimate users OVER the past few months, a raging controversy has...