The Pakistani Spectator

While the TV channels/Media would keep reporting the events related to terror in Mumbai and elsewhere, people would also be interested in fresh perspectives/analysis on terrorism instead of listening to the old theories. Deepak Chopra, a well known writer/thinker, has raised some vital questions in CNN’s Larry King Live show.

“Who is financing this (terrorism)? Where is the money coming from? What role do we have in this? Are our petrodollars funding both sides of this war on terrorism? Why are we not asking the Saudis where that money is going that we give them? Is it going through this supply chain to Pakistan?

“It’s not enough for Pakistan to condemn it. Pakistan should cooperate with India in uprooting this. They should be part of the surgery that is going to happen. It’s not enough for Indians to blame Pakistanis. Indians should actually ask the Pakistanis to help them.

“And it’s not enough for us to worry about Westerners being killed and Americans being killed. Every life is precious over there. We have got to get rid of this idea that this is an American problem or a Western problem. It’s a global problem, and we need a global solution, and we need the help of all the Muslims, 25 percent of the world’s population, to help us uproot this problem.

“Get rid of the phrase ‘war on terrorism.’ Ask for a creative solution in which we all participate.
Because it’s (this expression) an oxymoron. It’s an oxymoron, Larry, a war on war, a war on terrorism. You know, terrorists call mechanized death from 35,000 feet above sea level with a press of a button also terror.

“We don’t call it that, because our soldiers are wearing uniforms. They don’t see what is happening, and innocent people are being killed. So, you know, terror is a term that you apply to the other.

“And we cannot go after the wrong people, as we did after 9/11, because then the whole collateral damage that occurs actually aggravates the situation.

“What we have seen in Mumbai has been brewing for a long time, and the war on terrorism and the attack on Iraq compounded the situation. What we call ‘collateral damage’ and going after the wrong people actually turns moderates into extremists.” More here…

Michelle Haimoff in Huffington Post queries why Deepak Chopra was silenced in another interview. “A CNN journalist interviewed Deepak Chopra last night about his take on the Mumbai attacks and how to prevent similar attacks in the future, but it looked like producers cut Chopra off when he started to get too controversial.” More here…

I had stated in a post earlier: “While we mourn the death and destruction at Mumbai and elsewhere, we must study whether State terrorism and Ideological/Business/Religious terrorism are closely linked and how they form an unending and vicious circle. In the propaganda war no one is sure who the real terrorist is!!!” Read here…