the last delta-t?

[Doug Millison]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/0,7722,362455,00.html

We always knew it would be something like this - two peoples myopically
locked in ancestral loathing and equipped with nuclear weapons rush to war
before the rest of the world has time to prevent the disaster. Deterrence
may just work this time. We must pray that it does but meanwhile it is
imperative to realise how the world came to the point where a nuclear
exchange became an admissible rather than an unthinkable possibility. [...]
While Pakistan and India were mobilising these past few days, the Bush
administration has been completely diverted by the president's tour of
Russia and Europe and the continuing agenda of how to respond to the threat
of al-Qaida. Every emergency and every event is now passed through a new
and dangerously egotistical filter that was erected by the Americans last
autumn and is designed to see events exclusively in the context of American
security and peace of mind. [...] [...] it is astonishing that the security
council is not in permanent session. It is also remarkable that there is
not a greater sense of international alarm at a situation which approaches
the Cuban missile crisis in its gravity. Annan should be in the
subcontinent conveying a compelling message to the Indian and Pakistani
people which is that the world will not contemplate such vast destruction
and pain. Instead he talks to the leaders by phone and issues weak
statements from UN headquarters which nobody takes the slightest notice of.
How different things would be if America had not got itself into a muddle
with Pakistan - on one border an ally of US's war against terrorism and on
another a sponsor of Islamist insurgency. It could then back Annan with all
its conviction and might. [...] Have we forgotten how the second world war
ended in Japan, or is there maybe something more sinister at work, a voice
which is saying, "If there is a going to be nuclear war to remind us all of
the utter horror, it might as well be in south Asia?" Or is it simply part
of our collective nature to expect these large-scale exterminations once
every couple of generations? [...]


"Till the Light that hath brought the Towers low
Find the last poor Pret'rite one . . ."
(GR 760)