Whose reports do you trust the most in this latest Indian / Pakistani / U.S. crisis?

[EFerrari]

Poll question: Whose reports do you trust the most in this latest Indian / Pakistani / U.S. crisis?

Where are you getting information that you trust, if any?

If you choose "None" below, how are you following this story?

[panader0]

1. To tell you the truth

I don't know who to believe.

[EFerrari]

2. Me, either, to tell you the truth.

:shrug:

[BuyingThyme]

3. I don't understand it.

[annabanana]

4. It is going to be a tough process, figuring out what's really happening.

We will need first hand reports from people who have told us the truth in the past. Which investigative reporters have the heft & courage for that assignment?

Christiane Amanpour?

[azurnoir]

5. other because there is no one news source to believe

there are so many angles on the story what seems to be the most likely to me is that unfortunately the terrorists succeeded in "accomplishing" mass confusion and division or deepening those that already existed.

[Kutjara]

6. I'm long past the point where I trust any public source of information.

They all have their own agendas, which are only coincidentally (and infrequently) aligned with the public interest. Politicians can't be trusted simply because they're politicians, and the primary goal of politicians is the accumulation and exercise of power, not the promotion of the public good. The media can't be trusted because, as we've clearly seen during the Bush Dark Age, they are merely the lackeys of the powerful. Independent sources are no more reliable, because they are often dependent on politicians and the media for their information.

We are in the post-truth era, where "exciting" spin, opinion, and misdirection take the place of boring facts, evidence, and corroboration. Maybe we'll all learn the truth in sixty years, when it no longer matters to anyone powerful.

[bemildred]

7. How about critical thinking generally applied to all information sources?

What are we, a bunch of sheep?

[Uncle Joe]

9. This seems to fit the same M.O. as what happened in the past whenever

Israel and Palestine seemed to be making some progress toward working out a peace agreement of some sort, or at least a warming of relations.

Some terrorist attack would then occur to re-stoke the fear and hatred forces.

It seems in this case India and Pakistan had improved relations over the last few months.

This attack seemed aimed at the West as a secondary target, primarily soft tourist targets.

Obama will be taking the oath of office in January and there was the possibility his administration might work for some form of resolution regarding Kashmir.

A lasting peace between India and Pakistan would allow Pakistan to more effectively police their own borders instead of keeping a large portion of their army pinned down facing India. Such a result along with education and social reform could decrease the power of Al Qaeda and the like.

A more stable Pakistani Government; that could put increased resources in to educating it's citizenry with some critical thinking skills instead of relying on rote teaching fundamentalist Madrassas could even help bring about peace in Afghanistan.

The question is who benefits from such an attack? Obviously the terrorists do, as does the Talaban. In my opinion the government of Pakistan doesn't as this terrorist attack only increases the animosity toward them from India, thereby making a peace agreement less likely.

If the peacemakers of the world sincerely want peace, they can't allow the promoters of hate, ignorance and fear to keep the field. They must strive for a solution and peace agreement in spite of attacks, they must also expect more attacks to take place.

[bemildred]

11. Yes. Well put. nt

[EFerrari]

13. Not only the Taliban or violent radicals benefit from these attacks.

Whatever element in the Indian or Pakistani government that spins the best can as well.

War profiteers benefit from these attacks.

The Republicans hope to benefit from these attacks as they add to the plateful Obama is facing.

Neither the Pakistani government nor the Indian governments do directly because they are both sitting on powder kegs and they know it, imho.

[Uncle Joe]

14. I agree. n/t

[Greyhound]

15. Judging by our behavior, yes. n/t

[Are_grits_groceries]

8. I don't believe any of them.

There are too many hidden agendas and lots of CYA. In addition, there are so many factions in Pakistan and India, who knows

what is really going on. False flags with false flags? It's a mess, and I bet we don't have reliable HUMINT in any of those places.

[stillcool]

10. Asia Times....

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JK22Df03.html

South Asia
Nov 22, 2008

Faith in India's army shaken by blasts
By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - Investigations into recent bomb blasts in India have led to the arrest of several Hindus and for the first time ever, a serving officer of the Indian army

The arrests have triggered heated debate on whether the arrests indicate the existence of "Hindu terrorism". More worryingly, the probes point to the possibility of the hitherto secular and apolitical Indian army being infected by the communal virus.

****************
But even as Indians are heatedly debating whether "Hindu terrorism" exists, another worrying issue has been thrown up by the investigations. Three men arrested in connection with the Malegaon blasts are from the armed forces. They include one serving officer, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, and two retired officers, Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Colonel Shailesh Raikar.

*************
Investigations into the Malegaon blasts have revealed the involvement of a handful of serving and former army officers. But to brush this aside as an aberration would be a blunder.

Criticism of the armed forces' violation of human rights in insurgency-wridden areas and of their corruption has often been frowned on in the country. "It will weaken the morale of the armed forces," is a cry that is raised to silence criticism. In the process, rot has been allowed to set in.

The investigations into the Malegaon blasts reveal that the armed forces are vulnerable to communal and extremist ideologies. To ignore this would be disastrous not just for the armed forces but also for India as a secular democracy.

Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.

(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

Other stories


India fears the dawn of Hindutva terror
(Oct 31,'08)

The tip of India's terror iceberg
(Sep 30,'08)

[DutchLiberal]

12. Dutch public television news broadcasts.