PEACE CROWNS KILLING FIELD: SIACHEN GLACIER
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
They’re either shot by enemy fire or they freeze to death. It’s one or the other for those troops stationed on Siachen Glacier, a geography in the Himalayas, lofted 20,000+ feet above sea level.
There India’s and Pakistan’s militia have eye-balled one another for the kill. And if they don’t slay one another, there’s a bad chance that somebody will die from frost. But that’s changing.
"India and Pakistan have agreed to begin withdrawing troops from the world's highest battlefield," reports Anwar Iqbal, UPI South Asian Affairs Analyst.
So — another peace post for the planet. Thank you to those who are giving peace a chance. It seems as if peace has become the current trend in one Earth spot or another. Lebanon is working on its fresh peace. Ukraine is establishing its peace terrain. Indonesia and Aceh are finalizing their peace pact. And so what’s good for the lower lands must also be good enough for the high-topped regions, hence this latest cordial move between India and Pakistan.
"The possibility of a troop withdrawal from the Siachen Glacier was discussed Sunday at a meeting in New Delhi between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"Thousands of Indian and Pakistani troops have been facing each other on the 20,700-foot high glacier since the mid 1980s. The 47-mile Siachen is also one of the longest outside the Arctic and Antarctic regions and is often called the third pole. It costs India up to $1 million a day to maintain troops at this height. Pakistan, which has a large town and an airport close to the glacier, spends a little less.
"Both India and Pakistan acknowledge that more soldiers die on these glaciers each year from cold or frostbites than enemy fire. Sometimes the temperature goes down to minus 140 degrees. . . Once a week, soldiers are brought down to change shoes. Soldiers left alone are known to have killed themselves."
No more. The soldiers will return to their villages, their families, their warm and cozy homes. No need to continue the insanity.
It’s all been about land, that is, glacier "land." Who gets what route, what passage to China and back, control over a mass and so forth and so forth. It’s all about who scratches the border in the ice. Who claims what. In other words, let’s fight over a glacier.
"’On average, one Pakistani soldier is killed every fourth day, while one Indian soldier is killed every other day,’ says the Global Security Organization. According to this report, more than 1,300 Pakistani soldiers died on Siachen between 1984 and 1999. On the Indian side, at least 2,000 soldiers died during the period."
No more. Peace.
They’re either shot by enemy fire or they freeze to death. It’s one or the other for those troops stationed on Siachen Glacier, a geography in the Himalayas, lofted 20,000+ feet above sea level.
There India’s and Pakistan’s militia have eye-balled one another for the kill. And if they don’t slay one another, there’s a bad chance that somebody will die from frost. But that’s changing.
"India and Pakistan have agreed to begin withdrawing troops from the world's highest battlefield," reports Anwar Iqbal, UPI South Asian Affairs Analyst.
So — another peace post for the planet. Thank you to those who are giving peace a chance. It seems as if peace has become the current trend in one Earth spot or another. Lebanon is working on its fresh peace. Ukraine is establishing its peace terrain. Indonesia and Aceh are finalizing their peace pact. And so what’s good for the lower lands must also be good enough for the high-topped regions, hence this latest cordial move between India and Pakistan.
"The possibility of a troop withdrawal from the Siachen Glacier was discussed Sunday at a meeting in New Delhi between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"Thousands of Indian and Pakistani troops have been facing each other on the 20,700-foot high glacier since the mid 1980s. The 47-mile Siachen is also one of the longest outside the Arctic and Antarctic regions and is often called the third pole. It costs India up to $1 million a day to maintain troops at this height. Pakistan, which has a large town and an airport close to the glacier, spends a little less.
"Both India and Pakistan acknowledge that more soldiers die on these glaciers each year from cold or frostbites than enemy fire. Sometimes the temperature goes down to minus 140 degrees. . . Once a week, soldiers are brought down to change shoes. Soldiers left alone are known to have killed themselves."
No more. The soldiers will return to their villages, their families, their warm and cozy homes. No need to continue the insanity.
It’s all been about land, that is, glacier "land." Who gets what route, what passage to China and back, control over a mass and so forth and so forth. It’s all about who scratches the border in the ice. Who claims what. In other words, let’s fight over a glacier.
"’On average, one Pakistani soldier is killed every fourth day, while one Indian soldier is killed every other day,’ says the Global Security Organization. According to this report, more than 1,300 Pakistani soldiers died on Siachen between 1984 and 1999. On the Indian side, at least 2,000 soldiers died during the period."
No more. Peace.
<< Home