When we look at Pakistan, They have command and control of their nuclear weapons in the hands of their military. More over, current president of Pakistan, once ordered to mount nuclear warheads onto their delivery vehicles in effort to nuke India during kargil crisis and now he gives lecture on"how dangerous these weapons are!?" but the fact is, a man can not become a saint over night and the reason for his change in his attitude is that his hands are tied down due to circumstances for the moment. We need to understand psyche of Pakistani ruling class to know about impending nuclear danger, here is the excerpt from the article by Peter landesman in The Atlantic Journal (You need to subscribe in order to read entire article, or you can find entire article here on private site or excerpt from Times of India)
Writer Peter Landesman relates a hair-raising conversation he has with a retired Pakistani brigadier who was serving as an aide to Benazir Bhutto. On a visit to Brigadier Amanullah’s house in Islamabad, Landesman sees a landscape painting showing the Bhuttos with what he (Landesman) thinks is a rocket heading to the moon. He asks the Brigadier about it, and is told the painting is actually "A nuclear warhead heading to India". The rest of the narrative in Landesman's own words:
We both looked up at the painting in silence. "A rocket ship heading to the moon?" I asked.
Aman tipped his head to the side. A smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth. "No," he said. "A nuclear warhead heading to India."
I thought he was making a joke. Then I saw he wasn't. I thought of the shrines to Pakistan's nuclear-weapons site, prominently displayed in every city. I told Aman that I was disturbed by the ease with which Pakistanis talk of nuclear war with India.
Aman shook his head. "No," he said matter-of-factly. "This should happen. We should use the bomb."
"For what purpose?" He didn't seem to understand my question. "In retaliation?" I asked.
"Why not?"
"Or first strike?"
"Why not?"
I looked for a sign of irony. None was visible. Rocking his head side to side, his expression becoming more and more withdrawn, Aman launched into a monologue that neither of us, I am sure, knew was coming:
"We should fire at them and take out a few of their citiesâ€"Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta," he said. "They should fire back and take Karachi and Lahore. Kill off a hundred or two hundred million people. They should fire at us and it would all be over. They have acted so badly toward us; they have been so mean. We should teach them a lesson. It would teach all of us a lesson. There is no future here, and we need to start over. So many people think this. Have you been to the villages of Pakistan, the interior? There is nothing but dire poverty and pain. The children have no education; there is nothing to look forward to. Go into the villages, see the poverty. There is no drinking water. Small children without shoes walk miles for a drink of water. I go to the villages and I want to cry. My children have no future. None of the children of Pakistan have a future. We are surrounded by nothing but war and suffering. Millions should die away."
"Pakistan should fire pre-emptively?" I asked.
Aman nodded.
"And you are willing to see your children die?"
"Tens of thousands of people are dying in Kashmir, and the only superpower says nothing," Aman said. "America has sided with India because it has interests there." He told me he was willing to see his children be killed. He repeated that they didn't have any futureâ€"his children or any other children.
I asked him if he thought he was alone in his thoughts, and Aman made it clear to me that he was not.
"Believe me," he went on, "If I were in charge, I would have already done it."
Aman stopped, as though he'd stunned even himself. Then he added, with quiet forcefulness, "Before I die, I hope I should see it."
Because of all these factors, i feel nuclear war is imminent and its not matter of "whether" but "when"!. Even if there is attack or no attack, it is always good, if we acquaint ourselves to deal with the situation, Specially considering our nuclear neighbors. Indian Administration has given preference to protect its country's top political leadership but has made no effort to protect its civilian population, such as building large bunkers to take refuge during nuclear war, though practically it is not possible to save everyone but government should make comprehensive arrangements to protect eminent persons in all professions and should advise civilians on gravity of the situation. Most of the people in India are ignorant of looming nuclear war over sub-continent, people in general know that nuclear war is bad but has very less information to deal with its dangerous aftermath. We have to start educating people and government departments to conduct drills relating to relief efforts during/after nuclear attack. We can learn many things from experience of japan on this issue.
I'm not a supporter of "no first use" policy because its entire premises is based on righteousness & that we could survive first strike and it doesn't cause too much damage to us. Being righteous against a enemy who sponsors terrorism is not wise but suicidal. Policy formers fail to consider synchronized multiple nuclear strikes(with hundreds of nuclear missiles), which could destroy entire country, when Pakistan knows that there is no tomorrow, they would certainly use their entire arsenal at once than few at a time. It is not the matter of retaliation, we could use nuclear submarines which are difficult to detect but my point is what is the use of a policy which doesn't serve the purpose to protect a nation and its people but incur total annihilation?
Our nuclear policy reminds me a incident which happened few decades back, Our PM was briefed by intelligence agency about progress made by Pakistan in making nukes and how close they are in achieving it. Our security forces requested permission to bomb their reactor facility and what our PM does?. Well, no surprise here, he calls his counterpart and tells him that he knows what they are up to, in a hope that they would behave!. Surprisingly they do, by installing surface to air missiles and increasing their defenses of the facility!.
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