Lebanon - Israel's quagmire and lessons for India

The war that Israel started in Lebanon has entered it's second week. Hezbollah is proving to be much tougher than the collective Arab states were when they started the 6-day war. So much tough that Israel had to withdraw from a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon. It's clear that both Israel and Hezbollah had overplayed their hands in the current imbroglio. That being said, what are the implications of this crisis to India.

Time and again Indians look to Israel as their role model and wish India's Govt. dealt with militants and terrorists much the same way. If Israel inspite of being tacitly supported by US cannot dislodge Hezbollah, which is being supported by Iran and Syria, can India afford to conduct hot pursuits in PoK ?

For India to contain terrorism, the best approach would be to enlarge the economic pie and increase it's influence in Indian Ocean. While Israel is confronted by religious fanatics, India's fanatics are because of it's bad economic policy that has driven poor people in to the arms of Maoists, Naxals and Islamic fanatics.

Punjab was much the same way throughout the 80s and early 90s. Economic revival in that state combined with tough internal security measures turned it around. External aggression will never achieve the goal that an introvertive plan could. Simply because the enemies of India have the whole world to train their mercenaries. Can we afford to do hot pursuit everywhere ? If it's not PoK, it will be Nepal or Bangladesh or Bhutan.

The point is to make India an ally to all these countries. And the best way to do it is promote a form of governance that is seen legitimate in the eyes of the population of these countries. India almost lost Nepalese confidence in the way it dealt with the internal unrest recently. Mr.Karan Singh, who was sent as an emissary failed miserably to convince the King. India was seen in Nepal as helping out the King against the wishes of the people. A kind of hypocrisy where it crowned itself as the world's largest democracy but doesn't want democracy in it's neighborhood. Much the same as USA's policy in middle east. India must avoid such an image.

India's strategy in dealing with terrorism has to be purely strategic and diplomatic. Enemies can be defeated thru military battles but our goal should be to win over them. The strategy should be

1. Isolate Pakistan.
2. Help neighboring countries and increase it's ability to influence policies in these countries.
3. Enlarge the economic pie internally.
4. Strengthen internal security by empowering police.
5. Above all, political parties must put forward persons who are seen as nationalists and have a clean record in governance. This alone will go a long way in enhancing our pride which inturn will make our population vigilant.