As I started reading the articles from the old issues of New York Times, News Week and Time, I became fascinated with the performance of the Indian politicians, army generals, individual soldiers and common Indian citizens. I liked the articles written in TIME and New York Times as it covered the human aspect of the war.

Nevertheless, I hate war because it is a human tragedy. Finest men have to possibly lay down their life because their country demands their service. It leaves widows and children without fathers to struggle for the rest of their lives.

My intention to bring these article is not to glorify bravery of individual soldiers but the dynamics of war which is quite fascinating. It is fascinating time because in that small span of time, it brings lot of information of the country, the culture and its people to the surface. It shows the strength or weakness of the country as it deals diplomatically, militarily and as community with the situation.

It is interesting to note that before the war, India was portrayed as a bad guy in US media, even when the human tragedy in Bangladesh was unfolding. The media was more in line with the US government, which was blind to the brutal killings (in millions!) in Bangladesh by Pakistani soldiers. When the war unfolded the US journalists went to Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, and what they saw, put India in favorable light almost immediately, and against the policy of their own (US) government.

It is a tragedy that more than a million Bangladeshis died at the hands of then their own military. None of the soldiers were punished, in fact some were decorated by the Pakistan government. Therefore it is safe to say that such ideology still continue to pervade in the military. People of Pakistan should be more worried than others because the military will not hesitate to commit such atrocities on their own people again.

I am glad to know that Indian military were fair to Pakistani Prisoners of War (POW) as quoted in "Senior officers were warmly embracing old friends from the other side, amid snatches of overhead conversation about times 25 years ago. Top generals lunched together in the mess, and around general headquarters it was like an old home week at the war college".

Thinking from the point of human tragedy, there is one big lesson. If lead by wrong leadership, we (from Indian sub-continent) are just as capable  to be inhuman and brutal as Europeans (Hitler and Stalin) or Japanese (Naking Massacre) or the gentle Chinese (more than one million Tibetans). We as Indian sub-continent have done it twice, once during India-Pakistan partition (more than a million) and then in Pakistan-Bangladesh partition (again more than a million). As I glance at the history of the world, in my opinion three things can make the world most peaceful:

I hope this was an enjoyable reading and some lesson learnt.

Mahesh Yadav