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During Indo-Paki thaw Siachen Glacier remains chilly
EFLWhy would it not remain chilly? It's a glacier, fergawdsake! Despite the cease-fire, which covers the heavily fortified frontline in disputed Kashmir and Siachen to the north, there can be no let up in deployment. The men posted here, often at heights above 18,000 feet, can survive for only three months, their bodies wasting away, starved of oxygen, and must be replaced by fresh troops. Pakistan and India have been fighting since 1984 for control of the Siachen Glacier, both sides laying claim to a region which until then had been so desolate and so remote, that no one had bothered even to demarcate it properly on a map. I suggest that a quick round of rock, paper, scissors should be employed with the loser being forced to keep that passes and clean up all the crap those bozoâs have left up there. Despite conditions which would defeat even the most able mountaineers — where the risks run from frostbite to altitude sickness to avalanches and crevasses — they have been unable to trust each other enough to agree on a withdrawal. Despite the cease-fire, winter is likely to bring fresh casualties as both frostbite and altitude sickness are more common in severe weather. And until India and Pakistan can make real progress in their tentative peace process, the two armies will continue to fight the weather, the terrain and the altitude on the most hostile battleground in the world. Let me be the first to wish them a white Christmas. Posted by: Super Hose 2003-12-22 |
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