From the Guardian:
Pakistan test-fired its first cruise missile on President Pervez Musharraf’s 62nd birthday yesterday, in the latest escalation of the arms race with rival India.
Delhi declined to comment on the launch of the Babur, a terrain-hugging missile with a range of 310 miles which can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads.
Mr Musharraf hailed the Babur as a “gift to the nation”. It would, he said, “further improve the balance of power in the region”.
Wonderful world, isn’t it? Meanwhile, the Mullahs continue pursuing their gift to the Iranian people. Happy, happy.
UPDATE… Dept. of Mine’s Bigger than Yours: Front the Pakistan Daily Times, Musharraf “said that Babur was far more superior to the Indian BrahMos cruise missile. He said BrahMos had the capability of carrying warheads to about 290 kilometres whereas Babur could carry warheads up to 500 kilometres.”
MEANWHILE… For a look at real life in nuclear-armed Pakistan, the World Education Forum reports: Official statistics released by the Federal Education Ministry of Pakistan give a desperate picture of education for all, espcially for girls. The overall literacy rate is 46 per cent, while only 26 per cent of girls are literate. Independent sources and educational experts, however, are sceptical. They place the overall literacy rate at 26 per cent and the rate for girls and women at 12 per cent, contending that the higher figures include people who can handle little more than a signature.
I was curious about the education site’s report on Iran but they have none.
Don’t jump to conclusions, Roger. Perhaps the Perv actually was referring to a noncash donation to Katrina Van Den Heuvel’s rag.
And the Israeli Air Force has a present for the Mullahs…
Just think about what would happen if they could read the Koran for themselves…
The sad thing is relations are actually improved between India and Pakistan. I guess it is too much to ask them to really tolerate each other.
They can not read but, hey, they can blow up the neighbors.
If I remeber correctly no one saw the nuclear armament of Pakistn coming. Not the UN or the CIA or anyone else.
Don’t they realize that if they sent more girls to school, they could get more cruise-missile designers?
Not too swift…
Every time I read something like this, I think: little war now or big war later. That’s why I support the war in Iraq because that’s the choice, the only true choice.
If I remeber correctly no one saw the nuclear armament of Pakistn coming. Not the UN or the CIA or anyone else.
That is my recollection as well. Perhaps a nuclear Pakistan didn’t fit into “the policymakers’” (see Ouija Board post) agenda at the time.
Well, when and what do you mean by saw it coming?
Back in 1990, when I first got interested in nuclear proliferation, the standard list of nuclear powers was
Offical and tested: US, USSR, UK, France, China
Unofficial and tested: India, Israel, South Africa
Unofficial and untested: Pakistan
Current Development Program: Iraq
Discontinued, Revivable Program: Taiwan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina.
So, yes, Pakistan’s nuclear test in 1998 came as a surprise. But everybody thought they already had the bomb (or at least enough enriched uranium to make several simple gun-type nuclear bombs) for at least a decade by that point.
Estimated literacy rate in Iran, in the year 2000 according to UNESCO: 76%. Illiterate population: 10 million (2/3 of which are said to be female).
In 1980 the total was claimed to be 11m. In 1990 it was 12m.
I have yet to find a website that provides such data in an easy-to-search form and with an open assessment of the validity of the sources used.
Here’s what the CIA says: (definition: age 15 and over can read and write) total population: 79.4%; male: 85.6%; female: 73% (2003 est.).
I’ve seen claims (e.g. at wikipedia) that “Almost all illiteracy is among older people. For the generation under the age of 30 literacy rate is nearly 100% for both males and females.” Not sure what evidence there is. And does it make sense in view of the absolute increase in the number of illiterates between 1980 and 1990? On the other hand, the McKeever Institute claims that the literacy rate has been decreasing ever since the Islamic Revolution.
Note that Pakistan chose to name its missile after the founder of the Mughal dynasty of India, i.e. the initiator of 200 years of terrible oppression of the Hindus. Millions of Hindus were massacred in the name of the supremacy of Islam and all others were subjected to dhimmitude.
Here is a poem Babur composed after he chose the path of the Ghazi (Moslem warrior): For the sake of Islam, I became a wanderer, I battled Infidels and Hindus. I determined to become a martyr. Thank God I became a Holy Warrior.
Many key locations of strife in South Asia trace their oft-violent, disputed identity to Babur’s actions: Kabul, Herat, Kashmir, Ayodhya…
Babur assumed the title of Ghazi (killer of kafirs in jihad) and proudly reported in his memoirs (Babur-nama) that he raised a tower of Hindu skulls at Chanderi.
Here’s a somewhat more literate translation of Babur’s poem:
“For Islam’s sake, I wandered in the wild,
Prepared for war with infidels and Hindus,
Resolved to meet the martyr’s death.
Thanks be to [Allah]! a ghazi I became.”
Babur-nama, Hindustan, Aftermath of the Battle of Khanua
I wonder how much of a hero Babur is, in Pakistan.