The nationalist response to the terrorist attack on the Indian army base in Uri, Kashmir is something to behold. The soldiers killed are being hailed as martyrs & bravehearts; there are war-mongering calls for military retaliation against Pakistan; foreign ambassadors in India are condemning the attacks; there are rallies & processions which western media is dutifully reporting as if they were a groundswell of nationalist pride.

Terrorism is a monstrous dead-end political strategy but the nationalist howling over this incident isn’t worth a single moment of commiseration. Condolences to the families who lost their sons as part of a violent terrorist occupation. Those soldiers probably went to Kashmir for the same reasons kids in the US sign up for US wars of occupation: misguided patriotism, stinking politics, or employment in a bad economy. They pay a big price & no antiwar activist denounces them instead of the government which lied & deployed them.

The alligator tears of nationalists don’t mean squat when none of those parading & condemning & war-mongering have uttered a peep of protest against the occupation of Kashmir, denounced the human rights crimes committed by Indian soldiers, or offered condolences to the families of those killed, blinded, disfigured, disabled by the occupying soldiers.

End the occupation. Bring the 700,000 soldiers home. Self-determination for Kashmir.