![modi_kashmir.jpeg](https://images.ecency.com/DQmYzgz1rkpoAk9X4dfwYQeq4ms6AVbLBuWHkYdHFAcm6ce/modi_kashmir.jpeg)



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<p><a href="http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190809000318">Original:</a></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190809000318">India's Modi defends powderkeg Kashmir move</a></p>
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<p>Violent people often aren't the most logical. There is no reason for this to change as the numbers multiply. When you watch the news on this topic there will be a lot of discussion about Article 370, two wars, 70 years of an arrangement set up after independence from Britain etc. from all the talking heads. The closer you get to the center of mainstream politics the more talk of 'it's complicated' and 'requires restraint' etc. there will be. Less talk about what is actually happening, which is that a large army of heavily armed men, taking orders from a political ideologue has just re-imposed it's views about 'order' on another set of people. Let's go, once again, to our (Google supplied) definition of 'terrorist':</p>
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<p>'a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.'</p>
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<p>Of course, 'lawful/unlawful' means whatever the politician/terrorist wants it mean. 'Due process' means whatever the politician/terrorist wants it to mean. What it actually means, as the people of Kashmir know only too well, is that you will find yourself starring down the barrel of a gun unless and until you are 'reasonable' and 'show restraint'.</p>
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<p>The State is built on terror. It should not surprise us when a State, any State, seeks ways to extend it's power and control over ordinary people. The logic doesn't change and you will find it at the heart of every large scale conflict where ever you go.</p>
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<p>The aggressor politician has the perverse job of presenting his own acts of terror as somehow righteous. So in the age old way that politicians and 'leaders' always have this one is 'justifying' the violent aggression by slapping illogical labels onto phenomenon and then denouncing, and threatening of course, anyone who objects as a 'troublemaker' (or potentially even a 'terrorist'), on the basis that his side represents the <a href="https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/66/Circular-Reasoning">circular reasoning</a> of 'lawful' authority. What this means is 'I have the guns'. I'm a bigger terrorist than you so I get to do the labeling.</p>
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<p>Not much good is likely to come out of this Kashmir move. Not least that all the other Statists will be considering how best to 'not let a good crisis go to waste' and manipulate it for their own agendas. The only positive I can think of is that it may help, through it's audacity, to reveal what 'responsible' politicians are really all about and how self serving language can be. Unfortunately, as well, how often people will allow themselves to be seduced by these labels into convincing themselves that such activities are, at least on some level, legitimate.</p>
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