-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Add your name to the CLEAN GOA INITIATIVE | | | | by visiting this link and following the instructions therein | | | | http://shire.symonds.net/pipermail/goanet/2005-October/033926.html | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recently Adm Arun Prakash wrote a piece in FINANCIAL EXPRESS lamenting the fact that money which could be usefully spent in development had to be allocated for building the nation's military strength. He felt that the latter was a must. But he grandly offered to convert "swords into ploughshares" .. as soon as Utopia arrived.
My response to this rhetorical gesture was that the military must be able to make the switch in day to day matters too e.g. in emergencies like earthquakes, tsunamis, oil spills, major communal riots etc etc. This woukld keep the "swords to ploughshares to swords" mechanism well oiled. This is by way of prologue to a centre page article today in HERALD titled "The world's best relief group" by Robert D. Kaplan. He writes perceptively: "There is a saying among soldiers: Amateurs discuss strategy while professionals discuss logistics. And if disaster assistance is about anything it's about logistics ... to save lives and communities." Let's hope the Navy in Goa is also alive to the acute need for a more responsive role at Dabolim including the urgent shifting of military flight training to Seabird -- on a war footing!