No Innocents in War

It took over seventy deaths in Dantewada to tear the media away from their incessant and tasteless exposure of some very dirty linen from the Ayesha-Shoaib-Sania cupboard. Even then, few tears seem to have been shed for the hapless seventy plus jawans.

Jawans? But aren't they paid to give up their lives for the country? Well, okay.....the numbers this time are a bit high but then, it happens. After all, it's a war out there, for Chris's sake! And thank God, no innocent civilians were caught in the crossfire!

Innocent civilians? Excuse me? What's so innocent about being a civilian? Isn't it on his behalf that the jawan fights? After all, the jawan isn't out there patrolling the Dandakaranya to settle personal scores. It's the innocent civilian's muscular arm that the jawan represents. It's the innocent civilian's innate will that the jawan implements. It's the innocent civilian's treasured territory that the jawan safeguards. So, how's the civilian innocent and the jawan isn't? How can one raise cain when a civilian gets killed and remain calm when scores of jawans are butchered? Why does the nation consider the jawan fair game for every troubled soul, every shrill voice and every lethal blow? Nobody says it's okay to steal from a cop's house because he catches thieves. So, how's it okay to kill a jawan because he bears arms? When will the country realise that the jawan isn't just cannon fodder? If the civilian is 'us', the jawan isn't 'them'. He is one of us - the most potent, yet the most vulnerable.

Isn't it time for the nation to rise up in righteous anger? And take account of each jawan felled by hostile action of every hue? It's time, my friends, it's time.

Because it's a war out there.

And there are no innocents in war.