As the war in Iraq enters its tenth day, there have been two big surprises — one to do with the military campaign itself and the other to do with the manner in which Indians have responded to it.It is now clear — no matter how much Ari Fleischer dissembles or Donald Rumsfeld lies — that the war is not going the way the Americans and the Brits had thought it would. A fortnight ago,
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The end, when it did arrive, came with a chilling suddenness. One day we were trying to reconcile two different characterisations of the war: the Americans said they were at Baghdad airport while the Iraqis said that the airport was back in the control of Saddam’s forces. And the next day, it was all over.
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Are you surprised by the controversy set off by your actions?
Yes. I thought that the issue was Gandhiji. They are making out that the issue is Savarkar. All I have done is rectified the NDA’s insult to Gandhiji.Explain thatThe controversy is about the eternal flame which is called the Swatantra Jyot. It is not called the Savarkar Jyot or the Shahid Jyot. I find it
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How do you think the campaign has been going? Extremely well. I had actually started travelling all over the country in January. That was part of a programme  that had been planned out when we thought the election was in October or so. When  elections were called early, I continued that programme which became part of the election campaign.Right from January,
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What is it about the pictures of American soldiers abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners of war (POWs) that has so shocked and horrified the world? It isn’t, as we might be tempted to assume, the evidence of torture. Judging by the pictures that have been published, there wasn’t really that much torture.Take the single most famous image to appear over the last
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On Saturday, Condoleezza Rice told the press that Washington intended to appoint a US Army general as the administrator of the conquered Iraq once the war was over. Only at some stage in the future, she suggested, would power pass from the Pentagon to an interim Iraqi civilian authority.
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