THE COLDEST WAR; Frozen in Fury on the Roof of the World
By BARRY BEARAK
Published: May 23, 1999
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For 15 blustery, shivering years, the Indian and Pakistani armies have been fighting a war along the frigid peaks of the western Himalayas -- in an area named for the Siachen Glacier and known as the battleground on the roof of the world.
For a soldier, this is where hell freezes over, a 46-mile river of slow-moving ice surrounded by stupendous towers of snow. Temperatures swoon to 50 below, and sudden blizzards can bury field artillery in minutes. Men sleep in ice caves or igloos and breathe air so spare of oxygen that it sends their hearts into a mad gallop. Fainting spells and pounding headaches are frequent. Frostbite chews its way through digits and limbs.
The enemy is hard to see in the crags and craters in the vast whiteness -- and harder to hit. Rifles must be thawed repeatedly over kerosene stoves, and machine guns need to be primed with boiling water. At altitudes of 18,000 feet, mortar shells fly unpredictable and extraordinary distances, swerving erratically when met by sledgehammer gustshile some troops fall to hostile fire, far more perish from avalanches and missteps into crevasses that nature has camouflaged with snow. This is especially so now in springtime, as the sun licks away several feet of ice and opens new underground cracks and seams.
But for all these logistical peculiarities, the Siachen conflict might be thought of as just another low-intensity border war -- were it not being fought between the world's two newest nuclear powers. Their combat over a barren, uninhabited nether world of questionable strategic value is a forbidding symbol of their lingering irreconcilability.
''This is like a struggle of two bald men over a comb,'' said Stephen P. Cohen, an authority on the Indian subcontinent at the Brookings Institution. ''Siachen is the epitome of the worst aspects of the relationship. These are two countries that are paired on a road to Oslo or Hiroshima, and at this point they could go either way.''
Since gaining independence in 1947, Pakistan, which is overwhelmingly Muslim, and India, which is predominantly Hindu, have been enemies with a bent toward military confrontation. In 1949, after the first of three wars, the nations agreed to a cease-fire line that unfortunately stopped short of the remote massifs of north-central Kashmir -- a disputed area on the map where India, Pakistan and China rub shoulders.
by barry beark may 23 1999
By BARRY BEARAK
Published: May 23, 1999
SIGN IN TO E-MAIL
SINGLE-PAGE
For 15 blustery, shivering years, the Indian and Pakistani armies have been fighting a war along the frigid peaks of the western Himalayas -- in an area named for the Siachen Glacier and known as the battleground on the roof of the world.
For a soldier, this is where hell freezes over, a 46-mile river of slow-moving ice surrounded by stupendous towers of snow. Temperatures swoon to 50 below, and sudden blizzards can bury field artillery in minutes. Men sleep in ice caves or igloos and breathe air so spare of oxygen that it sends their hearts into a mad gallop. Fainting spells and pounding headaches are frequent. Frostbite chews its way through digits and limbs.
The enemy is hard to see in the crags and craters in the vast whiteness -- and harder to hit. Rifles must be thawed repeatedly over kerosene stoves, and machine guns need to be primed with boiling water. At altitudes of 18,000 feet, mortar shells fly unpredictable and extraordinary distances, swerving erratically when met by sledgehammer gustshile some troops fall to hostile fire, far more perish from avalanches and missteps into crevasses that nature has camouflaged with snow. This is especially so now in springtime, as the sun licks away several feet of ice and opens new underground cracks and seams.
But for all these logistical peculiarities, the Siachen conflict might be thought of as just another low-intensity border war -- were it not being fought between the world's two newest nuclear powers. Their combat over a barren, uninhabited nether world of questionable strategic value is a forbidding symbol of their lingering irreconcilability.
''This is like a struggle of two bald men over a comb,'' said Stephen P. Cohen, an authority on the Indian subcontinent at the Brookings Institution. ''Siachen is the epitome of the worst aspects of the relationship. These are two countries that are paired on a road to Oslo or Hiroshima, and at this point they could go either way.''
Since gaining independence in 1947, Pakistan, which is overwhelmingly Muslim, and India, which is predominantly Hindu, have been enemies with a bent toward military confrontation. In 1949, after the first of three wars, the nations agreed to a cease-fire line that unfortunately stopped short of the remote massifs of north-central Kashmir -- a disputed area on the map where India, Pakistan and China rub shoulders.
by barry beark may 23 1999
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