HSD2

Utter rubbish. The fact that Maharaja Ranjit Singh flew into a rage when he heard he had been killed and cursed his name for leaving his side and going to Jamrud just shows how close they were. Even the Dogras were worried that Maharaja Ranjit Singh was on to them, they waited until he was dead before they did anything else. Hari Singh Nalwa's death weakened Punjab and Maharaja Ranjit Singh massively. The British and Afghans became more boisterous after the Battle of Jamrud. Sarbat Khalsa took over when Duleep became Maharaja anyway. What good did they do?

The Indians are masters of low cost warfare, something they inherited from the British. If anyone causes problems internally, they can be overwhelmed with masses of police, paramilitaries and soldiers who are cheap to train and equip. A low level insurgency with no understanding of supply/logistics, intelligence, engineering etc is always doomed to fail. A major enemy with sophisticated equipment, training and organisation would cut through them even if the odds might seem in India's favour, like during the war with China. To contrast Hindustan with the old Mughalstan, the Mughals spent too much on their own decadence. India is poor, the people there will always do anything for a quick buck. The Americans on the other hand, unlike the Indians, spend ridiculously high amounts on their armed forces and they end up with the exact opposite problem. No one dares take them on with tanks, surface groups, fighter jets or missiles, but their enemies know if they stretch them out far enough and for long enough they can bankrupt them. Fighting for short term goals against the Yanks would be just half a strike.

Steady on chaps. This the same Thatcher who was best friends with Jimmy Saville and led a government that was sympathetic to the Indian Government during the 80s.

The English working class have always been like that. On the other hand, look at the Norweigans, they came into a lot of money and didnt go nuts. If anything, coming into money only makes problems that already exist much worse. Or great things in society even better. It depends who comes into the money.

For what?

Divorce isnt wrong, take him for every penny he has.

But that is over half a century since the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his infamous 'pearl wine'.

I hear you brother. But there are those who want more and more details for these events, rather than accepting the facts at face value. And there are those who will oblige them and give them what they want even though to the critical eye it doesnt come together to fit right. LIke stitching heads back on to bodies. I'm not doubting that they gave their lives, but that feels so tacky. A lot of Sikhs who put emphasis on the resurrection part rather than the sacrifice, acceptance, duty and perseverance parts seem to only do it so they can say 'You have one resurrection in your faith? Bah, we have five!' Who cares about other religions? Screw them. I'd rather we stayed grounded in what we know than jumping into the same theological messes their clerics and holy men get in to satisfy their own masses.

Or we feel the need to make up stuff to match the nonsense of other religions is the other way of looking at it.

White clothes as well now? lol, wonder where that idea came from. Everyone believe what you want.

Surprised Mudki,Chillianwalla and Jamrud didnt make it.

Oh gee thanks! Here was me all worried, but now I know big internet kharkoos are around that they'll take on muslims and win! Wahey! Not. You say you dont know how the Taliban defeated the Americans. I dunno, maybe because America is bankrupt? I've already explained the massive differences in cost between the two forces. Wars cost money. You may not have got to that lesson yet in History but some of us have left school. Americans are far worse off now than they were in 2001. Even they want to leave and stop spending all this money. Now you may be so immature to not understand that wars have a social/economic/political etc dimension as well as a military one. Ever heard of the 'home front'? Read up on it. The Germans never were defeated militarily - they could have resisted till the end and then formed resistance groups. But they couldnt afford to. They didnt have the ability to as this is not how they fought wars. So what if the Taliban cant fight in planes and tanks? They dont have to. It costs ridiculous amounts for their enemies to come to them so they suck them in. Winning is winning no matter how you do it. When's the last time Sikhs won a war on their own o mighty one? I can compare the Vietnam and Afghan wars. Both involve overwhelming American power that proves futile over time. So what if the Vietcong won a few victories? They still never forced the Americans out with force, they just made their position untenable like the Tallibs are doing. If you cant even see that then please for the love of god never join the army. You'd be a liability not just to yourself but to everyone around you too. Win people over to what? The idea that you'll leave in a few years and that the Taliban will come back? Yeah that'll win them over. Can you provide pictures of Taliban 2001 uniforms and post-invasion uniforms? Or are you just chatting rubbish you heard off other people again. By killing people shooting at them and not killing people who are civilians. I've already explained to you what would happen if they tried the alternative. Are you so stupid to think that you know what the American Army should be doing and they dont? Give me a break. As for the rest of the rant, lol. Kashmir? The mujis have bigger fish to fry. You might not see it in your slum but times change and other things are going on. Just because that is what happened before doesnt mean it will happen again. If you cant even see that no wonder we are in such a state.

@bsandhu: The taliban were easily 'defeated' because they were fighting an enemy with overwhelming force who were on the attack. Once NATO was established in bases, the tables were turned as they had to go on the defensive to protect their bases and supply routes. They tried disrupting the Taliban but they fight asymetrically. I could easily ask you if NATO did so well beating the Taliban initially, why are they still there? Ignoring the propaganda victory of the British being involved which upset Afghans, the reason is that the Taliban were destroyed, they just legged it. Secondly, I hear a lot of SIkhs say this thing about 30 days/60 days of total war to end the afghan resistance. Really? The american and westerners come up with rubbish like this all the time and it's surprising to see Sikhs regurgitate it without thinking. The Americans say if they stayed in Vietnam longer they would have won. Well duh, they might have. But they couldnt. They couldnt beat the Vietcong, they were running out of money and their position was untenable. The Germans could say if they had millions more tanks, planes and troops they might have won WW2. True, but they didnt have them, so they dont go on about it like dumb Yanks would. Lets run with this. So imagine if the Yanks did have a carte blanche total war for 6 months. Now they start murdering, raping and molesting their way through villages (if they havent already). Now the afghan civilians are upset and side with the Taliban. The increase in fighting makes NATO commanders demand troops. But they dont grow on trees. So you'll have to start conscription. Hundreds of thousands are drafted all across America and torn from their families. As well as the social effect, you will have to pay their wages, pay for their training and pay for their equipment and to ship them out there. That'll cost a lot. Your national debt increases massively. A lot of these new troops may be volunteers who answered the call to get revenge for 9/11 or see it as an excuse to re-enact what their ancestors did to Native Americans on a whole new bunch of brown folk. Reports of these outrages reach the non-Western press. Muslims are upset and start making their way to Afghanistan to help their fellow muslims. The number of enemy combatants drastically increases, forcing another wave of conscription in the US. Muslims who dont go to Afghanistan start attacks on Western targets in response to outrages in Afghanistan. Some western backed goverments are toppled. In other places American bases are overrun. Anti-american sentiment increases in non-muslim countries. Russia refuses to allow supplies through to Afghanistan without massive payments. Pakisan collapses and supplies cannot go though from the Indian Ocean. Millions of troops are trapped in Afghanistan. America decides to 'intervene' in muslim countries that have rebelled against them. More conscription. More antagonism on ties with non-aligned powers. More justification for the muslim extremists. More debt. More dead. More disillusionment. Eventually some rich states decide to go their own way and rebel against the central american authority. Faced with civil war and a major international war what would you do? The people in control of America arent that stupid. Well some are, but not all. If they wanted advice from right wing nutters or random Sikhs on SikhSangat, they would have phoned you by now. @SIngh, Mahan: I think the Taliban wont go to Kashmir. They have an axe to grind with the Paks for their support of America. If Syria falls, it also means that a war with Russia in the Caucasus is on the cards.

The prisons are already run by former Northern Alliance and Western SpecOps, the afghan army is majorly from the northern regions too. The only weapon the americans havent used is nuclear bomb. Every other part of the geneva convention has been ripped up and ignored. Even the western media reports some of these incidents. How do you defeat an enemy who practice 2 and 1/2 strikes?

This was a few years back, last I heard most of it has been farmed over. Hopefully most of the historical evidence is deep enough that it can be dug up at a later date. What's left of the fortifications I dont know. Most Sikhs are quite happy to just make up their own history so I never expected much from them.

We shouldnt over egg the Taliban in Afghanistan. Their losses have been horrific compared to what the Soviets did to them. The reason they are 'winning' is because every firefight helps bankrupt the West. One Muji missile costs in the region of £10 for every rocket and a bit more for the launcher. The NATO equivalent costs £50,000 - £70,000 per rocket. The Javelin may be more accurate than the RPG but each time it's used they are basically flushing a policeman/nurse's salary down the toilet. Add the costs of operating half way round the world in a remote place and it becomes clear all the Talibs had to do was stick it out and bleed the treasuries of the West dry. Even if the Yanks ignored the Geneva convention (which they probably are in some cases) then it would still cost a lot for 'total warfare' and the Talibs would just leg it to fight another day.

You could urge William Hague and the French to stop supporting terrorists in the sovereign nation of Syria and for western governments/NGOs/PMCs to stop supporting the geopolitics of Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Though if you want to go and fight there to stop this, go for it. Set the example.

Sikh police are like this in the UK too. Give a SIkh a bit of power and they become nutters. The UKBA are another example.

Might even vote LIbDem if they come through on this.

Hate to break it to you but Jazzy B probably couldnt give a monkeys about people whinging about him. Please post your accomplishments before you go off on one.

Nor are the Pak army. Worst comes to worse the Taliban might see the ISI's double game as a betrayal and pandering to America. If they cause Pakistan major problems, expect a massive refugee crisis in the region. East Punjab wont know what hit it.

That will make sense coming from her brother. A newly religous guy going on about how handsome Singhs are lol.......................

Set the example and if she wants to she wont need to be lectured, she'll do it herself.

The US looks after themselves and no one else. Why would you expect any different?

The only reason the west cares about the tamils is because how distant Sri Lanka has gone from India and the West. Cosying up to China brings this kind of grief.