Idiotic attacking Syria

The reason a missile attack on Syria is proving so unpopular on both sides of the Atlantic,Simon Jenkins argues,is that it is a bad idea. Punishing a dictator for killing his own people by simply killing more of his own people is stupid and leads nowhere,he adds. Jenkins also points out that earlier Western attacks on Serbia,Afghanistan,Iraq and Libya had a clear goal: to topple regimes. In Syria,he says,an attack would be in retaliation to a proven breach of international law on chemical weapons with none of the western countries having the will to topple the Assad regime. Action can be described as merely punitive and a deterrent,Jenkins says before adding that it will merely destroy buildings and kill people,all very peculiarly pointless.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE

PHFs dark days

Having finished third in the Asia Cup,Pakistan will not feature in the Hockey World Cup for the first time in its history. To say that August 30,2013,was the darkest day in Pakistans hockey history would not be an exaggeration,writes Aqib Shahzad Bhatti. The four-time world champions,the tournaments most successful team,lost out because of their Korea-phobia, Bhatti writes and adds that for the third time this year,the Koreans have ensured that Pakistan dont take the top prize in a major tournament. He blames the team management for not changing strategies during the Korea game. This is not the only reason for the sorry state of affairs…the Pakistan Hockey Federation PHF indulged in non-serious behaviour,there was a dearth of long-term planning,and a lack of opportunities for younger talents. No efforts were made to have international matches on home grounds and the coaching staff was also changed frequently,he writes.

ABC NEWS

Gangrape fury in India

The gangrape of a Mumbai photojournalist and the conviction of the juvenile in the Delhi incident have brought the issue back into spotlight. Katy Daigle says that these high-profile cases have ignited a debate in the country: Are such crimes on the rise,or is it simply that more attention is being paid to a problem long hidden? The answer,she quotes experts as having said,is that its both. Modernisation is fuelling a crisis of sexual assault in India, Daigle says,as women are increasingly becoming independent and are more likely than their mothers were to report rapes,and more likely to encounter male strangers in public. She also says that there is a class dimension to this. In both the cases,middle-class people identified with these young girls,she quotes Sudha Sundararaman,of the All India Democratic Womens Association,as saying. She adds that experts say the rapid growth of Indias cities and the yawning gulf between rich and poor are exacerbating the problem.