BUENOS AIRES HERALD, DECEMBER 4, 1971
PRESIDENT YAHYA MUST BE MADE TO SEE SENSE
The miracle-which would have taken the shape of a political solution to lower the explosive tension in East Pakistan-did not materialize. Pakistan has escalated hostilities by eight air strikes over the western frontier into India. The war that everyone knew was inevitable is raging.
War will solve nothing. It would speed the setting up of an independent Bangladesh state. But to pay the price of war, in terms of terrible human suffering in an area that has had its fill of grief, is morally wrong. If another country is born on the Indian sub- continent in a blood-bath, peace and Prosperity (which have seemed to be in India’s reach) would again be postponed. This war is madness. It IS madness born of the irrationality of West Pakistan’s attempt to crush the national aspirations of the Bengalis. President Yahya Khan must be made to see sense. He must make some gesture like releasing the Bangladesh leader Sheikh Mujib-which will provide an opportunity, through the United Nations, to turn the tide of war.