shiv wrote:
Karanji, it is disrespectful to address people without the ji unless they are close friends.
As you wish..
We can do a lot of things to Pakistan if we had the political will. But Pakistan is sure to hit back. I would like to see a weak Pakistan hit back so it can be defeated more easily.
Pakistan would be much weaker without US arms and monetary aid to the military.
We could go to war with th US over this if we had political will. But call me a coward, I don't think that is a good idea.
Shivji, Pakistan has always hit us first - even as we speak, there are Pakistanis working to move more sleeper cells to India, trying out new ways to attack us...none of that will change.
What my option does is to make it clear to Pakistan, that it is not one way traffic.
Right now, they have no costs apart from bad PR. The kind they suffered after Mumbai, where every one sat up and said, oh, look thats too much. Why? Because they were scared of having the same thing done to them.
And Pakistanis are fundamentally shameless. Look at the Malala episode. They are already spinning it as one more excuse to give aid. Basically, the ISI has decided they are ok with bad PR as long as they can spin it to get the PA more money. Thats good PR in a way.
So Pakistan is not going to get weaker, while we wait. They will continue to attack us. And if we dont react, well Pakistan just attacks us anyway. Its the story of the scorpion on the back of the frog, crossing the river, scorpion stings, frog says - why, we will both sink. Scorpion says, its my nature.
Fundamentally, Pakistani establishment cannot take the fact that they are NOT the biggest folks around - the uppity Hindus are. They have drunk their own Koolaid for so long they cannot admit they left India not because they were afraid of discrimination. But because they could no longer rule in a 1 man 1 vote system.
Only way to be the biggest around, is to break up India. So it will continue.
Now, America is arming these idiots conventionally. But for everything US gave them, we can get a counter. Tech already exists. The point is to reform our idiotic procurement process, and chalta hain attitude. A Saint cannot sit as a MOD head and deny critical systems. War is a serious matter.
Once you do this, the PA is deterred from conventional war, they will come to the negotiation table. They did so when IG was around, they did so when PVNR let loose his methods on Karachi..
It will be an armed peace - but its better than current "peace", which is dependent on how long we can continue our jizaya antics and how long US keeps the Pakis off our back.
US leverage is also iffy. Tomorrow, if US withdraws from Afghan and cuts off ties with Pak, their remaining leverage will vanish. Unfortunately, so will ours. We have, per all reports, piggybacked heavily on Khans abilities to armtwist Pakis to ceasefire. In return, MMS continues with his vapid games and TOI runs all sorts of asinine campaigns mocking the victims of terror. Step by step, the issues worsen - the average Indian lulled into complacency.
Basically, we are out of options and we have to take the hard path. Throughout our independent history, when it came to such choices, India vacillated. Whether it was going nuclear (late into 80s), developing MIC (early 80s)...
If we stand by and watch now, we are again going to be victims
Running a low grade campaign need not start from our end, but the options need to be there.