sudhan wrote:The only time the pakis came close to pressing pause on their "war of a thousand cuts" was when our Intel agencies wrought havoc covertly.. So the strategy from the India Gov (if the precedents set by Doval are anything to go by) would be to work on an elaborate strategy where Pawki pain points are clearly identified and pressure applied covertly.. with some wham-bham action thrown in the mix.. My point is, I believe the response will be practically invisible to our Indian public, with a 'whodunnit' expression on our faces at the end.
With this template in mind, one might ask... Who released the news of Mullah omar's death and set a pig loose among the pawkis?
Sudhan ji
I have thought about playing only the intel game.
The problem of this approach as Doval ji is wont to go down this line, is that you do an equal equal. The pakis do an intel op, we do an intel op payback. Equal Equal, and a lot of respect for the pakis.
Of course, the pakistanis lose this war of attrition long term, because let us admit, the ISI is a puny organization as compared to what the R&AW or even the IB can bring to bear in terms of money, technology and human resources.
I disagree that doing only covert ops will stop Pakistan.
Historical examples that I have quoted are there for all to see:
1. The US attack on the Salala outpost STOPPED all overt pakistani troop support for Taliban operatives. They had to use the painful route of undercover bomb attacks and one off raid here and there. But the everyday raiding a US troop patrol and crossing the border into Pakistan and waving the middle finger stopped after that.
2. The PN was buzzing the IN ships in the arabian sea, with the P3Cs and the Atlantiques. Remember a CNS acutually writing to his opposite number in PN and asking him to stop? That haramigiri stopped after the Atlantique shoot down. The Pakistanis cried bloody murder for a while, but they were for ever insecure after that.
3. After ABV's mobilization, musharraf quickly proceeded to brown his pants, because after Kargil, he probably had visions of being strung by a lamp post by the IA or of singing quwallis in a prisoner camp by the IA as after '71. Musharraf went on TV and promised to end the use of territory under Pakistan's control (That in itself was a major downhill ski - "Territory under Pakistan's control") for sponsoring terrorism against India. That promise held as long as Mushy was in power.
Now one can make life difficult for the officers deputed to the ISI at any given time, it can probably be made difficult for them to take their families out safely in the evenings. But that will not put a stop to a policy by the state.
That policy of continuing to train terrorists via the JUD principally and JEM has to stop. When they have this option of trained unemployed youth piling up, they have the low cost option of using them in J&K continually.
The cost of doing terrorism has to be raised by continual strangulation - economic, covert ops, politically, AND OVERT MILITARY THAPPADS administered at regular intervals and showing that they are impotent to respond. Even today, the IA has sufficient force multipliers to go up the escalation ladder much faster than the Pakistanis have.
I further propose that the PA must always feel unsettled when deployed along the LOC, they must never be allowed to be comfortable in their bunkers. That is Indian territory they are encroaching upon, historical UN resolutions are on our side, we have the economic, military and political might to overrule any Pakistani complaints internationally.
, mainly on land?
, and at best, limited wars.