No doubt about your bolded part...Even though they have let us down on some occasion however they are very potent...
Now lets discuss about the option that you are asking for...Let me ask you a question...What is your objective of taking the war to Pakistan??? I believe it is to let them know that if they will support terrorism in India we will return them the same favor... and by doing this Pak will understand that they cannot continue spreading of terrorism in India without paying cost...I hope i got it right???
Now let me share my apprehentions with it...
a) Most importantly it will mean that we are writing death sentence of innocents in Pakistan..... I am strictly agaisnt this barbarism...
b) Since it is a defence forum so lets leave emotions(Point 1) aside and see it from strategic angle..
- First of all even if we indulge in spreading terrorism in Pakistan this will no way make India safe.. All we will achieve is kill some of their people for killings of our own people.
- India has earned lot of respect and fame accross the world by showing restraint during Kargil, Parliament Attack, Mumbai Attack etc. Just remember what Gates said a few days back. This restraint has helped us immensely and improvised our PR. By product is that deals like NSG waiver for nuclear deal was far easy that it would have been otherwise.....
- Brand india is improving day by day and people consider us as a responsible nation and a super power in making.
- After 9/11 world has changed and supporting terror in any form is a Big NO-NO...We will loose a lot than gain if we choose to adopt terror tactics and consider them as strategic weapons. Just look at what is happening in Pakistan...
- List is endless. Though my above points will give you an inclination of what i am upto.
Now the bigger question is what the heck shall we do??? We just can't sit and take on attacks after attack and do nothing about it... The answer is Diplomacy... I know we did not get the desired results in the past but mumbai changed the game...We are on offensive and have been able to corner Pakistan to some extent...Now have it given us what we hoped for?? May be not but surely it has given us a lot as compared to past results....
What if diplomacy Fails
Then IMO only way is implement the cold start doctorine... We have spent about $50 billion in last few years...After all such toys need to be used at the time of emergency...Not a full-fledged war but a limited war(here world opinion will help keep the conflict intact and certainly will back India)....There is no other OPTION.....
That's a largely sensible post, deckingraj. India held back and India and Pakistan both "gained" - insofar as possible from a tragedy such as the one over a year ago; Israel unleashed and Israel lost.
At least in the court of world opinion - there is no doubt about that.
However, as much as I applaud your emphasis on
diplomacy, I would have to personally withhold my thumbs-up due to the glaring deficiency - IMO - of your last paragraph.
This "Cold Start" is a dangerous doctrine - for India. It might "soothe the pain". But like painkillers, whether or not it kills you depends on how many you take. Quietly lobbing some rockets (which happens with some regularity already), shutting down diplomatic missions, anything is more preferable than these painkillers.
Cursed, I mean
cursed is anyone who thinks Amrika and Israel are going to stand by India's side in a land and air war against Pakistan under the "nuclear overhang" even if you promise "96 hours" of goodliness and cleanliness and nothing but calculated "attrition" ...
Sure, Izzies helped you in 1998 over a little skirmish with some UAVs, satellite surveilance, what not. But anyone who thinks Izzies are going to
help you help you in a real war involving battalions of tanks and squadrons of airplanes is as delusional as the Georgians who think their Israeli trainers are going to help them repel Russians.
The Isszy's whole mission in life is to stay alive with pride (not dissimilar from most I suppose). Will overtly helping your "cold start" increase or decrease the chance of a dirty bomb rendering Tel Aviv uninhabitable for the next 500 years? Will helping you "teach Pakistan a lesson" ala Lebanon increase or decrease their "esteem" around the world?
Those Indians who relish the so-called American-Israeli-Indian axis do not realize what a double-edged sword this axis could be.
Not the least because Yankees and Izzies are quite self-conscious of it - so much so that they deny its
appearance at every turn. Now if India is in imminent danger of being overrun, that's a different scenario. But to help you in your little offensive "cold start"?
Let me spell it out: in your vaunted Cold Turkey, you'll be lucky to get the same amount of support from America as Saakashvili received not that long ago for his "loyalty". I give you less in fact.
Israelis? Hehe ...
Sure, they will sell to you and I'm sure the Forex is ready to be tapped.
Now in a hot war, particularly a
defensive one, you already know who are going to support Pakistan. In short, what you may get into is an attrition of Indian lives and Indian Forex-purchased equipment against Pakistani lives and Chinese equipment. I am convinced by my reading of the current tea leaves that the PRC will support Pakistan in a defensive war essentially with no holds barred - meaning "free everything" if
necessary.
Besides, what better way to exhaust all that idle capacity in China nowadays?
So are you sure you are going to come up on top of such a war of "attrition"?
What about Russia? Well it's not a question of whether Russia would be willing. Could Russia supply you for "free", or at cost? And even if Russia does, then what would your other Patron say?
Let's look at another example in history. During the Vietnam war, did NATO help the US? Not even Canada! So Americans faced die-hard Viet Con soldiers, supported by Chinese logistics, and outfitted with Soviet weaponry (for free or at cost).
Why would you want to put yourself in a similar situation whereby you are facing pakistani Jawans defending their homeland, quite possibly morally and logistically supported by the "Ummah", with cheap and abundant weapons from China?
Truthfully, you are better off (in terms of rallying support around the world) confronting the PRC directly ...
As a lay man, I see this Cold Start as worse than doing nothing. O well, what must come to pass, right?