The Potential Geopolitical Crisis Nobody Wants or Needs

Pakistan Says Indian Planes Entered Airspace

The fall out from the Mumbai attacks have received some press but not enough analysis or thought of what this could ultimately mean. If Pakistan and India were not both nuclear armed I am certain that many would welcome a full-on Indian invasion of Pakistan. As a side note that very fact might not go unnoticed to other nations that wish to develop their own nuclear capability. Pakistan as a US ally is a nation that we are essentially ready to throw to the dogs - if only we knew how. Our military efforts have been successful at rooting out terrorist in Afghanistan and then Iraq and then Afghanistan again when they came back in force but really all we are doing is forcing their base of operations to shift.

Under our current ROE US troops and other ISAF forces routinely cross the Pakistan border in pursuit of insurgents, we also fire into Pakistan. We are of course limited to going just so many miles (a fact well known by all involved). And therein lies the problem. We cannot get to the operational bases - we have to wait from newly trained insurgents to leave the little insurgent factories. I am sure many would welcome an Indian invasion for this very reason.

Here is a Pakistani view of why war might be inevitable...