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“India hit Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir with missiles on Wednesday and Pakistan vowed to retaliate saying it shot down five Indian aircraft, in the worst clash in more than two decades between the nuclear-armed neighbours…
“India said it struck nine ‘terrorist infrastructure’ sites, some of them linked to an attack by Islamist militants that killed 25 Hindu tourists and one local in Indian Kashmir last month… Islamabad pledged to respond ‘at a time, place and manner of its choosing to avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant violation of its sovereignty’, emphatically rejecting Indian allegations it had terrorist camps on its territory.” Reuters
The left worries that the violence will escalate, and hopes that Pakistan will not retaliate.
“The strikes seem to have been designed to be a reasonable response to a deadly attack by militants on tourists in India-controlled Kashmir that India says was backed by Pakistan. Given the existential stakes on the subcontinent — both India and Pakistan have sizable nuclear arsenals — this might be small comfort. But India’s strikes were restrained enough that the new conflict between the two countries conceivably could stop here…
“Images of dead children and smoldering mosques will no doubt inflame Pakistani public opinion. However, two of the targets in Punjab, in Bahawalpur and Muridke, are known to be operational headquarters of prominent Islamist militant groups — Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba — which were built around mosques…
“If Pakistan insists on escalation beyond this, it will bear most of the responsibility for the unnecessary war that would follow.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
“Both sides are playing to their domestic audiences. In India, a nationalist frenzy has been whipped up by media loyal to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, catering to a public hungry for justice. Images of widows have been playing nonstop across television screens, while little attention is paid to dissent within Kashmir. The government insists that militants aimed to disrupt a return to ‘normalcy’ in the region, despite ongoing concerns about its decision to revoke its autonomy in 2019…
“In Pakistan, public sentiment is growing more hostile. The suspension of a longstanding agreement governing water sharing, the Indus Waters Treaty, has ratcheted up tensions. Millions of farmers depend on those flows, and Islamabad has warned that it views India’s measures as an act of war.”
Karishma Vaswani, Bloomberg
“This is the worst violence [between the two countries] in years. Though neither wants full-blown conflict, the dispute over Kashmir has produced three wars and multiple crises over eight decades. When two nuclear-armed neighbours clash, we should worry. One reason is that errors and misjudgments are always possible…
“The second cause for concern is the shifting context of the hostility. In India, Narendra Modi’s success is built on his identity as a Hindu nationalist strongman. He is also under intense pressure because he had declared unequivocally that Kashmir had returned to normalcy and would be not only ‘terror-free but [also] a heaven for tourists’… In the past, the US has pushed the two sides to de-escalate. But the Trump administration has little attention to spare and less diplomatic capacity.”
Editorial, The Guardian
The right generally supports India’s efforts, arguing that they are justified due to Pakistan’s support for terrorism.
The right generally supports India’s efforts, arguing that they are justified due to Pakistan’s support for terrorism.
“Reshaping Islamabad’s behavior won’t be easy. More than 75 years after its creation, Pakistan is dominated by its army, which has ruled formally for about half the country’s history and informally for much of the rest. The country’s most popular politician, Imran Khan, has been languishing in prison since August 2023 after a falling out with the army…
“India’s strikes, including on two high-profile terrorist groups’ facilities, may not end the Pakistani army’s long love affair with militant Islam. But the goal is nonetheless laudable. A Pakistan less prone to poking India could focus on its domestic problems instead of destabilizing South Asia. This would also allow India to focus more of its military capacity on China…
“Wednesday's strikes send a message to Pakistan that it can no longer expect to target Indians with impunity and that it will be held responsible for groups that shelter on its soil. Even if the U.S. doesn’t play an active part in the conflict, it should wish India well. A less dangerous Pakistan would be a gift to the world.”
Sadanand Dhume, Wall Street Journal
“Pakistan spends billions of dollars on its terrorist infrastructure. In 2008, Pakistan-trained and sponsored groups attacked multiple sites around Mumbai, gunning down civilians and tourists, including Americans. To this day, Islamabad protects the masterminds of that attack. Nor have Pakistani authorities ever explained how it was [that] the al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden came to be in Abbottabad, Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point, at a time he was wanted for the slaughter of thousands of Americans…
“The United States, international community, and IMF should slam the door on any additional funding for Pakistan. It’s time for tough love… Cutting off aid may precipitate a crisis in the short term, but it is the only way to get Pakistan to accept accountability in the long term. Nor does Islamabad actually need money: If it [chooses] to cut off terror support or even dissolve the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, it could fund more essential services.”
Michael Rubin, Washington Examiner
“What’s that, India? You say you must send military forces across the border to hunt down a terrorist who murdered your people, hiding in Pakistan’s territory, with no sense that the local government is even trying to do anything about it? Fellas, we know exactly how you feel… The good news is, we’ve been here before, and the conflicts have always died down after a few days.”
Jim Geraghty, National Review
The tallest and smallest dogs in the world meet up for adorable doggy playdate in America.
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