India-Pakistan & Nuclear War

[Vikash Yadav]

I think the prospect of war between India and Pakistan is quite large this time.  This brinkmanship is particularly alarming in light of the paper released this week by Bruce Riedel, a former Clinton NSC Advisor, which details how the Pakistani military armed its nuclear arsenal on July 4, 1999 during the Kargil crisis in Kashmir.  What was most alarming about the report was that the Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, had to be told by the US that his military had gone ahead and armed their nuclear missiles.  The head of the Pakistani military in 1999 is the current dictator in charge -- General Pervez Musharraf.  India has to know that this conflict may rapidly escalate given the willingness of the Pakistani military to use the nuclear arsenal.

If you have not seen Bruce Riedel's paper you can obtain a free copy at:

	HTML Version: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/casi/reports/RiedelPaper051302.htm 

	PDF Version: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/casi/reports/RiedelPaper051302.pdf 

	
Best,

Vikash Yadav
Philadelphia, PA

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Lisa Murray
Sent: Saturday, May 18, 2002 04:05 PM
To: Lbo-Talk at Lists. Panix. Com
Subject: India-Pakistan
[from today's NYT]
[snip]
Today's diplomatic slap at Pakistan was just a preliminary step, with more
weighty decisions yet to come, a senior Indian official said. "This is a
signal to both Pakistan and the West that India is serious about doing
whatever it takes to bring this menace to an end," he said.