Three interconnected expressions have acquired currency in our conversations since April 22, the outrage in Pahalgam. These are kinetic response, escalatory ladder, and off-ramp.
Before these, however, comes a term used so rarely these days, it sounds exotic: casus belli. I am employing Latin despite my first venerable news editor late D N Singh’s orders to never use “foreign” until an English alternative was available. Somehow, cause to justify conflict or war does not sound so convincing.
The casus belli in this case is Pahalgam
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