Pak's 7-year itch resurfaces, but is India's deterrence enough this time?

Pakistani establishments and their proxies are prone to a severe, predictable 7-year itch. Each step up the escalation ladder buys India about these many years of deterrence on average

A simple question, a week after the Indian Air Force and Army struck nine terror bases in Pakistan: Why do nations have armies?

 

Is it to fight wars? Only morons — and some teenagers high on testosterone — would say that. Self-defence? That’s for small nations. A great nation arms itself for a higher purpose.

 

That higher purpose is to prevent wars. The stronger the nation, the stronger the army it needs — not to conquer territory or bully others, but to keep out distractions from its sovereign spaces. In one word: Deterrence.

 

A question then follows: Have we achieved