India Launches Attack Against Pakistan in Wake of Kashmir Massacre; Conflict Could Spiral Out of Contro With Potential to Turn Nuclear
An Air India Boeing 777-300ER
India issued a statement saying that it had struck nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, in what has become the worst fighting in more than two decades between the nuclear-armed enemies.. The attacks came two weeks after 26 civilians were killed in a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.
India said that the strikes had targeted “terrorist infrastructure,” but Pakistan’s defense minister said that they had also hit civilian areas. Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said that “a resolute response is already under way.”
Pakistan said it had shot down five Indian fighter jets, although India would only confirm two were hit.
In scenarios such as this, with two nuclear-armed countries with a history of vicious fighting, while war is not inevitable, it remains a real threat, although – at this moment – the two seem to be calibrating their moves in order to avoid a full-scale conflict. In similar standoffs between the two nations in the past, the United States has intervened to deescalate the situation.
However, with the Indians now having launched a major strike and Pakistan having responded, there has been no sign that U.S. President Donald Trump is showing much interest in the conflict, so the one and only hope may be, of all things, a report just released by Moody’s, which provides international financial research on bonds issued by commercial and government entities. The report states that Pakistan “cannot afford war.” It goes on to say that the first casualty of such a war will be Pakistan’s economy. Growth will slow further down and debt pressure will rise, and foreign funding – or what remains of it – will dry up.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir since the partition of India and the end of the British Raj in 1947. British India was divided into two independent dominion states, the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
