The British military expedition in Helmand province after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan is really a mesmerizing read. After enormous sacrifice of blood & treasure, all the important towns like Musa qala, Sangin & Laskar Gah are in the control of the Taliban today 1/

Pakistan has really aced asymmetric warfare. Imagine fighting against the most advanced militaries in the world, with all the resources & hardware at their disposal, using a rag-tag militia- and yet the Taliban is the strongest it has ever been with relatively meagre cost for 2/

Pakistanis in monetary terms. They repeat the same template in #Kashmir. Keep infiltrating a 'seemingly endless flow' ( words of American commander ) of highly motivated 2-rupee terrorist. To counter this, we have to invest billions of $$ in counter-insurgency grid, bear the 3/

brunt of loss of lives, livelihoods & discontent among the local population. It is easy to write 'Increase the cost for Pakistan', something that I have come across a zillion times.The truth is it isn't as easy; even today when infiltration goes beyond control all we can do is 4/

engage in meaningless & hapless artillery duels which has ZERO deterrence value. One of the reasons, I have been a strong proponent of development of Chahbahar port, Zarang-Delaram highway & air freight corridor despite the lives lost. Leave the rest to NDS & RAW ;-)
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