Events are unfolding quickly, and it is unclear what the situation will be when this piece is published. India has lived up to its reputation: within minutes of the attack at Pahalgam in Kashmir, it accused Pakistan of masterminding and undertaking the attack. The death of the innocent and unarmed people in Kashmir is a great tragedy, but the greater tragedy will be if the two nuclear-armed countries end up going to war over the issue.

The onus lies squarely on the shoulders of warmongers, led by PM Modi of India. Starting a war is easy; concluding it is the most difficult thing. What amazes me is when not one politician but all the advisors surrounding PM Modi level up and conclusively decide in matters of hours that fighting a war is the best response to the tragedy.

You can get together to start a war, but no getting together can bring it to an early conclusion. In any case, before starting any war, the political objective of the war should be sufficiently clear. Given the circumstances under which India wants to impose this war on Pakistan, the Indian political objective should be to degrade Pakistan's capability and capacity to undertake any terrorist act in India.

This isn't a political objective of the war that seems achievable. It took the US two decades to realise that, in Afghanistan. And Israel's war of genocide in the Gaza Strip continues even after 18 months.

All military powers start wars by imagining that wars will be of short duration, but wars tend to drag on. President Vladimir Putin was looking at weeks to finish the job in Ukraine, but the war has dragged into........

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