, Columnist
Can India and Pakistan Step Back From the Brink?
The nuclear-armed states have walked away from escalation before and can do so again.
Can India and Pakistan step back from the brink?
Photographer: Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images
For two nations that say they want to avoid escalation, India and Pakistan seem trapped in a dangerously spiraling conflict.
India’s strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir Wednesday were clearly telegraphed — a fitting answer, it believes, for last month’s terror attack in Kashmir. In response, Islamabad claims it has shot down five of New Delhi’s aircraft. Civilians are now dead on both sides.