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FROM SURPRISE TO RECKONING: The Kargil Review Committee Report, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks. CA. 2000. 277 pages, 39.95.
India-Pakistan--perhaps nowhere else on earth does the risk of nuclear war run so high. Yet, in 1999, this did not deter Pakistan from infiltrating an estimated 1,500 to 2,400 regular and irregular forces into the Kargil District of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian Army and Air Force suffered over 1,500 casualties before compelling the Pakistanis to quit the fight. In the aftermath of this conflict, the Indian Government established a committee to review the sequence of events leading up to the incursion and to recommend measures to safeguard against similar armed intrusions in the future. The interested strategist, however, discerns a larger issue here: what possible strategy was Pakistan pursuing that would cause such a bold...