They've been going at each other's throats since Mahama Gandi got India's independence.
The only difference now is that each side has nuclear weapons.
That makes a
big difference in my opinion. I've often said the night my father died in January 1979 he appeaed in my room. He made a few predictions and one of them included India and Pakistan.
I remember when India first exploded an atomic weapon in 1974. I said to my father in the back yard somewhere (when he was still alive obviously) "It looks like India has the atomic bomb!"
He replied "I don't blame them! They've got China and Pakistan on the border, and they've had wars with both of them."
India didn't pursue weaponising very fast and it was more of a threat in being. But then in 1998, a full 24 years later, Pakistan got nuclear weapons.
It's believed they now have around 170 each, and Pakistan could have more. Pakistan also seems to be getting more fundamentalist every year.
It may be that the USA and Soviet Union had many times that number over a number of years, with no nuclear war breaking out, but generally speaking they both kept tight control. There was also a certain cold logic to the calculations of both sides and the reality of nuclear MAD. But with religious fundamentalism cold logic goes out the window.
Even despite that cold logic, the world came perilously close to nuclear war a few times. Once was during the Cuba Missile Crisis when a Soviet nuclear armed submarine was being depth charged, and another close call in 1983 when the Soviet early warning system indicated 5 missiles had been launched.
en.wikipedia.org
I hope things cool off between India and Pakistan.
www.nbcnews.com
