US's view on India's 'Cold Start' strategy
EDITORIAL (December 07, 2010) : The Indian military has taken no time in rejecting the WikiLeaks disclosures that it in the eyes of the United States it's much vaunted Cold Start doctrine, is more of a wishful thinking than an action-oriented possibility. Army chief General V.K. Singh denies India ever had such a plan, saying point-blank. "We don't have anything called Cold Start".
He also rejects the US Ambassador Tim Roemer's perception that the Indian army's mobilisation process is "slow and lumbering", insisting that his forces are "ready and would take action". That's not what the American embassy in New Delhi thought early this year when Indian generals were threatening Pakistan of a "limited war under a nuclear overhang". In a rather long message to the State Department Ambassador Roemer had argued that the Manmohan Singh government "has not publicly embraced Cold Start and the GOI (Government of India)'s uncertainty over Pakistan's nuclear restraint may inhibit future implementation (of Cold Start) by any government". His thoughts, he said, reflected the "collective judgement" of the US embassy "that India would encounter mixed results". As to what could be Pakistan's response, in his words, by implementing the Cold Start in any form that can "roll the nuclear dice".
To the extent that Pakistan's response to Indian aggression, even when it is supposed to be time - and place-specific, as the Cold Start doctrine envisages, there should be no doubt that it would be encountered with full force. In January, when the then Indian army chief, General Deepak Kapoor, talked of a limited war under a nuclear overhang and boasted of taking on both Pakistan and China simultaneously, the riposte he received was more than equal. Taking serious note of his bluster Pakistan's National Command Authority (NCA) warned India not to mistake the country's forbearance for weakness in face of its belligerent statements. "Such irresponsible statements reflected a hegemonic mindset, oblivious to the dangerous implications of adventurism in a nuclearised context", said the NCA. It also noted that "massive inductions" of arms and "offensive doctrines like Cold Start" are the kind of developments that tend to undermine the regional balance of power, adding Pakistan could not be oblivious to these looming threats. In a nutshell, Pakistan made clear that the Indian threats of Cold Start and Limited War can precipitate the conditions for a nuclear clash in South Asia.
Conceived in the wake of a terrorist attack on the Indian parliament, the Cold Start strategy had then sounded much pragmatic to the India's chauvinistic mindset. The plan, in the words of Ambassador Roemer, "intended to be taken off the shelf and implemented within 72 hours" is more in terms of punitive action or gunboat diplomacy. It is built around the plan that a self-contained, highly mobile battle group, comprising main battle tanks and elements of infantry would breach into the Punjab or Rajastan sectors, backed by long-range artillery and air power "in a targeted, conventional way without provoking a nuclear response". But India has so far failed to press this doctrine into service despite many volatile developments including the Mumbai attacks. Why, because Pakistan has both the conventional and nuclear capabilities to thwart Indian aggression, be it limited or unlimited. No doubt the American embassy in New Delhi must have briefed the host government and its haughty generals about its perspective on the Cold Start strategy. Who would know better than the Americans that you can start a war when you like but how it goes on and when it would end that's not in your control.
Was Ambassador Roemer provoked into writing his opinion by General Deepak's bluster or some other reason, we don't know. If he was offering his perceptions on the Cold Start doctrine his argument appears to be quite weighty. But, we in Pakistan, can also think of the possibility that he was helping the State Department to convince Pakistan that its eastern border is absolutely safe and come what may, India won't think of launching a full-fledged aggression, much less a Cold Start incursion. Now that his perspective on this Indian military brainchild - that came into being mainly to assuage the BJP government's anger over the army's inability to strongly react to the bombing of parliament, then said to be planned in Pakistan - is made public, we expect Ambassador Roemer to offer his position on General Singh's denial that the Cold Start doctrine ever existed.
Editorials - US's view on India's 'Cold Start' strategy
US's view on India's 'Cold Start' strategy
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