Better than the West

India chose to have a diplomatic offensive over military action against Pakistan in response to the Mumbai attacks in November. Did it do so out of choice or having no choice?

Manmohan Singh rightly said that military action would achieve nothing constructive. If India wanted, it could have attacked the terrorist training camps in Pakistan territory. But any such action would surely result in retaliation by Pakistan's military, may be resulting in all-out war, Kargil style, and in the longer term, more terrorist attacks.

Yet if an equivalent number of people had died in a terrorist attack in the US, UK or Israel, military action would be inevitable. The mess created by that is visible in Paletine, Iraq and Afghanistan. What India has done shows restraint, wisdom, and regard to the long term.

So all of you who say India is weak, shut up.