Is anyone else deeply troubled, frightened even, by the current standoff between India and Pakistan? These two countries have fought three wars since their independence, they both have tactical nuclear arsenals (estimated to be at least 50 warheads on each side), and they both greatly fear losing face.

India, with a billion people, has the larger army and administrative and political jurisdiction over mostly Muslim Jammu and Kashmir. It refuses to allow J&K too much autonomy, since the province might seek independence or join with/be annexed by Pakistan, which for strategic and historical regions would be anathema. India's PM is linked by party (BJP) with Hindu nationalists, some of whom would love nothing more than to see mostly Muslim Pakistan humiliated or defeated, whatever the costs and consequences.

Pakistan, which has 150 million people and was humiliated by India during the West Bengal War in the 1970s, does not want to appear intimidated by India, and is quite unstable by any measure. Its leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is walking a very shaky tightrope now; his life and his country's future hang in the balance. Some reports suggest that if Islamabad, the capital, which is only 150 miles from the Indian border, were to come under attack, Pakistan would launch its warheads.

Al Qaeda (including Bin Laden) and Taliban (including Mullah Omar) forces are thought to be within Pakistan's borders, in the West, and may be fomenting the disturbances in Kashmir, since they would benefit from 1) the Pakistani forces being drawn to the eastern front; 2) Muslim solidarity against mostly Hindu India; and 3) the confusion that is sure to arise during a war.

Anywhere from 6-12 million people would die instantly from a nuclear war, and the effects of the fallout would be disastrous. India is so densely populated that millions more might be killed or injured, vast swathes of territory would become uninhabitable, and its infrastructure could not cope with the aftereffects. Pakistan's entire political structure might collapse, and if Al Qaeda got its hands on those warheads...

I hope Donald Rumsfeld, whom Bush is sending, can talk sense and foster negotiations between these two countries. Colin Powell, on the "Newshour with Jim Lehrer" tonight, sounded quite grave and unsure about the situation. I really, really hope it doesn't worsen.

More on this at: NY Times site [requires registration].

The U.S. has warned all Americans to leave India. Looks like things are going to get even hairier.

You know the dinosaurs ruled for millions of years. With the stupidity of man, we only lasted about 10,000 years. Who's next? Cockroaches? Rats?
Last Sept. I knew this would have only one ending. I was also hoping I'd be wrong. But looks like we're on track for me to brag, 'I told you so, I told you so,' to billions of corpes. But hey, I'll look on the bright side. The whole Neaman-Marcus store will be mine. Not to mention no more credit card payments.
I'm tired, I'm going to bed.

I think the number of posts on this topic on the board in comparison to the other topics is about a rough approximation to how much interest there is in the public at large.

Nuclear war?

Ho-hum...not in our backyard!

What DOES it take to get our attention? The Alar-on-apples scare got a lot more. Elian Gonzalez got HUGE coverage. Potential nuclear war? Flip that channel before you're bored...

At least this is one way of getting over that little argument over Global Warming.....

But....we shouldn't worry about this. George is dispatching Don Rumsfeld to the region to deal with this thing.

Problem solved!!

It's always reassuring to know that George's firm, steady hand is steering American foreign policy. Helps me sleep at night.

What we have here are extremists on both sides with their fingers on the trigger. And it's disappointing--no, enfuriating--that so few people here are taking notice.

I just pray that Selig would be human enough (though I doubt it) that if nuclear war did break out, he'd postpone games for a week as he did post-9-11.

Just because people aren't commenting on it doesn't necessarily mean they haven't taken notice.