A decade ago in 1990, at the outset of the terrorist war in Jammu and Kashmir inspired and supported by Pakistan, India threatened to attack terrorist bases and supply lines in Pakistani territory in order to bring about an early end to the violence. Such an action would have repeated the events of 1965, when Pakistan sent mujahideen and tribals supported by its own military across the Line of Control in the state, and India countered by opening several fronts that effectively routed the Pakistani proxy war.

In 1990, however, the equation had changed drastically. Pakistan, as reported by award-winning New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh, used its newly built nuclear arsenal as its ultimate blackmail threat. Reportedly, US-supplied Pakistani F-16s were armed with nuclear weapons, and India was dissuaded from using surgical strikes against terrorist bases to quickly end the terrorist insurgency. The Pakistani nuclear threats have continued during the past decade, and were reemphasized during the Kargil skirmishes in 1999. Indian authorities, concerned about nuclear retaliation against Indian population centers, stayed just inside their side of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir state. This is clearly the only situation in history where a country has used nuclear blackmail in terrorist operations against another nation.

The recent reports about the overwhelming superiority of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal thus provide a powerful glimpse into the actions (or lack of actions) of both the Indian and the United States governments in countering what is regarded by both countries as the premier terrrorist threat in the world. The Indian government is conciously treading lightly, and willing to undergo a slow bleed in Jammu and Kashmir despite the magnitude of the daily death and destruction unleashed by Pakistan-sponsored terrorist groups.

Furthemore, many observers have been surprised by the weak-kneed response by the US administration to Pakistan's continued involvement as a major entity of a terrorist "hub". Amos Perlmutter (Washington Times, May 24, 2000) recently questioned the US State Department's contradictory handling of Pakistani terrorism. Ex-US Ambassador Arthur Davis also has expressed identical sentiments.

However, the recent revelation of the size of Pakistani nuclear arsenal provides a very likely explanation of the impotent US response to what is clearly the largest international terrorist threat. With 100 nuclear warheads now in place, Pakistan is one of the rogue states that the US itself perceives a future threat from. While North Korea, Iran and Iraq are far away from a successful nuclear weapons program, Pakistan has planes and missiles armed and ready. With no record of successful democracy, and military and civilian governments alike clearly controlled by Islamic terrorist groups that threaten the US regularly, Pakistan is likely viewed by the State Department as the most credible nuclear threat in the coming decade. Kashmir Information Network believes that the recent explanations provided by the US State Department about its refusal to declare Pakistan a terrorist sponsor are misleading at best. The real reason may be that, until the US has a strategic missile defense system in place, it is in no position to pursue an aggressive policy against an unstable country with 100 nuclear warheads controlled by anti-US and anti-western Islamic fundamentalist groups that collaborate and co-train with the likes of Osama Bin-Laden.