CS,My thoughts are as follows
US officials will always be hawkish on Sino-Indian relations, so take what they say with some salt. BTW since both of us seem to agree that neither army will cross the LAC, I don't see where is the risk of war? At the most we will see more of the one upmanship in showing off.
As far as the 93 treaty goes, it doesn't specify any numbers and simply says that military development cannot cross the LAC (which is still valid). The treaty also recognises that troops may inadvertently come across the LAC and must go back when the other side cautions. If you take a look at recent reports, both sides have done this and there were no casualties, this solidifies my belief that soldiers on Sino-Indian border aren't exactly trigger happy (Indo-Pak ones are) and will remain peaceful.
BTW, When you already brand India media as BS, then why get worried about what they say? The decision making bodies (and the sane members here) don't take their rants seriously either.
Sometime you seem to take what people/media say, a bit too seriously.
The change of IA's tact you mentioned is somewhat needed to equalize the overwhelming capability on the chinese side. IMHO fruitful border talks will happen when GOI feels it has an equal footing on the border vis-a-vis china , it will give them enough confidence to go for talks. It is somewhat similar to pakistan's justified concern that it wants to be treated as an equal by India. GOI openly won't say this to china but it is clear to me that it aims to achieve parity before initiating dispute resolution. It suits them to buy time by simply maintaining the status quo and continue building defensive capabilities.
Like I mentioned before, neither country wants war and there is enough communication between the two to avoid a 62 fiasco. I for one, am not worried and neither should you.
