One must have the fortitude to accept the bitter truth.
Pakistan directly or indirectly occupied dozens of Indian army posts in the Dras-Kargil sector when it was unmanned. Indian army mounted a fierce counter attack resulting in Pakistani supported forces pulling back to the original position.
Whatever reasons and justifications for pulling back from Kargil anyone tries to give, no one can deny that Kargil is back in Indian hands. Therefore, even though it pains me immensely, I have to accept that Kargil venture was a bitter failure.
With hindsight it is easy to say that it was a mistake. More important is the question as to whether President & the Prime Minister agreed to this misadventure before it began or only taken on board when it was ‘fait accompli’?
Musharraf claims that Nawaz Sharif and his cabinet were on board whereas Nawaz Sharif claims that he only knew it after the posts had been occupied. The jury is still out on this one.
I humbly request my countrymen that trying to consider it a victory tantamount to fooling ourselves. Which army lost more men is irrelevant. If we were winning then why Nawaz Sharif had to fly to Washington in a hurry and why did he agree to pull back our troops? One should learn from ones mistakes, how can we learn from Kargil if we consider it a victory?
Was the Kargil War a complete victory? No it wasn't.
Was the Kargil War a complete loss? No it wasn't.
It was a tactical victory for Pakistan because Pakistan gained some strategic peaks which overlook the Drass and Kargil highway .
It was a Diplomatic victory for India, because USA saved her for whatever reasons(maybe to keep the Kashmir conflict brewing).
We all know the truth. The LOC of 2012 is not the same LOC of Pre-1999. The LOC is further
down into Indian territory because Pakistan captured some strategic Peaks.
Like I said, it was a "tactical victory", but the gain was small indeed.
A complete victory in Pakistani terms would be liberate all of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir or atleast a huge chunk of it.
Check this link, “We lost Kargil” Lieutenant-General Kishan Pal.
http://www.defence.pk/forums/milita...ost-kargil-lieutenant-general-kishan-pal.html
So this topic was discussed before.
So in Assessment:
Just as I thought:
Facts:
1) Pakistan did have the upper hand in the beginning
2) Pakistan in the end still kept some peaks -> A strategic victory. but a victory nonetheless, a tactical victory.
The infamous Point 5353 is one of the strategic points that Pakistan gained.
3) USA saved India, when India was at her worst moment, had USA not intervened, Ladakh would be lost and that would have been a turning in world history.