We are so deep into our respective narratives as two nations that it is hard to specify what lead to what. All I know is that there are no evil/peaceful countries, there are just upswings and down turns in a nation's path to prosperity.
Smart choices/compromises are a necessity to eventually become a behemoth and dictate terms (if that's your thing).
We are a part of a much smarter world, where warfare seems to become more and more irrelevant by the day. Competition though, is more relevant than ever.
IMHO, I think Pakistan's chief dilemma is this - Kashmir vs every other prosperity metric.
The sad part is that Pakistan will have to yield eventually and focus on the other metrics, just as the arab world had to in case of the Israel/Palestine conflict. An emotional drive against sustenance is a losing battle. By the time you realise that it's not worth spending precious resources on, you'd be further back as there is an opportunity cost here (India has the same problem but its magnitude obviously is lesser in terms of the overall impact on growth, we have other issues to deal with).
Imran Khan may not have the economic acumen, he is got the right philosophy of knowing that the economy comes first, the K-cause a second.
What you advocate is very rational and anyone outside the bubble would agree that in order to progress certain sacrifices may have to be made and certain bitter pills swallowed.
Personally, I came to this conclusion a long time ago and I think many Pakistanis would think the same.
However, the burden of history may not allow this option to be exercised for the reason that this dispute, for Pakistan, is not wholly about territory, it is about people. We, the Pakistani people cannot abandon the Kashmiri people, people who speak the same language as us, follow the same religion as we follow, who are buried draped in our flags. Who right from the off were never happy to be Indian, who were promised a choice not just by the world in the form of the UN but by Nehru and India which has, as we all know, has been denied to them through political chicanery.
We as a nation would never be able to look ourselves in the mirror. It would be akin to selling your own child for a few dollars.
The Arabs abandoned the Palestinians because in the end it became the only way to save their sorry dictatorships. Their lack of popular support left them no way out except to compromise with those who are propping up their dictatorships or be picked off one by one à la Libya, Iraq, Syria.
Pakistan has the opposite problem. No Pakistani government would get away with abandoning the Kashmiri people against their will, there would be civil war.
The tragedy is that this government came in with the express intention of sorting this problem out once and for all and was, IMO, willing and able to make the necessary compromises to achieve peace and progress, only to be rebuffed in it's efforts. It was IMO a grave miscalculation and misreading of IKs intentions by the Indians and an opportunity lost.
It is to be hoped that strong and wise people on both sides will see each others constraints and be able to compromise with dignity, to the satisfaction of the Kashmiri people, for the betterment of all of the people of the Subcontinent.
The alternative is more of the same and that will be to the detriment of both countries.
Thanks for having a sane discussion rather than the usual ranting and boasting we've come to expect from Indian posters.
Unless it is a "Sikh" girl, which once again are a different race, more aligned with Punjabis of Pakistan than rest of India.
