Getting Testy

A reasonable New Year's resolution for India and Pakistan might have been to stop playing nuclear brinkmanship. Instead, 2003 in South Asia has begun with both countries reassuring each other that destruction would be mutual. Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf had rung out the old year by boasting that he had forced India to back down during last year's tense standoff in Kashmir by threatening to go beyond conventional warfare. On Jan. 4, New Delhi responded by announcing it had established a command and control structure for its nuclear arsenal. Then, three days later, Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes further ratcheted up the belligerence when he bragged, "We can take a [nuclear] bomb or two or more, but when we respond there will be no Pakistan." He followed up by having a short-range version of India's nuclear-capable Agni missile test-fired.

Washington's patience with such saber rattling is wearing thin. On a visit to New Delhi last week, U.S. Director of Policy Planning Richard Haass tried to cajole the two sides into talking instead of trading threats. For a start, he said, India should drop its refusal to negotiate with Pakistan until the latter stopped sponsoring Islamic militancy. Already embroiled in the Iraq and Korea crises, America is hoping Pakistan and India can avoid yet another nuclear standoff, at least for this year.