A Risky Decision

Decision making is an important aspect of human life. The success of a person or country remains in how smartly they take decision at the appropriate time. This paper examines a possible risky decision which may be taken by the Indian government to declare war against Pakistan in order to destroy the terrorist camped in Pak territory.

Introduction

Some decisions are easy to make while others may be difficult to take and implement. For example, it is easy for the Indian government to take a decision about preventing the Indian cricket team from touring Pakistan because of the recent attack by terrorists against the Sri Lankan cricket team. But it might be a risky decision to declare war against Pakistan on the basis of the recent Mumbai terrorist attack.

“The Mumbai attack is uniquely different from past terror strikes carried out by Islamic terrorists. Instead of one or more bombings at distinct sites, the Mumbai attackers struck throughout the city using military tactics” (Roggio, 2008)

An overview description of the decision to be made

Indian government is under tremendous pressure from the public and the opposition parties’ because of their failure in preventing the Mumbai terrorist attack in 2008 which killed around 179 people.

Moreover in 2001, the Pak terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed were succeeded in attacking the Indian parliament in which a dozen of people were killed. (Indian parliament attack kills 12) The repeated attack made by Pak terrorist group on India, forced the Indian government to take a decision in how to destroy the terrorist group located in Pakistan.

The primary decisions

The primary decision is whether to conduct an all out war against Pakistan or not. Another option is limited attack on terrorist camps by the Indian forces which may result in a war between these countries.

 The primary objective

The primary objective of these decisions is to destroy the terrorist group in Pakistan and also to teach Pakistan a lesson that India may not remain calm if their sovereignty is questioned.
The uncertain event

The uncertainty about the event is the possible consequences of the war. Both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons in their armory and any war between these countries may be converted into a nuclear war. Moreover the American troops fighting in the Afghan border against the Muslim fundamentalists need the support of Pak troops there. So they will not be much interested in a war between India and Pakistan because it might result the pull out of Pak troops from assisting the American military.