The kinetic strikes delivered by the Indian armed forces on the night of May 6-7 on targets in proximate Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), as well as deeper in Pakistan, should have served to fulfil two underlying objectives in the larger framework of the India-Pakistan power play. First, this was an overdue act of “retribution” to assuage justified public and political outrage at the barbaric and faith-based gunning down of 26 tourists in Pahalgam, Kashmir. It could have happened earlier but “revenge” as the old French adage goes, “is a dish, best, served cold,” because it is the assurance and inevitability of...