Next in line?

A RELIABLE enemy is as difficult to find today as a loyal friend. In modern geopolitics, the first is a sine qua non, the second a fickle firefly.

In its 250-year-old history, the US army has faced a range of foes. The list is long and open-ended — from Germany, the (former) USSR, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Cuba, Iraq, Afghanistan and now China. The US is addicted to war: it gets high on hostility.

Here, India and Pakistan are in the last quartile of their ‘Hundred Years War’. Had they been a married couple...