In a much-needed break from covering the heinous administration currently decimating our government, let's take a quick look at the other side of the planet. There have been numerous occasions in the recent past which (at the time) were described as a potential start to WWIII. It's time to check that again.

In a barely-covered story back on April 22nd, there was an attack on the town of Pahalgam in India. Last night, India retalliated:
(bold-face mine)

Considering the long-simmering tensions between India and Pakistan, there is nothing in a military action that can be considered "non-escalatory". It doesn't help that both countries have nukes, and that this tension has been going on since 1947 when Britain left the region.

It seems that when a colonial occupier leaves a region, the local power struggle results in permanent Balkanization of the former colony (think Viet Nam, Korea, the Baltics). Self-rule is important, but building a new government is hard. We managed here in the U.S., but even we had a civil war.

Here's hoping cooler heads prevail, and we don't end up with a nuclear winter before summer gets here.