They were, in the classic metaphor of the nuclear age, like two scorpions in a bottle, eyeing each other warily, showing off their stingers, dimly aware though not properly worried that an attack by either would mean death to both. But in this case the rivalry between India and Pakistan could start the world's first nuclear war.
It's no longer just a theoretical possibility now that Pakistan has exploded its nuclear devices. Clinton Administration officials have secretly begun analyzing scenarios depicting how the two nations might stumble into an atomic exchange. It could go like this: Muslim militants in Kashmir, covertly...