I feel that the Indian military is too closely linked to the Russian military to change vendors, at this moment. The fifth generation HAL-FGFA is being developed together, not to mention most of the hardware (eg. NAMICA, BRAHMOS) that the Indian military is currently using. Russian harware is quite affordable, in the current MRCA competition for 125 4.5 gen aircraft, the MIG-35 seems to be the cheapest… However, the Russians do know their position and tend to “re-negotiate” signed defence deals (eg. Admiral Gorshkov deal), knowing well that the Indians will have to agree.

However, once the Indian military has successfully developed the Surya missile, the HAL-LCA, the HAL-MCA, the Vikrant Class Carriers and the Kalkotta class destroyers, then it can be in a better position to change vendors.

In Kargil, Well pakis were very well positioned and sat on hights but could not even keep tiger hill, and you talk about losing balls. And why did you flee kargil. You always ran from the battlefield.

I am referring to the militants who were used by Pakistan to do the job.. so “puppets” mean “puppets of Pakistan”

I feel that someone did raise a very important point: How much loss can a country take? US and EU cannot take huge losses because the public would turn against the war, like what happened in Vietnam and what is happening now. Russia and China can, and probably the public will never ever even know about the losses. India: maybe, but I doubt whether the public would be quite happy.

Continuing about India and the Wars in the Indian subcontinent, apart from the patriotic versions that may be taught in the schools in both of the countires, from what I know, 1948 Indo-Pak war was a stalemate, though India had pushed back Pakistani troops from Srinagar, 1962 Indo-China war was a Chinese win (India would have lost more had the US and UK not intervened for their own reasons), 1965 Indo-Pak war was again a stalemate (I could never find any details about a PAF pilot shooting down 14 planes) and 1972 Indo-Pak war was an Indian win, and the Kargil episode would have been an Indian win if the proper war had taken place (apparently, US had to threaten Pakistan to restain them from using Nukes because their puppets were loosing the conventional war).

Regardless of military power, small scale guerrilla warfare can bring down anyone. Britian found that in the 13 Colonies and Afganistan, Nazi Germany in the occupied Soviet lands, US in Vietnam, USSR in Afganistan, India in Sri Lanka, France in Indo-China and Algeria.

Let us hope that no one will ever go to war. At the end of the day, economic power is far more important than military power. If you have the money, you can hire someone to do the dirty job, as the Kuwaitis are reported to have boasted during the first gulf war.