Pakistan, April 14 -- Ask any Pakistani on the street and they would tell you that Pakistan had defeated India in Kargil. It is also an almost unanimous opinion that Pakistan had India by the jugular and that the war won on the battlefield was lost at the negotiation table. Even today, many believe that PM Sharif's 4th July dash to Washington and his meeting with President Clinton was without the military's consent and that Kashmir could have been liberated had it not been for the ceasefire overseen by America.

Kargil remains the last major military conflict between Pakistan and India. In 1998, as winter approached and the mountains turned white, Pakistan and India bilaterally retrograded from forward posts. Making use of the opportune m...