Pakistan, Oct. 12 -- A fresh wave of hostility surfaced this week when India's Army Chief, General Upendra Dwivedi, issued an inflammatory statement suggesting that any future conflict could force Pakistan to "reconsider its geographical and historical existence." It was an extraordinary remark - more suited to a cinematic monologue than the vocabulary of a professional soldier. Yet, for observers of South Asia's history, such rhetoric is hardly new.

For seventy-seven years, India and Pakistan have been locked in a cycle of provocation and response - a geopolitical loop where each new generation of Indian leadership seeks to rewrite the outcomes of past wars through bravado and rhetoric. From Jawaharlal Nehru's misplaced confidence in 19...