India, May 15 -- For all the bluff and bluster of Pakistan Army Chief Gen Asim Munir and frenetic gesticulations of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan has realized during Operation Sindoor that it does not have the strategic depth to take on the dominant Indian armed forces. Size ultimately matters.

Facing Baloch insurgency and Pashtun nationalism on its western front, Pakistan was caught in a cleft stick with India hammering its airbases and air defence systems east of Indus and Taliban ruled Afghanistan refusing to provide any strategic depth to its vulnerable high value targets. To add to Munir's pain, Baloch insurgents were on a rampage targeting Pak Army and blockading any movement of troops from western to eastern front, parti...