Kharge, Clausewitz and strategic culture

How times have changed! Three decades ago, George Tanham sneered at Indians for - lacking a strategic culture. Today we have Mallikarjun Kharge quoting Clausewitz.

- R. PRASANNAN

Yes, folks! Seeking a special session of Parliament to discuss the Pahalgam bloodbath and aftermath, Kharge said it was time the government came clean on both. To stress the point, he said, "The fog of war is clearing" 'Fog of war' is a phrase derived from Prussian thinker Carl von Clausewitz's On War. In simple terms, it denotes the predicament faced by commanders when events in the battlefield present a confusing picture.

Gifted are those generals who see through the fog with their mind's eye, foresee the enemy's moves, and move own forces.

What sent Kharge on a Clausewitz track was the tacit admission by defence staff chief Anil Chauhan. He said in Singapore that though all fliers in Op Sindoor came home safe, the IAF had suffered some "initial losses" and that some "tactical mistakes" were made, but "remedied" and "rectified" in two days.

A thousand political blushes would have been saved if he had said this on Indian soil, to Indian leaders and to Indian citizens.