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If there was ever a need, the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) of India's damning reports on the depleted state of Indian military's readiness took the hot-air out of the myth of Pakistan Army specific 'Cold-Start Doctrine' (CSD). If CAG reports weren`t damaging enough, recent media reports of its feeble condition have made it the laughing stock. Rundown condition of the its legacy hardware has taken the sting out of its numerical superiority; a far cry from an aggressive strategy of the CSD. Some years ago, in an attempt to leverage its conventional superiority over Pakistan, the Indian Army announced a new offensive doctrine. The doctrine envisioned a quick mobilization of Indian strike formations without giving away battle indicators. In a 2004 military exercise, with a huge fanfare, live fire demonstrations and allot of ata-boy pats on their own backs, the doctrine was declared a complete success. In strategic terms, CSD was conceived to box the Indian civili...

Pirates in Somalia are at it again. Over the weekend they claimed their biggest prize to date: a Saudi oil tanker the size of three football fields, laden with $100 million in crude oil. Before you summon romantic images of rum-soaked swashbucklers gallivanting "Pirates of the Caribbean"-style, consider this: The sophistication of the most recent attack has the attention of U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On Monday Mullen said he's "stunned" at the pirates' ability to hijack a vessel in the open ocean so far from the coast (though most attacks occur closer to the Gulf of Aden, this one took place 450 miles off the coast of Kenya). "[The pirates are] very well armed. Tactically, they are very good," Mullen said. Indeed, the seizure of the Saudi tanker is the latest in a series of high-stakes incidents in recent months. Piracy has long plagued the waters off the Horn of Africa, but attacks this year have spiked 75 p...