NEW DELHI -- The biggest question now is whether war will break out between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan. Although no right-minded citizen in either country wants war, many forget that Pakistan has thrust an undeclared war on India for years, bleeding India noticeably. Thus the aim is not continued peace but a return to peace.

This undeclared war involves terrorism operations against India in the name of jihad on the pretext of the Kashmir issue. Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is on record as saying his country's low-intensity conflict with India would continue even if the Kashmir issue were settled. Now, under India's threat of war, Musharraf is vowing to stamp out terrorism from his country and crush "wicked, bigoted extremists."

The current crisis will be diffused if the Musharraf regime is willing to go beyond symbolic steps against the terror groups that Pakistan's military and intelligence have nurtured and directed for years. These terror groups -- instruments of what Pakistan calls its war of "a thousand cuts" against India -- have been established at religious schools.