Imagine you give two lifelong enemies, person A and person B, a few dozen nuclear weapons each. Then person A helps one of his friends attack person B. Then, in retaliation, person B enters person A’s house and attacks A’s friend.

That’s basically the situation between India and Pakistan right now. Early on Tuesday morning, Indian Air Force jets carried out airstrikes on a terrorist base in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Incidentally or not, the target area is just 30 miles from Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad. While it’s not clear whether there were any casualties — India says there were many, but Pakistan says there were none — Pakistan is pledging retaliation. Escalation here might spiral out of control.