The Karnali Highway is being carved out of the rocky flanks of these awesome mountains near Pili. At the moment the road goes from nowhere to nowhere, high above an abyss. Which just about sums up the state of the country.

If there is one lesson for the army, the rebels and their leaders from Sunday night's slaughter in Kalikot it is the bloody futility of this senseless war.

The headlines read like basketball scores RNA: 44, CPNM: 26. But neither side won. Both lost. The dead were young Nepali men and women who ended up as cannon fodder. The saddest part of it is that they died in a needless conflict over an outdated ideology that can be resolved with a little bit of vision and political will.

This still isn't one of those intractable ethnic third world wars, a ferocious struggle for self-determination or national liberation. No, it is just blood-thirsty, misguided violence that demands human sacrifices.

Leaders of the warring sides want all power for themselves but it is clear they cannot attain it through a military victory. The army's successful defence of district headquarters against human wave attacks has forced the Maoists to now concentrate on vulnerable forward outposts, to landmine army convoys or slaughter soldiers' families. On the other hand, the near-doubling of the army's troop strength and adding new armaments have not improved its capacity to score a crippling blow against a battle-hardened and determined guerrilla force that feeds on continued apathy of an uncaring state.

The army brass often justifies its increased budget allocation saying it needs it to give the rebels "a bloody nose" and force them to the negotiating table. It is clear now that that strategy is not working. Killing more fellow-Nepalis is not the solution.

As the British, then the Soviets and now the Americans have found Afghanistan is ideal guerrilla country. But Nepal is three times more ideal because our mountains are more rugged, they are covered by forests and they are densely inhabited. If you want protracted guerrilla war, Nepal is where you would wage it.

That is why you can't win it with more soldiers in forward bases which would just give the Maoists more targets like Pili. You don't fight it with helicopters with rocket pods which would only turn villages to dust. You don't fight it by curbing the media or dismantling democracy. You find ways to end it with negotiations so you can prosper from the country's progress.