ISLAMABAD – India thought that it pulled off an infowar coup by pretendingto have carried out a “surgical strike” against 200-300 Jaish-e-Mohammedfighters in Azad Kashmir in the early hours of 26 February, but thisvote-grabbing stunt by Indian Prime Minister Modi totally backfired on himafter Pakistan turned this latest Bollywood flick into a reality bydefending its airspace and downing two Indian MiGs that violated the Lineof Control.
The Movie That Came To Life
The hottest Bollywood flick in the world right now is “Surgical Strike2.0”, which is the big-budget and high-stakes sequel to its predecessorthat India claims to have carried out in 2016 with no evidence either. Theauthor wrote about this in his piece titled “’Surgical Strike 2.0’ Or BigBollywood Spectacle?link”,which compared India’s lies about a second “surgical strike” in the earlyhours of 26 February to a re-election movie by Prime Minister Modi, onewhich he hoped would amount to an infowar coup that would simultaneouslyboost his own nation’s international “prestige” while denigratingPakistan’s.
It was predicted at the end of that piece that “Like all Bollywoodproductions, ‘the show must go on’, but the “surgical strike” series won’thave a happy ending for India” after Pakistan promised to retaliatelink“ata time and place of its choosing”, which is exactly what happened the nextday.
Pakistan downed two Indian MiGs that violated the Line of Control (LoC) andeven managed to capture a pilot who was recorded on cameralinkasproof against India’s original fake news assertions that it didn’t suffersuch a humiliating military defeat.
Speaking of false claims, India says that it downed a Pakistani F-16 thatviolated its airspace, yet just like it bragged about killing 200-300Jaish-e-Mohammed fighters in its “surgical strike” the day earlier withoutpresenting any evidence whatsoever that anything other than a few treeswere destroyed (and even those were targeted accidentally after its jetreleased its payload to jettison extra weight as it fled Pakistaniairspace), so too is this also fake news intended to deceive the domesticand international audiences. What actually happened on the morning of 27February is expectedly much different than how India is portraying it.
Fake News Has Real-World Consequences
Islamabad acknowledged in an official press release that it retaliatedtit-for-tat by striking non-military targets in Indian-Occupied Kashmirlinkinorder “to demonstrate [its] right, will and capability for self defence”,not to escalate the situation. It also hinted at carrying out actualanti-terrorist “surgical strikes” against the Indian-backed terroristslinkparticipatingin the Hybrid War on CPEC link whenit declared that “If India is striking at so called terrorist backerswithout a shred of evidence, we also retain reciprocal rights to retaliateagainst elements that enjoy Indian patronage while carrying out acts ofterror in Pakistan.
” Had India’s elected leadership and its military, intelligence, anddiplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”) not fancied themselves starring ina Bollywood film and took Pakistan’s words seriously, they wouldn’t haveeven staged “Surgical Strike 2.0” after Islamabad promised there’d be aresponse should that happen, but regrettably, New Delhi decided to escalatetensions even further.
Instead of letting Pakistan’s principled tit-for-tat retaliation be the endof their recent tensions, India turned up the notch by dispatching two moreof its MiGs to violate the LoC and possibly stage another episode of its“surgical strike” drama, though they were predictably shot down by thePakistani Air Force.
Displaying the maturing that a rising Great Power such as the global pivotstate of Pakistanlink isexpected to have, Prime Minister Khan promptly went on national TVlink to reiteratethat his country doesn’t want to take the situation any further but that“No sovereign country can allow another country to become judge, jury andexecutioners” by using unverified claims such as the Pakistani state’sinvolvement in the Pulwama attacklinktoviolate its airspace and stage a “surgical strike” stunt. India refused tojointly investigate that “trigger” incident with Pakistan, instead choosingto unilaterally act aggressively against it.
Pakistan Is Protecting The Rules-Based International Order From India (AndIts US & “Israeli” Allies)
This pattern of behavior is strongly influenced by the modus operandi ofits new American and “Israeli” allies, who never have any compunctionagainst striking whatever state they feel like, though once again, India’sBollywood delusions deceived it. Nuclear-armed and battle-tested Pakistanisn’t anywhere in the same league as “Arab Spring”-afflicted Libya orwar-torn Syria, so Modi’s fantasy of carrying out an American- and“Israeli”-like strike against it – to say nothing of an Iraqi-style “shockand awe” campaign – with impunity was a fantasy from the very beginning,though one which the Indian leadership has dangerously decided to play outin real life.
Unlike those aforementioned targeted states, however, Pakistan is strongenough to defend the principles of international law, especiallysovereignty and territorial integrity, by militantly upholding the UNCharter, which is why it promptly shot down both Indian jets that tried tostage another “surgical strike” provocation.
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It’s become fashionable over the past few years for world leaders to lamentthe demise of the so-called “rules-based international order”, yet Pakistanjust proved that it’s possible to defend it if states have the politicalwill and military capabilities to do so. Whether it’s India, “Israel”, orAmerica, this actual “Troika of Tyranny” (unlike the Latin American onethat US National Security Advisor Bolton spoke about late last year) isdestabilizing South Asia, West Asia/Mideast, and the whole world,respectively, and doing more than any others to throw InternationalRelations into chaos as they desperately try to stop the emergingMultipolar World Orderlinkatall costs.
It shouldn’t be seen as coincidental that India is the US’ only “MajorDefense Partner”link and bragged about using “Israeli” missileslinkinits latest “surgical strike” stunt that it intended to indirectlydestabilize the Belt & Road Initiative’s (BRIlink) CPEClink megaproject.
Russia’s “Balancing” Pragmatism At Its Finest
Russia expressed concern about the US’ geopolitical intentions for Indiaearlier this week when Foreign Minister Lavrov presciently warnedlinkagainstusing the South Asian state to “contain China” through the “artificiallyimposed” “Indo-Pacific Region” concept, and Head of the Second AsiaDepartment Zamir Kabulov (who’s also President Putin’s Special Envoy forAfghanistanlink)confirmed his country’s pragmatism by “balancing”linkbetweenits traditional India partner and its newfound strategic one in Pakistanlink after refusing to take sideslinkandreiterating that both are “friendly to Russia”.
This would have been unthinkable had Moscow believed that New Delhi was onthe right geopolitical path, but it evidently places such importance onIslamabad’s role in protecting the rules-based international order whichIndia’s American patron is trying to destroy that it decided not to takeNew Delhi’s side this time around, which speaks volumes if soberly analyzedby objective observers.
Concluding Thoughts
“Surgical Strike 2.0”, the latest Bollywood flick to come out of Modi’sIndia, was supposed to be an action-packed comedy that would highlight the“bravery” of the Indian Armed Forces as they “humiliated” Pakistan, but themovie abruptly transformed into real life after New Delhi forgot thatmilitary stunts have real-world consequences and Islamabad showed that it’smore than willing to turn this comedy into a tragedy for its mainprotagonists.
This “plot twist” revealed that far from being the “heroes”, the IndianArmed Forces are actually the antagonists while their opponents in thePakistani Armed Forces are the real protagonists fighting to safeguard theprinciples of the UN Charter upon which the rules-based international orderis based.
Usually when a movie is going as bad as this one is, it’s a good idea towalk away even if the viewer can’t forget that the experience everhappened, but Modi seems to have a morbid fascination in seeing how muchworse things will get. He’s forgotten that he’s not in a flick but is themain player an ultra-risky high-stakes gamble over the fate of his entirenation.
The “surgical strike” charade was exposed as the fake news infowar that itwas from the very beginning, but unless Modi wakes up and realizes thedamage that this vote-grabbing stunt has inflicted on his country, Pakistanwill ensure that “Surgical Strike 2.0” has the worst ending in Bollywoodhistory.
BY: Andrew Korybko
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