Complexities of war

Despite all the complexities of war, even a simple question like "Why did Israel-USA attack Iran (all of a sudden) on 28 Feb 2026?"

There are so many different perspectives:

1. Change the focus from Scandal perspective - Over the previous 1 week 7 big names have come out and maybe the next was DJT. Hence, he needed something bigger to distract the media and the accusations.

2. The China angle - DJT was to meet Xi in late march to negotitate and he wanted 2 main keys of oil before this meeting. One was Venezuela and the other was Iran, both of which do a lot of oil selling to China. He blocked Venezuela with picking up Maduro and hoped that Iran would be controlled with the leadership gone and internal infighting/ upraising.

3. The Military Intelligence angle - Israel-USA got to know that there is going to be a meeting of 50 senior leadership of Iran on 28 Feb 2026 and although both were preparing for war, this opportunity was too irresistible to not bomb.

All this, when there was no Imminent threat to USA (As per the counterterrorism chief who resigned) and the war was not winnable (according to both the USA agencies - their intelligence and the Pentagon).

Far more nail-biting than IPL!

This IPL season, there is one real nail biting and interesting match I am eager to witness.

The real India Pakistan match.

And how India is going to thrash the Pakistani military and its puppet govt.

India will go with Military action this time too. The question is when? Tonight or tomorrow night or day after night? The bets are on!

India has already flooded a district of PoK last night.

What is different this time is the context.

External to both these countries, the state of the 2 biggest associated countries - China and USA and the 2 running wars.

China usually supports Pakistan militarily and has been against India in multiple fronts including the trade front. But this time, if India gains some key areas in PoK, the China invested area in PoK for the Belt and Road Initiative would be for India to destroy or overtake. This would be interesting to see how China would respond: Whether it would ask India to not destroy their investment or to deter India, start a parallel military campaign on India-China border. The other change this time is China's slowly warming to India after many years of the military standoff as its trade war with USA is raging.

USA this time is very different than all the historical USA. With an indifferent Trump at its President who has very weird goals, (like making Gaza a tourist spot) and not getting USA into any new war and trying to end the Russia-Ukraine war. But, unfortunately, as usual, USA has supported Pakistan again and given USD 400 million aid to Pakistan to sustain its F-16s. Mostly, USA wants to watch the 'fun' from the sidelines and then ask India to invest more into its Apaches, AWACs, F-35s and other military platforms.

Wars are not anathema in today's world. The Russian war on Ukraine saw the first fulls scale war in history in Europe after 60+ years. The Israel-Palestine war is also running. People are not so against war and reasonably expect it in case of retribution.

This time, the Indian govt. is more determined to take action than the previous govts and is willing to make use of all the historical mistakes it has done previously and turn it around.

Best case scenario: 

1. Breakup of Pakistan into an independent Balochistan (40% of Pakistan territory) and the rest of Pakistan

2. Retaking of PoK by India

3. Destruction of China's investment in PoK worth billions and stopping China in its tracks

Only if Pakistan was not nuclear armed, all this could have been achieved with much ease.

Fingers crossed and waiting to read the books on this war and the strategies employed a few years from now.

May your force beat you back

One of my senior colleagues at one point in time who practised Taekwondo, told me that "one of the keys of Taekwando is to use the force of the opponent itself to subdue him."

The above is a powerful statement. Reread and think about it.

The opponent: USA

Opponent's move: USA issues 125% tariff on products from China with immediate effect

China was anticipating this move after the tariff war during Donald Trump's first presidency.

The countermove:

Today, Chinese companies are sharing where the US's top luxury branded items are made, their materials, methods and costs and are asking the world to directly work with them and make things cheaper for consumers instead of buying them from the top Luxury brands.

The top US companies have used and sometimes exploited the Chinese to make the huge profits and become some kind of a poly (monopoly or duopoly or oligopoly).

How does this move work:

The US's outsourcing and demand for all these years have helped built the Chinese manufacturing ecosystem for luxury products. Now, by using the credibility of the brands (minus their tags and prices) - (The opponent's force), the Chinese are hoping to sell their products to the world at a lower price point where they would continue to manufacture and customers would buy them worldwide. In one way, this is open-sourcing the proprietary luxury products

This would also force the luxury customers to start evaluating the value they are getting after the exclusivity is gone and when they see 100s more of these same products with everyone. This in turn would loot and ruin the luxury brands the most.

China is the No.1 Technology King

 This month, China has overtaken USA as the No.1 Technology king with 3 announcements in different fields of Technology:

1. Deepseek outperforming OpenAI alternatives

2. Chinese Quantum Computers beats Google benchmarks

https://www.livescience.com/technology/computing/china-achieves-quantum-supremacy-claim-with-new-chip-1-quadrillion-times-faster-than-the-most-powerful-supercomputers

3. BYD unveils 5 min EV charging

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/byd-unveils-battery-system-that-charges-evs-in-5-minutes

RIP USA! Our condolences!