Interesting reading the criticisms of Pakistani military, which are obviously few in the overall context. My opinion is that their field performance, optics, narratives, feedback were all excellent.
Yes, lessons must be learned in an operational sense as we simply did not have the resources to counter certain threats. Maybe we were "lucky" to a degree that many Brahmos missiles missed. Perhaps they will counter our surveillance next time so we cannot listen in to their chatter - that gave us a huge edge in A2A combat. Somehow we need to maintain that.
If I was to make a single criticism, it is the repeated effort to point out that: "we locked more jets and could have shot more down but showed restraint".
For all the praise and admiration I have directed towards our military, I'm afraid this is hands down complete garbage and self-detrimental.
We said the same thing in 2019 - perhaps, just perhaps someone in the overall meta back then did appreciate that, and maybe it helped de-escalation efforts back then.
But to repeat that mistake in this 2025world of unchecked aggression and Trumpenomics is a huuuuge error on our part.
2 possibilities, both equally erroneous:
1. We lied about additional lock ons, simply as propaganda to spread fear in the IAF. Why lie about this? They will return and follow their escalation plan, wwhether or not we can convince them about locking 5 extra and showing "mercy".
2. We truly locked 5 extra and showed mercy. In this case, again, genuine showing of mercy to a numerically superior and aggressive enemy is ridiculous in tactical and strategic terms.
To add, clearly we DID lock and fire at some additional targets as 1 unexploded PL15 is found.
In summary, we gain NOTHING from repeating this "mercy" process here in the world we currently live in (whether it is propaganda or genuine). Next time, lock and drop. No hesitation please.
