Kumaoni
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2022
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I joined this forum in 2020, under the alias of @Chimaji Appa. I was around 16 at that time. I started writing history articles, some of which did pretty well (links for those interested- Gupta-Hunnic Wars | Indian Defence Forum (defenceforumindia.com)
I was rather inactive throughout 2020 and 2021 as I was more into ancient and medieval history.) During the end of 2021, I found myself trolling online Packies on twitter and found myself actively reading about Indo Pak wars, kashmir insurgency, etc etc. Getting into that rabbit hole I rejoined DFI, full of "josh" with the new knowledge I gained. As a result, I was hyper nationalistic. Compounded with the fact that we were killing Jihadis weekly with nill casualties to our boys, I thought we were on par with others. 2022 was a wonderful year for the army and I thought we had won in Kashmir for good.
Hence, I was unaware of our shortcomings. In early 2023, till the Poonch Ambush in April, I had been rather dormant, dealing with hoes and studies. However, the Poonch ambush caught my attention, and I began massively reading more books, watching podcasts, and seeing encounter footages. What I learned, was rather saddening.
It seems as if we were really a different military till the Lankan debacle and the Parakram debacle. The Para SF still operate the exact same way as they did back in the 1990s. Our infantry has not evolved their SOPs, and our night fighting capabilities (which I thought were existent) are zero, and many times have those dogs been able to get away after killing a jawan. The destruction of the SF regiment, setting our SF capabilities back by decades. And many more I could list. Our poor sniping capabilities which the rest of the world evolved with in GWOT, our covert capabilities declining in Para SF, etc etc. We are practically where we were in the 90s in all aspects barring few superficial things.
I still have my disagreements with some of the criticism here. For example, the ops done in Kashmir in the 90s and 00s were no less than the hardcore shit done by US SF and army in Iraq and Afghan. I mean, soldiers hunting down entrenched militants armed with PKM in waist deep snow, with no casualties due to good tactics, ambush parties wiping our massive infiltrating groups, are all very commendable operations.
But we have not evolved. Many times do terrorists get away, or are operations launched at first light because of poor night fighting capabilities. Paki snipers getting kills and outranging our DMRs, stopping of regular cross LoC raids after 2014 (stopped from 2003-2008 as well), etc etc.
We had many, many learning grounds too against well trained and disciplined militants, both in Kashmir and the NE. But we did not capitalize on what we learned, and as a result, are stuck exactly where we were 20 years ago. I mean, the cross border strikes by the Paras are wonderful, but even there, the lack of comms (we used phones in Myanmar raid as per some members), and its commando like nature also highlight failure of evolution in our SF, wether we are commandos or special forces, god only knows.
I was not really aware of our equipment deficincies till learning that we have more KIA than WIA in the Kashmir insurgency. Or how Capt Pawans life could have been saved with basic flashbangs. Learning all of this has given me a more nuanced understanding and allowed me to be more balanced in my assesments.
I am sorry for those who I fought with, or trolled, or insulted personally on disagreements. We are on the same side in the end of the day and want to see the best. Jai Hind.
I was rather inactive throughout 2020 and 2021 as I was more into ancient and medieval history.) During the end of 2021, I found myself trolling online Packies on twitter and found myself actively reading about Indo Pak wars, kashmir insurgency, etc etc. Getting into that rabbit hole I rejoined DFI, full of "josh" with the new knowledge I gained. As a result, I was hyper nationalistic. Compounded with the fact that we were killing Jihadis weekly with nill casualties to our boys, I thought we were on par with others. 2022 was a wonderful year for the army and I thought we had won in Kashmir for good.
Hence, I was unaware of our shortcomings. In early 2023, till the Poonch Ambush in April, I had been rather dormant, dealing with hoes and studies. However, the Poonch ambush caught my attention, and I began massively reading more books, watching podcasts, and seeing encounter footages. What I learned, was rather saddening.
It seems as if we were really a different military till the Lankan debacle and the Parakram debacle. The Para SF still operate the exact same way as they did back in the 1990s. Our infantry has not evolved their SOPs, and our night fighting capabilities (which I thought were existent) are zero, and many times have those dogs been able to get away after killing a jawan. The destruction of the SF regiment, setting our SF capabilities back by decades. And many more I could list. Our poor sniping capabilities which the rest of the world evolved with in GWOT, our covert capabilities declining in Para SF, etc etc. We are practically where we were in the 90s in all aspects barring few superficial things.
I still have my disagreements with some of the criticism here. For example, the ops done in Kashmir in the 90s and 00s were no less than the hardcore shit done by US SF and army in Iraq and Afghan. I mean, soldiers hunting down entrenched militants armed with PKM in waist deep snow, with no casualties due to good tactics, ambush parties wiping our massive infiltrating groups, are all very commendable operations.
But we have not evolved. Many times do terrorists get away, or are operations launched at first light because of poor night fighting capabilities. Paki snipers getting kills and outranging our DMRs, stopping of regular cross LoC raids after 2014 (stopped from 2003-2008 as well), etc etc.
We had many, many learning grounds too against well trained and disciplined militants, both in Kashmir and the NE. But we did not capitalize on what we learned, and as a result, are stuck exactly where we were 20 years ago. I mean, the cross border strikes by the Paras are wonderful, but even there, the lack of comms (we used phones in Myanmar raid as per some members), and its commando like nature also highlight failure of evolution in our SF, wether we are commandos or special forces, god only knows.
I was not really aware of our equipment deficincies till learning that we have more KIA than WIA in the Kashmir insurgency. Or how Capt Pawans life could have been saved with basic flashbangs. Learning all of this has given me a more nuanced understanding and allowed me to be more balanced in my assesments.
I am sorry for those who I fought with, or trolled, or insulted personally on disagreements. We are on the same side in the end of the day and want to see the best. Jai Hind.
aisa mindset rha toh kuch change nhi hoga.
