Mwuahahaha I got so many of these

Edit:

They say the campaign included viral posts on social media, manipulated imagery showing supposed Rafale debris, AI-generated content and video-game depictions to simulate supposed combat. More than 1,000 social media accounts newly created as the India-Pakistan clashes erupted also spread a narrative of Chinese technological superiority, according to French researchers who specialize in online disinformation.

French military officials say they haven’t been able to link the online Rafale-bashing directly to the Chinese government.

This is just internet sledging from actual users lmao

The "pilot error" in question

Also not a Rafale, but you get the idea of IAF's reputation:

https://x.com/MenchOsint/status/1921608777687560535

Yes 4 jets were confirmed shot down with 1 proven to be a Rafale, 1 Mirage, 1 Su-30MKI, and a MiG-29. US confirmed 2 French origin jets were shot down but didn't specify which ones, Pakistan still claims they shot down 3 Rafales total on top of the other 3.

There's several good sources of the entire air battle and the key aspect being the BVR kill chain, meaning the Rafale isn't necessarily a bad jet.

But Dassault suffered an immediate loss in stock value and potential sale clout right after the battle ended and both sides had their debrief.

As much as I'm going to make fun of the other reply in this thread for trying to cover up getting slammed by a PL-15 as "pilot error", this really has more to do with the modern methodology of air combat which the IAF was not prepared for due to their lack of a dynamic integrated electronic platform.

Their Rafale purchase was already a knee jerk response to their loss in 2019 when a MiG-21 pilot was shot down by the PAF and captured.

France sold them a guarantee of quality, but they didn't buy a full package with AWACS, EW, etc because it was already extremely expensive with each jet and armaments coming in at 300 million USD.

Now that Russia is no longer selling big weapons due to their war in Ukraine, India is really stuck in a tight spot because foreign tech will always be very expensive, and their homegrown projects under HAL have never really taken off or been battle proven (ex: their Tejas jet).

Pakistan's ISI:

I got banned from one of the NCD communites (not world, different instance) here for insinuating the US doesn't want Ukraine to join NATO lol

Right? US spends a metric ton of money on bases and basically running the middle east, they could at least throw in a nicer regime instead of some insane monarch dictators.

I'm waiting to see if Trump/pentagon escalates or does their strike package and goes home.

I doubt this is going to lead to some sort of ground invasion. Biden would have done the exact same although maybe more clandestine.

China doesn't want to make the same mistake as the USSR which is expending geopolitical power to maintain an entire hegemony against the USA. They're content with making money and don't spend a lot of energy keeping extreme espionage on every country like the USA does.

China knows the US will take the military option if confronted, which is to their disadvantage, so they'll find every alternative path or method.

Biggest example is Pakistan. Its a massive CPEC project and defense partner, yet the military leadership in charge is basically a US lapdog because China knows if they try to pull the same regime change shenanigans, its just gonna end up like USSR vs USA 2 with a crap ton of proxy wars everywhere.

I think their longterm goal is to just slowly erode at the global economy. Even if the US owns the regime in the country, a significant portion of money will be going to China. They could choose to eventually use that power to reinforce their allies, but I think that's still like 20+ years down the line.

MAD safer no, but essentially disabling conventional warfare as a practical idea yes.

India and Pakistan are armed to the teeth, yet they haven't fought a real war ever since they both got nukes.

I wonder why the US didn't allow Israel to target him outside avoiding escalation with Iran.

Maybe the pentagon had a different plan to overthrow the government, and killing him would only reinforce support for the IRCG?

China, India, and Pakistan once again proving that having nukes does actually matter because you can't be arbitrarily shoved around around by the only other nuclear powers.

What about Pakistan?

Netanyahu went on a massive warning rant about them having nukes and using it all over the middle east, yet they haven't.

Pakistan is the other lone stander that absolutely refuses to recognize Israel and also happens to have nukes that can reach Israel, yet they've done jack on that sentiment, despite the ISI having a history of outplaying Mossad.

Iran wants nukes for the same reason everyone else has nukes. It's just a gg ez ace up your sleeve that can be utilized to prevent this exact conventional warfare escalation by threatening to use your nukes, which is exactly what Israel does to the other surrounding arab states. Moreover it would be dumb to nuke Israel when they keep daydreaming about reconquering the holy land, which would be impossible if its covered in radiation.

Pakistan and India's LoC is a massive militarized flashpoint that imo suprasses the DMZ, yet overtime they have a fight, it over after a few days when they nuke threat comes out and everyone signs a ceasefire agreement no questions asked.

Iran wants the same deal so they can be left alone to run their authoritarian regime in peace lol.

Yeah but afaik that's just a rule for burying people, ie no mutilation. Death by dismemberment and explosion (or any post death mutilation) doesn't disqualify you from heaven in any particular way in Islam.

Actually a lot of their famous leaders and scholars have been beheaded just because it's the most straightforward way to kill someone with a sword.

Uh, source?

Not that it matters that much anyway, HTS is essentially a joint puppet project by Turkey and the USA.

As long as whoever is in charge follows their geopolitical demands, they really won't care how they handle the internal country.

Still at least it's a significant upgrade from Assad. Anyone would take this over chemical weapon civil war again.

and not the democratically-oriented Northern Alliance which was fighting them at the time, as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

You're joking right

Please tell me this is sarcasm bruh

Dawg it was called the Crusades because it was exclueivley Christian nations fighting with Muslim nations over Jerusalem. Jews were essentially bystanders who often opted for the Islamic empire where they were allowed to live and not be constantly slaughtered by their Christian empire counterparts.

Israel as a functioning idea was introduced by the zionist movement of the 20th century, which Orthodox jews still condemn to this day because they claim there should not be a Jewish state without their Messiah.

To add to even more irony, the modern successors to these empires being Britain and Turkey actually lost interest in control of the holy land because it didn't provide any substantial geopolitical power or resources. The Ottoman empire failed to protect it and lost the entirey of Trans Jordan in WWI, and Britain noped out right after WWII when they realized it could absolve them of having to provide for Jews in Europe.