Cigars & Espresso

Add some beer too. 70’s born. India, Bali, Tokyo. Politics, world affairs, love for food, quite a Chef.

[Cigars & Espresso @rockbakbi]

@RpsAgainstTrump Trump has very successfully reminded India yet again that India’s trusted & all weather friend is Russia & only Russia. Trump has also quite stupidly pushed India-China to rethink their relationship further strengthening BRICS resolve. Trump was getting India on a platter.

[barkha dutt @BDUTT]

Trump's Naval Blockade of Iran will further reduce movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz. It doesnt just seek to economically punish Iran, it penalises the whole world for a crazy war started by him. And now he is posting photos of himself as Jesus. God Save America

[Dr. Brahma Chellaney @Chellaney]

America at Nur Khan: The Base That Exposes U.S. Dependence on Pakistan’s Security State

The link between the U.S. and Pakistan’s Nur Khan Air Force Base (formerly Chaklala) in Rawalpindi is defined by a persistent contradiction: Washington’s dependence on a security partner it publicly distrusts. The base functions as both a strategic logistics hub and a high-security gateway for American diplomatic and military delegations — a role underscored by JD Vance’s arrival there for talks with the Iranian delegation in nearby Islamabad.

Located just over a mile from the headquarters of Pakistan’s Strategic Plans Division (SPD) that oversees the country’s nuclear arsenal, Nur Khan sustained significant damage during India’s “Operation Sindoor” on May 10, 2025. The strikes came just hours before New Delhi — under apparent U.S. pressure — abruptly halted hostilities. Satellite imagery from Maxar revealed substantial destruction at the base. India had framed its May 7-10 operation as a deterrent against Pakistan’s continued sponsorship of cross-border terrorism — a charge Washington itself has long echoed, even while relying on Pakistani cooperation.

Yet the base’s rapid restoration only reinforces America’s uneasy relationship with Pakistan. In the 24 hours leading up to the talks, at least six U.S. C-17 Globemasters and a C-40 Clipper arrived at Nur Khan, ferrying security personnel, communications systems and armored motorcades — including the vice president’s “Beast” limousines. The optics were striking: the U.S. staging high-level diplomacy in a country whose longstanding links with state-nurtured terrorist groups have created serious internal security challenges, including threats to American personnel and entities.

This is not new. During the Afghanistan war — the longest in American history — the U.S. maintained a semi-permanent presence at Nur Khan, using it to sustain supply lines and troop movements, even as Pakistan’s intelligence agency aided Taliban insurgents targeting American forces.

[Furkan Gözükara @FurkanGozukara]

Absolute humiliation for the Pentagon. The USS Gerald R. Ford supercarrier is spotted hiding in Croatia. Washington is terrified to deploy it near the Persian Gulf because Iran's hypersonic missiles would sink it in minutes. The American empire is in full retreat.

[The Sacred Scroll @SacredScroll]

🚨 INDIA’S NON-NUCLEAR MONSTER REVEALED 🇮🇳

DRDO is officially upgrading the Agni-5 into a specialized Bunker Buster that changes the game in Asia. This isn't just a missile; it’s a conventional sledgehammer.

💥 The world’s largest conventional payload on a ballistic missile.

📉 2,500 km (Optimized for precision strikes).

🚀 Mach 8 to Mach 20 terminal velocity.

🧱 Can punch through 100 METERS of reinforced concrete.

Unlike the US GBU-57 which needs a B-2 bomber, India can launch this from a mobile truck. No underground bunker is safe anymore.

#IndianArmy #IndianAirForce

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

The US Navy sent its two most powerful warships to fight Iran. Both are now gone from the front.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the most expensive warship ever built at $13.2 billion, left the Red Sea after a fire broke out in its laundry room. That’s the official story. The real story is what a Pentagon testing report quietly revealed at the same time.
The Ford’s jet launch system is unreliable. Its radar is unreliable. Its weapons elevators, the lifts that move bombs and missiles to the flight deck, are unreliable.

Pentagon testers said there is simply not enough data to assess whether the ship can keep operating if it takes enemy fire. Fixes for these combat systems have been identified. Most remain unfunded.

The ship also doesn’t have enough bunks. It needs at least 159 more.
This is the Navy’s flagship. Delivered years late. $13.2 billion. Deployed into a war zone with systems the Pentagon itself cannot certify as combat-ready.
Then there’s the USS Abraham Lincoln. Iran claimed repeatedly that its missiles forced the Lincoln to retreat. The US called it propaganda. What’s not disputed: the Lincoln moved from 350 kilometers off the Iranian coast to over 1,100 kilometers away.

Both carriers are now parked far beyond the range of Iranian anti-ship missiles. The Pentagon calls it “tactical repositioning.” The Ford has been at sea for nearly 11 months, one of the longest carrier deployments in modern US history. Maintenance on nuclear carriers takes months under normal conditions. After a fire, an 11-month deployment, and a backlog of deferred repairs, analysts are now talking about 12 to 14 months out of action.
America went into this war with two carriers. It now has zero operating near the fight.

Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

[Cigars & Espresso @rockbakbi]

@Osint613 😂😂😂

[Cigars & Espresso @rockbakbi]

@stats_feed Food, discipline, manners, etiquette, everything good and right.

[Shesh Paul Vaid @spvaid]

Inbreeding and cousin marriages have lead to mental bankruptcy in Pakistan.

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

The F-35 was supposed to be unkillable. That was the whole point.

Lockheed Martin spent thirty years and four hundred billion dollars, the most expensive weapons programme in human history, building an aircraft that the enemy simply could not see. Not on radar. Not on infrared. Not on anything. The F-35 was not just a fighter jet. It was a theological statement. America’s way of saying: we have moved beyond the reach of your missiles, your sensors, and your prayers.

Iran apparently didn’t get the memo.

Somewhere over Iranian airspace on March 19, 2026, an IRST system, infrared search and track, the kind of sensor your grandmother could probably explain, looked up, found the F-35, and locked on. Not because Iranian engineers are geniuses. Because the F-35, it turns out, is extremely hot. All that engine. All that thrust. All that carefully sculpted stealth geometry, and the bloody thing glows like a kettle.

The heat signature data Iran now holds is not just embarrassing. It is a gift that keeps giving. To Moscow. To Beijing. To every procurement ministry on the planet that has been quietly wondering whether to spend the money on systems designed to kill this aircraft. The answer, as of this week, is yes.

And here is the bit that should really worry the Pentagon. You can patch software. You can redesign coatings. You cannot reprogramme a pilot’s brain. Every F-35 driver who takes off from here on knows, actually knows, that someone down there might be able to see them. That changes everything about how they fly. Caution replaces aggression. Hesitation replaces instinct.

Four hundred billion dollars. And in the end, it was done in by a heat sensor.

Tremendous.

Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

[Cigars & Espresso @rockbakbi]

@vincent_ufuoma @Osint613 No, sir. I am part of the believers who believed that the B 2’s had done their job on June 22 last year.

[The Aviationist @TheAviationist]

You are at the beach in the UAE and see a Shahed-136 flying overhead, and later a UAEAF F-16 firing a Sidewinder to shoot down the drone. That’s how crazy the war in the Gulf region is nowadays.

[Cigars & Espresso @rockbakbi]

@majorgauravarya 😂

[Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir's Ego @JungjooGernail]

Turkish guy in Pakistan: "I'm in Lahore, the most dirty & difficult city. It is impossible to breathe. Garbage never collected. Serious problems with food hygiene. Unhygienic conditions in Hospital. People shitting in the middle of street. You won't believe what you see."

[Dr. Brahma Chellaney @Chellaney]

India’s Blind Spot: Treating Iran as a Distant Country

Can Indians stop referring to Iran as part of the “Middle East”? The label obscures a basic geographic fact: Iran is India’s neighbor. Its southern coast lies directly across the Arabian Sea from India’s western shore.

The distance from Kandla Port in Gujarat to Chabahar is just 550 nautical miles; from Mumbai it is 786. For centuries, this maritime corridor sustained vibrant trade between the two civilizations, binding them together across the sea.

Iran still matters for India when viewed in a longer strategic frame. It is the nearest major source of oil and LNG for India’s energy-hungry economy. Geopolitically, Iran also sits at the crossroads of regions vital to India’s interests — Afghanistan, Central Asia and even Pakistan.

Calling Iran “Middle Eastern” is not just sloppy geography; it encourages Indians to think of a close neighbor as someone else’s problem.

[Cigars & Espresso @rockbakbi]

@stats_feed Toyota

[Kanwal Sibal @KanwalSibal]

The Iranian ship will not be where it was if we had not invited it to talk part in our Milan exercise.

We were the hosts.

I am told that as per protocol for this exercise ships cannot carry any ammunition. It was defenceless.

The Iranian naval personnel had paraded before our president .

The attack by the US submarine was premeditated as the US was aware of the Iranian ship’s presence in the exercise to which the US navy was invited but withdrew from participation at the last minute, presumably with this operation in mind.

The US has ignored India’s sensitivities as the ship was in these waters because of India’s invitation.

We are far from politically or militarily responsible for the US attack.

Our“responsibility” is at a moral and human plane.

A word of condolence by the Indian Navy ( after political clearance) at the loss of lives of those who were our invitees and saluted our president would be in order.

[Cigars & Espresso @rockbakbi]

@Chellaney No rules ever apply to the greedy and unscrupulous Americans

[Dr. Brahma Chellaney @Chellaney]

The war on Iran has little to do with nuclear or missile proliferation or state-sponsored terrorism. If those were the real concerns, the more obvious U.S. target would be Pakistan: a declared nuclear-armed state with an estimated 170+ warheads; a country that U.S. intelligence assesses is developing intercontinental-range ballistic missile capabilities that could reach the United States; and one whose state-backed terror networks have been linked to major transnational terrorist attacks, including in the West. The principal architects of 9/11 were ultimately found in Pakistan, among them Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Iran, by contrast, remains a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and, although it enriched uranium up to 60% (just below the 90% weapons-grade level), is still widely assessed to be far away from building a functional nuclear weapon. Yet Washington has chosen to wage war on Tehran while effectively mollycoddling Pakistan — justifying its actions with claims that Iran poses an existential threat to the U.S.

The logic of this war is therefore geopolitical, not defensive. It is about reshaping the regional balance of power, installing a pliable regime in Tehran, and weakening Iran’s network of regional influence. Control over the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes — and the broader project of rolling back Iran’s strategic reach are integral to this regime-change agenda.

[Cigars & Espresso @rockbakbi]

@stats_feed Should be more. This has to be an incorrect statistic.