TACKLING THE CHINESE CONUNDRUM BY INDIA: PART II

 

‘CEREBRAL WAR’ THE FIRST DIMENSION & THE FLYDUBAI HIJACK

 

“Cerebral War is the first dimension of war, fought in the hidden dimension of cerebral space to target and control human thought, the source code empowering all human endeavours.” – Col RS Sidhu

 

Backdrop

The news of the attempted hijack on 29 September 2026 of Flydubai Dubai-Tel Aviv flight number FZ 1073, a Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft with 173 passengers on board, that departed Dubai at 0705 AM GST, was immediately accompanied by insidious narratives on social media insinuating it as a ‘false flag’ operation by Israel, aimed to influence re-election of Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister of Israel in the forthcoming general elections to Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

The above scenario follows a 21^st century pattern that first came into prominence post 9/11 terrorist acts of 2001 in the US, that was followed by social media insinuations alleging them to be covertly manipulated by the US external intelligence agency, the CIA.

Subsequently, over the years this pattern of social media demonising the concerned state intelligence agencies for orchestrating ‘false flag’ terrorist acts against own citizens for ulterior ‘deep state’ motives have emerged post major terror attacks. The Hamas terrorist attack of 7 October 2023 on Israel, and even the attack on Indian Parliament in New Delhi in 2001, and the 26/11 massacre of 2008 in Bombay, India, form the visible iceberg tip of scores of such acts of terror.

This is the ‘Cerebral War’ being fought in the ‘First Dimension’, by state and non-state organisations through a ‘power of narrative’ construct that insidiously attempts to portray the victim as the perpetrator of violence against themselves! The ‘power of narrative’ is just the weapon of choice to manipulate cerebral space of the adversary nation, to win the war without engaging in a debilitating war on the battlefield.

The First Dimension of War

In the dimensional evolution of warfare, land warfare is generally presumed to be the ‘First Dimension’ of war, sequentially expanding into the multiple domains of maritime, air, space, and cyberspace dimensions, with the last being acknowledged as the ‘Fifth Dimension’.

However, this line of thought does not factor the domain of ‘Cerebral War’, as old as the history of conflicts in human societies, civilisations, and nations. Coercing the enemy into submission by targeting the mind of the adversaries through intimidatory pursuits has been practiced since earliest times.

The use of body paint, war cries, ritualistic drum beats, the presence of shamans on the battlefields were all designed to strike terror in the minds of the enemy even before battle had been joined.

Much later it was followed by organised display of brutalities on the enemy populace to coerce them to surrender without a fight. This strategy was at the core of successful conquests by Alexander of Macedonia in the 3^rd century BCE, and was applied even more successfully by the 13^th century CE Mongol armies that swept their way from the Pacific shores to the heart of Central Europe.

The German doctrine of ‘Blitzkrieg’ during WWII forced the Generals of the Allied armies into wholesale capitulation in the early phases of the war. The swift and deep penetration by the German panzer forces got inside the OODA Loop of their adversaries stunning the latter into inaction.

The Israelis employed the same doctrine, to single handedly defeat the massed armies of 14 Arab countries during the 1967 war, stunning the minds of their rivals before convincingly routing them.

The People’s Republic of China has refined the ‘Cerebral War’ principle into a fine art. Their ‘Whole of Nation’ approach to war is designed to coerce the target country into submission without entering into military battle. China’s target is the cerebral space of the leadership and citizens of the target country. It aims to disrupt and jeopardise the security of the adversary country through covert application of force by applying the fifth and sixth domains of warfare, Cyberspace and Space. These actions, difficult to trace to their origin, are aimed at soft targets of vital banking, travel, economic, agriculture, trading, supply lines, governance, health, internal security, and military infrastructure, disrupting day to day life.  

The US too is actively engaged in First Dimension warfare through coercive prophylactic sanctions and covert funding of separatist and fundamentalist forces within allied states and adversaries alike.

The Power of Narrative

The ‘power of narrative’ is rooted in the intangible cerebral force of the human mind, the most potent empowering medium with maximum impact on the course of human civilisations and nations since millennia. The belief in the existence of an all-powerful entity despite intangible provenance, intrinsic to all major religions, is the most definitive evidence of the vintage and unshakeable power of human cerebral space.

This thought is also reflected in the vernacular adage of rural India “Mun ke haarey haar hai, mun ke jeetey jeet (defeat and victory is first formed in the mind).”

The phrase “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it” further vindicates the theory of ‘power of narrative’.  It is falsely attributed to Paul Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda for the German Third Reich under Adolf Hitler, just because he famously practised it in statecraft. There is no recorded oral or written evidence that verifies this attribute. In reality this dictum is premised on the principle from human psychology, the ‘illusory truth effect’ that people are more likely to believe statements, whether true or false, with oft repeated exposure.

Principles of Cerebral War

Cerebral War is factored on manipulating the mind of the target populace through the heart, forcing the adversary into a psychological surrender.

The narrative is constructed in succinct and emotive phrase that first touches a chord within the heart, and goes onto strike the cerebral space to accept the given narrative as the truth.

Avoid offering substantiating evidence that can verify imputed claims.

Articulate the narrative thus constructed with full confidence.

Repetitively amplify the narrative through all forms of audio, video, and print media.  

Target the critics of the narrative with denigratory epitaphs. 

Reject public debate of the narrative.

Deconstructing the ‘Flydubai Narrative’

Flydubai, a UAE government corporation, commenced commercial flight operations on the international Dubai – Tel Aviv sector from 26 November 2020.

UAE is one of the rare Gulf country with close ties to Israel. On the other hand, the UAE has strained relations with Saudi Arabia, the country where Flydubai flight FZ 1073 was forced to land due to the violent incident on board the aircraft. It is unlikely that an intelligence agency known for its operational efficiency would leave crucial evidence in the custody of an unfriendly country.

‘Flydubai’, with aircrew of mixed nationality, operates ten flights a day, maximum number of flights by any airline on the Dubai International Airport, Dubai and Ben Gurion Airport Tel Aviv, Israel sector. This provides greater opportunity to orchestrate a terror incident with the least chance of premature detection.

The scheduled departure time of Flydubai FZ 1073 from Dubai International airport is at 0650 h Dubai Standard Time, early morning hours generally associated with lax security template.

There is overwhelming preponderance of Israeli citizens on the flights in this sector. This offers a higher percentage of success ratio in causing Israeli fatalities over and above the damage likely to be caused by flying a large passenger aircraft onto a high value Israeli target, or forcing the Israeli Airforce to shoot down a passenger aircraft with large numbers of Israeli passengers on board.

One of the logical deduction that emerges is that the Flydubai airline and the specific flight FZ 1073 were deliberately targeted for the terror act. Further, no credible evidence has been cited to support the unsubstantiated allegations of the incident being a ‘false flag’ operation orchestrated by Israel intelligence agencies.

The incident has all the hallmark of precision, intelligence planning, preparation, and execution of the incident. It is hauntingly akin to the carefully orchestrated killings by terrorists at Baisaran Valley, Jammu, India in April 2025, by Pakistan based terrorist organisations with documented covert government intelligence network support, down to the insiduous narrative spin of ‘false flag’ operation by Indian security agencies. 

India and the ‘Cerebral War’

India is visibly the target of the First Dimension Cerebral War form its adversaries and ‘Frenemies’ alike.

The apprehension of seven US and Ukraine mercenaries in India’s NE states on 17 May 2026 alongside arrest of three other US nationals who had entered India through Goa and Nepal in July 2026, the seizure of prohibited military grade drones from Delhi International airport on 29 September 2026, the massive over 500 kgs drug bust in the maritime sector from Pakistan nationals on 25 September 2026, are but a tip of the deep involvement of the invisible war being waged against the country.  

Between 2016 and 2026, agencies including the NIA, Enforcement Directorate, Uttar Pradesh ATS, Gujarat Police SOG and the Ministry of Home Affairs have filed criminal investigations against multiple US and Leftist organisations for FCRA violations, money laundering, radicalisation, funding public agitations, and terror financing.

India is at the target end of this ‘Cerebral War’, with internal security situation heading for greater deterioration in the near future. Indian polity is fractured with deep sectarian fissures. Rallying around a common nationalist cause is the need of the hour, and what better rallying cry than the idea of an inclusive and rising ‘Akhand Bharat’!!!