International experts reject the simplistic explanation that national/military disasters are merely the product of individual incompetence or "operator error". Instead, they argue that such catastrophes are systemic, highlighting the place of national/military misfortune at the individual, organisational, and national-political levels. For fault-finding, focusing solely on the individual obscures deeper systemic issues. Individuals within political and military hierarchies do not operate in a vacuum; they are constrained by cognitive biases, institutional groupthink, and established mental paradigms. Therefore, even competent leaders are frequently trapped, blinded, or paralysed by the party/organisational machinery and information flows surrounding them; routine reliance on individual brilliance is a flawed safety strategy.

Misfortunes occur when incompetent, shortsighted, submissive and power-hungry national leaders demand military instruments to achieve objectives that are politically or logistically unfeasible; and the reverse is equally true in the case of Pakistan. Here I am compelled to quote a few lines from my published piece, “Living a Lie”: ‘Have we learned relevant lessons from our National Misfortunes (loss of East Pakistan being at the top) and from other natural calamities? Does our present political system ensure true public representation, or is it the continuation of a vicious cycle keeping the people deprived at the hands of the second/third generation of........

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