To those doofs, everything but an actual war crime is a war crime. Our press is just genuinely terrible.
War
That’s War
Correct. Gaza got destroyed because it went to war with Israel. That is what happens in a war you lose. A bunch of fighting people die and some others too.
Strait Crooked
I truly do not think Trump had no plan about the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. He knew Iran would shut it down, and I believe his inaction there was deliberate.
Trump is not a genius (quite the opposite), but he is strategic, and he is revenge-driven.
The US could’ve easily kept the Strait of Hormuz open by enough prep in advance. Not doing so was a choice. A poor choice, a misguided one, but a choice nonetheless. And the point of that choice was making our allies look bad, embararasing them, and inflicting pain on the rest of the world for their lack of support (or for being rivals, like China) for our actions in Iran.
Remember, the US is energy self-sufficient now1 and we cannot even refine the oil that comes out of Iran. Our oil infra is not set up for it at all.
Though I do not believe attacking Iran as we did was the best choice, I don’t care even a little what happens to the mullahs there, and they were likely getting pretty close to having a working nuclear weapon (unlike Iraq back in 2003). This would’ve been bad for everyone, but far more so for the rest of the Middle East and Europe.
Thus, the closing of the Strait was Trump’s revenge on those who did nothing to assist in an action that directly benefited them — i.e., significantly degrading Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The rest is just noise.
Rad Ex
Well dang. Yang Wei wishes he could go full stealth mode.
Intel Tell
Definitely Russian and/or Chinese intel had a hand in this. Otherwise, the Iranians wouldn’t have been able to target correctly.
Baltic
This is about the timing I’d expect. It’d be the right season, the US is distracted in Iran and many of our important munitions have been depleted substantially.
If I were Putin, this is when I’d attack. I give this a 40% chance of occurring.
F-35 Jive
It’s hilarious that in the estimation of doofy-ass clowns that the F-35 has now “failed” because Iran scored a hit on one of them — a hit that I must point out, did not even succeed in shooting down the jet in question.
Part of the issue is due to bad marketing that you must do to get Congress to pay for anything. The F-35 was advertised to the Congress-critters as “invisible.” Nothing in the physical world is invisible. For several different reasons, this is absolutely impossible. But Congress wouldn’t vote for a plane with something as pedestrian-sounding as “radar camouflage,” which is a far more accurate description. So “invisible” it was, and funding resulted.
The F-35 is itself and makes use of amazing technology. It shredded through very advanced Chinese and Russian air defense systems like they weren’t even there. But it is neither invisible nor invincible. It is an object in the physical world. It emits massive amounts of heat. It is large. It is noisy. It can be brought down by a single bullet hitting the right place.
I’m surprised more weren’t taken out in the initial wave when Iran had the most air defense resources, truly, but I am glad they were not.
Tell you what, though. If your vaunted air defense systems can only score a single hit out of hundreds of sorties, that is not a great record. The F-35, however, is a great plane for what it is intended to do.
Bullet Bullet
That is infuriating.
Deva
Zero.
Hamas and Gaza got what was coming to it. If I’d been Israel, there would’ve been nothing left. They were restrained compared to the devastation I would’ve brought.
No All
Agreed that it was a deliberate test, and our so-called “allies” failed. We do not need that oil. In fact, our refineries cannot even process that type of crude. But they do need it. That they’d rather do what they think is spiting us rather than send some rickety-ass nearly-useless frigate to “help” is quite telling.
EW Def
I have seen evidence of this for about a year by watching combat footage out of Ukraine. Otherwise, there’s no way some of those drones could’ve scored the hits they did in such a difficult EW environment (not fiber optic drones).
Anti-Sun Tzu
If I needed to fight a big-ass war, I’d hire Ian Welsh as my primary advisor.
I’d listen very closely and do exactly the opposite. Guaranteed win there.
Not So Dire Strait
The Strait of Hormuz being closed is not nothing, but not really the big deal that people are making it out to be. It would’ve been 40 years ago, but the world is different now.
Mostly, it’ll impact China and a few other Asian economies. Not so much anyone else.
Smackdown in Town
I thought China’s miltech would at least do ok. But in reality, it and the Russian stuff performed like absolute dogshit against our tech and practices. Appallingly bad. Ian Welsh and his shit-for-brains co-doofs must be crying into their Tsingtaos now.
All those “invincible” super-hyper-duper-sonic missiles and “unbeatable” radars were batted aside like some Fisher Price kids playset. Quite embarrassing. That means China at the moment would get totally spanked if it attempted to take Taiwan. And now they know that.
What’s Deserved
And no tears were shed. Live a thug life, get a thug death.
But shit, what kind of drone was that? This is my guess: Altius.