How to lose a war you aren’t fighting

Success has a thousand fathers.

It has been six days since the Israeli-Iran War started and Israel seems to be operating with impunity in Iranian airspace. Iran’s attempts to retaliate with missile and drone attacks have largely resulted in millions of dollars worth of scrap metal littering the Israeli countryside.

It is into this state of affairs that Donald Trump had decided to insert himself, calling for Iran’s UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” in a characteristic all-caps post. The president is apparently attempting to invoke the spirit of former president and general, Ulysses S. Grant, who bore that phrase as a nickname.

Israeli Air Force (IAF) F-35I Adir stealth multi-role fighter jet (IAF Spokesperson/ Wikimedia)

You might ask yourself how the president of a nation that is not at war could conceivably call for the unconditional surrender of a nation that is at war… with someone else. The answer to that is that Trump has apparently decided to self-identify as an Israeli president, despite having opposed Israel’s attacks at first and emphasizing that Israel acted alone. Trump now appears to be taking credit for Israel’s success and is definitely threatening the Iranian regime.

In addition to calling on Iran to surrender, warning that Tehran should be evacuated, and saying that the US may decide to directly target Iran’s supreme leader, Trump is also saying, “We [emphasis mine] now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran,” adding, “Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA.”

I imagine the Israeli military thinking, “What do you mean ’we,’ paleface?”

It seems most likely that Trump is trying to piggyback on Israel’s glory, but there is a real chance that the US may eventually get directly involved. There is speculation that some Iranian nuclear sites are too hardened for the Israelis to destroy, but the US has a massive 30,000-pound conventional bomb that is designed to destroy impregnable targets. These “bunker busters” could be dropped by US aircraft at almost no risk now that “we” (meaning Israel) control the skies.

There are signs that US involvement is being considered. Trump abruptly left the G7 conference in Canada over the weekend. At about the same time, about 30 US Air Force tankers left the country for Europe in an apparent move to position the fuel-delivery planes to support a potential strike force.

So how do you lose a war you aren’t fighting? Well, one way is to make yourself look weak and vain by swooping in to glory-hound after most of the fighting is done and the risks have been taken. Everyone knows that this has been Israel’s show from the beginning, and Trump’s attempts to steal the spotlight are transparent.

Israel took a YUGE risk and it seems to have paid off handsomely. I wrote last week that the US and Israel have been contemplating airstrikes to destroy Iran’s nuclear programs for about two decades, but the matter was always put off because of the logistical difficulties and the risks of not being able to complete the job successfully. The problems became worse after Russia supplied Iran with modern S-300 surface-to-air missile systems in 2016. Israel seems to have solved all of those problems, and the failure of Iranian air defenses should be keeping Putin and his generals up at night.

The sustained air campaign by a small nation is immensely impressive, especially considering the fact that the distance from Israel to Tehran is almost 2,000 miles, with much of that distance being over hostile territory. That is farther than the distance from New York to Denver.

The difficulty was probably eased somewhat by the fact that Iran has few friends among the Arab nations in the Middle East. A great many of the oil states around the Persian Gulf did not want to see a nuclear-armed Iran destabilize the region and start a regional nuclear arms race. Compared to opposing over Israel’s actions in Gaza, the silence over Iran is deafening.

The Israelis seem to have destroyed Iran’s war machine without losing a single aircraft, despite Iranian claims. So much for the critics of the Lockheed F-35 Lightning II, or as Trump might say, the “losers and haters.”

At this point, it is unclear how long the Israeli-Iran War will continue, but the Persian nation has turned into a target-rich environment for Israeli pilots. What seems apparent is that Israel will keep bombing as long as they want because the Iranians are powerless to stop them. The war may continue until Israel can’t find any targets worth bombing or until Israel ‘s stockpile of munitions is depleted.

This may be the most lopsided victory in the history of aerial warfare, and make no mistake, it is an Israeli victory, no matter what Donald Trump says. The Israelis took the risks, and they deserve the glory.

IRANIAN TOMCATS DECLAWED: As a footnote, the Iranian Air Force was the only other operator of the F-14 Tomcat aside from the US Navy, as you may have known if you faced them in the old “F-19 Stealth Fighter” computer game from the 80s. The Iranian F-14s dated back to the days of the Shah and US support for the Iranian regime. If you don’t know the backstory of the US relationship with Iran, do yourself a favor and read up on it, starting with the CIA-supported coup against Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953.

Anyway, two Iranian F-14s had cameo death scenes in drone camera footage from the past few days.

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I am sure that Maverick weeps silently for them.

THE TRUMP MOBILE PHONE IS MADE IN [wait for it] China per reporting from the Daily Beast. Similar but not gold-colored models are available on Amazon for $169

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