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https://nypost.com/2026/07/13/us-news/ex-iran-president-mahmoud-ahmadinejad-said-to-be-under-house-arrest-over-reported-israeli-contacts/ Not gonna lie, the headline made me laugh. In this day and age who even knows what's real anymore. This could actually have been a plan to get a predictable leader installed back in Iran OR it could be a false flag by the IRGC leadership to keep him out and them in.

I thought Iran was out of: Missiles Bombs Drones Mil aircraft Mil ships I also thought Iran had few, if any: Working radar Sensors But, like the Energizer bunny, they just keep going and going...

Yeah it would be really fucking nice if for a change we didn't have literal invalids sitting in some of the 500 most powerful positions in the country. The gerontocracy needs to come to an end. It's absolutely bananas that the people with the least skin in the game are running everything.

So to recap the past few days: Back to shooting at each other. Something something decimated yet Iran is still punching back. Both sides are charging tolls now, with Iran claiming the MOU permits them to (it sort of does since it was terribly written) and our admin acting the part of children and copying them action for action again. So much for freedom of nav... Can't wait for China to point to our great example setting. Israel is still doing their own thing not listening to anyone. Congress has previously voted to direct the executive branch to end the conflict or get actual approval for the war. Realistically this is showmanship because no one will suffer consequences for ignoring it. So with that in mind... What are our goals and strategic objectives here? Does anyone have a plan or did Israel trick trump and Co into thinking this would go smoothly like Venezuela? Because I'm pretty sure it's the latter. Israel doesn't care if it goes on for longer as they benefit while the admin thought it would be a quick 3 day special military op. Now they're rightly ed and can't get out of the fire they started.

Has nothing to do with Iran...going back to your previous statements that Ukraine was gonna lose. For less the $200B (one fifth of one year's defense budget), Russia has suffered 450,000 KILLED, including 1600 in one day this past weekend and they are farther from victory than ever before. Those numbers are STAGGERING, equating to fully one third of all births in a single year. Russia is changed for a generation if not longer.

Logbook Maintenance Entry: Gun Ops check good. No descrepancies noted. Return to service.

Mitch Staff says he was in the hospital due to a fall. I think it was more than gravity that caused said fall, maybe a Biden tripping hazard jumped in front of him. Here's him a year ago. And here's him yesterday. Spittin' image of a robustly healthy dude? Is she holding him up? I like the proof of life newspaper, nice touch. Weekend at Bernie's!

That dude who ducked wins the luckiest guy of the year award...but then when he touched the hot barrel is LOL.

It's a double-edged sword, but as Brabus so correctly pointed out, the impetus is on the military to protect sensitive and/or classified material. The same argument can be made about PA wanting to release information just so they can look good. I don't consider the media to be spies (well, not ALL of them), but we all know there is a lot of information our adversaries learn about us through open source reporting (a commonly cited intelligence community rule of thumb has long been that 60–90% of useful intelligence can originate from open sources). Those of us who have been on here for a while remember Rainman’s famous recommendation when it comes to the media (“never talk to them”) but they are not the only ones trying to extract info from us. “Loose Lips Sink Ships” and “Never Pass Up The Opportunity To Shut The Fuck Up!” remind us how important OPSEC is, especially on forums such as this one. Steve is a well-known and respected aviation journalist who has contributed a lot to this forum; but he’s not the USAF and shouldn’t be expected to protect its secrets like the rest of us. That’s our job! And I don’t fault him for sharing things, that’s his job!

Steve just to clarify, I don't necessarily think you're work as a journalist is toxic, I was more referring to the aviation newsphere in general. The Aviationist might as well be working for China. I admire your work, I own both of your Red Eagles books and sub to your channel. I just think it was a huge foul to mention specifics when you didn't have to. Even if its a poorly kept secret as you say why add to it? Why make our jobs harder? And I agree the bros you interviewed should be held accountable, but if I had heard the same details not once would I have even for one second ever thought to share them online. Happy to chat more offline if you want

I just grabbed an H&K VP9A1 F because I'm tired of stretching my little girl hands as far as they go to hit the slide release. It's actually a really nice pistol so far. I'm not crazy about the trigger-guard-mag-release, but I guess nothing is perfect. Also been working on a custom storage wall since I have a 3D printer. Pretty happy with it so far

I get where you’re coming from Sketch, but I think the energy should be directed at the dudes in the know who spill the beans (whether fully or through aggregate “partial” comments, eye winks, whatever). There’s nothing wrong with Steve’s passion, there’s something wrong with dudes opening their mouth on stuff they shouldn’t. Should I be mad at the Drive, or should I be mad at the douchebag who completely ignored the requirements of his security clearance and NDAs and gave info to a member of the press? I’ve enjoyed Steve’s work, even if I have a problem with people he has interviewed.

Sketch If it was supposed to be a secret that Doc was flying a Flanker when he was tragically killed, then it was an appallingly badly kept one, and the Air Force needs to do a much better job of keeping the compartments you speak of airtight. I take the "toxic journalist: 'Hey, I know X&Y'" allegation very seriously. It's disappointing that this is your conclusion about me. I wish I could tell you about some of the emotional drivers for researching the story and telling it the way I did, but they pertain to Doc's immediate family, and therefore rightly remain private.

he hasn't lost. and he's draining a fuck ton of western equipment along with our adventures in iran.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1724148098779478

RIP Lady G

I really wanted to reply with a perspective to this thread on my old account but never got around to it. I'm prefacing this as a long-time admirer of Steve's work, particularly covering the amazing history of the Red Eagles and his 10 percent truth channel, but I was absolutely appalled by this video when he released it and think it serves as a shining example of why the majority of current collection of aviation journalists & spotters are so toxic. Obviously, it goes without saying that the loss of Doc was tragic and his story/career should absolutely be highlighted, but what Steve did was literally the worst possible way to do it. Yes, he has every right to report what he wants and what his sources divulged (which was bad on their parts if they're credible), hes a journalist and we should celebrate free press. But the problem here is, like many of his counterparts (the Alex Holdings, Trevor Rogoways, David Cenciottis etc) they're obsessed with classified programs and getting the scoop for clicks while giving a big middle finger to OPSEC. These dudes likely don't realize the insane level of compartmentalization necessary to keep certain things from public eye, and they've literally created opsec briefings because of stuff they've reported (my buddys had to sit through several). Steve literally could've made the entire video without the single mentioning of a Flanker or any aircraft for that matter, but he used Docs' tragic loss as an excuse to tell the world "hey I know X&Y" about a black program, a program that I'm sure Doc was highly passionate about and spent much effort to help protect the integrity of. But journalists today are so obsessed with clicks and ad revenue that they almost forget the team they're playing for. Like Steve said, I know I'm probably not going to win any points with this post either.

Sorry for the delay. Dibs.

What's asymmetric about it? It's cruise missiles and long range drones for the land based attacks and various drones for shipping attacks.

And Pete can pound wood hard all day long, any punishment via Courts Martial comes from the jury, not Pete. Art 15 doesn't do jail. Dude wants Pete to overplay his hand... ammo for the counter attack. Best Pete can do, undue command influence and all, is push for Art 15.

Asymmetric warfare at its best. We better be talking hard notes, or better yet, be in on making this happen.

All part of the special military operation comrade