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13,000 DMPI's hit in 30+ days of combat ops flying many hundreds of sorties per day with two aircraft damage (that we know of), and ONE shot down. China and Russia are likely shocked at the data.

Just popping in for the friendly weekly reminder that at no point leading up to this stupid boondoggle did our own intel community assess Iran was developing a nuke. 2025 DNI report saying as much is linked a few pages back. But please don’t let inconvenient facts like that interfere with fear mongering about it. There’s some pretty bad faith comments in here to the point that it’s honestly gotten tiresome. This might sound strange to some of you but it’s perfectly possible to disagree with the policy and strategy underpinning a war without being a “scaredy cat” or “against the troops” or “rooting for failure.”

Some of the guys on this site are getting hysterical…..I remember when we attacked Gaddafi and the usual weak sisters were decrying how Libya would obliterate us and start WW III. Fox News just announced that they weren’t reporting on the rescue efforts/results for security reasons, Not MAGA reasons like some of the TDS afflicted posters stated.

Take a breath, kid. Suggesting that a fighter pilot wouldn't find a way to make a joke out of anything is a dead giveaway that you aren't anywhere close to the pointy end of the spear. What exactly do you think these lunatics were going to do with a nuke? They've done everything they can slaughter their great foes, Israel and America. Despite bringing on immeasurable pain and suffering to their people and themselves each time, nothing stops them from their great jihad. This is fundamentally a domestic problem. We've had it so good for so long that it seems a whole lot of Americans, even ones in the military, forgot how world peace is secured. I suspect it's gotten bad enough that there will be no off ramps to the great war, but at least someone is willing to move pieces around on the board to give us a better shot at winning. It's mind-blowing to me that "someone" is a borderline delusional reality TV star, but here we are.

Yes, this conflict has been a tactical success so far. The Joint Force has shown that rhetoric matches reality. However, tactical success must convey strategic meaning, as Colin Gray would write. I'm not sure we can have strategic success if the objectives keep changing and the Administration cannot convey the necessity of this conflict to the body politic.

"Iranian media" is almost as credible a source as the War Thunder forums...though the forums have more accurate tech data... Do you genuinely believe the the air-to-ground curb stomping Iran is receiving is on par with the failed all-out invasion a next door neighbor by Russia? Tell me again how you aren't disgruntedemployee's troll account.

A-10 crashed as well, pilot rescued.

They just can't help themselves...funny and sad at the same time...must be a joy to live with.

That’s a valid tactical position. However, how do you evaluate if the costs are worth the objectives if the objectives are fluid and ill defined? I felt the same way when I was young and GWOT was kicking off. Now, twenty-five year later, I’d be pissed if my child was captured or killed in an operation that was not well coordinated or communicated at the political level. I’m a conservative, and I hope we absolutely smoke them and everyone comes home safe now that we are in this fight. However, so far, we are worse off politically and strategically, and we are losing lives and money. We are going to get sucked into a ground war if we are serious about the objectives that have been floated because they can’t be achieved solely through the air without nuclear weapons. We know that our ground force in Iraq and Afghanistan were way too small to achieve the desired political objectives. So, where does that leave us? This administration is going to run into the same conundrum that previous administrations have encountered. We have the firepower to eliminate Iran to the point that it will no longer exist as a country, but we aren’t willing to do it because of the humanitarian cost. If we aren’t willing to bear those costs, then maybe we shouldn’t have turned down this road to start with.

WSJ confirmed a shoot down but didn’t list their source. Godspeed to the crew if true.

Again?

From a geopolitical stance yes. We've shown we can't defend our bases abroad against drones or balastic missiles. A curbstomping doesn't cost us multiple strategic aircraft. It doesn't cost us billion dollar radar arrays. It doesn't cost us American lives. It has Displayed our weaknesses to China. We've shown the degree to which we've ostracised ourselves from our allies with most of Europe refusing over flights. We've shown that we lack any long term planning capabilities or forethought by rushing into this without having a plan for keeping the strait open. We've put iran in a stronger position as they have gone from a theoretical to actual control of the straits. Rising oil prices are increasing the funds in both Iran and Russia's pocket to continue their fight. Iranian leadership may be dead but clearly they're working decentralized ops well. There's no scenario in which we walk away from this in the near term with any meaningful victory. Blowing stuff up doesn't equal winning on the global stage. Oh and no one trusts on the world stage trusts us to negotiate anymore seeing as it was never serious and used as a pretext to prepare strikes. We had a solid deal that this admin tore up the first time. We've messaged to the world "get nukes ASAP or you're next." For the photos. A few more have come out plus some vids of a herk and Blackhawk allegedly conducting sar over Iran. I don't trust everything but there's some decent amount of reports coming out and unfortunately our propaganda arm is just as unreliable. SAR ops vids: https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2040044384951922868?s=20 https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/2040059365189722249?s=20b

Howdy! If you have access, the PSDM has been published! https://myfss.us.af.mil/USAFCommunity/s/knowledge-detail?pid=kA0Rw0000000tAzKAI

https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4450527/hegseth-authorizes-off-duty-service-members-to-carry-private-firearms-on-instal/

https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2026-03-31/nellis-afb-pilot-ejects-21241994.html

Everyone was doing it.

In a word, no. That EO, and the whole series it's part of, don't restrict the DOD. They restrict the intelligence community. Nothing stops the military from targeting a head of state - or literally anyone else - if they are declared a legal target / combatant. Not sure where this whole "the military can't kill certain people" idea has come from. Probably news organizations like CNN, NBC, ABC, et al who just clip one-liners from EOs and use them to promote narratives which support their own motives.

When the Italians give us military advice, we'd better listen. I mean its not like they've lost every war they've ever fought in the last 1500+ years.... oh wait, they have.

Meanwhile our allies int he region who have felt the threat of current Iran for 50 years are asking us to finish the job - Gulf allies privately make the case to Trump to keep fighting until Iran is decisively defeated.

You're not actually this... simple, are you? - It's already a 20 year boondoggle. This is the regime that made our misery in the middle east 10x worse. They have terrorized our allies and slaughtered our servicemen. This is the end of the boondoggle. - I said we could, not we would. It's merely an honest assessment of our economic and military capabilities. You know, define what's possible before you decide on what to do. - Preventing the most fanatical, violent regime on Earth from getting nuclear weapons is all the moral high ground I need. Jesus, as far as bad-faith arguments go, you're worse than my ex wife.

Updated

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the US Constitution disagrees with you. If you're an officer who swore to defend the document, maybe read it. https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S8-C11-1-1/ALDE_00013587/ More concerning is your logic of "we've been doing it this way before so we should keep doing it". That's dangerously parallel to telling your girlfriend "you said yes last night, so your 'no' means nothing tonight." Officers can and should question orders. Just because they had to comply last time just to keep their jobs doesn't mean they have to do it again. Besides, he's offering an opinion, not declaring something illegal. Opinionated officers, especially those who disagree with the yes-man mentality you are espousing, are critically important to the effectiveness of the US military. Without them we become the Empire from Star Wars. Perhaps you should "put your money where your mouth is" and resign in protest if you don't like a military populated by critical thinking that questions the validity of orders, regardless of what we did last time. Pretty easy to throw principled talk around until it's the livelihood of your own family that's at stake. Maybe slowdown on that front.

What’s important to remember about executive branch scope creep and abuse of power is that its only bad when the other side does it. When your own side does it, it’s just an unfortunate reality/status quo of the times we live in.

Actually, I've dealt with numerous graduates from the AQIT course, and they know their shit. That said, I'd avoid acquisitions like a burrito from Taco Bell! And at least they don't have the word 'weapons' in their name!

At this time Foxnews.com still has their headline story being tiger Woods and it's no where on the Iran page. It's not humiliating until maga gets informed. If we're lucky Hegseth finally gets canned over this and an actual military professional steps in.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/iran-shoots-down-us-f-15-fighter-in-humiliation-for-trump/