FourFans

You're not missing them, you're choosing to ignore them. Nothing about the 800 US service members Iran has directly been involved in killing over the past 20 years? Nothing about the active approve of EVERY GULF STATE...you know the neighbors who've had to put up with Iran's BS for the past 50 years? Nothing about the 10's of thousands of Iranian civilians killed for protesting before we showed up? Na, just focus of...let's see...not the US border...not the worldwide problem with Islamic immigrants that was enraged by Iran...not the fact the US doesn't need oil from the gulf...oh yeah...gas prices will be the metric of the day that makes your argument seem right. I'm sure you've got all the classified intel that went into all our actions and a full understanding of the big picture and you're not just emo raging like a toddler. Yeah, this process has never steered you wrong. Keep up the well investigated and perfectly justified raging. I'm sure that will help heal the divides in our country. Can we get a rational argument for once instead of the standard "everything Trump does is bad". Literally NO ONE here actually likes the guy wholesale. Some of us have realized we DO have to deal with the policies and actions, so let's make the best of it.

Opening apertures has been the A-10's thing for a while...

It's....transitioning?

All of Europe just instinctively flinched...

Yes. Using little birds makes total sense. Fast, stealthy, reliable, expendable. Looking for one dude is way easier with four of those instead of the flying freight train that is the MV-22 and the overcaffeinated hyper-violent TRAP team that's on it.

Nope. Very simple. Been doing it for a long time.

"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.

Back to the question asked: I think any employment of conventional ground forces beyond a Venezuela type raid without congressional approval is going too far. To me, that means the 82nd Airborne dropping on any Iranian soil whatsoever. We've gone too long employing military power without the overt approval of Congress, who are supposed to speak on behalf of the people. The will of the American people needs to be behind any grab-and-hold operation (aka invasion). Without congressional approval, the military becomes the President's personal shotgun to wield as he sees fit, which is NOT how it was intended. The CinC determines HOW the military is employed once America has decided it's going to war. The President does not decide the will of the people.

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.

Because as an officer, it is quite literally his job to understand the legality of orders before carrying them out. One of the unique and saving graces of the US military: The officers swear no allegiance to the president, but rather to the constitution, and specifically in the oath, are required to follow lawful orders.

Maybe it's because I don't watch any major news outlets...in fact it probably is precisely because of that...I haven't heard the above said even once. Have you considered that maybe you're allowing yourself to get jacked around by the media outrage coupled with the active disinformation that accompanies all armed conflicts? I'll grant that Trump is a loose cannon when he's in the media spotlight, which I think makes everything worse. I won't rule out the possibility that he INTENDS to be a loose cannon when in the media spotlight, but that doesn't really matter. In any case, spare the outrage and acting like you see something no one else does. There's already enough whiplash going around. Send your letters to congress and the president when the 82nd is actually ordered to invade. (which btw, I've already started drafting now that they've been given a WARNORD to deploy. Not happy about that)

No. They really aren't. They're happy to see us step on our crank, but they're also very not happy to see how lethal our forces can be when partially unleashed. Russia in particular is very unhappy with the results of their own air and EW defenses. China, well, best indications are that China's leadership doesn't actually comprehend what our absolute and lightning fast decimation of Iran's defenses really means for their Taiwan plans. I'm willing to bet the rank-and-file PLA get's it, but the one-man command structure probably doesn't. Is the US stepping in it right now? Yup. Is it really hurting our strategic capabilities? Not unless we commit conventional ground troops.

Just had a crew talk about this happening more and more often as we heard about this crash. I know I've experienced single controller ops quite a bit in ANC. I can't say I'm surprised by people not wanting to enter that career field. Couple that to the government shutdowns and we've got a bad situation going on for our ATC brothers.

Amazing how many geopolitical, economics, and military strategy experts all of a sudden appear (not just on this forum) during a crisis to start criticizing the whole operation, yet those same experts need to have the details explained to them in small and unclassified terms, otherwise what the US is doing is obviously stupid.

That P-3 took it like a champ!