this is a very stupid take driven by emotion
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6Fighter jets don't go very far on a tank of fuel, and even if you're trying to do arial refueling, it's a huge pain to try to have to fly hours to put a bomb on a target and then fly hours back again - and your refueling aircraft as also kind of sitting ducks as well.
Iran has just called into question the whole concept of air-first doctrine.
relying on air power without ground forces invading simultaneously is extremely stupid and has literally never worked in the entire history of military aviation. didn't need this war to learn that
Over the past couple of decades I've heard a million variants of "we weren't really fighting to win" - particularly in relation to Afghanistan. I have to admit I'm kind of jaded about it.
When you enter some kind of a conflict and you come out worse off than you started, the correct word for that is Losing.
I think we learn something in every war. What we learned this time is that if a hypersonic can get past interceptors and C-RAM, then it can deny naval access and destroy nearby bases, which completely undermines an air first strategy.
It also challenges how you would even get infantry and equipment into the area to stage a ground invasion. You can't sail too close if they can just shoot your ships.
If interceptors, C-RAM, and DEW can't be improved to the point of beating hypersonics, this might be the end of war as we know it...
for people who actually know what they're talking about there are no lessons here. I'm sure it's very illuminating for all the freshly minted military experts though
> the fact that it (predictably) spiraled out of control does not change that fact.
If it was predictable (as you correctly pointed out), then it doesn't seem as if the 'it was just going to be a raid' statement can also be true at the same time. It seems unlikely that both can be true.
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14The scenario of 'it'll just be a raid' seems too retarded to entertain.
It's not only Israeli lobbyists affecting the decision tree. There are many influential players sitting at the table. A lot of planners went into this knowing what was going to happen and a lot of the players are going to make very large fortunes. Just because they weren't staged for a full-scale conflict doesn't mean that wasn't the intent.
The morass was predictable. The leadership chose this war.
This incompetence narrative script is nonsense.
By some people, certainly.
But I think our resident military expert has muted the thread, so it's just us now...
How is it possible for you to arrive at a conclusion that some mid-level planners cooked this up in a conference room (completely unaware of the outcome), sent it upstream for approval, then watched unknowingly as billions of dollars of assets were moved into place.
You're just trolling. No one is that stupid.
But all I can say is I hope one day to be as smart as he thinks he is.
very gentlemanly of you.
A proper intellectual delights in being shown his own folly.
it is a service, after all.
If I had all the answers I'd keep em to myself, I'm a greedy bastard :]
I wasn't in the room with them and neither were you. It really does seem like too much of a leap to assume that everyone involved is/was an absolute idiot.