"The Iran war has brought a few things into focus"among them, that the United States needs to rethink its approach to warfare in the region and beyond. For all of the time that the U.S. Central Command undoubtedly spent planning and rehearsing for a confrontation with Iran, the conduct of this war betrays a certain failure of imagination that has cost the U.S. military a great deal. The United States appears to have assumed that its abundance of precision weaponry would give it a huge advantage over the Iranians - which it did, for at least a few weeks. But precision weaponry was not decisive."

Relatively low-cost Iranian missiles and drones have wrought havoc upon U.S. bases and other targets in the Middle East. American planners should have anticipated as much: Ukrainian drones have been inflicting devastating damage on Russian military assets for several years now, demonstrating just how quickly the nature of warfare has changed. Yet American troops are getting killed in their barracks by cheap Iranian missiles and drones, and their leaders haven't thought through adequate countermeasures.

This failure belongs not only to the Trump administration but also to the military services and their leaders. The Iran war is almost certainly the easiest drone war that America will ever fight. Countering this cheap and widely accessible technology will only get harder. The United States has to dramatically rethink its posture in the Middle East and around the globe until it figures out how to contend with that.

Long time ago, intermission during Ballet Folklorico concert at Mexico City's Belles Artes. Down to the concession stand, ask in broken Spanish how much for a juice. Don't remember, let's just say a buck. American guy beside me at the stand points to my juice and shouts, in English, across the din: "How much ... in dollars?" (The language commonly spoken in Mexico City is definitely not English and Mexico City isn't a border town but deep in Mexico.). Eventually, after much back-and-forth nobody understood the guy bought himself a juice for $5 ... in pesos. Almost certainly because he didn't even try to make rudimentary adjustments for culture and place.

"PS - How did he expect to slash electricity prices in half without renewables?"

"Renewables" be damned. Where are the Sharpies?!?

"Enemies of the people" - another trope Trump picked up decades ago from his buddy Roy Cohn. The beauty of the phrase is it means ... nothing. You fill in the blank, feed the purge, rinse and repeat. Stalin was about to launch another series when he finally croaked back in 1953. But while he was alive ... well, Stalin and his purges really set the benchmark. Remember, Trump admires the historical figures he considers tough guys. Lots of other poosies share his weak man's fascination. Just listen to his enthusiastic descriptions of attacks on Iran. These are the words of middle schoolers, people who never faced combat, and crazoids.

"I am the constitution around here now."
Huey Long
Governor of Louisiana

From the article:

"Since the cease-fire collapsed, the Pentagon has provided little information about the American military strategy and has been slow to release information about troops' injuries. The last major Pentagon briefing on the war was in early May."

The Defense Department has said that disclosing Iranian strikes on bases where U.S. troops are housed would compromise operational security.

The Pentagon withheld information about three Iranian strikes last week in Jordan that injured dozens of U.S. service members and damaged several helicopters, according to several U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

After an Iranian strike in Jordan on Friday killed three soldiers, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, acknowledged that the number of U.S. military casualties since July 7 had risen to nearly 100.

Defense Department officials say they are bound by law to report troop deaths, but not injuries. Critics, including Democratic senators, say the Trump administration is obligated to inform the public about the conduct of the war.

And for the edification of any of this creature's apologists, these numbers represent people - so stop helping him ---- all over their memories.

Sorry, quote cut off, picks up here: "- including The Wall Street Journal's editorial board and the hawks at various Washington think tanks - have gotten everything they asked for. And it has been a disaster. So now what?"

"[T]he United States sought above all to deter Iran from doing two things: striking American partners in the region and disrupting maritime traffic. Is Iran now more deterred from taking these actions"or less so?" the author asks.

The answer is clearly the latter. The administration needs either to reach an accord with the Iranians or to establish a credible new deterrent, and fast. The promoters of this war - including