What we saw in this case was that the military capacity of the US to force the Strait of Hormuz back open was really a lot lower than I think many people thought it could be. This took, you know, several months and ultimately we're getting a reopening through a negotiated outcome rather than, you know, strictly through military force.
The real problem with deterrence is that it requires your adversary to believe you will actually follow through. And historically, the United States has had a credibility problem — we draw red lines and then don't enforce them, which is an invitation for adversaries to probe and push.
The U.S. has been the world's dominant military power for so long that we've forgotten what it's like to have a peer competitor. And the scary thing is that China isn't just catching up — in some domains, they've already surpassed us.
As the battlefield becomes more distributed and electronics-heavy, the Army's legacy power infrastructure, built around diesel generators and lead-acid batteries, is struggling to keep up.
I think people are probably just beginning to realize that this is not going to be a two-day affair. It should be a two-day affair because if if Iran was run by a normal government that had the interests of its own people at heart, they'd have surrendered 24 hours ago or 48 hours ago because there's there's no way that they can win.
A precision strike is where an army will take the coordinates of a target, input that into their targeting system, or visually identify a target and lock onto it. We can see in the satellite imagery precision strikes that destroyed buildings or punched holes in the roofs of those buildings very precisely.
4mo ago
Underscored — save the words that stop you in your tracks.
