Misreading? I think maybe Foreign Policy is dangerously misleading.
The United States Is Dangerously Misreading Iran
Submitted 3 days ago by supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz to globalnews@lemmy.zip
https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/23/trump-iran-war-misreading-khamenei-strategy-nuclear/
1dalm@lemmings.world 3 days ago
In the 2000s, the American military held a massive joint exercise on the invasion of a mountainous middle eastern nation. (It was obviously Iran without saying Iran.) The exercise was supposed to be a demonstration of America’s military to show Iran that America really would wipe them out if a war ever happened, which looked inevitable at the time.
A very talented US General was chosen to lead the not-Iran side. He was given the resources that Iran was believed to have at the time. And through a series of very expertly timed and choreographed attacks he won. He crushed the US Navy. The whole exercise was a massive embarrassment for the military. The big media announcements were obviously all cancelled.
Granted, the General that was put in charge of not-Iran was extremely brilliant and had very detailed knowledge and experience of US capabilities and how to exploit vulnerabilities. But it’s still studied in the military schools as a case study in not underestimating your enemy.
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 3 days ago
Back then we weren’t committed to our fascism as deeply, surely this time our conviction of faith will convince God to illuminate the path forward
1dalm@lemmings.world 3 days ago
Oh, I’m sure we bombed the snot out of not-iran during the exercise. But the lesson is that technology advantage doesn’t win wars. (Didn’t win Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan either. Also didn’t help Russia win Ukraine or Afghanistan.)