- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Iran said it had shot down a United States Air Force fighter jet over its territory, and footage released by Iranian channels appears to show the wreckage of an F-15E Strike Eagle from the U.S. Air Force’s 494th Fighter Squadron.
Iranian outlets initially claimed the aircraft was an F-35, but a closer review of the debris shown in the video points to a different aircraft. Visible sections of the airframe, including parts of the fuselage and external mounting points, match the layout of the F-15E rather than the stealth design of the F-35.
The more high-profile losses there are for the US early in this war, the lower the chance of things escalating.
Counting on the Trump Administration to do the right thing is pointless. Counting on them to cave and avoid doing the unpopular thing is possible.
See I get where you’re coming from and in a normal sane world you would be correct, but two things about this scenario worry me; the first is obviously that Trump is wildly unpredictable and prone to emotional decision making, especially when he thinks he might look bad or weak, and the other is that this sort of scenario and the bombing philosophy they are embracing is the exact reason to want to get nukes as soon as it was considered scientifically possible.
Edit: and when I say worry, I mean this shit keeps me up at night and impacts my psyche heavily. Hegseth canning the Army CoS ain’t helping either
IMO, one of the key reasons that Trump jumped into the war in Iran is that things went so well with the kidnapping of Maduro. If a few soldiers had been killed in that operation the Iran war might not have happened.
He’s unpredictable and emotional. It’s true that in some ways he hats to be seen as weak. But, he takes offense at absolutely everything, and everything makes him look weak. So, it’s hard to say that any one thing will be the deciding factor. He seems to chicken out a lot more than he seems to double down when things don’t go his way.
Agreed.
As much as one might want their country to win, as an American who is 100% anti-war, incidents like this are definitely helpful to slowing the march to war and make it exponentially harder for Donald and Keg-breath to justify what they’re doing.