Despite the U.S. campaign, Iran retains enough military capabilities to inflict considerable damage to U.S. service members and America’s allies and assets in the Middle East.
Less than 48 hours after Donald Trump told Americans the U.S. military had “beaten and completely decimated Iran,” Tehran shot down an F-15E fighter jet, setting off a high-risk scramble by U.S. forces to rescue two service members from deep inside Iranian territory. Iran also struck two Blackhawk helicopters and an attack jet that were assisting in the search and rescue effort.
The harrowing incidents have put in stark relief a growing challenge facing the president as the war enters its second month: Despite a daily bombing campaign and his triumphant wartime narrative, Iran retains enough military capabilities to inflict considerable damage to U.S. service members and America’s allies and assets in the Middle East.
Well, to play idiot’s advocate…
“Decimated” means to reduce by a factor of 10.
So if they had capability of 1,000, now they have capability of 100.
And it only takes one person with one rocket to shoot down an aircraft.
Well, not to be a pedantic dick, but… Actually, it means to reduce by 1/10. So if they had a capability of 1000, now they have the capability of 900.
That said, it’s been long-used to describe the near-total destruction of a thing; that strict meaning is pretty dated.
So is Trump :D
one of the big things we’re already seeing is the cost asymmetry – F-15E original price was $31M and costs roughly $19K per flight hour – a Shahad-136 drone costs $20K total