701–710 of 1001 posts
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It's a bit weird counting drones in the same list as expensive fighter jets (and other expensive planes).
MQ-9s are ~$30 million USD and are strike capable.
For perspective: Patriot missiles cost $4m each.
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I also saw some news saying an F-35 was possibly hit--but I can't find any reasonable-seeming sources to confirm that. Maybe someone here knows more?
an F-35 was hit but made it back to base.
CENTCOM has turned out to be about as honest as the Russian or Ukrainian MoD. They flat-out lied about this shootdown all while sending out search teams. There is some circumstantial evidence that two Blackhawks were damaged trying to run search and rescue operations. There are also stories coming out that they are using bureaucracy to hide massive numbers of casualties.
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> ignoring the spicier broader debate of if the whole Iran campaign was the right call or not How spicy of a debate is that really? How many people outside of the admin and the dwindling hardcore trump base actually thought this was a good idea?
I think that you will find that many people think that we ought to solve the 50 year old problem in the Mideast once and for all. Now that the Russians are busy, that Venezuela is down, that Syria has fallen, and that the Chinese are minding their own business is a good time to decapitate Iran. Also Cuba is next.
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The "50,000 murdered protesters" is blatant atrocity propaganda to launder the actual mass murder of civilians and failed illegal regime change war by the United States and Israel. Nothing more. It is a lie told with the blackest of intentions. "Who cares if we murdered 170 schools girls? The evil regime murdered 50 gorillian civilians so it's okay when we do it!"
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The "50,000 murdered protesters" is blatant atrocity propaganda to launder the actual mass murder of civilians and failed illegal regime change war by the United States and Israel. Nothing more. It is a lie told with the blackest of intentions. "Who cares if we murdered 170 schools girls? The evil regime murdered 50 gorillian civilians so it's okay when we do it!"
So are you saying no one was killed during the protests in January?
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It's pretty normal for planes to go down in a war. They've flown 5000+ sorties, it's a pretty huge accomplishment this is the first one lost over Iran. Especially considering all of the last decade's speculation about how tough attacking Iran would be. You'll never be able to fully suppress all of their manpads. Even if you destroy the bulk of their air defence network.
First to go down in Iran, but a surprising amount of attritions thus far - 3x F-15 friendly fire - 2x KC-130 refuel mid air collision (1 loss, 1 damaged) - 1x F-35 damaged - 1x AEWACs base strike - 3x KC-130 base strike (same) - 1x F-15 (this one) 2-3 a week is not great for the greatest military, more than half attributable to Iran. With 300+ US casualties, that's ~10/day, a fatality every ~2 days. No boots on the g…
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47563815
$700 per plane, might be $1B considering the shortage of parts.
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The US did it all the time in Vietnam.
And it did sometimes get way out of control: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Bat_21_Bravo
It's difficult to squeeze stories out of him, mostly because it was so long ago and ancient history to him. Just to put his timeline in perspective, after the war he befriended a captain of the White Russian Navy who had to flee after losing the Russian Revolution. Alot of White Russians ended up in San Francisco, which is where my neighbor settled down in the '60s. He was also a military escort for Nelson Rockefeller, I think during one Rockefeller's campaigns. Once a staunch Republican, needless to say he's not a fan of where the Republican Party has ended up since then. Still a gung-ho Marine, though, who keeps insisting on climbing over our 10-foot fence whenever he locks himself out of his house, which means I have to jump the fence. Were it anyone else I'd just call and pay for a locksmith myself, or badger him to finally give me copies of his keys.
Military aviators train for this, being alone behind enemy lines (look up SERE school if you’re curious, one of the craziest training courses outside of special forces) and there is a special force just for aviator recovery behind enemy lines, US AirForce Pararescue. Hopefully they’ll get the aviators back quickly, the last thing our country needs is American hostages making this ridiculous war harder to stop.
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Trump has a loyal hardcore, but he is absolutely bleeding supporters around the edges. If you follow the US right many of them are pledging to vote democrat in the midterms as a protest.
I noticed a wave of that right as trump declared war (declared conflict, whatever), people going "I voted for no new wars," but I noticed on /r/conservative that the takes quickly gave way to sudden concern about Iran's nuclear capability as the propaganda mills got their fodder in order.