Saturday, May 9, 2026

This Is Not How You Fight A War

We have, in many posts, discussed how to conduct a war and have noted that the US, and the West, repeatedly fail to finish their wars which results in having to refight them down the road (see, “Ending War – True Victory”).  Consider the following quote from a Redstate article related to an attack by Iran against US ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
 
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) eliminated inbound threats and targeted Iranian military facilities responsible for attacking U.S. forces including missile and drone launch sites; command and control locations; and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance nodes.[1]

You might be initially tempted to think this is a good, forceful response but give the statement some more thought.  It’s revealing and damning.  After being attacked, we struck various Iranian facilities as listed in the statement.  Since we apparently knew where these facilities and capabilities were, why hadn’t we already attacked them?  In war, you don’t allow the enemy the first shot.  You kill them before they can attack you.  What’s more, if you’re in a war worth fighting, your goal is total victory which means you don’t stop until the enemy forces have been 100% eliminated.  Again, why had we allowed known military facilities to remain in existence?
 
From a military perspective, we now appear to be fighting a half-measures war instead of going for total victory as we had seemed poised to do a few weeks ago.  I’m very disappointed that we’re in a war we don’t seem to want to pursue to the only worthwhile conclusion.  If we weren’t serious about it, we shouldn’t have gotten into it.
 
 
Note:  As always, we’re discussing only the military aspects, not the political.  Political comments will be deleted so don’t bother.
 
 
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[1]Redstate website, “Iran Attacks Our Ships, and U.S. Makes the Regime Regret It”, Nick Arama, 7-May-2026,
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2026/05/07/us-hits-iranian-targets-n2202116

1 comment:

  1. The list of missile and drone launch sites; command and control locations; and ISR nodes sound like a known target list that would be submitted for prepare targets that should be prosecuted prior to maneuvers. Why did we not strike these targets before we had ships in harm’s way?

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