Similarly, all the decades of touting by the USA about protecting the Gulf states have also been torn to shreds. In fact, Saudi Arabia already had been given a rude awakening in the past, during the war against the Houthis, when its oil installations were targeted without the USA interceptors able to do anything to protect them. Now the Gulf states have realized they were paying the USA for protection through their noses all those years, with just hype up protection that failed to deliver. Which is why the Gulf states are wary of hitting back at Iran, knowing that their future protective umbrella is not what the USA can provide. Reports are surfacing that the Gulf countries are planning to set up joint military alliance to protect their own turf, which is making Trump panicky. Trump just insulted Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, telling MBS that he needs to kiss his ass now. That should be the straw that is going to break the camel's back.
Russia and China have enabled Iran to target sensitive infrastructures in Israel and USA military targets elsewhere, using China's multi-layered BeiDou satellite system that cannot be hacked to disable them, together with Russian intelligence regarding the whereabouts of those important infrastructures like military camps and aircraft carriers. Russia and China have also given Iran weapons that have caught the USA and Israel by surprise. Reports that 16 Y20 cargo planes with several consignments of Chinese weapons were sent to Iran before the war, for Iran to test drive them.
The migration of the GPS satellite system used by Iran in the past to the Chinese BeiDou system have reap tremendous benefits for Iran. The BeiDou satellites cannot be shut down nor hacked to disable them and were fully tested during the 12-day war in June last year. Then Iran was able to target sensitive Israeli infrastructures, which resulted in the USA calling for a ceasefire. It was a call to have time to regroup, rearm and studying how to overcome Iran's ability in targeting important infrastructures.
Anonymous
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Trump is, as sure as the sun rises from the East, going to proclaim that the USA has achieved its mission in attacking Iran. We knew this was to be the expected mantra he will be chanting, even with a bloodied nose and a massively bruised ego.
What has the USA achieved after more than a month of bombing? Only killing the Iranian Supreme Leader and stoking the Iranian people into a more patriotic stance. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is now a martyr, whose death has sparked and rallied massive support for the country to fight the invaders. Was a regime change in the works? More likely a regime change going to happen in the USA and Israel.
The USA has lost more than its reputation fighting this war. All the highly expensive radar installations, some costing billions, have been destroyed. These are the systems providing the eyes for the Patriot and THAAD interceptors with early warning of Iran's incoming drones and missiles. Their destruction crippled the ability of the interceptors to provide cover, with incoming hypersonic drones and missiles denying ample time for those interceptors to respond within minutes or even seconds available. Which is why Iran has been able to target vital infrastructures with ease after those radars were taken out.
USA did a Pearl Harbor surprise on Iran, and Iran returned the favor and gave the USA a Pearl Harbor surprise by taking out its radar systems in the Middle East at the start of the war, something not in script. In fact, Trump was reported to have complained that 'it was not fair' that Iran is responding so aggressively against the USA's surprise attack.
That radar attack at the start of the war practically destroyed the reputation of the USA's ability to provide protection of the Gulf states, despite all the military bases present in the region. Now the Gulf countries knew that depending on the USA's protection umbrella is just a myth already exposed. This has raised the realization that further attempts to antagonize Iran will not bring peace to the Persian Gulf and the oil trade disruption, which probably prevented the Gulf states from retaliating against Iran, despite all the damage.
Apart from the ability of Iran to gain relatively major advantage over such a short time, the war also dispelled the 20th century WW2 mindset of the USA that aircraft carriers still dictate the direction of the war. Early movement of its two aircraft carriers to the Middle East was supposed to force Iran to cower in fear without a fight and gave its enriched Uranium to the USA on a platter.
But such movements of USA aircraft carriers had in fact given Iran the signal to be ready. That USA has more or less still been harboring an obsolete believe in fighting a war of the 21st century using power projection of aircraft carriers, but which turned out to be a delusional mindset, rendered impotent when faced with hypersonic drones and missiles that has truly dictate the direction of the war. In time to come, aircraft carriers can no longer be counted upon to project military power for launching carpet bombing. In any case, carpet bombing has been proven to garner just initial advantages before boots on the ground. The real dictate of victory or defeat comes after that when strategy and ingenuity really matter more. This has already been proven in Vietnam conclusively. And is being proven in Iran as well.
So, Trump can gloat all he wants about his 'mission accomplished' moment to fool the 'dull of mind' hillbillies. The reality cannot be erased by espousing propaganda alone.
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