Air superiority is supposed to deliver a quick triumph. But history has shown that promise to be written on the wind

Air superiority is supposed to deliver a quick triumph. But history has shown that promise to be written on the wind

To explore the roots of Donald Trump’s Iran military strategy and the pugnacious rhetoric of his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, means looking back 105 years. In 1921, a year before Benito Mussolini and his blackshirts marched on Rome to launch the Fascist era, an Italian general named Giulio Douhet published The Command of the Air, proposing a revolution in warfare.

Victory in the future, he said, would no longer come from the grinding trench combat of the great war. Instead it meant large-scale aerial bombardments, targeting not just combatants but civilians and civilian infrastructure and logistics.

“[It] is much more important to destroy a railroad station, a bakery, a war plant, or to machine-gun a supply column, moving trains, or any other behind-the-lines objective, than to strafe or bomb a trench.

  • Big Baby Thor
    14·
    2 days ago

    Help to do what, invade another country? Iraq and Afghanistan wasn’t enough?

    Iran in particular is designed as a state that can operate like terrorist cells. You can’t just destroy a central body and the government goes away.

    And again, why invade? Iran was on the brink of revolution, it’s state under financial pressure. It would have sorted itself out. But now, when the strictness of war is at play?

    Precision strikes have historically not worked as a regime killer. It make’a no sense to rely on a strategy that’s a proven failure.

    So why do it?

    I personally think it’s to solidify the Iranian regime, so that they become determined and focused once more. This will ensure that they stay a significant threat in the region and that the Israelis have an advantageous adversary to point their fingers at.

    But yeah, fuck all of this. It’s just so dumb.

    • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz
      4·
      2 days ago

      Iran was on the brink of revolution, it’s state under financial pressure. It would have sorted itself out

      Starving a country via sanctions has never resulted in a revolution, except maybe South Africa. While the stated purpose is to cause enough misery within the population they overthrow the government, the real purpose is to weaken it so it can’t defend its people when we’re ready to bomb them.