Simplicius: U.S. Suffers Worst Day of Air Losses in Decades as Iran Conflict Spirals
The Iran conflict is escalating, with the Trump administration desperate to keep a straight face on things as American casualties and losses begin mounting.
The Iran conflict is escalating, with the Trump administration desperate to keep a straight face on things as American casualties and losses begin mounting.
Today’s major shock came when not one, not two, but an unprecedented three American F-15E fighter jets were mysteriously shot down over Kuwait. Note the official US military report admits that Iranian aircraft had been engaging them at a time when “air superiority” was allegedly long established:
But not everyone is convinced these were “friendly fire” incidents. Iran announced it had downed the craft, which is at least plausible given that Kuwait is positioned well within reach of long-range S-300s.
There are even logical speculations that Iran had received the latest Geran drone tech from Russia which attaches air-to-air missiles onto the Gerans and Shaheds, allowing them to shoot down pursuing craft as Russia has now verifiably demonstrated against a number of Ukrainian aerial assets. It’s impossible to know for sure, but friendly fire on three aircraft in a row strains credulity.
That said, if friendly fire was the case we can point to how the West mocked and ridiculed Russia for its supposed lack of IFF (Identify Friend Foe) systems, when Russian ADs occasionally shot down their own assets in highly contested air spaces. But even Russia has never managed to humiliate itself with three lead aircraft shoot-downs in the same hour, let alone the same day. It’s clear that once again we find everything the West mocked Russia for over the past few years the West itself finds difficult in time of a real shooting war.
Recall how superior US’s IFF systems were said to be, now suddenly it quickly turns to “Well, we always knew IFF wasn’t reliable…”
Next came the news that US soldier casualties are mounting, with now six US personnel confirmed killed with others wounded.
Iran officials claim over 650 US casualties so far, which includes wounded. At first glance this may appear like wild exaggeration, but recall that “dozens” of US troops were wounded with “severe brain trauma” according to official US sources after Iran did a minor one-time strike on US bases following Soleimani’s killing.
So why would it be unbelievable that the “dozens” of casualties can translate into hundreds given that Iran’s current attacks are orders of magnitude greater?
The first U.S. service members killed in the conflict with Iran died in a direct Iranian strike on a makeshift operations center at a civilian port in Kuwait on Sunday morning local time, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
The source said the strike hit just after 9 a.m., directly impacting a triple-wide trailer used as office space. There were no warning sirens. Parts of the building were still smoldering hours later.
Additionally, major damage is being done to American assets all across the region. US’s Bahrain base, which is the home of the US 5th Fleet, has sustained massive damage according to satellite imagery obtained by NYT:
Satellite images from March 1, reviewed by The New York Times, show heavy damage at Naval Support Activity Bahrain, home of the U.S. 5th Fleet, after sustained Iranian missile and drone strikes.
The white satellite uplink radome you see on the above map is the same one seen hit by Iranian Shahed drones in yesterday’s video:
Note that US assets appear completely defenseless and unable to deal with even a light saturation of drones, as witnessed in another video where Shaheds calmly decommission another regional US base as American troops look on in helpless shock:
The other interesting aspect that has emerged from the conflict is the admission by Iran that the state military apparatus has gone into a kind of full-scale war survival mode, wherein various military regional commanders are tasked with responding autonomously without a central command. This was admitted even by Iranian FM Araghchi when he seemed to regret certain targets that Iran had struck because they were not targets chosen by a central authority but rather lone commanders, potentially even rogue ones.
“Our military units are now, in fact, independent and somewhat isolated, and they are acting based on general instructions given to them in advance.” - Iranian FM Araghchi
🐻 Translation from diplomatic speak to normal:
“Well... the Epstein Coalition killed our leader so now the army basically does what it wants.”
Granted, he says these “independent” commanders are given a kind of general set of instructions but appear to have room to maneuver in their own decision-making. This is akin to submarine commanders in the Cold War who might be deployed for extended periods of time and completely severed from communications under the ocean, and are given a set of instructions along with highly risky ‘discretion’ to act in accordance with their conscience perhaps in the time of a nuclear exchange.
Big Serge comments on the pros and cons of such a strategy:
It’s a very weird war.
Multiple sources have now indicated that Iran has rejected various ceasefire offers and appears to be going all out, at least until enough blood has been drawn to satisfy the Iranians’ thirst for vengeance.
A writer and lecturer on Islam illuminates the issue:
To understand the significance of Khamenei's assassination and why its such a catastrophic blunder for the US, consider this:
The last part segues us into the firestorm which erupted earlier in the day over the admission made by several top US figures—including Marco Rubio and Mike Johnson—that the US was essentially blackmailed into launching the war by Israel.
Mike Johnson explained:
“Israel was determined to act in their defense here, with or without our help… Because Israel was determined to act, with or without the U.S., our commander in chief had a very difficult decision to make…”
NYT gives us the incredible line that Trump told Tucker Carlson he had “no choice” but to attack Iran:
Does that sound like the actions of a sovereign nation?
In fact, Senator Mark Warner stated this expressly today—that if the US is now equating imminent threats to Israel as threats to the US, then “we are in uncharted territory”:
Unfortunately, Mr. Warner appears aloof to the fact that the US has been knee-deep in this ‘territory’ for many long decades already. But the latest debacle clearly represents a new awakening of the masses to the danger posed by the rogue state of Israel to the US. With US troop deaths mounting, anger is growing around the question of what the US is doing in another war fought for a hostile foreign power.
Considering that the support for Israel is falling, their political leverage in the United States will be expiring within a decade or so. Israel, therefore, has every incentive to pursue the most radical course of action, like there is no tomorrow
He hits it on the head. As I’ve written here many times before: Israel views this period as an eschatological final battle because the demographics and socio-cultural trends are shifting catastrophically against Israel’s favor.
I’ll repeat the core thesis of what I have written here before to summarize:
- Israel is losing the demographic war, being vastly outgrown in population by Palestinians and other Muslim neighbors.
- Israel is losing its political and cultural yoke over the US as the “Judeo-Christian”-brainwashed boomer generation slowly dies out and the latest generation no longer has reason to appreciate the conceit that “Israel is our greatest ally”.
- Israel is losing its technological edge. With the advent and proliferation of cheap modern tech, even ragtag resistance groups like Hamas, Houthis, Hezbollah, etc., have access to satellite intel, AI, various cheap drones which provide outsize ISR and other essential capabilities which give them an ability to punch way above their weight against the IDF.
- Israel is losing the information and propaganda war due to spread of modern social media, ubiquity of cameras, etc., which all lead to an unstoppable flow of incidents spurring the great “noticing” that is impossible for AIPAC, ADL, etc., to fully curb.
All of these developments combined means that Israeli planners see the writing on the wall, which is that Israel is careening toward an existential crisis whereupon it will lose its capability to defend itself against its enemies in the not-too-distant future—likely the 2030-2040 period. Thus, they have decided that the only way to preserve Israel’s existence is to go “all out” with a final hail Mary series of escalations which began with the October 7 false flag designed to enter a prolonged period of all out war to destroy all threats to Israel once and for all, and pave the way for the eventual establishment of Greater Israel across the Middle East.
This dilemma is now being reflected in recent clips showing various figures across Israel again invoking the eschatological aspect of this latest Iranian conflict, with Netanyahu himself using the Amalek dog whistle earlier.
“Cursed Khamenei Amalek”
The Hesder Yeshiva in Acre celebrates Khamenei’s death
CNN, which is soon to be owned by ultra-Zionist Larry Ellison if the latest Paramount acquisition deal goes through, published this article at the start of the attacks on Iran:
The Israeli crypto-theocracy is clearly waging this battle as a final eschatological Armageddon against “Amalek” which it believes will culminate in their ability to build the Third Temple and fulfill all messianic prophecy, at least as per the demented visions of Netanyahu and his clan of addle-brained zealots.
It’s now or never for Israel: if it does not secure its future by destroying its enemies for all time, then its prospects diminish by the inverse square law each year.
From 2025:
In the wake of Khamenei’s killing there are some unsubstantiated reports that he was suffering from cancer and only had a year to live anyway, which if true could explain his choice to not seek ‘safe shelter’ and essentially allow himself to be martyred.
After his death, photos revealed the final humble dwellings of the Supreme Leader—from Thomas Keith:
These are the photos of the house of the Leader of the Revolution, Sayyid Ali Khamenei, released only after his martyrdom and after his residence was targeted. The simplicity of the space is exactly what his followers always described, a life stripped to its essence, lived in service of Allah.
Contrast his values with those of the clan of billionaire deviants which hunted him and is now seeking to subjugate his nation.
Net worths from Forbes:
A fitting posy to end on:
“My life has little value. I have a disabled body. I have a little bit of dignity which you yourself have given to me. I put all this on the line. I am ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of this revolution and Islam.”
One taught his nation humility, the other barbarous larceny.
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