Doomer media’s Iran spin is blatantly wrong — – Latest News
Gen. Colin Powell regularly suggested his intelligence analysts, “Tell me what you know; tell me what you don’t know; and then, based on what you really know and what you really don’t know, tell me what you think is most likely to happen.”
His sage steering is equally legitimate at present — particularly with regards to the media reporting on the struggle in Iran.
Going by the headlines, you’d suppose the United States is dropping.
Iran, analyst Robert Kagan informed us final week in The Atlantic, has successfully checkmated President Donald Trump.
Really? After solely 38 days of precise preventing?
Let’s be clear, Kagan bought it wrong.
Yet he’s not alone: For over a month now, many within the media have been writing the epitaph of a struggle that isn’t over.
“Doomsdaying” –– OK, not a phrase, however obligatory right here –– is quickly turning into Washington’s favourite sport.
And promoting defeat, undoubtedly for partisan political functions, is shamefully in vogue.
No surprise Trump is pissed off.
On Monday, he fumed on Truth Social that even when the regime surrenders, with its leaders bodily waving white flags, headlines will scream of Iran’s “Masterful and Brilliant Victory over The United States of America.”
During World War II, Winston Churchill warned that fact should be protected by a bodyguard of lies.
Today, far too many actors throughout your entire media spectrum are, wittingly or not, turning into the new bodyguard of lies.
And most of the distortions they’re spreading come courtesy of nameless sources — such because the experiences unfold final week by main media retailers claiming Iran may nonetheless possess 75% of its missile and launcher capability.
Iran is the one beneficiary right here.
Historically, it’s the enemy that creates the fog of struggle on the battlefield — but now, social media is driving us to create our own media fog that solely serves to assist Tehran.
So how will we see via the mist of misdirection?
First, by heeding Gen. Powell’s steering: Tell me what you already know.
That best information comes from Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command.
He is answerable for prosecuting the Iran operation and for reaching its assigned army targets.
His intelligence analysts and targeteers at CENTCOM, supported by the Defense Intelligence Enterprise, possess probably the most exact and up-to-date battle damage-assessment knowledge.
Notably, these knowledge factors don’t come from nameless sources within the Pentagon or the US intelligence neighborhood leaking undocumented or incomplete info.
When Cooper testified final week earlier than the Senate Armed Services Committee concerning the US army’s posture within the Middle East, his feedback differed starkly from the media’s drumbeat of failure.
Tellingly, his testimony aligned with what Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated days later, when he admitted that Iran “suffered harm” and that the regime should face the “reality” of the struggle.
Cooper famous that “CENTCOM rolled back 40 years of Iranian military investment” during Operation Epic Fury.
Doing so required 10,200 sorties and 13,500 strikes that “damaged or destroyed 85% of Iran’s ballistic missile, drone and naval defense industrial base.”
He specified that 82% of Iran’s air protection systems, “along with their radar and command architecture were knocked out.”
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And the United States sank 161 Iranian vessels, eliminating the regime as “a maritime power.”
Simply put, he defined, Iran is dropping.
Yes, Cooper stated, “Iran retains nuisance capability –– harassment, low-end drone and rocket attacks and residual proxy support.”
However, even when these capabilities might be mixed, they’re inadequate to militarily checkmate or defeat the United States.
And based mostly on Cooper’s sworn testimony, the US has a number of clear paths to tactical and strategic victory in Iran.
If Trump resumes offensive army operations as he has threatened, CENTCOM should transition from standard army targets to assault the regime’s asymmetrical capabilities — its “nuisance capability” — and re-establish transport within the Strait of Hormuz.
Light infantry, together with paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, Army Rangers, Marines and Special Forces, could be deployed to secure the far facet of the target: the Iranian shoreline.
Raids and assaults would deal with destroying hidden speedboats, coastal protection batteries, drone launch websites and targets of alternative noticed by persistent surveillance.
Those operations would thwart Tehran’s means to counter US Navy minesweepers and countermine ships despatched to open the transport lanes.
Destroying Iran’s heart of gravity, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and its paramilitary forces would be the final heavy raise.
That will require the help of allies, primarily Israel, whose protection forces are uniquely certified — given Mossad property on the ground — to proceed decapitating Iran’s management.
Otherwise, they’ll keep conducting uneven assaults on US and allied forces, giving the looks of victory regardless of being on the cusp of defeat.
Meanwhile, take heed to strong sources like Cooper.
As he testified, a lot of what’s being reported within the media is “not accurate.”
Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as a army intelligence officer. Mark Toth writes on national security and international coverage.
