You saw the title. Let's dig into it. Oh and feel free to pushback on ANY of my thoughts/ideas about this thing. I can tell ya know I'm gonna be real critical from the top to the bottom.
* The Navy wasn't ready & the Marine Corps was useless. It was gonna be an air war and we didn't see/hear much about the USMC contributing to the fight. Heard about Army AH-64's conducting maritime missions against Iranian speedboats, Air Force A-10's working all over the place but not much from the Corps.
The Navy? Not much better. They had sortie generation but resupply was an issue. Quite honestly if they were running low on food I can't help but wonder about munitions.
* The Air Force did real work. The corporate branch of the military was frontline. Don't know if they just had better propaganda or if they were actually hookin and jabbin from the start but it sure looked like it.
Gotta give them credit for the kinetic fight. They led it. From bombers to strikers they were the face of the fight and did well....except for one thing.
Forward basing cost them big. When you have aircraft that are few in number but in high demand and watch them burn up on the tarmac then you have problems. The concept is just fucked up in the age of tactical long range missiles/drones. No hardened hangars, no dispersal...its like the war in Europe never happened.
* The Army is mid. A weak mid. Just like the USAF once claimed that no enemy air force would attack our forces (I guess they've upheld that), the Army's portion was to provide protection to the joint force against tactical missiles and now drones. Didn't work out. Just ask the Air Force and look at their bases.
The MLRS was somewhat of a success but the fog of war has us a bit blind as far as their REAL effectiveness.
* The President made an ass of himself and lowered confidence in his leadership. He over promised and under delivered. I haven't counted but how many times did he tell us the war would end soon? How many times did he promise that high food/fuel/everything prices that were caused by the war would drop soon.
You can point to the Iran war as the primary reason why the Republicans lose the House and I believe the Senate this year.
* Pentagon. I like the Defense Sec (refuse to call it War Dept...idiotic rebranding, thought only Dems did that shit) but he had no plan and its quite obvious they didn't. You can't tell me that someone there didn't wargame Iran closing down the Straits. But even with that they had no plan to reopen them. No dedicated "scud hunt" to attempt to knock out all missile sites and to sink every speedboat.
I just don't know. These are suppose to be the brains that will defeat China? I don't see it. Confidence is non-existent in a future fight with them at this point.
Just a ragged view of things from my chair. What do ya'll say.
