I have postponed writing this for several days now while my thoughts varied from very cautious optimism to fearful pessimism. The media (on all sides) appears to me to be clueless. Tey select items to support their own point of view and omit others. My own sources remain openly published items, so they obviously are editing what they report.
Let me start by saying that I was happy to see an end to open fighting because it gave hope to the possibility that a ‘deal’ could be made. My own view is that the US position needs to be reflected almost totally in ant agreement reached. Iran must not keep or produce highly enriched uranium. The Iranian missile programs must be curtailed. Iran must cease exporting terrorism (i.e. support for extreme Islamic ideology (and that is a very difficult idea for them to accept, or enforce). There are lots of complicated details behind these points. Inspections to ensure compliance is just one of the more complex issues to hat will have to be dealt with.
One of the most troubling reports from the field is the actions of the Iranian leaders in ordering an emphasis on digging out the entrances to tunnels where dozens of their missile launcher are currently buried. American and Israeli bombing was not always able to destroy those launchers when they were visible so they settled for blasting the entrances to the tunnels, trapping the launchers inside.
Another problematic area is the diplomatic war. I simply do not understand why so many world ‘leaders’ are not joining in to eliminate the Iranian threat to Western Civilization. They have to be blind not to see what Iran was building. Appeasement was a bad strategy a century ago. It still is now. Those same individuals are used to distorting facts when it is their interest, but anyone who dismisses an existential threat as rhetoric imperils both himself and his friends.
This brings us to the next to last point. The Straits of Hormuz are an international body of water that international law says must be open to the free passage of non-belligerent shipping. America went to war over this principle in 1917. The entire world ought to be vocally supporting the idea now, and to support such declarations with force, if necessary.
Finally, I want to point out the tremendous advantage the US enjoys in weaponry. More American aircraft have been downed by American weapons than by any other source. American Anti-aircraft missiles downed USAF F-15s over Kuwait. An American destroyer shot down a navy attack plane due to mistaken identification. To add insult to injury, one American aircraft carrier engaged in high-speed maneuvering to avoid Iranian missiles. The sad result was that a flight deck towing tractor and the plane it was pulling were lost over the side. But no Iranian weaponry successfully hit any USN ship. The navy missiles and CIWS guns were successful in downing everything that got through the outer defenses. The first US laser guns are currently deployed with the Fifth Fleet, and the Inshore Fighting Ships in the area include some configured for anti-mine warfare even though as of the time I’m writing this, no mines have been discovered. The high efficiency of Israeli air defenses has been widely reported, but the American systems are very effective, too.
Wetherhorn 