US/Israel conduct airstrikes on Iran again

Pictures circulating now of an E-3 awacs destroyed on the ground in Saudi Arabia. A big blow to US losing one of those, especially in a war they have air superiority

Here is some

Then China will screw Europe over and all our lame leaders will ask "why did we make the same mistake twice?" and issue a few strongly worded letters.

The US under Trump is an enemy, not an ally, but only a very naive person would think that makes China a reliable alternative

China is too powerful to be forced to do anything. They were the only ones to resist the United States tariff policy to show their power.

I can see a limited US invasion now but doubt any other country will be involved. What a mess, living up to the saying , Failure to prepare...

Iran are saying that Trump is up to his old trick of saying he is very interested in "negotiations" whilst secretly preparing for a surprise ground invasion. At least they have his number at this point.

That looks very precise.

I can't help but feel that all sending more troops to the region does is just give Iran more targets, especially as their on the ground intel is very accurate. If the stories about the troops hiding off base in civilian settings like hotels being hit is confirmed then they won't be able to sneeze without being seen.

I can't help thinking this may go disastrously wrong for the US. The Iranian army are professional and well organised and led (arguably much better than Iraq in the two Gulf wars). Probably not dissimilar to Ukraine in 2022 - it's clear that Putin hugely underestimated how effective the Ukrainian army would be at defending their land.

As was the argument with Brexit. If you put a customs post on the border you crate a target for people to attack.

That's as far as Trump will get, a few holds here and there for Iran to bomb.

And let's not forget what their response might be.

They can hit energy or desalination plants in GCC to cause mayhem.

There is a huge disconnect between what the planners hope the outcome of their bombing attacks in Iran are achieving, versus the actual results.

As an example, reports from a range of sources yesterday that Israel struck Yazd, one of the "Missile cities"
A successful strike too by all accounts, yet Iran immediately launched a retaliatory strike from the bombed location.

Now there are multiple reports that the Israeli bombing was actually in response to a launch, rather than there being an immediate Iranian counter launch.
That said, Yazd has been hit at least 17 times since war began, and they are still launching missiles.

If the US/Israeli strikes can't prevent counterfire from locations they are aware of?
One can't help but wonder how effectively any troops put ashore will manage counter battery fire, when the battery they are countering is a pile of fibre optic guided drones rather than MLRS or tube artillery.

I think those planes could be described as ‘sitting ducks’. That’s not the first attack on this airfield in this war.
The Americans don’t, won’t, can’t learn it seems.

Indeed. However Europe really has to accelerate any and all significant reliance on the US.

You can bet that despite Trump not asking for permission or even advising his 'allies' before starting this war, he will use the fact that none of the EU states or indeed NATO came to 'help' them when asked to further break up the NATO alliance and potentially see the US gone for good from it.

The only nations this turmoil suits are Russia and to a lesser extent China.

The EU unfortunately have to increase arms spending or do the smart thing and in parallel build up diplomatic relationships where possible with those nations that currently pose threats.

The thing is, it's not just Trump, there seems to be a whole cohort of people in and around government who seem to think this is how affairs should be conducted and have no issues with the thought processes that brought us to this point.