The Iran-Lebanon War Cover-up

https://truthout.org/articles/trump-administration-covering-up-extensive-damage-done-to-us-bases-by-iran/

https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/israel-largest-tank-losses-40yrs-ambushes-21-merkava

It's not surprising to learn that the Pentagon has been trying to cover-up losses and damage to US assets. The fact that Iran can strike back does not fit with the US narrative.

Over the years there's been many aircraft downed and other incidents (in places like Iraq and Afghanistan) that the Pentagon insists was the result of mechanical error and the like - and yet the stories don't always stand. There's a real reticence to recognize any losses at the hands of enemy powers.

Israel is facing the same problem in South Lebanon as Hezbollah (once thought to be defeated) has managed to recently destroy a lot of Israeli tanks. This flies in the face of Netanyahu's narrative and makes him look bad. For its part Hezbollah has (in addition to adopting Ukraine-style anti-tank drone tactics) resorted to primitive communications such as networks of runners. After the pager catastrophe they can't trust phones or other modern radio or satellite communications. And so while seriously degraded, they are nevertheless putting up some serious resistance and by all accounts Israel is reeling as a result.

Trump is unhappy with NATO members for refusing to aid the US in its reckless war, but Merz in particular was singled out due to the fact that he more or less revealed the US is taking a beating. Overall casualty numbers are small but the public would be certainly shocked if they realized just how many Iranian rockets have gotten through US defenses and how much damage US military infrastructure has sustained. By all estimates the damage ranges into the billions of dollars. These realities both in the Middle East/Gulf region and with regard to Israel in Lebanon puts a rather different spin on the overall narrative and confirms what we already knew - Pete Hegseth is not only deranged and delusional but a serial liar akin to his boss.

In fact if the TruthOut article is right, over a dozen bases have been effectively destroyed and it was only because the Americans evacuated their troops that the casualty numbers haven't been higher. It's the one lesson the US learned from Vietnam - keep casualty numbers down and the public won't get upset.

As stated in a previous piece, Iran is employing Muhammad Ali's Rope-a-Dope strategy. Their sustaining the hits and letting the US and Israel run out of steam. Both nations are low on munitions - facing a supply crisis that cannot be remedied for several years - or so the estimates suggest. US Strategists tremble at the thought of war breaking out with China in the near term as US stockpiles are (at present) insufficient to fight the kind of war the US has planned for.

In the meantime, oil prices continue to rise and Trump is facing political pressure at home with high fuel prices. Iran can't 'win' in military terms but they can 'humiliate' the US (as Merz put it) by drawing this out and creating a situation in which the US is forced to withdraw and perhaps even make concessions. That would constitute a victory. Clearly, Trump has already had to walk back any boastful claims of demanding an unconditional surrender. His reckless language matches his reckless conduct and he has only harmed himself on the international stage. Even members of his domestic cult are starting to second guess their fascistic leader and there are indications that significant numbers are starting to defect.

All of these factors help to explain why Trump and Hegseth are desperate to cover up the damage the Iranians have inflicted. The huge budget increases are most certainly connected to repairs, restoration, and near emergency re-supply - a point that will be harder to cover up over time. It seems the Trump administration has pulled out all its stops in order to suppress release of satellite photos or access by journalists. This will (I think) in time be revealed as a major scandal - at least I certainly hope so.

Undoubtedly Trump can rely on Evangelical figures like Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress and other such serpents to craft narratives in order to justify the deceit. We can only hope that in his desperation he doesn't do something drastic - leading to large-scale death if not global conflagration.