Iran - Israel/US War: Israel-US declare war on Iran, Iran responds

[Aggregate]

This is the first time in history the US rescued two pilots in enemy territory back to back

They are going to make movies and tv shows about this shit for years. Fml

Bro, we shot down an Indian plane in 2019, locals caught and beat up the pilot, paraded the pilot around, he sat on camera and appreciated our tea with an embarrassed stare , then we handed him back to the enemy in front of the world media.

After all of this ... India gave him a medal and ended up making a movie about his heroic 'escape' form Pakistan anyway. To this day Indians tell stories of his heroics and how Pakistanis supposedly "feared" him all the time while he was in Pakistan. And a large number in India believe the movie version, too.

The lesson being that even if you had caught the pilot and made him insult Trump on camera, Americans would have cooked up a movie anyway.

Iran shot the plane, shot 2 more and damaged even more in rescue attempts and were just unlucky in capturing him on account of the large terrain and lack of equipment. World knows what happened here, let the US make as many movies as they want, its not gonna wipe off the embarrassment about their actual losses.

 

[TallarnDesertRaider]

You are unable to assess the optics.

1 - Iran couldn't stop them from evacuating the pilot deep inside the country fighting against 200+ enemy soldiers.

2 - The US cares about its every single soldier and is ready to lose expensive equipment.

The American public will go drunk tonight. This operation will improve Trump's approval rating.

In a war, majorly of the times, the optics are equally important when evaluated against the physical wins.

Honestly I'm not certain how it'll play out. People who were in favor of the war already, die hard MAGA cultists, as are even present on this board, will always find some way to justify any action, and therefore nothing could ever take them out of the group supporting the war. People who are on the fence may see it as a cool operation, not sure if it'll swing them either way. People who were against the war will remain against the war, and see the material cost of rescuing two pilots as far greater than the assets retrieved (yes, I'm aware the US has a pilot shortage - or did, as of 2024, but afaik it wasn't critical or anything, we just had more hypothetical air frames than active pilots, but maybe active duty people can speak more to this).
Certainly Newsmax and Fox and their constituent populations will have erections lasting long into the early week over this, but I don't know that it'll swing the public perception of it much. We've been getting told by the president and the government aligned media wings that we've won for a month straight already.

 

[lamdacore]

Does Luxembourg have an air force?

The point is this...

If you are a regional power, such as Spain or Italy or Saudi Arabia or JPN, then your potential threats are your immediate neighbors. That is %99 of the world. You do not make threats "Death to <whoever>" on the other side of the world, especially when that <whoever> can come to your house any time they feel like it. And the US did it once: Iraq.

I expect only %.001 of PDF members here learned what happened to Iran when it comes to air power in general.

Mate the war is not over. First see it through then make these tall claims.

 

[Persian Gulf]

 

[Hayabusa]

Bro, we shot down an Indian plane in 2019, locals caught and beat up the pilot, paraded the pilot around, he sat on camera and appreciated our tea with an embarrassed stare , then we handed him back to the enemy in front of the world media.

Even after all of this ... India gave him a medal and ended up making a movie about his heroic 'escape' form Pakistan. To this day Indians tell stories of his heroics in getting away from Pakistan and how he made us all supposedly "fear him"

The lesson being that even if you had caught the pilot, Americans would have cooked up a movie anyway in the end.

Iran shot the plane, shot 2 more and damaged even more in rescue attempts and were just unlucky in capturing him on account of the large terrain and lack of equipment.

Hilariously true. So do not fret on the movies, they will eventually come regardless.

An X post below, beautifully explained as well.

 

[hussain0216]

Because they wanted to emulate black hawk down bro. They walk on water bro

I think they got the pilot but this mission seems like a chaotic mess where they lost multiple aircraft and I'm sure had multiple casualties/fatalities

 

[Shui]

This is the first time in history the US rescued two pilots in enemy territory back to back

They are going to make movies and tv shows about this shit for years. Fml

I can see you having melt down from time to time and then having high hopes again, you are fighting till this day solely because heavy investment in asymmetrical warfare, which is proven highly effective when Iran doesn't have an airforce to begin with, yes, it is not looking pretty for them to evacuted the pilots inside your own territory, but it is what it is considering they have total air superioty, it's almost impossible for Iranian to gather manpower on the ground nor searching through air, just contiune with what Iran is capable.

 

[PakSword]

I hope Iran learns from this incident very quickly and doesn't close its eyes to avoid looking at the ground realities that most of the members are doing here.

Acceptance of the mistakes and timely identification of your weaknesses to address them makes you win the wars.

 

[SolarWarden]

Look at that mess to rescue two POW.

The American motto of "no man left behind" has resulted in an absolute mess here. Iran doesn't need to sweat the rescue here. The sheer chaos of it is a psychological win. While it is a good PR stunt, it is a huge blow that's going to live rent free in their planner head and force them to rethink before going into Iran's territory.

Most likely they will further deplete their stand off weapons even more now.

All these aircraft listed the US has a crap load in reserve I'm not saying you're coping but your post is very exaggerated. US military puts a very high value for their men and woman and will go to great extremes even losing equipment by the $millions if it means bringing him back safely.

 

[Immortals]

It appears regional commanders did not dispatch any professional units. This all looks like organized local militias and tribal groups.

 

[ResurgentIran2]

What mud???????

View attachment 190279

Not really buying that narrative either. The question is whether the reports are true that no US personnel died. Looking at that scene (assuming it either crashed or was shot down), that should have been a mass casualty event.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

3- Not even a single US soldier was killed in the rescue operation.

Iran needs to incorporate the drone tactics into the ground warfare just like Ukraine against Russia.

 

[Persian Gulf]

the base in Kuwait should have been more heavily bombarded to prevent landing there

but this was not possible either unfortunately

 

[Immortals]

All these aircraft listed the US has a crap load in reserve I'm not saying you're coping but your post is very exaggerated. US military puts a very high value for their men and woman and will go to great extremes even losing equipment by the $millions if it means bringing him back safely.

The funny thing is, if Russia did this same operation in Ukraine, the entire western world media would be laughing at how incompetent Russia was losing all this equipment during the rescue operation and how garbage the SU-34 is for being shot down.

Optics always come out on top for the U.S. it seems.

 

[SolarWarden]

200KM in Zargos mountains is not deep inside Iran. By such logic if Canada had a fighter jet get shot down 500KM inside Montana it would be “deep inside” the US.

The pilot had a satellite communication device and was in active communication with his rescue team. He had a distress beacon. He hid in a crevice in the mountains. The CIA activated its assets. Military satellites were overhead. Dozens of aircraft using thermal imaging looking for him. And bombing any Iranian convoy that got within 3 KM.

The hell you expect to happen? You act like the pilot fell in Tehran and hid inside a dumpster before escaping inside of an ice cream truck.

Iran had a 3-4 hour window after the crash to find a needle in a haystack before U.S. chain of command could mobilize and put a plan together. Intial pics of the crash was reported at 9:30 AM local time. 6 hours later they rescued the first pilot.

That’s impossible for Iran to react and find a person in that terrain before the Americans.

Not to mention Iran had to do this without ghetto birds A.K.A helicopters with thermals or other aircraft for obvious reasons.