Iran Won Because America Is Stuck in the ‘Smart Bomb Trap’

Recorded in May. Join angryplanetpod.com to hear episodes early and commercial free.America’s war against Iran has gone on for more than two months and the United States has achieved none of its political objectives. American power has diminished, its munitions stockpile is low, and Iran now controls the Strait of Hormuz.Tehran has all the cards.To hear Robert Pape tell it, this was all predictable. Pape is a political scientist who teaches at the University of Chicago and specializes in the use of violence to achieve political goals. He’s the author of Bombing to Win and a scholar of air power failures. On this episode of Angry Planet, Pape walks us through the uses of air power, why it never achieves victory on its own, and why the Pentagon keeps promising it will.How you become an air power expertLosing Vietnam after such perfect precisionMan as meme“You don’t learn this by real estate deals.”There has not been a single case in history where air power alone has succeeded.“Our power is declining as a result of this.”The persistent myth of winning through air powerDumb bombs to precision weapons“It’s a dismal record of failure.”NATO in KosovoWhat are America’s definable political goals?Iran’s political goalsIran says seized tanker in Gulf of Oman, as US ‘disables’ two shipsPunishment, denial, and decapitationThe fragmenting GCCPape as CasandraBreaking Trump in the Strait of Hormuz“This will end up being America’s worst defeat since Vietnam.”A grim predictionThe Escalation TrapThe Gulf States Just Voted on American PowerFrom Kosovo to Iran: The Smart Bomb Trap and the Risk of Catastrophic EscalationBuy Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in WarSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.