Iβm noticing a lot of foreigners who seem to not understand why weβd risk hundreds of lives, spend millions of dollars, and sacrifice several aircraft to rescue one guy. And the reason they donβt understand is also the reason people canβt be made American by a piece of paper.
If the USA had abandoned or mangled the WSO recovery:
- risk of pilots / commanders blinking on mission
- Iran propaganda coup
- adverse impact on conduct of war & any negotiations
- reminder of the Hanoi Hilton
Instead, we got this:
- fearsome demonstration of strength, we're not just armaments
- evidence of fearless courage, same courage expressed in the GWOT
- fulfills the promises & expectations of training
- demonstrates ferocity of US forces, in excess even of the reputed IDF & ROK when recovering team-members
- demonstrates a fusion of forces acting in concert with OpSec
- will make people wargame, "what if we had this same Dept of War and C-inC during the GWOT, Libya, Bosnia, Vietnam, Bay of Pigs?"
- sends message to every member of the Dept of War: we've got you
- lastly, but foremost, brings home our WSO
For that, as πΊπΈ taxpayer, I'm willing to blow up a $1b worth of hardware. This act saves lives.
Euros will ring hands, count Carbon & Methane emissions, pray to allah, and not risk any hardware because every military component of theirs is a de facto capital asset - they're morally, militarily, ethically, mentally, functionally, and financially cucked and bankrupt. They're no longer democratic, ruled by regimes they can't vote out nor change. They don't even know it's Easter (and Passover) and your own Defenders of the Faith are now nibbling halal in the vain hope their grandchildren aren't raped or beheaded.
You forgot who lies buried in the American cemetaries of Europe.