- cross-posted to:
- worldnews@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- worldnews@lemmy.ml
Reuters explains that the air defence system was overwhelmed:
Offering a sense of the scale of the attack, Central Command said most of the missiles were intercepted though others hit the base.
The intriguing part is that Reuters refrains from identifying Patriot system by name. These assaults are intensifying the strain on an already overstretched US air defence system, which is needed to protect US interests in Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.
Total Patriot production in 2023 was at only 500 missiles per year, aiming to increase production to 650 in 2024. It’s also worth noting that at least two missiles are fired during each intercept.
It’s pretty clear that this is not sustainable, and it’s incredibly cost ineffective when the system ends up using multi-million dollar missiles to intercept drones that cost mere thousands of dollars to produce.
The United States’ occupation of the Middle East is fundamentally untenable from both a strategic and political standpoint, much like its proxy war in Ukraine, or its escalating conflict with China. Yet, Washington persists in pursuing an aggressive course of action without considering alternative options.
Oh for sure, US overplayed its hand and now the whole hegemony is starting to unravel. The thing is that US is hated by pretty much everyone outside the west, and what kept a lid on things was the fact that everyone was terrified of becoming the next Iraq, Libya, or Syria. The idea that US had superior military power to everyone else was simply taken for granted. And I imagine this state of things could’ve gone on for years to come had the war in Ukraine not started. Now, US has been exposed as an emperor who has no clothes.
Everyone can see that US weapons are no better than Russian ones, and now it’s becoming clear that there are physical limits to US military power. US is lacking in stocks and in industry necessary to match even Russia. Meanwhile, China eclipses Russia in terms of its industrial strength.
On top of all that, US economic warfare against Russia has also failed, and it’s now backfiring. US economy is now faltering while European economy is imploding. All the while we’re seeing BRICS economy that’s completely independent of the west growing stronger by the day.
All of this is a direct result of starting a proxy war with Russia which forced everyone to lay their cards out on the table.
The US is militarily superior to almost every other country. But only in a flash. The emptiness of a finance economy means there’s nothing to sustain the momentum if it takes longer than a week. And you know what they say about the ants and the elephant. Except the US was never an elephant. It’s long been bloated carrion, as it’s vulture capitalists intended. Now the ants will slowly pick the bones.
I’d argue that the whole idea of US military superiority is just a carefully curated myth. The reason they’ve been able to overwhelm countries in a flash was because they’d pick on small isolated countries with small poorly equipped militaries. Ukraine is the first time we’re seeing US tech going up against a military peer and all of it was soundly defeated on the battlefield. US is a paper tiger.
It is even still taken for granted by some on the left, not to use a hyper-online anecdote, but mosey on over to the last Hexbear news megathread you can see there was a long discussion over whether the US can just pull itself together and revamp all our military manufacturing, because we finally understand things are serious, and Europe can help. Nevermind electricity or transportation or labor. We have money magic, I guess.
This is part of my problem with some nominally pro-resistance media, it can reinforce the premises of MSM in a way that reinforces only defeatism and sometimes even boils down to wishful thinking about a Zionist antiwar movement.
That’s an inevitable outcome of living in a society that fundamentally rejects the idea of material analysis. People really have to go out of their way to learn a different perspective on economics, and most people never find their way there. This is precisely why so much of western left devolves into stuff like identity politics as opposed to committing to a class struggle.