Posted on 04/06/2026 4:42:30 AM PDT by MtnClimber
There’s nothing really new in the uproar surrounding the loss of a USAF F-15E Strike Eagle over Iran this past weekend. Media hysteria over the downing of a single U.S. aircraft has become a commonplace schtick in coverage of American wars over the past three decades.
During WW II, the U.S. lost over 23,000 planes in combat. I kid you not, playmates: 23,000+ – and that’s only combat losses. Overall losses, including accidents, amounted to 65,164. The media talking heads would have had to be carried out in straitjackets if they’d been active at the time.
Losses dropped sharply following WW II. In Korea, the USAF lost 147 shot down out of a total of 1,000+ losses. During the Vietnam War, 67 USAF planes were lost to North Vietnamese MiGs. The majority of the 1737 lost in combat were targeted by SAMs and anti-aircraft artillery.
Media acting out over relatively miniscule losses began in 1991 with the First Gulf War. On January 17, 1991, the opening night of the war, an F/A-18 piloted by Lt. Scott Speicher was shot down over Iraq, the war’s first fatality.
SNIP
As this piece is being drafted, word has come down that the WSO of the downed F-15 has been rescued by Special Forces troops after a dramatic battle with IRGC forces. A fine gift on this Easter morn.
Not that the Left, within the media or out, is going to appreciate it. That’s not what they want. They want American aircraft downed by the bushel. They want Navy ships ablaze in the Gulf. They want our troops captured, battered by mobs, and tortured. But if they can’t get that, they’ll do their best with the occasional aircraft downing.
We haven’t heard the last aircraft shootdown frenzy.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
As if we should never have any member of our armed forces in harm’s way. They would have to be in perpetual standdown mode for that to be the case. There’s nothing like unconditional surrender to put you in harm’s way.
Back in the dinosaur days when I actually flew one of those planes, I’d have loved to take a wimpy ‘journalist’ up and let he/she/it/whatever experience the joys of 7+ Gs, multiple reversals and barf bags.
Our corrupt media would have characterized Hitler as a lover of art and successful book author with a record of supporting workers’ rights
Worth noting
Yes. F35 production is about 150 per year. And E7 and tanker production are zero
Which is kind of amazing given budget size
who leave “college” with many more unresolved mental issues than they went into college with.
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College implants numerous mind viruses in them.
What really ticks me off is that they always start out with plans for a big production run...then they find they can save 10% (overall) if they cut the number built in half, and then another 10% if they again cut the number in half...and we wind up at a small fraction of what we had during the Cold War. And, each time, they rationalize the disarming by saying stuff like “We don’t need as many as we’ve reached the End of History (so no more wars)”, or some shit like that.
...and then the Neocons go running around the world starting up wars that we end up losing, or at least walking away from without winning, and no one ever wants to stop them - not even Trump.
Probably Jews behind that.
You can blame Free Traitors and a lack of tariffs for ruining our industrial base.
Peace is not the normal state of nature.
War is the default state of the world.
If you are to have a world where commerce between nations is relatively safe and common (where everyone wins in mutually beneficial transactions), there has to be a way to enforce the peace.
This means you have to be willing to fight to keep the peace.
Sounds contradictory, but people are able to sleep peacefully in their homes because men with weapons who are willing to fight keep the peace.
Don Henley, Dirty Laundry, RIP.
Much truth to the article.
The MSM needs to be reined in so that it is factual and unbiased in its reporting.
But this problem is really not new, for the media to engage in shaping public opinion has been going on for probably centuries. The difference is that it has gradually ramped up to outright lying beginning with the 60’s.
Laws and/or the Constitution need to be changed to stop this, and include severe penalties such as jailing of those that engage in truth manipulation as well as pulling licenses of any news organizations they work for.
I do realize this is all fantasy, for it will never happen unless there is a true Republican super majority in DC with enough backbone to make it happen. Again, another fantasy.
Interestingly, the Daily Fail yanked the story after DataRepublican on X showed an interest in both the story and the presstitute who wrote it.
What is it with the left’s mad-on for the 1rst Amendment...
I don’t like Don Henley much, but boy, that song hit it squarely on the head, didn’t it?
There is an old saying that applies:
"A Ship in a harbor is a safe ship. But that is not what ships are for."
We lose about 10 jets a year to mechanical failures. bird strikes and accidents .
The US has flown almost as many combat sorties in the last 6 weeks as we typically fly training sorties in a year so we are in the unusual situation that our our combat losses may actually be lower than our training losses for the given number of flight. Our ground losses are what have been heavy .
Force protection is not nearly as cool as 6th generation jets and it's really, really expensive so both the Air Force and Navy have been asleep a the wheel when It comes to force protection. When your aircraft are very hard to shoot down in the air, it only makes sense that the enemy is going to try double hard to destroy them on the ground.
Our Iran experience on ground losses has been hard won in the Middle East , but they are light. It's a cheap lesson that may save us in the next war.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine...
Amen
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