|
Trending Topics
|
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/opinion/iran-war-history.html
The War Is Going Better than You Think
(New York Times) Bret Stephens - In March 2012, the price of Brent crude closed at $123 a barrel - $175 a barrel in today's dollars. As of Tuesday, despite Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its attacks on its neighbors' energy facilities, the price is hovering around $100. That ought to provide some perspective on the panic over the price of oil. During the 1991 Operation Desert Storm against Iraq's Saddam Hussein, a campaign widely considered a brilliant military success, the U.S.-led coalition lost 75 aircraft, 42 of them in combat. In the conflict with Iran, four manned aircraft have been destroyed, three to friendly fire and one in an accident. Not a single manned plane has yet been lost over Iran. In 1991, Iraq fired 39 missiles toward Israel. Hardly any were intercepted despite the deployment of Patriot batteries there. In this war, Israel is registering an interception rate of 92% against more than 400 missiles. One of the worst mistakes of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was the attempt by the U.S. to remake societies in both countries. In this war, we hope the Iranian people use the opportunity of their leadership's weakness to seize their own destiny. But we won't do it for them. If past generations could see how well this war has gone compared with the ones they were compelled to fight at a frightening cost, they would marvel at their posterity's comparative good fortune.