Dr. Rashed Al Shashani
The decision of the United States to extend the mission of these old aircraft until 2023, after they were initially scheduled for retirement in 2026, reflects some aspects of the war on Iran, and US plans towards it, whether those that were successfully executed or those that failed and were replaced by others, or those still in line waiting for their zero hour. This suggests a serious aspiration—more serious than the negotiating effort—to continue military operations that pave or prepare for a sudden decisive ground operation.
On the other hand: This indicates the level of attrition that the US military force has experienced; in response to the slowdown in production that could compensate for this drain, this is evident in ignoring calls to abandon this costly maintenance aircraft; compared to the development of hypersonic weapons, this production slowdown is not measured by the number of units produced, but by the huge daily consumption rates that reach record limits, and may be counted by hours not days in return for its consumption in other wars, all in an effort for the United States to achieve a "zero point of attack" on Iran; while chasing this hope, it found itself compelled to a multitude of threats with few implementations at the level of these threats, which some of its officials considered a political strategy followed by the administration headed by Trump, known as "strategic ambiguity".
Trump's strategic ambiguity was not successful; in a reactive, rushed attempt like his to outmaneuver a calm, cool-headed, unbothered opponent like the Iranian, which led him into a trap of an urgent need to impose a blockade on top of his blockade; in order to pursue Iran's failure of this blockade in terms of the goals that Trump sought to subjugate Iran, the Iranian's cool nerves not only inspired Trump to abandon achieving a huge deal within minutes to miss the chance for Iran's calm nerves to control the straits, but it also extended to Iran's media wars that broadcast on all their sites a platform of nerve control.
Returning to the extension of the A-10 Warthog mission: From a third perspective, this bending before the capabilities of an old aircraft signifies a necessity we had previously mentioned, which is the failure of a ground experiment for an invasion attempt, possibly around Khark Island. We believe this demonstrates that the military mission's difficulty was not based merely on intelligence information—which the United States and Israel failed to precisely determine—but followed by a practical experiment that determined—at least for Trump—the riskiness of such recklessness; whereby Trump could no longer believe the assurances of his officials who turned into what resembled Assad's officials "before their underwear flew off in the space of fleeing" when they were descending to a 99.9% certainty in confirming to him the correctness and wisdom of his decisions, this dilemma into which Trump fell after his unconscious entry into the war places him in a situation similar to the defense minister of Assad when he talked about a tactical withdrawal.
From a fourth perspective: This extension means there are fierce battles on the ground, and even by attempting to approach it; it cost a lot of equipment that went into service for breaking rocks and dispersing sand without an appropriate military return. The most significant of these attempts were the repeated targeting that tried to end the nuclear reactors, which means that Trump is completely certain he has not been able to weaken Iran's nuclear force as he claims every time he lifts a foot and sets down another.
This predicament of Trump led partially towards distrusting those around him, and there are those among his officials who would entangle him either out of malice or stupidity, and this appeared in the recent military and political dismissals, the latest of which was the dismissal of the Secretary of Labor "Dermer". On another side, Trump faces a wall of ground terrain difficulties that necessitates using an old aircraft for a military mission, whereby it excels in its practical effectiveness imposed by the battlefield - despite its age - over the latest hypersonic industry achievements; this changes the power equation and moves it from the account of manufacturing to different accounts, perhaps of will or determination or ideological calculations - regardless of their nature - against the accounts of benefits and interests.
These calculations are one of several elements; they stand behind Trump's manoeuvres in the matter of negotiating to create an economic balance on the one hand due to the costs that the American interior screams from, driven by the hikes that exhausted it before exhausting others, not to mention the fear of Iranian surprises that were not anticipated, in contrast to Iran's ignorance of some of Trump's plans he relies on in his uncalculated attack if he fails to end the war before that.
