alt Hacker NewsMines are underwater and have no clear visibility from space. Shaheds require very little launch infrastructure - basically any airstrip will suffice.
I think the war has been a lesson that the technological capacity isn't magic and US strike capability is not unlimited. Everyone assumed they were going to do a Venezuela or Ukraine "special military operation", decapitate the leadership, strike a few barracks and declare victory. Now the US leadership seem surprised that the Iranians are continuing to fight.
(The definitive film on insane US leadership is of course Dr Strangelove, a film that came out when Trump was 18 years old. The character of General Jack D Ripper is shown to be an insane conspiracy theorist babbling about commies and fluoride who starts a world-destroying nuclear war on his own initiative)
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This is a space-focused post but you really think we don’t have underwater intelligence? What with the nuclear triad and all? What with threats something like a nuclear-armed P-700 being dropped by a merchant submarine secretly on the bottom of the ocean a few hundred meters from DC only to be launched remotely at a determined point in time?
> Everyone assumed they were going to do a Venezuela
When you say "everyone" do you mean "everyone in the US military establishment"? I remember very few independent commentators who suggested the US intervention in Iran was a good idea. (Personally I think it's too early to say.)