FYI:
“Shayetet 13 (Hebrew: שייטת 13, lit. "Flotilla 13") is the elite naval commando unit of the Israeli Navy, renowned as one of the most secretive and capable special forces units in the world, often compared to the US Navy SEALs and the UK's Special Boat Service”
Source: Wiki
352
MidRoundOldFashioned5 days ago
+59
Not even remotely comparable to normal SEAL teams.
More comparable to DEVGRU which is a much, much different thing than the normal teams.
59
Creepyrat7625 days ago
-92
Comparable in what way to devgru? Fighting ill equipped children in an already controlled zone of oppression? Devgru is way more skilled than these guys
-92
MidRoundOldFashioned5 days ago
+27
DEVGRU has a much wider range of combat experiences sure. But operationally these guys are strong. They’re not fighting ill equipped children, they’re in Iran.
27
Space_Bungalow5 days ago
+22
Doesn’t your brain get tired from the lack of original and coherent thoughts when you think about Israel?
22
eer_001 day ago
+1
Why you snitching on their usage of child soldiers
1
arathorn35 days ago
+19
And Maktal is Israels equivalent of the SAS or US Delta force. Though the article states its their recon team so thats more along the lines of the AFO (Advanced force Operations)teams of Delta force and Devgru who went into the Afghan mountains in 2001 and 2002 and provided Reconaissance and later sniper support for conventional forces at Tora Bora and Operation Anaconda.
Maktal is one of the Units Netanyahu himself served in, its also the Unit that Netanyahu 's brother, Yoni lead on what is possibly the most daring hostage rescue operation in history, the Rescue of the hostages Taken by the PLFP and German Revolutionary Cells from air france 139 to Entebe Uganda. A rescue that saw the Israeli air force fly 100 Commandos.lead by Yoni Netanyahu 4,000 miles(with a refuelling stop in Kenya, the government of Jomo Kenyatta was sympathetic enough to Israeli plight to allow Israel to refuel the planes). The raid was a success the only military causality for Israel was Yoni Netanyahu while 4 hostages died, two of them sadly by Israeli commandos who mistook them for Hijackers when they stood up as the commando enterrd the building, one was hoastage killed by a Hijacker during the gunfight and tbe final one was a elderly hostage , Dora Bloch who had been taken to a hospital in Kampala was murdered+along with several doctors and nurses who tried to protect her) by Uganda military officers a few days later.! Of 106 hostages only 4 where killed, not perfect but still a successful rescue.
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einarfridgeirs5 days ago
+15
Guess 13 is not considered an unlucky number in the Jewish tradition...
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scrambledhelix5 days ago
+30
It's not a specifically lucky number, but we do have Maimonides' "13 principles of faith" and "13 attributes of ה׳".
It's a number, not magic.
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Dalnore5 days ago
+16
In the Jewish tradition, 13 is probably most associated with the age of Bar Mitzvah, when a boy reaches adulthood.
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Old_Boah4 days ago
+1
Maktal getting no credit in the top comment damn
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Darrenizer5 days ago
-321
Weird, figured the Israeli navy was still busy starving out the remnants of Gaza
-321
yosisoy5 days ago
+223
I guess you were misinformed
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Entire-Distance-82025 days ago
-149
Nah, they're still shooting at fishing boats. They've had plenty of practice against unarmed fishermen and kids playing football on the beach over the years
Plus They've mostly hollowed out Gaza and killed off the people of Gaza, which was such an inconvenience.
Edit: down vote all you want, hypocritical cunts
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lepreqon_5 days ago
+14
You don't have to sign every comment.
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Aromatic-Toe-76725 days ago
+15
Even the UN admitted there was no starvation in Gaza
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theboomboy5 days ago
+7
You don't need the elite units for that
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drewgreen1315 days ago
+43
Give it a rest
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Several_Act_37235 days ago
-92
Why? Israel f****** sucks
-92
lepreqon_5 days ago
+9
Nah
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Several_Act_37235 days ago
-13
Stop basing your life off a book with an imaginary character. F****** weak minded people.
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lepreqon_5 days ago
+6
Which book is that? "Lord of the Rings"?
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drewgreen1315 days ago
+22
Shhhh
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Putrid-Knowledge-4455 days ago
-57
So you figured out which pronouns you need to be identified as today?
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[deleted]5 days ago
-40
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Paqza5 days ago
+33
I think it's fair to expect elite IDF units to be pretty effective at their objectives.
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Space_Bungalow5 days ago
+36
Nothing that armchair analysts like you need to know about
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Gooch_Doctor5 days ago
+27
“Barely tested”. You have no clue what you’re talking about
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Own_Pop_97115 days ago
-6
Israel are a bunch of barely tested clowns compared to Western special forces who almost uniformly have no combat experience outside of the US? Am I missing something here?
Edit: the person I am responding to said Israel so are barely tested clowns that lack the experience of Western special forces. This is my response to them
-6
Paqza5 days ago
+21
Israelis are far more "combat-tested" than most populations. From that, they'd only need to select a handful of individuals for any given elite group.
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Admiral_Dildozer5 days ago
+8
I guess you’re unaware of how “active” Israel special forces have been globally.
They didn’t care much for former Nazis and caused a lot of “accidents” over the decades
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Own_Pop_97115 days ago
+13
The person I was responding to said they were untested compared to Western forces, but now I'm being downvotee because they deleted their comment and people can't figure out that context :(
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Sea-Present-85435 days ago
+151
This is the actual whole news article:
According to a report by the opposition channel Iran International, the IDF commando units Shayetet 13 and Matkal Reconnaissance Unit participated in the American operation to rescue the pilot whose aircraft was shot down in Iran on Friday.
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Opposite_Living_79275 days ago
+86
The reality is that if shayetet or matkal were in iran, nobody would ever know
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maporita5 days ago
+68
In 1976 Israel carried out what many consider to be the greatest hostage rescue ever when 100 commandos and 3 C-130's flew 4,000 Km to Entebbe, Ugaanda to rescue the passengers of a hijacked airliner. So they have many decades of experience conducting extractions behind enemy lines. Interesting factoid: the only IDF casualty in that raid was Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of the current prime minister.
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Sea-Witness-27465 days ago
+12
I read one of the C-130s used to rescue the American airman was one of the same C-130s that was used in Entebbe.
I did read it on Listnook comment so take it with a massive grain of salt but still that was so cool and hopefully true.
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itspronouncedbolonya5 days ago
+3
Is there even a way to verify that?
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Space_Bungalow5 days ago
+60
Does this mean that Israeli SOF are operating in Iran?
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Canes-3055 days ago
+132
Always have been, even in the 12 day war
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GAdvance5 days ago
+51
Opening salvo was by Israeli SOF on the ground sighting and directly taking out SAM defences, they've spent years now infiltrating Iran at as many levels as possible. To Israel Iran is an existential enemy
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kananishino5 days ago
+5
Might as well be that a good amount of their leadership are spies
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Guns_and_Tea5 days ago
+40
Always have been.
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Glittering_Virus83975 days ago
+6
I think it’s kind of ignorant to assume there haven’t been SOF operations going on since the bombing started.
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daywall5 days ago
+47
Iran was the one reporting it by the news site.
That is weird to come from them.
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qTp_Meteor5 days ago
+69
Iran international is a major opposition channel, they oppose the IR
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KirkegaardsGuard5 days ago
+2
Huh... today I learned
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Fimus865 days ago
+6
Allied press first learned about d-day from german radio news.
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Commercial-Lack62795 days ago
+13
I knew Israel spec ops was involved the minute I read Trump say it was all CIA and it’s unmatched capabilities
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itspronouncedbolonya5 days ago
+1
Its*
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d1andonly5 days ago
+11
That’s quite the operation TBH. Basically shows Iran lost control of its skies as well as its territory.
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[deleted]5 days ago
+65
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GAdvance5 days ago
+53
From the rafters I will continue screaming.
Air dominance is not defined by the ability of a MANPADS to shoot down 2 aircraft, it will never be possible to completely eliminate the threat of MANPADS in a country, that's kind of how they work... Iran could have one in bloody France right now, doesn't mean french airspace is contested.
The US absolutely has air dominance over Iran right now, performing a large scale SOF rescue mission deep into Iran with no deaths and the air assets lost due to them getting stuck on a temporary airfield does not equate to a failed operation, just an expensive one.
The coalition in the gulf war lost 75 aircraft, noone thinks that air dominance wasn't achieved
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Settra_Rulez5 days ago
+35
People are looking to discredit the US and Israeli achievement. Holding them to an impossible standard is part of that.
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[deleted]5 days ago
-4
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Lowfi-Concert5 days ago
+10
Learn some nuance and realize that radars can be 100% eliminated and MANPADs will still work. It’s crazy how you take him word for word as truth when you want to complain but don’t believe a word otherwise
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j592dk_91_c3w-h_d_r5 days ago
-2
I think the point is that Trump is a liar
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Lowfi-Concert5 days ago
+3
Not saying he’s not but both what he said and what happened can be true
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interstat5 days ago
+8
Crazy part is they seemed to stage inside Iran. Seems like there's truth to both sides
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EverythingNothingNow5 days ago
+7
200 MILES inside Iran…. 🤷🏽
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d1andonly5 days ago
+27
Considering the number of sorties and the number of takedowns, this could very likely be a one off or fluke.
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Canes-3055 days ago
+27
And we lost even more airframes in the CSAR mission
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FeeHot58765 days ago
+10
But not from being shot down so that point doesn’t really matter
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sleezly5 days ago
+11
I think the A-10 was participating in the rescue operation and it was effectively shot down albeit crashed outside of the area of Iranian control.
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FeeHot58765 days ago
+2
Yeah I meant the 2nd mission not the first one
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Remarkable-Public6225 days ago
-15
I mean, it does. Iran has enough ability to challenge US air power and military that hundreds of the best soldiers on Earth were needed for this mission, with several CSAR aircraft destroyed in the process.
Imagine trying to send in the regular US army for an invasion. It would be a bloodbath.
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Clvland5 days ago
+22
They were flying Blackhawk helicopters and c130s 100s of km inside Iran in broad daylight…… Iran was challenging US air power the same way my 8 year old challenges me at wrestling.
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Remarkable-Public6225 days ago
-12
Yeah they were doing that after an A-10 and an F-15 were shot down.
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Clvland5 days ago
+15
Out of what? 13k combat sorties lol? They shot down two 50 year old designs and then weren’t able to stop an enemy flying into their territory, setting up a temporary airfield in a spot the Iranians knew about and then getting back out with no deaths. If that’s not absolute humiliation levels of dominance I don’t know what is.
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Sheriff_Is_A_Nearer5 days ago
+11
Yeah but sometimes your 8 year old hits your balls and it still hurts.
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FeeHot58765 days ago
+4
Im not saying there wouldn’t be a ton of US casualties but those two operations aren’t even remotely comparable
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Remarkable-Public6225 days ago
-14
Are they? The result of Iran being able to challenge US air power is that the Americans now need to use extremely expensive and limited long range stand off weapons to continue their bombing campaign. Putin and Xi are laughing right now.
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FeeHot58765 days ago
+8
You really think Putin, who can’t even invade their next door neighbor properly is laughing? Lol
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Checklestyouwreck5 days ago
+1
How do you make this shit conclusion from the information you have available?
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drewgreen1315 days ago
+5
It was an f-15- they shot down tech from the 70s
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twitchtvbevildre5 days ago
+7
F15 have been updated alot since the 70's its like putting a rtx5090 and all new parts into a case from 2004 and saying my PC is 20 years old
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drewgreen1315 days ago
+4
It’s no f16, f18, f22, or f35.
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Lee11385 days ago
+2
By that standard, f16 is also 70s tech.
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twitchtvbevildre5 days ago
+4
The f15 does some things better than those and some things worse, its faster then all of them, again is disingenuous to say its from the 1970's a 1970 f15 would get obliterated by an f15 today and is vastly superior in pay load compared to those jets, obv its a bit different but there is a reason the us still sells f15's to the rest of the world they are a capable fighter jet in 2026
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Beardmanta5 days ago
+1
F15 is generally faster and more agile than the F16.
Its just designed for plane to plane combat primarily and is a lot more expensive to produce so the F16 became a lot more popular.
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DiscipleOfYeshua5 days ago
+19
Not exactly. That’s why it was the special ops units, who are trained to hop into highly secured enemy areas, get the job done and come home (when all goes well).
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throeaway_thedew5 days ago
-7
I mean by my count this operation had 2 jets shot down and 2-4 helicopters damaged/destroyed. If that’s not at least somewhat contested airspace, I don’t know what is.
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GAdvance5 days ago
+16
That's the absolute minimum contestation, compared to several thousand sorties into their airspace and none since about day 3 of the war by Iranian jets.
A handful of lucky MANPADS hits dies not a congested airspace make, they just launched a hundred man rescue raid and got away with it scot free, those airframes aren't worth as much as the pilot and WSO
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Darrenizer5 days ago
-45
Considering two more American air crafts were destroyed during the rescue, that’s not the case at all.
-45
holthebus5 days ago
+32
I read they were destroyed purposefully (so Iranian military couldn’t get their hands on the tech) due to mechanical failures.
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Mission_Scale_8605 days ago
+18
I have seen speculation that they landed in farmlands outside Isfahan and that the aircraft sunk down into loose soil, unable to take off so other aircraft came in blew up the planes and took off with the personnel.
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Confident_Barber19615 days ago
-19
I doubt 3 us aircraft had simultaneous mechanical issues.
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JustDesserts295 days ago
+17
It makes sense if they all landed in the same soft soil and sunk into it.
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meesta_masa5 days ago
+2
Wait, they were defeated by dirt?
*Looks at Agincourt, Napoleon's Russian invasion, Operation Barbarossa*
Yeah, no comments. Shit happens to the best of us.
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Chemical_Scholar_7534 days ago
+2
Yeah, heavy planes always need infrastructure to take off. Runways are valuable for a reason (and the rarity of the runway required to military planes is a major consideration when designing them). It’s unfortunate, but as far as the risks you take when you fly what was probably hundreds of men pretty deep into Iran it’s not particularly bad losses. If Iran had hit a plane carrying 90 men (which the C-130s can, though these probably weren’t because they were carrying special operations equipment instead), that would have been a pretty catastrophic event for the US military for example
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rogue_ir5 days ago
+19
It's equivalent to Iran landing several aircrafts in Utah, without taking casualties, and losing only 0.1% of their air equipment in the process. It's a total wipeout for Iran.
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ImaginaryBridge5 days ago
+9
I like the analogy with one significant correction: 1 in 12k sorties is less than 0.01%, not 0.1%.
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yosisoy5 days ago
+23
Out of literal thousands of operational flights, a handful of crafts were damaged, and most if not all of Iran's airforce is out. Iran lost controls of its skies
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Sleepergiant25865 days ago
+6
US had to destroy those just like how in Osama Operation they had to destroy Apache as it was unable to take off due to high winds.
Iran has cut off internet across country from last 40 dsys, no jounalist allowed in, all they do is spread some AI doctored videos. I understand this is done to keep winning theme or patriotism alive but these faje things are not gonna keep a country alive for much long.
Satellite pics from Maxar show so much damage, US Centcom videos shows their missile sites being destroyed left and right but Iran will hide those and cherry pick to show when they down 2 US planes and the world thinks Iran is winning, lmao.
This is not called winning. This is same Russia tactic where u hide ur own losses, it doesnt change the reality.
US can rain missiles but their Lockheed can also make 2000 mssiles every year, Iran doesnt have those capabilities. They stockpiled but they dont have weapons industry, Russia is barely hanging in Ukraine with their own depleted arsenal.
Iran can fake as much as they want, this rescue operation just confimed that US can also easily invade Iran if they want to.
There is diff between knowing and being over confident, Iran is in overconfident mode right now.
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TheGreatPornholio1235 days ago
+7
The Osama operation was a Blackhawk. Apaches don't carry troops.
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Ehzek5 days ago
That is only mostly accurate, pretty sure there is at least 1 case for Apache carrying people outside.
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TheEuroclydon5 days ago
+4
Nonetheless, it was a fancy Blackhawk that was lost during the Osama raid.
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Ehzek5 days ago
+1
I'm more upset about the recent A10 and even the Iranian F14s personally.
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Paqza5 days ago
+1
Completely missing the point. Of course the US and Israel have traditional military superiority. Everybody knows that. However, Iran isn't really taking on those countries. Instead, they're sending drones to attack infrastructure in nearby countries like Saudi, UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait. Iran is obviously much, much weaker in military terms but the US cannot conceivably "win" this conflict in any traditional sense.
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[deleted]5 days ago
+3
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Paqza5 days ago
-1
Still a huge waste for us taxpayers. Exorbitantly high healthcare costs but we can blow billions in days on a war nobody asked for.
-1
Entire-Distance-82025 days ago
-1
Add it to the cost of Operation Epstein Fury
-1
[deleted]5 days ago
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nicklor5 days ago
+16
36 hours and they couldn't get one guy yes they did
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d1andonly5 days ago
+10
So they didn’t rescue him? I’m confused.
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luismartinezz195 days ago
+2
They rescued the pilot pretty early but they just rescued the weapons officer yesterday.
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revelar45 days ago
+1
Yikes
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VinylJones5 days ago
+1
Anybody that participated in rescuing that man is a hero in my eyes, that op looks hairier than anything I’ve ever had the privilege to witness in my lifetime…that’s the astounding part, we followed this in real time as citizens almost as if it were an episode of 24…an entire country vs. those soldiers. Amazing.
It almost reminds me of some of the stories of Prairie Fire missions in Cambodia and Laos during Vietnam. Different set of rules, different level, but the sheer courage and selflessness feels like it tracks. These boys got down.
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itspronouncedbolonya5 days ago
+1
Wtf happend (reffering to the 2 VERY deleted replies here
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Puzzleheaded_Back3064 days ago
+1
The Americans would do the same for the Israelis.
Together to eliminate terrorists.
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PosingAsCinephile4 days ago
+1
I dont care about this rescue mission at all
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Tricky-Translator-615 days ago
Great job idf!!
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incitatus-says5 days ago
-31
“Participated” according to Iran International a bunch of clowns in opposition to the mullahs who live in London and are funded by the Saudis.
The same group sees fit to marginalize the ethnic minorities in Iran and constantly calls out the “character” of Iranian leadership while deifying Reza Pahlavi. A man with the charisma of a garden gnome.
Good times!
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Zipz5 days ago
+10
Trump has plenty of his own reasons to hate Iran
Including an assassination attempt against him by them
Shit trump even forced Israel to attack first so he could use the argument of self defense
I think you have it the wrong way around
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Paqza5 days ago
-9
Assassination attempt? LOL.
And in what reality do you think Trump "forced Israel to attack"?
Were you born yesterday?
-9
Zipz5 days ago
+3
Weird because reports a week before said that’s exactly what trump wanted
And guess what it ended up being true
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationale_for_the_2026_Iran_war
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Paqza5 days ago
-1
Israel forced the US to attack. Vance admitted as much. Good lawd, you MAGAts are so gullible.
-1
Zipz5 days ago
+3
Funny because trump admitted the opposite
It’s so funny how you have to turn to a child when proven wrong
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/iranian-intelligence-agent-convicted-terrorism-and-murder-hire-connection-foiled-plot
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Paqza5 days ago
-1
If you read what was linked, it suggests the administration considers this a "holy war". That's far from what you described. But MAGAts can't read for comprehension, so that tracks.
-1
Zipz5 days ago
+3
Lmfao it’s so funny how you pretend to read things
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/iranian-intelligence-agent-convicted-terrorism-and-murder-hire-connection-foiled-plot
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Paqza5 days ago
+3
Read what you just linked and then explain to all of us how that justifies the current war, including the dead school girls, dead American soldiers, destroyed oil and gas infrastructure in the Middle East, elevated fuel and food costs in the US globally, billions in taxpayer dollars, and gutted US reputation internationally.
Like I said, you're so gullible.
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Zipz5 days ago
+2
Weird I never said it justifies anything
It’s funny how you want to change both my argument and yours
A second ago they never tried to kill trump now you don’t even want to talk about that
2
thegreatprofessor5 days ago
+5
> many Americans would still be alive today
> I’m aware that only a few Americans have died
Lol
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ryhaltswhiskey5 days ago
-4
Many can be a small number. 13 Americans is too many.
13 people are dead because of this idiot and all you can say is lol?
-4
Paqza5 days ago
-2
Hundreds of schoolchildren would also still be alive today.
-2
ryhaltswhiskey5 days ago
-1
Exactly, but it's hard to get Americans to care about that.
-1
Paqza5 days ago
-1
They haven't figured out that they can most certainly be the bad guys.
158 Comments