I resisted, guys. I really tried to hold off on the Middle East. Whelp, I failed. Reason being? An unarmed United States Predator drone was flying over international airspace and the Iranian Republican Guard tried to shoot it down.
The Predator drone was out over the Persian Gulf just east of Kuwait, engaged in routine maritime “surveillance.” Which, when you’re using a Predator drone, nothing is routine, but hey, they weren’t violating anyone’s airspace at this point in time.
And then two Su-25s — crappy fighter jets that have been in play since 1981 — took off after the drone, into international airspace, and tried to fire on the drone. They… well, they missed. Because they’re in Su-25s.
Let me break this down to you — you know how in Top Gun (RIP Tony Scott), the Americans whooped ass with their F-14s, taking out and/or scaring off a bunch of MiG-21s? Yeah, both of those jets are decommissioned, and they are still better than Su-25s.
The jets were apart of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps’ air force, which have overall been more aggressive than the normal rank-and-file Iranian military. It happened a few days before the election and the Obama administration didn’t choose to disclose it, but senior military officials quietly confirmed the story later.
US military intelligence don’t know if they were firing warning shots or were just too crappy at their jobs to land a shot, but one senior official said, “it doesn’t matter, they fired on us.”
Question: So, we all gonna die or what?
