Iran's Foreign Ministry issued an open dare this week: many people on Kharg Island, its spokesman said, are "eagerly awaiting the arrival of the American forces." Bravado, except the ledger that surfaced the same week explains the confidence.
The New York Times reports the Pentagon withheld dozens of American wounded and stayed silent on three Iranian attacks on Jordan bases in the week before the deadly strike.
The running toll, per the reporting: 16 killed and more than 400 WOUNDED.
The Pentagon's own spokesman conceded over 100 casualties in the last two weeks.
Larry Johnson, thirty years across CIA and State, zeroed in on the vocabulary carrying the load.
An injury happens in a shower or on a running track; wounded is what combat does.
His comparison: Monty Python's Black Knight, limbless on the ground, insisting it is "just a flesh wound."
New satellite analysis reportedly shows Muwaffaq Salti hit by a large, accurate salvo, Reaper hangars flattened, damage far past anything announced.
A war this unpopular hides its arithmetic, in his read, and the language gives it away anyway.
A war going well never needs a softer word for bleeding. The vocabulary lesson nobody at the Pentagon wanted.
@NewSonof
