War itself is, of course, a form of madness. It’s hardly a civilised pursuit. It’s amazing how we spend so much time inventing devices to kill each other and so little time working on how to achieve peace. – Walter Cronkite, journalist
The Cold War is over. Long live the Stupidity War!
The use of codenames for warfare operations was apparently pioneered by the German Empire during World War I.1 The use of codenames was devised as an effective means to communicate over long distances without revealing strategic information, using the newly invented radio technology at the time.
It was soon discovered, however, that picking the right codename could inspire and motivate the instruments of mass murder, otherwise known as soldiers, but also influence the media to report in a certain manner. Just as importantly, the right codename can stir up patriotic fervour among the citizenry, as an educator and activist, Howard Thurman sharply observed many years ago:
During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism.
There’s a hotly debated statistic: America has been at constantly at war for about 222 years out of its 250 years of existence. Those who contest this alarming figure argue, invariably disingenuously, I might add, that not all of these interferences and interventions, regime-change machinations, and abductions can be classified strictly as wars. If they involved violence and coercion, they were wars as far as I’m concerned, even if one-sided. External politics has always been bogged down in semantics; America’s boldly asserted imperialist foreign policy, particularly so as the recent distasteful renaming of the Department of Defence to Department of War testifies.
What intrigues me about all those warfaring years, especially since the advent of codenames for the multitude of military operations, is the variety of codenames used. I am only familiar with Operation Overlord, used during the Allied Forces’ landing on the beaches of Normandy during World War 2, but more recently, Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm come to mind. What I am familiar with, though, is that recent American military operations have been unmitigated disasters, including the two I mentioned.
Meanwhile, at the end of February this year, America’s President Trump, who so egotistically loves to style himself as a great peacemaker, declared war on Iran. The pretence, as there almost always is, when declaring war, was to stop Iran from manufacturing nuclear weapons. This declaration of war was in rash opposition to expert rational judgment and public disapproval. More revealingly, it was formulated despite Trump’s own boastful assertion, published on the official White House website, that Iran’s nuclear capability was previously obliterated in June 2025 in airstrikes by America.
The Department of War has codenamed America’s latest vulgar act of international criminality as Operation Epic Fury. While codenames often reflect the thinking of the country’s leadership and are usually chosen with much thought, I’m bemused by this current abominable iteration. Whose fury is being immortalised, and why is it supposed to be epic? It’s certainly not that of the American people, who have expressed strong disapproval in the polls. It’s not that of European countries, which, with some minor exceptions, only grudgingly support Trump’s actions out of craven fear. It’s certainly not that of the rest of the world.
Hardly anybody wants this war, including the Middle East countries that host American airbases, which are being pulverised by Iranian missiles. Yes, according to the Marist Poll, 44% of Americans support this war, and that’s a fairly large number. However, the majority of these are composed of the MAGA faithful, who are generally not known for critical thinking or reasoning – cults rarely are. These apologists for war have a long history of being flag bearers for every kind bigotry in America.
So whose epic fury is being lofted and redirected into another depraved act of mass murder?
The fingers point unapologetically and indisputably at Israel, particularly at a person with an ICC war crimes arrest warrant on his head, and gallons of Palestinian blood on his hands. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, has had an obsession with destroying Iran stretching back more than 30 years. Since 1992, Netanyahu has been making regular absurd claims that Iran is sometimes years, sometimes months, and sometimes weeks away from developing a nuclear device. In all that time, no President of America took him seriously enough to start a war, although they all tried in various ways to punish, even destroy Iran economically.
While there is intense speculation that Donald Trump caved because Israel has compromising information (kompromat) on him pertaining to the Epstein sex trafficking scandal, it could also be because there’s lots of money to be made during war, and Trump is perceptibly amenable to being enriched, if not through military stock price manipulation, then through bribery. Either way, the decision to start a war with Iran has been staggeringly stupid.
Let’s break down the unhinged stupidity of Operation Epic Fury.
According to an article in Military Times, America uses Patriot missiles at a cost of $4 million each, Aegis Combat System (SM-3/SM-6) missiles at a cost in the range between $9-28 million each, and THAAD rockets at a cost between $13.5-15.5 million each to intercept and shoot down Iranian ballistic missiles and Shahed drones, which cost between $20k-$50k each. It is reported that two patriot missiles at a cost of $8 million dollars are required to bring down a Shahed drone, which costs around $50 thousand at most.
The Iranian Shahed drone has a range of 2500km, can carry a 50kg warhead and can be programmed to strike set targets. Iran is reported to have around 80 000 of these drones stockpiled. Meanwhile, America produces only 500-700 Patriot missiles annually, Lockheed Martin can only drum up 96 THAAD rockets annually, and only around 12 Aegis Standard Missile (SM-3) and 500 SM-6 are manufactured annually.
If Iran holds out, America will burn through their stockpile after only 7000 Iranian attacks. Despite American propaganda about the state of Iran’s military strength, they’re holding up pretty well currently if all the reported strikes on America’s military bases around the ME, as well as those on Israel, are factored in. At the current rate of strikes and interceptions, America’s much vaunted arsenal could evaporate very quickly.
I’ll let you do the math on this one. Even technology journalist David Hambling of Forbes has a rather negative outlook on whether America can stop Iran’s drone attacks and believes that Iran holds all the cards for drone warfare.
Iran has been preparing for this eventuality for decades, while Israel theatrically threatened and America blustered about its perceived invincibility. Sadly, that’s the least of it. There’s much more trouble in store for both America and other countries around the world. The international ramifications of this singularly selfish and inept act of imperialist aggression are enormous.
Nury Vittachi, an author, political commentator and former NY Times writer, summed up the global threat quite startlingly on X:
Make no mistake, the type of hot war that the US and Israel has unleashed in West Asia will harm all economies, world-wide, directly or indirectly, including China.
But it will do far more harm than just hurting economies. It will destroy alliances, remap allegiances, shatter trust, create alternative trade routes, and hasten the end of the US-Israel dominance over the planet, as they goes down fighting — literally.
Reflecting on America’s choice of codename for this monumental fuckup, for that is precisely what it is, it doesn’t appear that clever, inspiring or motivating after all. Just as Operation Just Cause in 1989 by America to invade Panama and depose Manuel Noriega was trolled as Operation Just ‘Cuz because there was no legal or sane reason for it, Operation Epic Fury is suffering the same fate.
Meanwhile, Israel, the instigating partner in this international crime spree are calling their half of the bargain Operation Roaring Lion. However, if you’ve read the allegations of the pitiful, yet tone-deaf appeals about neutrality from Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir directed at International Human Rights Organisations, following Iran’s retaliatory pounding of Tel Aviv and other cities, you have to wonder if they shouldn’t rename their depraved war to Operation Whimpering Weasel.
lenny unencumbered 