An ego trip and Iran

Incredible, how one man with a distended ego can cause extraordinary aggravation on mankind’s eight billion people. Even more incredible is why those eight billion humans can say nothing or do little, if any, to stop the man’s depradation and his systematic, methodical and maniacal destruction of our long-held values – respect, fairness, compassion, honesty, responsibility and freedom. The United Nations’ mission for humanity was founded on such universal values as peace and security, human rights, justice, tolerance, solidarity and freedom.

Humanity is on the brink of a third World War, thanks to the extreme behavior of the man with distended ego and the destructive toys at his command. Where is the United Nations? Why is it so quiet?

At 6:27 GMT, 2:27 p.m. Manila, of Feb. 28, 2026 (Saturday), the Iran war began. By 2:27 p.m. of Friday, March 13, the war had entered its third week.

“We never asked for a ceasefire. We never asked even for negotiations,” declared a defiant Iran through its foreign secretary, Abbas Araghchi. “We are willing to defend ourselves as long as it takes.”

Iran has taken unusual punishment from the United States and Israel. Its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is dead, along with his wife, his daughter, son-in-law, grandson and some 40 top military commanders and defense officials. The US claims Iran’s navy and air force are gone and ineffective. Its missile capacity is down 90 percent.

If so, why is the US seemingly on the losing end of the high-tech war? The main reason is that the US is using ultra expensive weapons against an enemy adept at asymmetric warfare, where, per AI, “the weaker party uses unconventional tactics – guerrilla tactics, terrorism, cyberattacks or proxies – to exploit the superior force’s vulnerabilities. It shifts focus from direct battlefield engagement to political, psychological and logistic exhaustion.”

Iran employs drones, by the hundreds, costing $20,000 to $50,000 apiece. The US and Israel destroy or repel those drones using missiles costing from $3.5 million to $5.3 million each. Some air defense missiles cost as much as $28.57 million. A US THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) anti-ballistic missile costs as much as $12 million to $15 million each. A THAAD is designed to fight high-speed ballistic missiles but not against a swarm of cheap drones, because doing so would rapidly deplete its arsenal.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates the cost to the US of the Iran war after 12 days: $16.5 billion. After 14 days, Iran had unleashed 2,000 drones worth $100 million, and 500 missiles. A Shahab-3 Iranian missile costs only from $500,000 to $1 million. Assume $1 million. So 500x$1 million is just $500 million. Total cost of drones and missiles unleashed by Iran: $600 million. Divide $16.5 billion by $600 million, that’s 27.5. For every $27.50 the US spends for the war, Iran spends just $1.

It’s like a slingshot against an Armalite-wielding gunman. Don’t face the gunman. Shoot his eye with your slingshot so he is blinded and thus cannot kill you. It’s called asymmetric warfare.

Using cheap drones (three ships hit so far) or threatening to unleash cheap drones (on 150 oil cargo ships stranded in the Strait of Hormuz), Iran has effectively closed the strait where passes $254 billion worth of oil yearly, 20 percent of global petroleum trade. An oil tanker could carry up to $200 million worth of crude – too valuable a commodity to be burned by just one $20,000 drone.

Donald Trump’s response? He has summoned aircraft carriers to add to the 12 warships already in the area, including the largest of them all, the 100,000-ton USS Gerald Ford where a fire broke out while it was in the Red Sea four days ago, even before it could do battle in Hormuz. One aircraft carrier costs $13 billion to $20 billion to build.

Trump also asked the navies of allied countries – the UK, France, China, South Korea and Japan to send warships to the strait. Their response? Muted. Meaning No. A warship like a frigate or destroyer costs $1 billion to $2.8 billion. Do you want to deploy them to stop $20,000 to $50,000 drones?

“As the conflict with Iran expands and intensifies, President Trump’s options – to fight on or to move toward declaring victory and pulling back – both carry deeply problematic consequences,” notes The New York Times. “He can continue to fight a weakened enemy that has nevertheless proved adept at extracting a fast-rising economic price for the US and its allies, tying the global energy markets in knots and striking a dozen countries across the region. Battling on would put more American lives at risk, accelerate the financial costs and risk further fraying alliances. There is angst within Mr. Trump’s political base over the sharp departure from his pledge to avoid entangling the nation in more wars.”

Says NYT: “Or he can begin to pull back, even though most of his objectives – including assuring that Iran never again possesses the capability to produce a nuclear weapon – are not yet met. The biggest military accomplishments of the joint US-Israel action so far, officials say, have been wiping out much of Iran’s missile arsenal and air defenses and crippling its navy. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s brutal leader for nearly 40 years, is dead.

“But an emboldened theocracy is still in power, apparently commanded by the ayatollah’s injured son, who has already sworn to continue deploying Iran’s asymmetrical capabilities, from cyberattacks to planting sea mines and conducting missile strikes on targets in the region. The powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps paramilitary force and the militias that killed thousands of protesting Iranians on the streets in January remain in place.”

Bottomline: the US and Israel have not found the 200-300 kilos of enriched uranium stockpiled by Iran, good for 50 nuclear bombs. As proven by North Korea, the US won’t invade you if you have a nuclear bomb. By now, Iran knows that lesson.

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