IT was a Mao Zedong mandate to begin with: To rightists’ criticism of communist dogma, he issued the call, “Let a hundred flowers bloom and a thousand scents contend.”
It was bad, too bad, that many of Iran’s top leadership were wiped out in that massive ballistic missile attack on Iran by the United States-Israel tandem on Feb. 28, 2026. The bombing raids targeted cities and military installations across the country, killing 750 people, including 175 children sheltering in a schoolhouse.
Right after, US President Donald Trump went on record cajoling Iranians to liberate themselves from the “Islamic dictatorship,” in which endeavor he said Iranians have his whole support.
How cocksure Trump sounded, like saying bringing down the Ayatollah regime was a walk in the park.
And then without any warning, barrages of Iran ballistic missiles and drones swept across Israel and Arab states across the Middle East which host US military bases.
For days on end in a week, such missiles and drones attacks continued unabated, each time increasing in number and intensity with corresponding massive destruction to lives, property and public utilities.
After its one-day successful opening salvo, America appeared to be on the run, scrambling for safety everywhere it had military bases across the Gulf region.
And yet, it was true that what Iran was unleashing were old drones and missiles admittedly much inferior than those Israel scrambled each time to contend them with.
The Iranian defense minister, in fact, declared that what Iran delivered in its continued barrages were all old stockpiles — not yet the high-end missiles and drones well-kept in underground bunkers incapable of being detected despite advanced detecting technology by the US.
According to one analyst, using old stockpiles of weapons by Iran was deliberate, part of a strategy of asymmetric warfare which stresses on damage done, not on the method of damaging.
In the long run, it is the extent of destruction of the enemy’s resources that will spell the difference between defeat and victory.
And as early as the first week of the war, the vast depletion of US resources is becoming manifest.
As revealed by Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, the war has already cost the United States $5 billion.
Trump is frantic in asking Congress for $50 billion m ore to fund the war.
Note that no movements yet of US ground troops are taking place.
It is the hi-tech quality of US weaponry that is eating up much of the cited amounts.
For every $2,000 worth of Iranian drone, the US fires a $20,000 interceptor.
And with the entry now into Iran’s drone arsenal of the China-made splitable modular drone that splits into eight before hitting the target, the US cost for intercepting it instantly jumps up to eight times more, or a staggering $160,000!
Pray, say, who will buckle down from the last straw.
No wonder that Iran is viewed as steadily gaining the upper hand.
Through mere use of old stockpiles of weapons, Iran was able to devastate US military facilities across the Middle East, greatly diminishing their capacity to hit back.
The strategy resulted in widespread destruction: airports shattered, oil refineries crushed, infrastructures crumbled.
Utter damage all around, everywhere.
It has been with deep apology to its brother Arabs that Iran has to acknowledge the vast devastation it has wrought, but blames it all to these nations’ hosting of US military bases.
According to Iran foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, all this is in the name of primordial self-defense. Certainly, this assertion should be well taken. Wherever national sovereignty is at stake, it is above all other considerations.
In the case of Iran, it has worked wonders.
Yes, it was bad that against the hi-tech weaponry of the United States, Iran would be fighting with old missile and drone stockpiles.
But that’s the reality you could not get away from.
The problem really is how to turn that bad into good.
How has Iran come up with its asymmetric warfare strategy?
Evidence is surfacing now. Iran has had to devise ingenious methods of prompting the United States into coming up with plans of countermeasures against what Iran made to appear as high-tech armaments. Fake high-end jet fighters and fighter helicopters, for instance, were said to have made war exercises that appeared to be the real thing but actually just decoys to mislead the enemy.
So, what the United States prepared for was a hi-tech Iranian counter fight, i.e., using high-end jet fighters and fighter helicopters.
When Iran unleashed its swarms of drones and ballistic missiles on D-Day, the United States was totally unprepared.
For proof, witness the devastation its Middle Eastern allies and Tel Aviv are now suffering.
Here is a score card of Iran’s retaliatory drones and missiles attacks.
In the United Arab Emirates, damaged were the Burj Al Arab Hotel, areas of Palm Jumeirah, critical infrastructure, including Amazon data centers; shrapnel from intercepted missiles killed civilians and injured many.
In Kuwait, six US soldiers were killed in missile and drone strikes at a command center of Port Suaiba; the US embassy was heavily damaged and closed; an 11-year-old girl was killed by falling debris of crashed infrastructure.
In Saudi Arabia, the massive Ras Tamura oil refinery and the US embassy in Riyadh were blasted.
In Iraq, US bases and diplomatic installations in the Kurdistan region were reduced to virtual smithereens.
Reminds us of Operation Overlord, the United States device for defeating Germany in World War II.
All preparations of the Allies in retaking Western Europe from occupation by Germany was through the Pas-de-Calais in France, the nearest point from Great Britain across the English Channel: troops, logistics, including radio communications that were made to be intercepted by German intelligence.
All preparations looked like that the Allies’ plan of retaking France would be through the landing of troops aboard ships on Pas-de-Calais.
So, all German preparations for countering the Allies were concentrated on Pas-de-Calais.
Then came D-Day.
What do you know?
Allied paratroopers dropped in their thousands on Normandy where there were no German preparations whatsoever.
From Normandy, the Allies pushed forward, ultimately driving the Nazis to Germany — onto ultimate surrender.
With its utter failure to subdue Iran in the Middle East, the United States is being fried Overlord, err, in its own lard.