Cabot Phillips

So obviously, a ground operation would present a dangerous new front militarily.

And also politically, Americans are largely split along party lines about airstrikes on Iran.

But polling shows that support for boots on the ground is in the 10 to 20 percent range.

So it's not popular.

There is a lot for President Trump to balance.

For their part, the Iranian military issued a statement saying they are, quote, counting the moments should these threats be carried out to destroy your army.

They also said that any boots on the ground would face, quote, captivity, dismemberment and disappearance.

Well, there's no doubt their military has been severely weakened since this conflict started.

Most of the country's largest naval vessels are now at the bottom of the ocean, and missile launches are down over 90% since the first day of the war.

But that does not mean they aren't still capable of inflicting damage.

On Friday, for example, an Iranian missile and unmanned drones struck Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia that injured at least 12 American troops, some of them severely.

It also significantly damaged a number of American refueling planes,

and an E-3 Sentry.

That is one of the most important and expensive planes in the U.S.

arsenal.

The quarter-billion-dollar craft is basically an airborne command center that helps track drones, aircraft, and troop movements from both sides.

And on that strike in particular, there's reason to believe that Russia could be providing significant support to the Iranians.

Speaking over the weekend, Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Ukrainian intelligence showed with, quote, 100% certainty that

that Russia had taken satellite images of that base, Prince Sultan, in the days just before it was targeted by Iran.

Yeah, so back on March 9th, Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, not in the Middle East, this is here in the U.S., was temporarily put under a shelter-in-place order after reports of suspicious drone activity over the installation.