It Only Took One Day for Iran to Become a U.S.-Israeli Quagmire
Indiscriminate attacks are killing people across the region, as U.S. jets fall from the sky.
Photo via Unplash, Timothy Holmes Splinter Iran
There have been so many deeply disturbing headlines related to the new U.S. war with Iran in the last 48 hours that it’s difficult to even know where to begin in attempting to express how the second Trump administration has thrown the Middle East and the world at large into a fresh era of chaos and death. In terms of the scale of carnage, no story should begin without acknowledging the U.S. or Israeli strike that is now estimated to have killed at least 175 people at a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran, most of them children. News reports have been forced to stress that the provenance of that particular attack was “not immediately known,” because for some reason, neither the U.S. nor our Israeli allies in the area wanted to claim credit for that particular war crime, seemingly hoping instead that the ongoing flood of jaw-dropping headlines will just push that one out of sight until a later date.
And indeed, the headlines continue apace. This morning, the U.S. suffered another shocking embarrassment, as reports emerged that three of our jet fighters were shot down over Kuwait in what was described as “an apparent friendly fire incident.” According to a statement from the U.S. military Central Command: “During active combat—that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones—the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses.” Considering the source, it’s entirely possible that said jets, at their typical $100-million-per-unit cost, were shot down by air defense systems provided to Kuwait by the United States, which would certainly be a fitting symbol for the breathless waste of resources already committed to this conflict in its opening hours—and the second time in a week that we’ve reported about friendly fire taking down U.S. air equipment. Thankfully, all six crew members in that particular incident were said to have ejected safely and been safely recovered.
A US F-15 fighter jet was shot down by “friendly fire” in Kuwait
— Anonymous (@youranoncentral.bsky.social) Mar 2, 2026 at 5:08 AM
The same could not be said for four American soldiers (initially reported as three, but another death reported Monday morning) at another base in Kuwait, who became the first American military deaths of the campaign, but likely not the last, in addition to at least a handful of others who were wounded. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth took the opportunity of those deaths to brag on the effectiveness of America’s Patriot missile defense systems that failed (despite the $4 million per shot price tag) to protect those soldiers, saying that despite our “incredible air defenders,” sometimes people just die.
“Every once in a while you might have one, unfortunately we call it a squirter, that makes its way through,” said Hegseth, apparently deciding that a cute nickname for incoming munitions would salve the deaths of four Americans. “And in that particular case, it happened to hit a tactical operations center that was fortified, but these are powerful weapons.”
Naturally, such an incident only makes the Defense Secretary and his “warfighters” dig in deeper on the question of whether all of this is worthwhile, as Hegseth added that the deaths would “stiffen our resolve to ensure that we do this properly.” I can only assume that “properly” in this instance is hitting additional girls’ schools with cruise missiles and having more of our jets shot down.
Across the entirety of the Middle East, the conflict is broadening in destruction and chaos, as Iran lashes out blindly and Israel seizes the opportunity to attack other perceived enemies in the region. Iranian strikes have already killed people in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain, among others. The latter can be seen in shocking video, as an explosive drone can clearly be seen flying into a civilian high-rise apartment building or hotel.
An Iranian drone struck a high-rise building in Bahrain.
— (((Tendar))) (@tendar.bsky.social) Feb 28, 2026 at 11:51 AM
The Trump administration’s decision to fully commit to war and chaos in Iran will is already having deadly ripple effects across the globe. In Pakistan, crowds of thousands of enraged Islamic protestors attempted to storm the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, resulting in at least 10 deaths, even as Pakistan’s militant groups are emboldened by the flare up of their own border war with Afghanistan. Large-scale exchange of rockets and missiles between Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel are indiscriminately killing civilians on both sides. And the conflict may already have reverberated in U.S. violence on the home front, as a mass shooting in Austin, Texas this weekend, described by the FBI as a potential act of terrorism, may have been perpetrated as a direct response to the new Iran war and the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Speaking of the former Supreme Leader, his death leaves a power vacuum that may or may not be filled, considering how many other high-ranking members of the Iranian regime have also reportedly been killed. It has been reported that Iran’s Alireza Arafi may be the new, “interim” Supreme Leader, but other reports have since emerged quickly thereafter that he too has potentially been killed in airstrikes. Something of note we do know: Donald Trump, speaking directly to ABC News’ Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl on Sunday night, more or less directly confirmed that the Iran war was personal retribution and petty vengeance for him against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in response to reported Iranian plans on Trump’s own life. Trump literally said the following: “I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well I got him first.” At the same time, he told The New York Times what we already could have assumed: The war in Iran will last longer than anticipated, with a timeline now stretching at least a month or more. A war in the Middle East growing steadily more complicated and deadly, after quickly declaring victory? Where have we heard that before?
President Donald Trump boasted to a reporter of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: “I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first.”
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast.bsky.social) Mar 2, 2026 at 6:15 AM
And that’s how we find ourselves where we are today: Thousands of flights grounded, the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, international and regional shipping crippled, U.S. troops dead and our fighter planes raining from the sky, potentially shot down by our own weapons. The price of oil is already soaring, with the price of gasoline in the U.S. to no doubt shortly follow. Oh, and Trump is already mulling over his plans to take Cuba next, in the midst of the death and destruction. All courtesy of your megalomaniacal Peace President.
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