We were so confident in the precision revolution and the ability of air power to kill leaders through this five-ring targeting.

We were so confident we didn't come in with a backup plan.

And my argument has always been, okay, you tell me, you're right, maybe Professor Pape is wrong, that for the first time in history, maybe your plan is really going to work.

And I've been saying this for 30 years, okay?

And I'm saying, all I'm asking is bring some backup in case, just in case you're wrong.

Because if you don't, you're going to create a catastrophic situation.

And that is what's happened here. And this may end up

being Chris, in the current situation, the most catastrophic smart bomb trap failure of air power

we've ever seen.

Hello and welcome. Why's this happening with me, your host, Chris Hayes.

I'm speaking to you on Wednesday, March 18th, which is midway through the third week of the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran.

By the time you hear this, it'll, I guess, be the fourth

week, or it will have stopped, in which case it'll be a different listening experience. I don't

know. It seems to me this could stop any day or it could go on for weeks or months or years.

I remember the first days of the Afghanistan war when, you know, the country was incredibly united behind

that effort. I was 22 years old and in the probably like 5% of Americans that didn't think

the war was a good idea, five or 10%, depending on the polling. And that lasted 20 years. So,

who knows? The thing that has characterized this war so far is that it has been a incredibly intense sustained air war by both U.S. and Israeli forces on Iranian targets.

And I don't think there's any question about the total sort of military superiority

of both American and Israeli forces when it comes to this kind of thing, using an array of

different tools in their arsenal, you know, actual planes flying and dropping bombs, Tomahawk missiles,

which can launch from very far away and hit targets.

...