Here Is What They Know

One of the first procedures you learn as a 2^nd Lieutenant is how to give a “spot report”. In it you briefly tell your superiors what you see, where you see it, how many or the size of what you see, and you might offer your opinion as to what may happen next. In learning this valuable technique you have to determine where you see the enemy and then tell your boss where they are. You don’t have to encode the enemy’s location, because the older and more experienced instructor would always remind us “the enemy already knows where he is.”

This lesson still applies today. Our enemies are sophisticated. Don’t let the poor clothing or scraggly beards sway your appreciation of their capability. When the consulate in Benghazi was attacked, the attackers were well aware of what they were doing and that they were most likely under some type of surveillance. This was not their first rodeo so to speak. Both during the attack and now, they know what they did and they now wait to determine the reply.

Today we learned that one of our drones was fired upon by two Iranian jets while the drone cruised in international airspace near Kuwait.  This happened on November 1. That was a week ago. We were told today that it was kept secret by the administration until after the election. (here)

I won’t go into the decision to hold back this information from the American people. The Obama administration made that decision for reasons of their own. But again, the old spot report lesson still applies. The Iranians know what they did and when they did it. So now they wait to see our response.