Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday to tell fairy tales about the US military domination of Iran. “In less than 40 days, Centcom forces achieved our military objectives,” Cooper said, reported a DOD Press release. “Most notably, we degraded Iran’s ability to project power outside its borders and threaten the region and threaten our interests.” In April and October 2024, Iran rained hundreds of missiles down over Israel, he said, failing to note that in both cases the Iranian attacks were in response to Israeli provocations. But, Cooper claimed, Iran no longer has that ability after U.S. forces effectively eliminated its conventional missile capacity. “Today, Iran can no longer attack with that mass and scale,” he claimed further. “And further, with 90% of its defense industrial base destroyed, Iran won’t be able to reconstitute those weapons for years.”
And yet, the Islamic Republic is still in power and Iran retains control of the Strait of Hormuz.