After 81 years, a U.S. hunter-killer sub torpedoes an enemy surface combatant.
The fact that the United States Navy went 81 years without firing a single torpedo in anger is an extraordinary accomplishment. If one goes back to World War II, the Silent Service was using torpedoes by the hundreds to primarily destroy Japan’s navy and merchant shipping. The U.S. lost 52 boats during the war; in the decades since, two nuclear subs have been lost in accidents. The last use of a torpedo by a Western power was in 1982, when the British navy sent Argentina’s Belgrano to the bottom.
The long break in torpedo use speaks well of the Navy in two ways. Firstly, they have never had to resort to their use. We live in an age of relative peace that does not include unrestricted warfare on the high seas as we had in the two world wars. Additionally, the highly-trained crew got a direct hit. They are always practicing with the $4.2 million Mark 48 torpedoes, and their success when called upon shows their constant readiness. At the outset of America’s entry into World War II, American torpedoes often failed; the crews could hear them hit the target and not explode. After the torpedoes were improved and new tactics developed, the Americans went on a tear to the point that they pretty much ran out of targets. Two percent of all Navy sailors and officers in the submarines accounted for 55 percent of all Japanese losses. USS Wahoo returned to Pearl Harbor flying a broom after sinking all of her targets.
Another important milestone for the Navy is not having fired a ballistic nuclear missile in over 60 years of having them on patrol. Before Polaris-Poseidon-Trident, there were Regulus missiles, which required surfacing and a cumbersome launch protocol. One could wrongly argue that if a platform has not been used in 60 years, then maybe it is time to retire it. But obviously, the opposite is true. The existence of the “boomers” is what keeps America’s biggest enemies away from the red launch button. They don’t know where the Ohio-class ballistic missile boats are, but they do know that each of the 24 missiles can include multiple independent reentry vehicles, and that one Trident D5 missile can really ruin your day. The U.S. is making a massive investment in the follow-on Columbia Class subs, which will only come online in a few years. Ground-based Minuteman rockets might get destroyed in the silo, and strategic bombers may get shot down or blown up on the ground, but to date, nobody can easily find a lurking submarine carrying more destructive power than all of the bombs dropped in World War II.
What the Iranians did not appreciate when they showed Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner that they weren’t serious in negotiating was how serious the U.S. military can be under strong leadership as it has today. The U.S. fired a torpedo after 80 years in international waters without all of the second-guessing, and that’s not who we are, rubbish. Enemy. Fire. Sink. The Iranians keep claiming that their best rockets and drones are still in the basement and that they have big retaliatory plans. They have never fought a country with the firepower, capabilities, and fighting spirit that the U.S. currently has. Add to that Israel and its experienced and determined military and Mossad, and the Iranian jihadists will probably get the death that they claim they so much desire.
The problem with the Iranians is that they thought that they were invincible. They killed 85 people via Hezbollah in a bombing on a Jewish facility in Argentina, and nothing happened. They killed over 200 Marines in Beirut again with Hezbollah, and nothing happened. They killed and maimed hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq, and nothing happened. They may have played a role in 9/11 or known about the plan, and again, nothing happened. They killed and maimed thousands of Israelis via their local proxies before the first exchange of fire between Iran and Israel—and they got away with it. They murdered tens of thousands of their own people, and it seemed to them that they would weather the storm. When the internal revolt began, their now-dead leader calmly said that hundreds of thousands died in establishing the Islamic state of Iran, so a few more tens of thousands wouldn’t matter all that much.
Donald Trump offered them a deal that would have kept them in power, but they weren’t going to accept his terms. The Iranians thought they were the Untouchables when in reality they were the sitting duck Expendables. Their air force was made up of planes that are currently on display in U.S. air museums. Their non-nuclear infrastructure was old and decaying. They would send their crude oil to Venezuela for processing because their own oil infrastructure was falling apart without Western engineers to keep it in good working order. They were like a fat, lazy fighter who either didn’t fight or chose his opponents from the local nursing home. He thought that he was the heavyweight champion of the world—until the real champion showed up and demolished him.
Many Democrats seem to be on the mullahs’ side. There are those on the loony Right who seem to be rooting for Iran as well. I have noticed in my columns on these people that most readers think that they have lost their minds. Still, some say the standard “not all criticisms of Israel are antisemitism” or “why can’t we have different opinions” or other such tripe. An X account going by Kamel Amin Thaabet listed what American Jews have experienced just this week:
- Candace Owens: Bibi is behind the 3,000 Americans murdered on 9/11
- Tucker Carlson: The Chabad movement is driving the Iranian attacks
- Megyn Kelly: Anyone who posts on X in favor of Israel gets paid $7,000 per tweet
- Dan Blizerian: “The only battle today that I see worth fighting is exterminating Israel.”
- Gov. Newsom: Israel is an apartheid state
I will add one more from last week:
- Carrie Prejean: “The Catholic Church is the true Israel. Christians are the spiritual Semites. We are the new people of God.”
Owens, Carlson, and Kelly were darlings of the Right and former supporters of Donald Trump and ostensible friends of Jews and Israel. There is no “Well, everyone should be allowed an opinion, and we shouldn’t judge others” or the “Israel First” canard. These people are antisemites, and I am glad that Donald Trump said that Carlson is not MAGA. Orthodox Jews are not a very big electoral group, but unless these creeps are pushed away with two arms, close elections may be lost due to their previous Republican associations.
I wrote previously on Chabad, and Tucker’s argument is completely ridiculous and illogical. Israel has held the Temple Mount for nearly 60 years and could send a bunch of tractors there to knock down the mosque and build the Temple. But Israel knows that such a move would be a disaster. And at a deeper level, all Jews know that the rebuilding of the Temple is not an engineering issue; rather, it’s a getting-closer-to-God issue. Our religious literature is filled with references to the destruction of the two Temples due to our failures to live according to God’s will. A war in Tehran will not rebuild the Temple; a revival of the Jewish people’s relationship with God and Torah might. Tucker and the others in the list of infamy above wish to rile up Christians against Jews and guarantee that the Republicans lose the midterms. It is time for Republican leaders to make it clear that past association with the Republican Party means nothing if one expresses Jew hatred. Let’s hear it, JD.
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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