It took the U.S. military less than 40 days to destroy 90 percent of Iran’s operational ballistic missile and drone capacities, annihilate its navy, dismantle its support for proxy militias, and derail its emergent nuclear weapons program, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said on May 14.
“Across every element of national power, they have been significantly degraded,” Adm. Brad Cooper said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We have dismantled what took them decades and billions to build.”
With two Navy aircraft carrier battlegroups and a Marine task force–to be joined by a second soon–in the Arabian Sea blockading Iranian ships from leaving the Persian Gulf, he expressed confidence that, if ordered, the United States could wrest control of the Strait of Hormuz from Tehran to reopen the vital shipping lane to international traffic….