hundreds of shahed type drones were shot down by US forces since October 7, 2023. almost all of them over Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. We know how to defeat them. But that force structure is mostly in Jordan, Iraq, and Syria; it's not in the Gulf region. The Admin did not add forces to conduct short range counter air at the places it needed that, like Al Udeid Qatar, or Al Shuaiba Kuwait.

even in Jordan, some Shaheds will get through because 100s are being fired. if 1000 Shaheds get fired, and the US kills 95% of them, that still means 50 are going to hit a target. It may be 90%. It is probably more or less on par with the type of success the Ukrainians are having.

to the Iranians credit, they are hitting "spectacular" targets, i.e. targets that will grab headlines. They are also forcing a lot of economic pain on the Gulf Arabs. Their strategy to hit those things I think is smart, it's something they can achieve, there is so much oil infrastructure it is hard to defend all of it, and some things will get through.