Because it wasn’t planned that far. The administration probably thought it would go like Venezuela. A Middle East historian would have told you Iran has building for all our war for decades because it trusts none of its neighbors.

A second problem is that the US knew for a while that we were weak at asymmetric warfare but we didn’t fix it. There was a war game in 2002 (the Millennium Challenge, which was actually set in the Strait of Hormuz) that, though the red team did very much cheat, it did hint at a major weakness that wasn’t resolved.

There are US defense companies today that actually specialize in that but they weren’t given the same attention (but boy are they now).

When one side complains no fair the other side is cheating, you've probably already lost.

Relevant The Far Side cartoon: https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/...

> though the red team did very much cheat,

My Army buddy once said "If you're not cheating you're not trying."

What did they expect? That's the whole point of a red team.

Reminds me of Admiral Ching Lee. He used to run red team exercises against US facilities. He once walked into a maximum security facility with a badge bearing the name and photograph of Adolf Hitler.

Which defense companies?