Iran and the rope-a-dope

What is battlespace? It’s complicated.

A battlespace is the modern military term for the total environment where a conflict takes place. Unlike the traditional “battlefield,” which mostly refers to the physical ground where soldiers fight, a battlespace is multidimensional.

It includes every factor that can influence the outcome of a mission, integrated into a single unified strategy.

• Land: Ground forces, tanks, and infantry.
• Sea: Surface ships and submarines.
• Air: Planes, helicopters, and drones.
• Space: Satellites for GPS, communication, and surveillance.
• Cyberspace: Digital networks, hacking, and electronic warfare.

Source: U.S. Army War College Publications

Wow. That’s a lot to digest, even in a five-bullet format. I spent 17 years as an illustrator for a few defense contractors and, through assimilation, came to appreciate the overwhelming complexity of our nation’s military capacity. So what’s a layperson—and I am one— to do? Keep it simple, real simple.

Do the math, Donald!

A war like this is literally what Iran built them for,” said Kyle Glen, an investigator with the London-based nonprofit Center for Information Resilience.

Iran has always counted on facing a superior military, Glen said. That has pushed it to explore asymmetric warfare, in which smaller or technologically inferior forces look for ways to frustrate or exhaust the enemy.

Drones are a prime example. The Shahed can be made cheaply with dual-use components and launched off the back of a truck. Unlike missiles, which require vast infrastructure, the drones can be assembled covertly.

Source: NBC News

Maybe Trump knew the numbers. After all, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the Wharton School.

But we all heard his memorable butchering of drug price percentages, where, in his mind and in his words, they would drop 500, 600, even 1,000%. So maybe it’s safe to assume he’s equally adept at misunderstanding ratios. And that’s what I’m getting at in this cartoon.