Information Blackout, Black Hawk Down

REDACTED NEWS: Photo credit: @realDonaldTrump

This was the inspiring message that President Trump posted on Easter Sunday morning to Iran. Do you think that maybe the war isn't going his way?

Iran responded with a series of joke replies like this one: "We've lost the keys." And this one: "We aren't reopening shit bro."

Diplomacy these days has descended to this.

The President may be in a foul mood because of a failed ground invasion.

Over the weekend, he congratulated the military for a major rescue mission, which reportedly involved "hundreds of special operations troops" going "deep into Iranian territory."

They are spinning it as a success, and it would be if no lives were truly lost, but the U.S. did reportedly lose 12 aircraft in a single operation, including two C-130s, four Little Birds helicopters, four Black Hawks helicopters, and two MQ-9 drones. The U.S. claims that it blew up some of its own craft to prevent it from falling into Iranian hands but Iran claims that they destroyed the crafts.

There are also serious questions about how this played out.

First, why was the pilot rescued 110 miles away from his downed craft 48 hours later? The President says that he was injured. And yet he was able to walk 110 miles, scaling 7,000-foot mountains without being noticed after a major crash?

Also, how did the U.S. establish a secret landing site, bring in two huge C-130 planes, and then push 35 miles to a remote mountain to recover the wounded pilot without being detected by the enemy? The Telegraph reports that they used agricultural runways that were "just 30 miles from Isfahan, one of Iran’s most important nuclear facilities."

You don't say? That is why some are saying that this was a "failed US military operation to capture Iran’s primary stockpile of highly enriched 60% uranium, roughly 440–970 pounds."

While these questions pile up, the U.S. put a blackout on satellite imaging from Iran and the Middle East. One company, Planet Labs, says that it will comply, and the U.S. threatened sanctions on any other imaging company that allows ground images of war zones.

Planet Labs said it will withhold imagery dating back to March 9! This is typical information control during wartime and it is alarming.

The President is expected to join the military in the Oval Office for a news conference at 1 p.m. Eastern today where they will address this mission. That is the same time as the NASA moon stream so you'll have to choose. Do you think either of them will be fiction?