General Discussion

The thought was that Baghdad's air defenses were degraded to the point heavily loaded F-16's wouldn't have too much of a problem. It wasn't. Poor coordination with the F-4G Wild Weasels sent in to suppress what SAMs were left. There were still a hell of a lot of SAMs. Poor planning in general making for a difficult attack at best. Results were 2 F-16's shot down, both pilots taken prisoner, and nothing of any significance accomplished. From then until the end of open hostilities, Baghdad proper was F-117 and Tomahawk territory only.

In short, this shit isn't as easy as it looks against a motivated advisory.

F-35's in stealth mode (internal weapons bay only, nothing hanging from the external hard points) can't carry this load. There isn't enough of them and they don't carry enough punch while stealthy. Not in a country as big as Iran. This isn't Luxembourg. So the workhorses are having to go in with stand off load outs. JASSMs, JSOWs and the like giving air crews some protection with distance from target. Even then, there will be losses.

If war continues, this shit will continue. No other way to do it. And damn expensive in blood and treasure. These weapons are not cheap. I've heard that we're now stripping other theaters of their JASSM stocks to feed this stupidity, making the US vulnerable elsewhere. At least the goobers aren't stupid enough to fly B-52 raids. Now THAT would be a field day for the Iranians!