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Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 22, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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US warplane shot down by friendly fire in Red Sea, pilots eject safely

Two U.S. Navy pilots were shot down on Sunday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the U.S military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of targeting of Yemen's Houthi rebels.

Do you think it was friendly fire or the Houthi leveling up and the pentagon wants to cover it up? Iran do needs wins after Syria.

The pentagon really isn’t very watertight when it comes to leaks, if it was the Houthis I imagine that they‘d both claim it and that the NYT/WaPost/Reuters/AP/etc would have the leak relatively soon.

Why would they want to cover it up if the Houthis did it? I'd have thought that the US military would be happy to glass Yemen and Iran, but are worried that popular and muggle politician sentiment isn't behind it and they'll be dinged for warmongering - a case of Iran/proxies hurting American national pride and almost killing one of its finest would be just what they need. More likely that they'd cover up such an incident if it were Russia/China/NK, where popular enthusiasm for a military adventure could easily pull ahead of how beneficial the military thinks it would be.