Close to the Edge

Reflections on the provocative drone attack in Jordan

Yesterday morning, many of us woke up to the news that a drone attack in Jordan killed 3 American service members and injured many more.

Outrage is understandable. As a country, we have demonstrated incredible restraint towards Iran for decades, in the face of continuous provocation. Heck, we even tried to warn Iran about the impending ISIS attack earlier this month. Of course, Iranian-US relations are far more complex than “we’re magnanimous and they’re assholes,” but I will reiterate that we’ve demonstrated incredible restraint in our dealings with them.

Reactions across the DefenseTech ecosystem have ranged from “proof that the DOD needs to buy my directed energy drone swarm widget” to “every politician and policy maker should be required to enlist their children into the military.”

Generally, there’s a sense that this attack demonstrates needed reform in the acquisitions processes.

I understand that sense. But I’m not sure that’s the key take away from this attack.