A ground operation in Iran would be a disaster for the US, warns former Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and current Ukrainian ambassador to London, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, in an op-ed for The Telegraph.
The rapidity of past wars in this region has given rise to many fantasies. But the large-scale changes on the battlefields of the Russian-Ukrainian war have shifted the paradigm of how warfare is waged, he says. The US may not be ready for it.
“As a result, they have changed the very essence of the combat capabilities of those who would like to test them,” Zaluzhnyi writes.
New war without rules: Ukraine changed logic of combat
Zaluzhnyi emphasizes that Ukraine has demonstrated how smaller nations can resist larger powers by relying on asymmetric capabilities.
While the US may have attempted a decisive “defeat” strategy in Iran, the Iranians immediately adopted a strategy of attrition, and now “the attacking side would clearly face major problems.”
“Kill zones”: battlefields where humans stand no chance
In Ukraine, the concept of a “kill zone” has been fully implemented, where drones destroy both soldiers and equipment. If the US tries to deploy troops in Iran, the Iranians could create a similar “kill zone” in the landing area, which “would be a disaster” for American forces, Zaluzhnyi says.
The key aspect of the “kill zone” technology is that human presence in such an area is not only meaningless but impossible, as the territory is fully controlled by drones hunting people and vehicles.
“It would be a major mistake to turn a soldier into a machine and send ground forces into a kill zone,” the Ukrainian general writes.
Currently, Ukraine remains the only country in the world with experience in full-scale modern warfare, defending itself from a dictatorial regime and its imperial ambitions.
