Iran Is Also Losing The Lego War

" We lost the keys [to the Strait of Hormuz]", is certainly one response the crumbling military junta running Iran could give to Donald Trump's final warning to surrender, but not one that's going to keep the lights on, literally and figuratively. It took Pharaoh putting Egypt through ten different plagues before relenting after God boomeranged his command to kill the firstborn Hebrew child. God turned that into a death sentence for any household without blood over the doorway.

That was the first Passover over 3,300 years ago. As Jews all over the globe celebrate Passover this year, you would think that after five-plus weeks of getting systematically destroyed, the loyalists left in the regime would have learned a lesson by now that Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, commanding the two most lethal military forces on Earth working hand-in-hand, are not bluffing about what's coming next this week. The chain of events stemming from the downing of the F-15E Strike Eagle on Friday through the daring rescue early Sunday morning are going to make for a blockbuster movie one day soon.

Just the optics alone of the WSO (Weapons System Officer) being lost on Good Friday, missing for parts of three days before coming home on Easter Sunday, provide imagery screenwriters used to dream about scripting. Of course, that's back when Hollywood was actually in the business of making great movies. Both occupants of the F-15E ejected after the aircraft was struck by Iranian fire - the first plane hit in Iranian airspace after roughly 13,000 sorties by U.S. and Israeli forces - and both sustained injuries.

They ejected at different times, and landed relatively far apart from one another, so they were on their own from the second they hit the ground. The pilot was found and extracted within hours. His back-seater was still missing.

His beacon was working, but his extraction was going to prove to be tricky. In the first 24 hours on his own, the WSO came to after landing unconscious, according to initial reports, and climbed a 7,000-foot ridge before communicating his location and condition. "

God is good," is how he began. U.S. commanders going all the way to the White House were worried that this was a trap, especially after IRGC remnants took to television all over Iran and put out a bounty on the missing crewman's head. It took others from this WSO's unit who knew him well to report that he is a very religious Christian, and this is exactly what he would say in this kind of situation.

At that point, the mission to go get him began. And it truly is the most complicated, complex rescue mission ever undertaken. Close air support began almost immediately, with one helicopter taking fire and having to limp back home, and an A-10 Warthog going down, with that pilot ejecting safely and being recovered as well, to repel ground forces in the area searching for our missing man.

Countless IRGC were wiped out in preparing and defending what would become an impromptu forward landing base within a stone's throw of the Isfahan nuclear facility in Southwestern Iran. Somewhere between 100 and 200 Special Operators already in the theater of operations were deployed, and the 160th Special Operator Aviation Regiment, the icewater-veined Night Stalkers, were close behind. Because of the mountainous location of where the WSO was, it was too far for a helicopter run without risky refueling at a lower altitude and speed, and not feasible to set up an extraction landing strip, especially with his limited mobility.

Analysis seems to point to one of the two C-130 cargo planes that landed on the temporary strip, and possibly both, were carrying AH-6 Little Bird helicopters. These guys fold up neatly inside the cargo plane's hold and can be assembled and deployed to do a quick rescue trip and back in minutes. The Special Operators deployed were there to protect the landing strip perimeter, along with close air support from above.

It all sounds dangerous, but doable on paper. But life, as in the movies, never quite goes according to plan. The Iranians were coming.

Time was of the essence. The CIA helped stall a little bit. U.S. DECEPTION CAMPAIGN: The CIA leaked through multiple sources that they were trying to move a valuable package out of the country through a maritime exfil, I'm told by a senior U.S. official.

This was meant to draw the Iranians away from the area where the U.S. crew member…— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) April 5, 2026 The false flag in a different part of the sector was enough to decoy Iranian forces long enough to react to the next part of the plan that went sideways - the ex-fil. It's not as if American forces had enough time to conduct a geological survey of the area and ascertain whether the makeshift runway would support the weight of the planes and their cargo. Once on the ground, the C-130's sank into the Iranian sand.

Chick Hearn, the legendary Los Angeles Lakers broadcaster whose career spanned from Magic Johnson through most of the Kobe Bryant era, used to say when it was late in the 4th quarter, and the game was on the line, "

It's nervous time." When American and Israeli special forces were looking around at that many people on the ground deep into unfriendly territory with not enough seats in the remaining planes to get home, the decision was made. Three more planes raced in to rescue the personnel.

The C-130s and the AH-6 helos inside were sacrificed so that Iran wouldn't get their hands on them. Everyone came home in one piece - a remarkable military accomplishment. All day Saturday in the States, while Donald Trump and the administration were in the White House situation room monitoring events and making snap decisions that rose to his level, Trump hatred online elevated from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The talking points that went out among fever swamp social media influencers? Trump was dying at Walter Reed. The email went out. pic.twitter.com/4BN3GzQOdk— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) April 4, 2026 President Trump was simply too busy to be dying at Walter Reed.

He had his plate pretty full with killing 50 remaining IRGC and Basij commanders who had figured incorrectly that the American military would be too preoccupied with the rescue mission to notice them meeting in person. Big mistake. 🚨 HOLY CRAP! President Trump's confirmed strike killing top Iranian leaders came barely HOURS after the regime went full "tough guy" mode and vowed to turn the region into "hell" for America

BRUTAL 😭Trump is in the White House today not F-ing around!pic.twitter.com/0SgQHf7j7p— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 4, 2026 Mike Tobin filed this report on Fox News from Jerusalem about the strike Donald Trump ordered while the rescue mission was underway. 🚨 NEW: Fox’s Mike Tobin reports “over 50 senior Iranian leaders were eliminated” in new U.S.