UNITED STATES PERSPECTIVE

Fifteen Tehran residents, reached by phone by the New York Times, describe a capital under intense bombardment: a mother huddled with her child in the bathroom, a 90-year-old patriarch moved in his wheelchair down the hallway before windows exploded. The Washington Post confirms that two aircraft were shot down the same day—an F-15E Strike Eagle over Iranian territory and an A-10 Warthog in the Gulf—and that two Black Hawk helicopters engaged in search operations were also hit. CBS national security analyst Aaron MacLean notes that the F-15 was likely conducting strike missions: pilots are armed with only a handgun for defense. Trump dismissed the incident in a single sentence to NBC: 'No, not at all. No, it's war.' This cavalier tone contrasts sharply with the gravity of the facts: it's the first loss of an American combat aircraft to enemy fire since Iraq in 2003. The American media apparatus oscillates between the heroic narrative of the rescued pilot and the political question no one poses directly—how long can a president wage war under executive power alone without returning to Congress, especially as midterms approach.