How Is This Conflict So One-Sided? Two Words...

Israel and Iran have been exchanging blows for four days now, and it’s pretty clear who’s winning…

Israel has struck scores of Iranian assets, obliterating the country’s defensive capabilities, energy assets, manufacturing plants, and high-ranking personnel.

Iran, on the other hand, has struggled to muster any kind of meaningful response whatsoever.

In fact, Iran has already suffered 10x as many casualties as Israel — more than 200 compared with just over 20.

Furthermore, among casualties were Iran’s highest-ranking military official, the head of its Revolutionary Guard Corps, the head of its air force, and more than 20 other high-ranking military officials.

A member of Tehran’s nuclear negotiation team was also killed, along with half a dozen nuclear scientists.

Israel also had (or has) a plan to target Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, but that was apparently a bridge too far for President Trump.

Nevertheless, the IDF now claims to have “full aerial operational control” over Iran, and it’s using it to hammer Iran’s energy, manufacturing, aviation, and electronics sectors, as well as its nuclear facilities.

More than 250 targets and more than 720 components were struck over the weekend.

Israel attacked the world’s largest natural gas field, South Pars, and the Shahran oil depot. It hit airports, police stations, factories, and defense ministry buildings.

On Saturday night, the IDF said it targeted an underground "used for storing and launching surface-to-surface missiles and cruise missiles," and that "the senior figures who visited it in the past were also eliminated."

And again, despite all of its bluster and rhetoric, Iran has done nothing to blunt Israel’s offensive. Instead, it’s snowballed into an existential threat for the Iranian regime.

It seems rather sudden, considering the Israel-Iran conflict has muddled along for decades with nothing close to a definitive resolution. But if you look at the military progress Israel has made in just the past few years, you can see how we got here.

While Iran has labored under sanctions and generally relied on the likes of Russia and China to keep itself afloat, Israel has gotten sharper and more aggressive.

You can see that in the way it steamrolled the Gaza Strip. Doing so meant negating its two most proximate foes — Hamas and Hezbollah.

Through a persistent and aggressive campaign, Israel has effectively destroyed Iran’s frontline proxy groups. It simultaneously chipped away at Iran’s close-range air defense systems, paving the way for this weekend’s offensive.

And that’s where Israel’s biggest advantage comes into play.

Two words: Iron Dome.

Israel is only able to strike Iran with impunity because its defensive shield is so robust. And the Iron Dome is the basis for that.

Developed in 2006 and deployed in 2011, the Iron Dome has a success rate north of 90% when it comes to intercepting incoming threats.

It’s also since been supplemented with the David’s Sling and Arrow systems, which tackle medium- and long-range threats.

Israel is also working on a fourth system known as the Iron Beam, which aims to deploy laser technology to intercept rockets, missiles, and drones at a much lower cost.

Iran clearly has nothing like this. And frankly, neither do we.

America’s missile defense is more disparate. It consists of sensor, detection, and missile systems stationed throughout Europe and at sea.

They’re formidable, to be sure, but they’re also being outpaced by advances in hypersonic weapons and atmospheric glide vehicles being developed by Russia and China.

That’s why President Trump is devoting hundreds of billions of dollars to the development of the Golden Dome.

And truly, the endeavor is so vast and sophisticated that it will almost certainly cost trillions of dollars over the course of the next decade.

That makes it a generational investment opportunity — and if you want to get my full report on the biggest Pentagon initiative since the Manhattan Project, you can find it here.