America's successful hunt for, and retrieval of, the pilot of a downed aircraft over Iran reminds me of a World-War-II era joke.
As Short Mag Smile's Greater Lee describes the situation in 2026,
a lot of foreigners who seem to not understand why we’d risk hundreds of lives, spend millions of dollars, and sacrifice several aircraft to rescue one guy. And the reason they don’t understand is also the reason people can’t be made American by a piece of paper.
Meanwhile, the Armchair Admiral points out that
It’s a testament to the U.S. military that no amount of equipment is more valuable than a single airman’s life
Both quotes come from Ed Driscoll's outstanding Instapundit post, to which various contributors at the blog have contributed with ever-more details. Do read the whole thing™.
But there is nothing new under the sun here: this was already the case during World War II, as the following joke emphasizes. The joke, which was apparently shared by both sides (allies and axis), and among all national groups and by all army soldiers, goes as follows:
A regiment of soldiers (whose nationality hardly matters) becomes aware that in a forest close by is a large group of unknown troops. To find out whether they are friends or foes, i.e., what nationality they are, they decide to open fire on the woods. This is how they find out who the unseen troops are:If the unseen troops fire back with singular rifle shots, they are British;If the unseen troops fire back with machine gun fire, they are German;If the troops rush out at you, screaming like berserk madmen, they are Russian;If there is no response whatsoever, if nothing happens at all, there is only one conclusion: they are, they must be, American.That is, nothing happens for five to ten minutes, and then suddenly your entire area is struck by an intense, an extensive, and a devastating artillery barrage.
Indeed, among the other perspectives in the aforementioned Instapundit post is that of Freight Alley's Craig Fuller, who goes back over 80 years in time to point out that
Indeed, it turns out that the Germans were complaining that the ways that "die Amis" were fighting was totally unfair.During World War II, … German observers noted that Americans fought differently from the Europeans.Rather than charging aggressively and risking heavy infantry casualties, U.S. forces relied on overwhelming firepower—staying at a distance and expending vast quantities of artillery with little hesitation. Thanks to unmatched industrial production and logistics, fresh supplies were always available.This approach allowed relatively smaller American units to wear down much larger and well-entrenched enemy forces.In contrast, German and other European doctrines often emphasized aggressive maneuver and were sometimes more willing to accept high casualties to achieve objectives or preserve key equipment.This material-heavy American style surprised many Germans, including Hitler, who had long dismissed U.S. soldiers as soft and lacking in fighting spirit. He believed soldiers were cheap and expendable; he discovered too late that Americans fought to conserve lives by expending machines and ammunition instead.It was one of many reasons for Germany’s defeat—perhaps the hardest for some foreigners to fully understand. Americans place a high value on the lives of our soldiers. Equipment and shells could always be replaced.
I’m noticing a lot of foreigners who seem to not understand why we’d risk hundreds of lives, spend millions of dollars, and sacrifice several aircraft to rescue one guy. And the reason they don’t understand is also the reason people can’t be made American by a piece of paper. https://t.co/mmRtDKQB56
— Lee (Greater) (@shortmagsmle) April 5, 2026
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