By virtually every measure, the US-Israeli offensive against Iran is unlike any military campaign in the modern history of the region. The killing of a supreme leader. The deployment of B-2 stealth bombers in sustained combat operations. Mass displacement of over one million Lebanese civilians in a single day. More than 1,230 dead in Iran in one week. President Donald Trump has broken records of military aggression even as he promises more to come.
The record-setting nature of the campaign has been most visible in its air operations. The deployment of B-2 stealth bombers in sustained strikes against Iran represents one of the most significant uses of the aircraft since their introduction. The bombs being used — 2,000-pound penetrating munitions designed to destroy deeply buried facilities — are among the largest and most capable conventional weapons in the American arsenal. Their use against Iran’s underground missile sites has been operationally significant and historically unprecedented.
Israel’s operations in Lebanon have similarly broken records. The evacuation orders issued on Friday were described by observers as the largest and most sweeping in the country’s recent history. The displacement of over one million people in a single day is a staggering humanitarian figure. The systematic targeting of Hezbollah’s command infrastructure in Beirut has been more extensive than any previous Israeli operation in Lebanon, including the 2006 war.
Iran’s retaliation has also been historically significant. The simultaneous targeting of US military bases across four Gulf states — Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain — represents the most geographically extensive Iranian military operation in recent history. The attack on the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon crossed a threshold that previous parties to Lebanese conflicts had generally respected. And the promise of new, unspecified weapons suggests Iran believes it has additional cards to play.
Trump has framed all of this as necessary, justified, and headed toward a predetermined victory. The scale of what has already been accomplished, in human and military terms, is extraordinary. The scale of what is still to come, if the defense secretary’s promises of a dramatic surge in firepower are fulfilled, may be more extraordinary still. Whether the records being broken bring the region closer to peace or further from it remains the central, unanswered question of a conflict that has rewritten the rules in just seven days.