Proponents of the air campaign against Iran argue that loitering drones, Israeli intelligence penetration, and unprecedented targeting precision make this conflict fundamentally different from past wars. Gen. Stanley McChrystal does not buy it. In an interview with New York Times columnist David French, the retired general drew a direct line from the daylight bombing raids of 1943 to the "shock and awe" campaign of 2003 to the current Operation Epic Fury - and found the same flaw each time.

"We entered Iraq in 2003 with 'shock and awe,' and then we spent a decade there fighting after it," McChrystal said, as "Hvylya" reports. When French argued that modern air power capability is fundamentally different, McChrystal reached for a comparison from his post-military life. "Since I've retired from the military, I've been involved in some investing, and I love that line: 'This time it's different.'"

The general conceded that American air power is far more capable than in previous conflicts and said he keeps an open mind about whether a tipping point has been reached. But he added that he is not seeing evidence the dynamic has fundamentally shifted. Afghanistan, he recalled, offered a warning. Early in the conflict, American forces assumed the bombing would intimidate tribal fighters on the ground. Instead, many of them were "disdainful of it."

"They knew you could bomb them. But they said, if you're not willing to get down on the ground, look me in the eye, and fight me mano a mano, then you are not morally on my level," McChrystal said. He argued that the Iranian regime's commitment is theological and, in some cases, apocalyptic. That makes air power alone unlikely to break the regime's will to fight.

French reinforced the point with his own experience in Iraq, where medics treating wounded Shia fighters reported that even gravely injured combatants would try to bite or harm them. "That was the level of commitment," he said. McChrystal's warning was blunt: the current bombing campaign may have already peaked in effectiveness, and everything that follows will be harder.

Previously, "Hvylya" explored why Iran's hardest test may come not during the bombing but after it ends.