We are witnessing something of great significance. In Iran.

I know, I know, enough of Iran already. But this is worth looking at.

First, let’s look at one of the biggest lessons from wars over the centuries: Often the losers prepared for war with an eye toward the previous war. Often the winners prepared for a war with tactics and weapons never used before.

One example was the longbow. Able to pierce a knight’s armor from 100 yards and more. The English trained thousands of bowmen. They let loose up to 15 arrows a minute. When massed and loosing, they rained death on armies far larger. On armies led by cross-bow men whose arrows fell short of the longbow archers. They felled legions of horses and the men who rode in on them.

The losers, with cross-bows, lances and horses, prepared for what had been traditional warfare. The winners won with a new type of warfare.

The same happened centuries later to the stodgy English redcoats. When they marched in tightly packed rows to put down the American rebellion. The colonial rebels popped out from behind trees and stone walls to pick off the redcoats. The English generals never expected such guerilla warfare.

Just as Americans never expected much of the guerilla warfare the Vietcong waged.

Just as our enemies never anticipated the drone warfare we carry out in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Precision strikes from unseen platforms in the sky.