Three U.S. F-15Es are shot down by Kuwait in an apparent friendly fire incident.

OK. Pull up a stool. I want you to follow this with me, because I am about to tell you a real story that happened and I do not want you to think I am making it up.

Step one. The President of the United States, the previous weekend, launched a war against Iran. Called it Operation Epic Fury. Epic. Fury. Like a children’s cartoon. Press release out of the West Wing. Statements from the cabinet. Decisive action, they said. Peace through strength.

Step two. The first seventy-two hours of the war, the U.S. Air Force is flying air defense missions over the Persian Gulf. Allies are flying air defense missions over the Persian Gulf. The Kuwaitis are flying air defense missions over the Persian Gulf. Lot of jets. Lot of frequencies. Lot of adrenaline.

Step three. On Sunday, over Kuwait, a Kuwaiti F/A-18 Hornet, an aircraft we sold them, identifies three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles as hostile. Hostile, hon. The Kuwaiti pilot fires. All three F-15Es go down over Kuwait. Three hundred million dollars of American hardware raining onto a country that buys hardware from us.

The six aviators on those three jets ejected. The six aviators are alive. Thank whoever you thank. But the jets are not.

Step four. U.S. Central Command, the next morning, confirms it, in a press release, that the incident is under investigation and is apparent friendly fire. The Identification Friend or Foe system, the box in the cockpit whose entire job is to prevent this exact thing, was either off, malfunctioning, or ignored. That is the box. That is what it is for. That is what it did not do.

Step five. The President of the United States, that same weekend, posts that Operation Epic Fury is a tremendous, total success. The biggest success. Tremendous. He does not, in the post, mention the three jets. He does not, in the post, mention the six aviators in the desert. He does not, in the post, mention that the country that shot us down is the country we are flying air defense for.

I want you to picture, for one quiet minute, the meeting, the next morning, in which a colonel from CENTCOM has to call a colonel from the Kuwaiti Air Force and ask what exactly happened. Picture the opening sentence of that phone call, hon.

The jets cost one hundred million dollars apiece. The war is seventy-two hours old. The missiles came from us.

Funny how that works.