Cheap at the price

Our pundits keep whining about how much money we're spending to punish Iran, with the latest being the loss of two special-ops aircraft that cost about $115 million each. They were destroyed on the ground during the mission to rescue an American airman shot down 36 hours earlier. Cheap at the price!

The C-130J Commando is an extraordinary update of the four-engine Lockheed Hercules transport. It can be refueled in flight, and in turn can refuel helicopters and other aircraft on the rescue mission. It's armed with Hellfire missiles and a rapid-firing 30mm cannon, can deploy parachute troops at high and low altitude, and is able to land and take off from a short runway. That we would expend two of them to rescue one man speaks well of us.