At the end of the 12-day war in June, the @IDFSpokesperson said the military had destroyed about 80% of Iran’s missile launchers, leaving roughly 100-150. Two weeks ago, when this war began, the estimate again was that Iran had about 100-150 launchers. Eight days into the war, after nonstop bombing, the IDF was still saying Iran had around 150 launchers. Now, on day 13 of this campaign, we are told Israel has destroyed about 75% of the launchers and that Iran still has 100-200 remaining. So what exactly is happening here? Every war starts with the same number. Halfway through the war the number is the same. And now the number is… the same. And when the next war begins - magically - we will be back to the same number again. There are only two possible explanations: either the numbers never change or the numbers were never real to begin with. What we should expect from the media is not to regurgitate figures that clearly have no basis in reality. These numbers are not indicative of success. What will be the measure of success is the realization of the objectives of the war and as long as we do not know what those are, missile launchers do not tell us much.