New Delhi, April 4 -- AMERICA HAD been lucky in its air war against Iran. In the first Gulf war in 1991 it lost 28 fixed-wing planes in combat; in that conflict Iraq took 16 pilots and air crew as prisoners of war (POW). In Operation Epic Fury, America's losses of people had been confined to friendly fire over Kuwait. But its luck ran out on April 3rd, when an F-15E fighter jet was lost over Iran. One pilot has been rescued; the fate of the other is unknown. In a separate incident, an A-10 Warthog ground-attack aircraft is thought to have crashed near the Strait of Hormuz, with its lone pilot rescued. If Iran were to capture an American airman alive, that could trigger another round of escalation in a war that shows no sign of easing.

Am...