Here's the deal.
BTF wasn't a state secret, we published that wherever we could, but BTF was part of the show.
We took our...tactical assets and put them over the Arabian Gulf. We had them use the old Cold War tactic of running in towards the Iranian coast, but we did something a bit different. Certain code words are used for certain activities. Some are widely known, some are not. For example, "Fox Two" indicates the launch of an infrared guided missile like the Sidewinder. Our tactical assets used other code words in the clear, along with flight profiles, to simulate "actions" against Iran. To a layman like myself, the type and quantity of assets in the air at that time, coupled with their flight profiles, could give one the impression of..."penetrating the airspace" of another country.
Look, whatever we want to think of Iran and the bulk of the nations out there, they understand our mission profiles. They can look at our flight patterns and figure out what is going on; in fact that is a means of identifying certain aircraft. Before anyone loses their mind over this, look up Operation Bolo. Acting like one thing while being something else isn't new in aerial warfare.
Without too many specifics beyond the above, our air and naval forces implemented profiles which could elicit a response. I'm giving away secrets? Eh, look up the Navy Triton that was shot down...do you think that was without some background? Shit doesn't happen in a vacuum. They took some of our sailors hostage...and that wasn't part of a broader undeclared war? American, please...
At the end of the day, people need to step back and consider the totality of a picture instead of isolated events. If they will do that then a lot of foreign and domestic events will pop into focus. Don't look at today or this month, look at this year or the last decade and suddenly some things will make sense.
Believe me or not, I'm onboard and I understand, but Trump tried to provoke a war with Iran in December of 2020. There's no other way to explain what our air and naval forces did that month and I watched it all in real time courtesy of radar and Link 16 data.