The U.S. dropped a bunch of bombs on Iran and:
In his remarks, the president described the strikes on Iranian nuclear sites as a “spectacular military success.” He warned of “far greater” attacks if Iran does not “make peace.”
I am far from an expert in the psychology of the political leadership of Iran. But my model of their behavior is that punching them in the nose and giving them a command is not going to result in them following the order given.
I really do not want them to have a nuclear bomb. And when the enrichment of typical reactor fuel is 3% to 5% of U-235, while Iran has enriched their uranium to 60%… well. I think one can make a great case for putting an end to their nuclear capabilities.
It seems to me the U.S. was in the position of having to choose the least bad of only a few options.
What are the consequences of holding the position of “make peace or else”? Will it be another 20-year war? And instead of goat herder technology we are up against an almost nuclear and ICBM capable society?
What was the alternative? Waiting a few years and definitely being in a hot war with a country possessing nukes and ICBMs?
I want my underground bunker in Idaho.
There are no good options when it comes to dealing with fundamentalist muslims.
They are beyond reason, negotiation or trusting. Their RELIGION is all they care about and that religion COMMANDS them to destroy ANYONE who isn’t muslim.
Anyone who believes they can “negotiate” any true agreement with them is ignorant…to the point of being an abject moron. Islam is like Communism. It’s either us or them. Refusing to accept that fundamental reality and acting to thwart those two ideologies is a form of suicide.
Generally I think Trump is our best option, but he’s getting REALLY bad advice on this. This attack was really stupid. Yes, fundy islam is totally crackers, but while their leadership has a lot of true believers the Iranian people are generally a lot more moderate, and there has been a growing and troublesome (to the leadership) Christian revival across Iran in recent years. It’s got a LOOOONNNNG history (Persian empire pre-dates Roman Republic), and they are a proud people. This is totally the wrong approach. It proves nothing other than the US Gov’t is (still) totally Israel’s bitch, unless there is some really odd deep double-back play that isn’t obvious at this time. (on that last bit I’ll remain hopeful, but not optimistic).
But the neo-cons / globalists / commies / banksters / NEED WWIII to make things shitty enough people will accept their tyrannical leadership to ‘fix” the world’s problems…. They managed to get enough of their people into Trump’s cabinet he’s making bad decisions, now. Well…. crap.
The markets ought to be interesting Monday morning.
You may well be right about the people, but given that we’re dealing with a dictatorship, their opinions do not matter. It is the dictator who controls what Iran will attack, and he’s made it clear that both Israel and the USA are his targets.
The alternative was probably to take out their oil transfer / port facilities and power generation to starve them for hard currency and collapse their economy. But this would make life really miserable for the Iranian people, while also damaging the Chinese economy (they buy a lot of sanctioned oil) at a time when it’s already showing signs of strain ( neither of which really appeal )… with no guarantee that this would end the nuke program. The surgical strike is/was the least worst option vs a mushroom cloud over TelAviv or NYC.
The wildcard is: how does Iran lash out? So far, it seems like missile attacks on Israel is the extent of their reach, but the US is a smorgasbord of soft targets, and the Hadjis are a bloodthirsty sort.
Expect the press to blame Trump for any retaliation, while ignoring Obamas role in funding the Iranian terror / nuke program to begin with.
No ICBMs that we know about. Stuff they are using on Israel are SRBMs and MRBMs. Accuracy doesn’t seem to be outstanding as they just hit two mosques in Haifa. Of course, there are other ways to deliver nuclear weapons. Let’s hope NEST is spooled up. Retaliation, if it comes, is more likely to be terrorism. Iran is a pioneer in the use of drones and as Ukraine and Israel just proved, they can be operated from within an enemy’s territory. US has got to be more open than Russia and probably Iran. I would not be surprised if terrorism assets, including but not limited to drones, are already in country.
We have had an aggressive rogue nuclear power in the Middle East without any international oversight for 60 years and no one has been nuked yet. I’m not sure why having two is such a big deal.
If we are bombing ME countries for having nuclear programs, let’s force both of them to disarm.
Tyrants stay in power by rallying their people. Giving them an enemy.
And right now all we’ve done is rally the Iranian people. And silence any critics/decent of the mullahs that were within Iran.
These are the people that invented chess. They play a long game.
Have we ended Iran’s nuke program? Sure, maybe.
But what has truly been done is the rest of the world watched us once again start another poxy war. This time through Israel. But just like Ukraine. Whatever hope the world had that Trump would be different from passed leaders just exploded like a J-dam.
And rallied most of the Islamic world.
And what of the damage at home?
Half of MAGA were skeptics of Trump. Not anymore. He is what we feared he might become. A puppet.
Iran has been bombed, not defeated. Russia, China, Pakistan, Turkey, and any other country can get involved on Iran’s side now. We set the precedence.
And they will.
Everyone is now “weapons free” to do the same to us. Right here on America soil. Through third party contracting. And the jahdi’s will be lining up.
We just went over our heads into the shit-pit.
Interestingly, many Iranians are thanking the Israelis for taking out Muslim autocratic leadership – they recall when women could still get an education, wear Western clothing, and not be stoned to death if they forgot their head condom when they went out.
The Israelis may very well have rallied the Iranian people – against the mullahs, witness many reports from Iran of people thanking Israel. Not entirely sure what the overall Iranian people’s reaction will be to the US bombing, but I’m sure MSNBC, CNN, and you will tell us.
Iran didn’t need ICBMs to deliver a nuclear payload to the US. A container on a cargo ship would take out one of our ports just fine.
Not sure about CNN or MSNBC, I think that’s Shussler’s dept.
But I can say with surety that if a nuke goes off in America, it was allowed by our government to do so.
The problem with nukes is shielding them. And a container box full of lead could not be moved. Way to heavy.
Any container light enough to be moved will not be able to shield it enough to keep it from setting off alarms from outer space. Let alone the coast guard.
Thats how we know north Korea isn’t firing one on a missile over Japan.
It works so well that they had a ship held off the New York coast for 3 weeks only to find the clay tiles on board were from a part of Africa that had micro amounts of radio-active particles in them.
That was 30 years ago.
Trajectory mapping and radio activity of were put in place as part of Reagan’s star-wars.
As for the Iranians raising up, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
I been hearing that one longer than them getting nukes.
Most of the Islamic world is Sunni and most of the leaders of Sunni dominated governments are, if not publicly, then privately thanking Allah for deliverance from the threats of their No-longer soon to be nuclear armed Shia apostate enemies. The Sunnis and Shiites have been at war for over 1200 years. Yes they play a long game. Time for the Sunnis to prevail and for Zoroastrianism to make a major comeback in Persia