Israel vs Iran

[Svartalf]

God protect us from religious fanatics.

[aufbahrung]

Always know it's gonna be a cracker of a crime-scene when they bring out the Book of Revelation.

[JimC]

The American Taliban...

[Tero]

“The American bombardment of Iran has been launched without explanation, without Congress, without even an attempt to build public support. Above all, it has been launched without a coherent strategy for the Iranian people, and without a plan to let them decide how to build a legitimate Iranian state.”

“The absence of a broader strategy fits a pattern. For decades, American presidents from both parties have oscillated between coercion and engagement with Iran, sometimes offering diplomacy, sometimes sanctions. Doves and hawks both sought to manage the tactics of the Islamic Republic—its nuclear ambitions, its ballistic missiles, its network of proxy militias throughout the Middle East—without ever coming up with a meaningful strategy to combat the root problem: the ideology of the regime itself.

"The Islamic Republic is a theocracy founded explicitly to oppose the deepest principles of liberal democracy and the rule of law. During its 47-year reign, this theocratic state underwent no meaningful political reform, made no improvement to its human-rights record, and never stopped trying to export its radicalism abroad. To maintain control, the regime has used mass violence, intimidation, and surveillance. In recent years, the regime has also sought, successfully, to use online smear campaigns to divide and denigrate the Iranian opposition.”

“The second Trump administration has gone much further in the opposite direction, actually dismantling tools that could have helped promote civic engagement and build a united opposition in Iran. The administration has taken money away from Iranian-human-rights-monitoring groups and defunded media projects. Under the leadership of the former Arizona political candidate Kari Lake, the U.S. Agency for Global Media has prevented Radio Farda, the Farsi-language channel of the U.S. broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, from using American transmission equipment.”

“The answer matters. As one opposition insider told me at the time of the previous American attack, the mere act of bombing Iran will not by itself create a stable regime. “If there was ever a fantasy that a leader would fly in under the wings of foreign aviators,” he told me, “that is definitely not going to happen.”

“The point is not that the U.S. should promote democracy for its own sake. The goal, rather, must be to help Iranians achieve normalcy. For the region to be at peace, Tehran must transform itself from the headquarters of an insurgency back into the capital of a country seeking to build peace and prosperity for its own citizens. A stable, law-abiding Iran will help build a stable, law-abiding Middle East. But in order to achieve that, Iran needs not a new dictatorship but self-determination and a pluralist government that respects basic rights. Right now, the Trump administration is not trying to build one.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/ ... le/686194/

[Tero]

School yard bully running the world's biggest army:

Hegseth: "Death and destruction from the sky all day long. We're playing for keeps. Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise, and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it ... we are punching them while they are down"

[aufbahrung]

Someone gonna make big money rebuilding the rubble using Irans oil revenues - is Haliburton still on the go?

[aufbahrung]

Iran now to be twinned with Carthage in the history books

[Svartalf]

delenda Persia est?

[Woodbutcher]

Someone gonna make big money rebuilding the rubble using Irans oil revenues - is Haliburton still on the go?

Trump is getting his family there to rebuild, also in Gaza and Lebanon. Trump hotels!

[Woodbutcher]

delenda Persia est?

Caeterum censeo...

[pErvinalia]

There's talk that Israel and the US might send in special forces to do something(?) regarding the enriched uranium. I'm sure that will go well. How many dead soldiers are MAGA going to accept?

[JimC]

He's running a script in his head from a Tom Clancy novel...

[JimC]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-10/ ... /106431514

Ukraine is sending experts and interceptor drones to the Middle East to help the US and Gulf states defend against Iranian attacks.
Iranian Shahed drones have been Russia's weapon of choice in the war in Ukraine, so Kyiv has developed cheap technology to counter the threat.

Sophisticated US air defences are strewn across the Gulf, deployed mainly to protect America's military bases and allies in the region from Iranian threats.

But most of the expensive systems, such as the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) and Patriots, were designed to target ballistic missiles, not cheap drones.

A single Patriot missile interceptor can cost up to $US1 million ($1.4 million), while an Iranian Shahed drone costs between $US20,000 and $US50,000.

A classic example of asymmetrical warfare...

And I hope that Ukraine charges the US heavily for its expertise...

[Brian Peacock]

Hegseth is weird. Like Stephen Miller weird.

[pErvinalia]

Yeah, it's an ego thing for him.