I believe the US military is still more competent and better ressourced than their Russian counterpart, despite the efforts of the current cabinet of clowns to turn it into an ideological lapdog where competence and experience count for nothing while ass kissing, sycophancy and corruption reign supreme, like in Russia.
The US military is still better because of inertia: they were so much better (and more expensive) than all the rest put together that the advantage still lasts. We’ll see soon enough for how much longer this remains to be the case.
Y’all are way too cynical and way too pessimistic. What could possibly go wrong??
:rolleyes:
Clearly he is only doing this because a time traveler told him Trump would do it to Maduro which makes it OK, he’d never even consider doing something like that if America didn’t legitimatize it first.
/S obviously.
IMO maybe we shouldn’t be trying to emulate Putin.
This. Trump is a malignant narcissist suffering from obvious dementia; he doesn’t care about anything but himself, and he’s no longer mentally capable of whatever cleverness he ever had. It’s a given that he was in no way well meaning - he doesn’t do that, ever - and he couldn’t properly take into account the long term and broader effects if he tried.
This is a psychopathic toddler throwing his toys at things in a tantrum, it’s just that his toys include the US military.
I do not like the Iranian regime. I think the US and Israel are pushing for slow motion regime change.
In 2024, Israel did strikes to break down Iran’s air defenses. Then in 2025 the US and Israel did a lot of strikes to attack command, missile production, nuclear facilities, paramilitary leadership.
Now in 2026 there are strikes doing the same thing. I think the US and Israel are possibly planning to keep striking Iran every 6-12 months in the hopes the regime finally falls. I’m sure intelligence assets from the US and Israel (as well as a lot of other western nations) are on the ground in Iran doing operations to weaken the regime.
Both Trump and Hegseth are dangerously unqualified. But I’m hoping the actual attacks are being run by competent professionals and not them.
When the shah was overthrown in 1979 it was a coalition of religious fundamentalists but also student activists and leftists who wanted democratic reform. But the islamic extremists killed or imprisoned all the pro-democracy activists who helped overthrow the shah.
I would hope the Iranian people develop a less disruptive government if their regime falls. That would be better for the US.
What evidence do you have of any such planning, much less any hint that Trump has the wherewithal to stick to such a long term plan? It seems like you’re expecting Trump to do something he’s fundamentally incapable of.
I don’t have evidence of planning, the people who do the actual planning would keep that information classified.
Trump should be in prison and never should’ve been elected. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t support attempts to weaken the Iranian regime which makes life miserable for endless people both inside and outside Iran.
But again, the attack on Maduro accomplished nothing. The regime stayed with different leadership. To truly get regime change in Iran, the US and Israel would have to arm Iranian citizens while they provided air support to kill off IRGC militants.
So basically you support this based on a hope that Trump transforms into a person (someone capable of sticking to a long term plan, costly plan, regardless of how it impacts his immediate perceptions and political support) that he’s never shown any possibility of being?
I’m well aware Trump has frontotemporal dementia and malignant narcissism. If he personally benefits from supporting the Iranian regime, he would do that instead.
I was someone more competent than Trump was president. But sadly 77 million americans voted for him.
But your hopes are nuts. How can a long term plan (which we have no evidence even exists) possibly be executed by someone incapable of sticking to a long term plan?
Valid concerns. If Iran offered Trump 5 billion dollars to stop the war, Trump would stop the war within an hour.
I feel like Israel is devoted to destabilizing the Iranian regime. Also Iran has attempted to assassinate Trump in the past, which may make his resentment motivate him. Also the actual planning and running of a war is still in the hands of competent professionals, not Trump.
It sucks this is the president we are stuck with. But weakening the Iranian regime is a good thing.
You’re making assumptions that seem totally unwarranted. How do you know this weakens the regime? Maybe it gets them more support from their public… they can say Khamenei is gone, now they must unite against the foreign attackers. Our incompetent leaders already appear to have killed a bunch of Iranian children. Why would you assume that isn’t the norm now? Maybe Hegseth chased out all the generals and admirals but the idiot yes men.
A mistake because of the administration launching it, or a mistake no matter who’s CIC?
Probably a mistake no matter who’s CIC. Under this one, a catastrophe.
I believe this is more akin to a gamble, and probably one with long odds of ending favourably. Hoping the Iranians will rise up and install a healthy government that doesn’t murder its own citizens and crossing your fingers seems ridiculous. The Ayatollah was nearly 90 so there was a succession plan, although that may well be in tatters considering other leading figures were killed.
There’s a good chance we just get a continuation of the existing government, and the second most likely possibility is that some other nasty set of extremists or dictator will fill any power vacuum.
On the other hand, this regime was as destructive and evil as it was possible to get without having nukes. So perhaps any outcome will be either better or just equally as bad.
Do you approve of your nation kidnapping the leader of one sovereign state and killing another? I simply do not believe that is the sort of actions - absent a credible immediate threat - that civilized nations do. No matter how much we desire regime change.
Considering that Khamenei headed a government that killed twenty to fifty thousand civilians in the last few weeks because those civilians wanted to live in a country not run by religious extremists, I don’t really put a lot of weight on what people who claim to speak for the civilized world say on the issue.
Neither do I. I also don’t like the current Israeli regime or the current US regime for that matter, but I don’t think it would be either ethical or helpful for other countries to “push for regime change” by bombing them/us.
Dude. Have you noticed how many of the civilians under its own rule the Israeli government, to take just one example, has killed over the past several months? Do you think it would be okay for other countries to just start bombing Israel to indicate their disapproval of said slaughter and their desire for regime change?
I mean, this is a basic problem with the American “neo-imperialist” mindset: we seem to have this idea that there’s a certain subset of the world’s sovereign nations that we’re allowed to unilaterally attack just because they’re doing stuff we condemn, or because we think that attacking them would be advantageous for us, even though they’re not attacking us.
That’s called being the aggressor. Yeah, that’s something that civilized nations are not supposed to do, no matter how justly incensed we may be with the Iranian regime (or, for that matter, with Saddam Hussein’s regime a quarter-century ago) for slaughtering its own civilians.