But instead we chose to stabilize the regime.
The fact that a hated outsider has just attacked them. That always makes a country’s leadership more powerful.
Um, why wouldn’t they? Every country has a Department or Ministry or Agency or whatever they call it in charge of intelligence.
Trump will treat the Kurds the same way he treats everyone: He’ll expect them to do things for him, and then won’t pay them.
You mean like the revolution in Iran 47 years ago?
Always takes me back to our invasion of Panama. Called “Operation Just Cause.” Which I always assumed was short for “Just cause we can.”
@Babale, you’re citing the deposed Shah’s son as an “expert” on the question of whether the Islamic regime can be replaced? The man’s entire career rests on persuading people that it can!
(Plus, there’s zero “analysis” of this question in the piece you linked to. It’s just a rhetorical appeal to support democratic transition in Iran.)
He’s never expressed any plans. He either has plans and knows it would be unwise to publicize them (he’s supported by Israel) or he’s too much of a lightweight to formulate them in the first place. He’s literally never run any kind of organization of any size. His only qualification is his name recognition, full stop, and the only reason the protesters were chanting his name is that there’s literally no one else.
He’s not the horse’s mouth. He’s a horse’s ass. Nobody who wants to be taken seriously in a conversation about Iranian succession cites his views on anything.
The Iranian public is perfectly capable of hating the current authoritarian theocracy and the former authoritarian monarchy at the same time.
LINDSEY GRAHAM: Our goal is to make sure Iran cannot become again the largest state sponsor of terrorism.
WELKER: Does the the president have a plan to guarantee that happens?
GRAHAM: No. It’s not his job.
Unbelievable.
Hopefully not off-topic, but out of curiosity, is there any IDF policy of letting non-Jewish IDF troops be more usable in waging war on Sabbath or other Jewish religious days? Since they’re non-Jewish, they presumably would have no qualms about having to fight or do anything on Yom Kippur, Sabbath, etc. Like, using the non-Jewish guys first on such days.
Israel did not stop fighting on the Sabbath during the war with Gaza or any other conflict.
A Shabbos goy of war?
Dang. Beat to it!
Honestly I thought this was a softball. There have to be some mouthpieces set up to support the narrative. That all Babale could come up with this doofus, who is variably thought of as an incompetent idiot or an autocrat wannabe, rarely taken at face value of wanting a democracy there unless it is guaranteed of putting him in charge, is … disappointing.
What’s unbelievable about it? The President said he would back up the Iranians in their fight to get rid of the current government. This is what he’s doing.
What a joke. A war with no mission and no plan, and Americans are already dying for it. Lying idiots with no plan should not be starting a war.
Oh, we’ve made sure that that won’t happen. Because there’s now a nation of 300 million people that’s a state sponsor of terrorism. Iran is, at most, vying for second place.
If the “goal is to make sure Iran cannot become again the largest state sponsor of terrorism” then you are reasonably expected to have a plan to make that happen. Especially if you are giving up American lives and treasure, killing others, putting allies at risk, to accomplish it.
That was in the before times when competence was respected.
I’m pretty sure that Trump has “a concept of a plan”, which I’m equally sure we’ll hear about “in two weeks”. 
This is madness, and to restate what I just said in another thread, “this action will inflame hatred, suspicion, and distrust against America from around the world for decades to come”.
Untrustworthy trade partners, untrustworthy warmongers – what a combo deal!
If I said my goal was to retire early as a multi millionaire, and then I quit my job, and then my wife asks “ok, now that you’ve quit your job, what’s your plan?” And I say “that’s not my job,” that’s pretty unbelievable.
And that’s still less stupid than executing foreign leaders without any kind of a plan for what to do next.
No, in that scenario you had explicitly quit your job.
Well, in the quote I shared, Lindsey Graham said “our goal is to make sure Iran cannot become again the largest state sponsor of terrorism,” and then said it’s not the president’s job to make that happen.
So we have a goal, we’re starting a war, but we have no plan. That’s what’s unbelievable.