Pentagon running out of ideas in Iran

[Riveting]

No I am not in favor of this war at all. A minimal strike to destroy nuclear facilities? No issue. But regime change? That requires troops on the ground to make it work and even then when we leave it will just be another Afghanistan.

I am surprised you forgot the lessons of the past 25 years so easily.

The lessons apply until suddenly they don't. I was and am hoping this is one of those times when we can overthrow a fascist, bloodthirsty regime without a ground invasion.

As you know from history, we have done it before.

 

[St. Louis Hawk]

FWIW - millions surrendered after watching Deacon Hill play QB….

Too soon.

 

[Riveting]

Reminder that these MAGA Jackhammers howled (and many continue to howl) about Benghazi and the Afghan withdrawal for years and years and years, absolutely minor events compared to this Iran war.

You want to talk about incompetence and idiocy, the Iran War is a catastrophe, probably the biggest strategic error/miscalculation in the history of the country.

18 US hero deaths so far in Iran.

55,000+ in Vietnam, which based on your absurd last sentence you seem to know nothing about. Read some history.

 

[Riveting]

First of all, I hate the Iran government. I'd love for them all to die badly.

That being said, I WAS NOT in favor of this war at all. Because the ONLY way you are going to overthrow this government is to put a ton of troops on the ground and push them out. And then what? Prop up a government we put in place for 20 years, then watch it fall down and the same people come back into power? Nope, we've been down this road more than once and it always ends the same way.

Not worth the cost. Most people can see this. And to be fair I think Trump sees that as well. Which makes his decision even more stupid. Trump was NEVER going to invade Iran. Not part of the plan. But you don't start shiit if you are not willing to finish it. And Iran KNOWS this now. So they open talks... drag their feet... agree to some shiit then break the deal immediately. Rinse and repeat while we spend $1 billion a day on a war that we don't have the political will to win.

I applaud your first sentence.

For the rest, see post 81.

 

[RollingballofButcherKnives]

Reminder that these MAGA Jackhammers howled (and many continue to howl) about Benghazi and the Afghan withdrawal for years and years and years, absolutely minor events compared to this Iran war.

You want to talk about incompetence and idiocy, the Iran War is a catastrophe, probably the biggest strategic error/miscalculation in the history of the country.

We need left wing podcasters beating that dead horse to even sh it out..

 

[Billanole.]

They should sign Iran up for a bunch of magazine subscriptions and spam emails - that'll really mess with them!

Russ always comes thru in a pinch.

 

[Jerome Silberman]

18 US hero deaths so far in Iran.

55,000+ in Vietnam, which based on your absurd last sentence you seem to know nothing about. Read some history.

It seems like more than he could use a refresher. That 55k didn't happen in the first few years of US involvement. If anything the death and casualty rate is eerily similar to what is happening in Iran.

I look forward to you farting out an arbitrary and convenient date where the counting starts to be official for you, and pretending that every historical comparison has to be 1 for 1. Should be a hoot this time.

 

[Billanole.]

I do not believe the unique terrain conditions and topography that exists in Iran was given much thought.

Nor the fact that they have survived for millennia against any and all comers. They aren’t inexperienced in facing those with more weaponry.
At a funeral, I spoke with an older cousin a few weeks before this thing started. He has been in one of the agencies for decades. He told me that they were close to having a nuke and we could not allow that because, “They will use lt.”

I just kinda nodded and went along with him, but did say that this would be no pushover event. He returned several times to his original thought and I basically did not engage in what would have been a conversation we have had before.

My cousin has not learned from past events and he is paid to do so.

 

[Billanole.]

Can’t we assassinate their leaders and arm the rebels?

Oh, you wanna party like it is 1956… The time when we took out a democratically elected leader and installed Shah Reza Pahlavi… the one outed in the revolution of 1979.
You don’t remember that we took out the Supreme Leader in day one of this three day excursion?

 

[Billanole.]

18 US hero deaths so far in Iran.

55,000+ in Vietnam, which based on your absurd last sentence you seem to know nothing about. Read some history.

The ramifications of this war have so far basically been 18 deaths and economic instability. Just wait, cause you a’int seen nothing yet.

 

[Thefunksouljon]

I certainly have no insite into the inner working of our Government and unlike most on here, I'm not a military expert. That being said, you can probably draw some conclusions about the Dept of War's actions since Trump has been elected. You touched on this, but it's a good idea to review the part of bringing in a staff of know-nothings.

Since Trump took office just over a year and a half ago:

Air Force General Charles "CQ" Brown Jr. was fired from his position as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Air Force Vice Chief of Staff General James Slife was dismissed.
Air Force Lt. General Jeffrey Kruse, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency was removed.

Army Chief of Staff General Randy George was asked to step down and take early retirement.
Commanding general of the Army's Transformation and Training Command General David Hodne was removed from his postition

Navy Secretary John Phelan was removed from his post.
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti was removed from her post.
Adm Holsey, who led U.S. Southern Command was removed.
Adm Lacore who was chief of the Navy Reserve was removed
Adm Sands the head of Naval Special Warfare Command

Head of the NSA, General Timothy Haugh was ousted


That's a lot of leadership just GONE. And the thing is that these are political moves, there's no performance removals here. NOW, if you were a 2nd level guy and you saw all these top level guys dismissed for presumably speaking their minds and ideas, would YOU be giving that same advice, or would you be keeping your mouth shut.

Now I'm just going to throw something out there that's going to anger the followers of the greatest military leader and military mind of our time... DONALD TRUMP. Maybe, just MAYBE, a guy who's never served a day in the military or commanded troops actually DOES NOT know as much as the his Generals do. AND maybe just MAYBE a former Major in the National Guard who's our Sec of War doesn't know as much as the generals either. Is that too crazy an idea?

So following this crazy idea a little further, perhaps Trump and Hegseth had some bad ideas about the war with Iraq. Like maybe we bomb the crap out of Iran again, and they give up quickly and the US wins. And MAYBE some of those folks above that no longer have jobs pointed out that the Iran government doesn't answer to it's people and as religious fanatics aren't exactly rational or predictable. AND that you don't have to be that effective to close the straights. Just lauch a missle every few days and the folks that own oil tankers worth millions of dollars and carrying 100s of millions of dollars of oil wouldn't want to risk their investment on "You'll PROBABLY get through just fine."

So IMHO, you've got a bunch of folks that KNOW that if you speak up and it isn't what Trump and Hegseth want to hear, you WILL lose your job. That's what I think is going on.

100% agree that there are some folks that are just staying quiet for the sake of waiting the idiots out. I do stick to my statement, I bet some ideas are being quashed as they don't align with some ethos of the knownothings.

My concern, there is now real way to do this without boots and Trump didn't consider this since every problem he has ever solved was a very easy one. Hard, long drawn issues, not his strength.

Sad days.

 

[Riveting]

It seems like more than he could use a refresher. That 55k didn't happen in the first few years of US involvement. If anything the death and casualty rate is eerily similar to what is happening in Iran.

I look forward to you farting out an arbitrary and convenient date where the counting starts to be official for you, and pretending that every historical comparison has to be 1 for 1. Should be a hoot this time.

Yes, I will keep you in suspense.

My reply was to an absurd statement about "probably the biggest strategic error/miscalculation in the history of the country." I could have added that Vietnam posed no threat to the US - unlike the Islamofacists, who are determined to develop nukes to back up their motto of Death to America.

 

[Riveting]

The ramifications of this war have so far basically been 18 deaths and economic instability. Just wait, cause you a’int seen nothing yet.

You sound very hopeful that things will get much worse.

Btw, you ain't seen nothing yet if Iran gets nukes.

 

[THE_DEVIL]