Recent posts

#1

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by Tonitrus - Today at 02:43:21 PM

The facts are as they appear - the US is spending billions of dollars and squandering valuable munitions so that the SecDef can self-climax over watching his cool toys hit their targets and so that the WH media team can impress late maturing 12 year olds with their super-cool memes.

While agree that it a collection of clowns and idiots, I think the notion that the war started for just those puerile reasons is also absurd.  Even just Epstein coverage deflection would be far more plausible.

I am not saying there is some sort of 3D chess...but I think that notion would be inadvertently excusing things that actually are very bad.

[some form]

#2

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by OttoVonBismarck - Today at 02:41:31 PM

Short of moving tectonic plates around, I don't see how one permanently ends Iran's ability to disrupt the strait.

And with Rubio and Co. mulling over a fanciful anabasis to secure and remove massive amounts of nuclear material from multiple sites in the interior of the country, I think we can count out the elimination of the Iran nuclear program as a viable war objective.

If genuine regime change were a US aim - and I doubt it is or ever was - the US has not pursued the means to achieve that and seem very unlikely to do so.

The facts are as they appear - the US is spending billions of dollars and squandering valuable munitions so that the SecDef can self-climax over watching his cool toys hit their targets and so that the WH media team can impress late maturing 12 year olds with their super-cool memes.

I'm not in the regime change business, but if I were--I would have started with a long process of funneling arms and trainers to the region to actually stand up some form of armed Iranian resistance. There are Iranian resistance groups and always have been. They are mostly near-disarmed and small. Some of them we have actually added to our own terror list because well, those groups also tend to be pretty unsavory. Unlike in the movies the resistance usually aren't plucky freedom fighters but are typically batshit crazy fucks themselves.

Not that there's really a smart / good path to regime change, but any real path would have at least involved some level of arming internal resistance groups and building out networks to facilitate that. But that also would take more than a few weeks after Trump stroked off and felt like he needed to do this.

#3

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Valmy - Today at 02:33:27 PM

Yes, and the research in question was examining the impact of one variable on those life spans.

Did it? It seems to suggest other factors, including some specific to Japan. And also seems like it focussed almost exclusively on the elderly "Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study"

Does the same hold true to men who lose their spouse in their 50s?

#4

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by Richard Hakluyt - Today at 02:23:04 PM

Yeah, can't they just play call of duty like the other kids?

#5

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by Valmy - Today at 02:22:22 PM

My question is at this point how Iran can keep a war up, not with manpower, but with all the materiel you need. Supposedly under a sanction regime, Iran should run out of stuff to send into the air, right?

China and Russia will keep them going.

This war is a godsend to Russia. If I was Putin I would want it to last as long as possible.

#6

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by Crazy_Ivan80 - Today at 02:18:24 PM

I am Norwegian, I know how a small confine of a waterway works. 

So, it basically boils down to economic chicken, then. Who will provide the Iranians with chips and stuff they need for drones? A memory stick is like gold these days.

Russia will just import the drones. Else China will provide them with the materials needed

#7

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by The Minsky Moment - Today at 02:17:29 PM

Short of moving tectonic plates around, I don't see how one permanently ends Iran's ability to disrupt the strait.

And with Rubio and Co. mulling over a fanciful anabasis to secure and remove massive amounts of nuclear material from multiple sites in the interior of the country, I think we can count out the elimination of the Iran nuclear program as a viable war objective.

If genuine regime change were a US aim - and I doubt it is or ever was - the US has not pursued the means to achieve that and seem very unlikely to do so.

The facts are as they appear - the US is spending billions of dollars and squandering valuable munitions so that the SecDef can self-climax over watching his cool toys hit their targets and so that the WH media team can impress late maturing 12 year olds with their super-cool memes.

#8

Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread

Last post by Norgy - Today at 02:17:00 PM

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

God, I tried watching that. It may be my age showing, but I gave up. There was just too much AI and CGI.

Then again, I am not the best judge of things, I started re-watching "The Wire".

#9

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by Norgy - Today at 02:06:30 PM

I am Norwegian, I know how a small confine of a waterway works. 

So, it basically boils down to economic chicken, then. Who will provide the Iranians with chips and stuff they need for drones? A memory stick is like gold these days.

#10

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Baron von Schtinkenbutt - Today at 02:04:53 PM

These, I believe, are the videos being referenced.