Israel-Hamas War 2023

[FunkMonk]

Was nice knowing everyone.

I wish Arsenal had won the league one last time before the world ended.

[HVC]

Was nice knowing everyone.

I wish Arsenal had won the league one last time before the world ended.

Zombie Arsenal has the skill to go all the way

[Jacob]

Any good analysis - from posters here or online - of likely scenarios from the current situation?

[Tonitrus]

Probably the best opportunity to finally getting around to blasting apart their nuclear weapons program.

[Tonitrus]

More seriously though...our messaging ahead of this "counterattack" has mostly been pretty pathetic and allowed Iran all of the initiative and momentum of fear.  Media coverage has mostly been of the "OMG, what will they do to us!?" kind.  That is, pretty darned weak.

Our messaging should have been much more of the "fuck around and find out" type.

[HVC]

Nety sticks around longer and thus out of jail longer.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Seeing reports of Muslims in Toronto celebrating the Iranian strikes on Israel. Islam is a true cancer on the West. I hope its leaders wake up before it is too late—maybe the people will wake them up, since most of us do not want these people in our society.

[Jacob]

Yeah that's my first conclusion - good for Nethanyahu as he gets more shots at saving his skin by being a "war time hero PM".

Beyond that, though my questions are...

What does the shape of the actual fighting look like? Some mutual bombing + hezbollah escalation + increased terror attacks globally?

Who else may be drawn into actual fighting? Are there other Iranian or Russian clients who will act?

Is there a likelihood increased ground fighting?

How does this change the war vs Hamas?

How does this change the political landscape in the Muslim world? In the Arab world?

Will this potentially impact Iran's ability to support Russia?

[HVC]

I think both sides will just lob a few bombs. Both leaders look good to their people.  Civilians will die, but neither seem to care. Won't escalate beyond that. I freely admit I could be way, way off

[OttoVonBismarck]

Strategically this just means the unspoken rule that the conflict between Iran and Israel, at least for the last 20 years or so, would exclude direct open strikes by one party on the territory of the other. Proxies etc were always fair game. This now opens up a lot more potential routes of escalation. Whether it escalates more is hard to say. Israel doesn't have much of a history of promising retaliation and not doing it, and they have already promised retaliation for this. So a lot will depend on how that looks and how Iran responds.

[Razgovory]

Netanyahu really shouldn't have bombed the Iranian embassy. We are trying to keep the whole world from spiraling out of control and here he is throwing sticks into the spokes.  Guy needs to go, now.

[Josquius]

We really do need to pump a shit tonne more money into lasers. Even if Iran hits nothing with these attacks they're costing their enemies a pretty penny.

[Tonitrus]

We really do need to pump a shit tonne more money into lasers. Even if Iran hits nothing with these attacks they're costing their enemies a pretty penny.

Zombie Reagan might want to have a word with you... 

[OttoVonBismarck]

Netanyahu really shouldn't have bombed the Iranian embassy. We are trying to keep the whole world from spiraling out of control and here he is throwing sticks into the spokes.  Guy needs to go, now.

I think this is a convenient and dumb take. I think any Israeli leader would have done that. Israel is basically fighting a two front war against Iranian proxies and Iran is shuttling top military leaders around countries like Lebanon and Syria to coordinate with those proxies.

Iran is the party escalating here, by being actively involved in Israel's war. I don't agree Israel was wrong to strike an Iranian military target that was actively working with Hezbollah. I similarly agreed with Trump killing Soleimani.

Treating Iran like they aren't to be trifled with due to fear of "regional conflict" whilst meanwhile letting them increase their bad behaviors is a failed Western strategy that has lead to Iran with 3 powerful and destabilizing proxies in the Middle East, and Iran close to developing a nuclear weapon.

The West is dangerously close to a Chamberlain-esque appeasement story with Iran.

[Iormlund]

We really do need to pump a shit tonne more money into lasers.