Iran War

[HVC]

Oh my goodness yeah you're so right that the speech Bush gave had absolutely no connection to the decision to go to war with a rack shortly thereafter.  The American ability to ignore obvious facts to defend their precious republic, and the reputation of their presence is astounding.

You are so weird. I don't see how Bush's gaffe being early on and not later during the run up to the Iraq war reflects any better on the Republic. Just stating when it happened. The funny thing is I would gladly take Bush's rhetoric now. He was a towering statesman compared to the current shitshow. Which just shows how the bar is now in hell.

Also it had nothing to do with what I was talking about. The Iraq War was never called Operation Crusade.

CC is moving rapidly to a Raz phase. Not worth engaging with.

Moving?

[Sheilbh]

We would have named Operation Overlord Operation Norman Conquest today.

Brits looking on nervously, Free French pumped.

[HisMajestyBOB]

 

[mongers]

Is the 2nd man from the left the French nuclear codes guy or is it the one hidden behind the naval officer nearer the centre, or is it someone else not in picture?

[Sheilbh]

Isn't the carrying the nuclear codes around in a bag with the President a specifically American thing? I know it's not how it works for Russia and remember reading about the Secret Service and Chinese officials getting into a scuffle because the guy with the"football" had to go into an otherwise private meeting to still be with the President.

Edit: Just looked and apparently the French have a nuclear briefcase like the US but it's less mobile/doesn't follow the President everywhere like the US and it's not nuclear specific - it's more like a secure line.

I think the UK has a different nuclear doctrine so just the PM's letters on the subs which are used if there's been a nuclear attack on the UK. Basically retaliate, don't, put yourself under the command of a friendly nation - traditionally Australia or Canada depending on location, or, I suspect more rarely now, the US.

[Zanza]

Apparently the US had to abort Operation Freedom because the Saudis denied using their airspace.

[Valmy]

Apparently the US had to abort Operation Freedom because the Saudis denied using their airspace.

Announcing something impulsively before doing any of the work seems on brand for this lazy bunch of worthless idiots pretending to run this country.

[Sheilbh]

Apparently the US had to abort Operation Freedom because the Saudis denied using their airspace.

I think Kuwait as well.

And the Iranians launched missiles at the UAE (and some at Israel) as soon as it was announced. I think in an attempt to move from reactive to proactive deterrence.

But I think the split between Gulf countries - or basically everyone v UAE is one of the most interesting and consequential aspects of this war. Especially with Iran now developing a process for ships to get through Hormuz.

Edit: Also interesting on China. First the Iranian foreign minister went to Beijing ahead of Trump's visit - I assume to align position.

But also China in 2021 passed a blocking statute which would allow them to prohibit Chinese companies from complying with sanctions - basically forcing companies to choose between complying with US or Chinese law. This largely reflects the Chinese concern around the West (particularly, but not exclusively, the US) weaponising extra-territoriality by effectively trying to make otherwise unilateral sanctions global (and the West absolutely has done this a lot). It was in part seen as an attempt discourage Biden from following a similarly confrontational path as Trump I. It's now been used for the first time directing certain refineries to continue processing Iranian oil in spite of American sanctions.

And reporting that China is now openly allowing the supply of dual use (often German designed and then Chinese built - no doubt the IP extracted via a JV) material, particularly for drone and missile manufacturer, to both Russia and Iran.

[Jacob]

Apparently the US had to abort Operation Freedom because the Saudis denied using their airspace.

Wild.

[Jacob]

And reporting that China is now openly allowing the supply of dual use (often German designed and then Chinese built - no doubt the IP extracted via a JV) material, particularly for drone and missile manufacturer, to both Russia and Iran.

Bad news for Ukraine

[Sophie Scholl]

Apparently the US had to abort Operation Freedom because the Saudis denied using their airspace.

I feel like the Saudis are hurting a lot more than they're letting on and maybe looking for new partners other than the US. Their new movie that was supposed to be their big splash into the global, and especially US, markets is tanking terribly. Their golf league is possibly shuttering. Their financed WWE experiment for American wrestling is facing layoffs and paycuts for those that remain. Something is up...

[Jacob]

Which movie?

[Sheilbh]

I feel like the Saudis are hurting a lot more than they're letting on and maybe looking for new partners other than the US. Their new movie that was supposed to be their big splash into the global, and especially US, markets is tanking terribly. Their golf league is possibly shuttering. Their financed WWE experiment for American wrestling is facing layoffs and paycuts for those that remain. Something is up...

Some of this pre-dates the war though.

There's been a lot of report on them re-trenching in the very splashy overseas investments and sports-washing projects for the last year or so. Plus a lot of MBS' Project 2030 projects (like NEOM) being pipe-dreams (ironically Neom could actually be the destination port of a new East-West pipeline, but hardly re-positioning Saudi from oil and gas). The golf thing is insane as they spent something like $4 billion on that (largely on players). Weirdly a really good insight into this over the last year plus has been football podcasts and journalism about how much the Saudi sovereign fund (the PIF) is really into Newcastle now.

From what I've read the goal is now far, far more focused on internal investments and projects in Saudi - which makes sense they've got a growing population with over 60% under 30. And they need to plan a future beyond hydrocarbons.

On that, ironically enough, the Gulf was a major source of financing for clean energy projects around the world and I believe there's fears this war basically simultaneously disrupts global fossil fuel supplies and financing for clean energy.

[Sophie Scholl]

Which movie?

Desert Warrior. Anthony Mackie, Ben Kingsley, and some other folks. 596k take so far on a $150 million budget.

https://deadline.com/2026/05/desert-warrior-anthony-mackie-box-office-1236877487/

[Sheilbh]

Desert Warrior. Anthony Mackie, Ben Kingsley, and some other folks. 596k take so far on a $150 million budget.

https://deadline.com/2026/05/desert-warrior-anthony-mackie-box-office-1236877487/

I'd not heard of this - looked at the trailer. It doesn't look bad to be fair.

But really interesting to me that it's basically a story from pre-Islamic Arabia (which sort of makes sense but is still interesting) and the Persians are yet again the baddies with a despotic emperor (Kingsley) trying to crush the Arab tribes and forcing them to cooperate. Poor Persians, it's always them