563 Comments
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Danimal28's avatar

I get the Islam angle here, but I believe it is the tool the British still use in the oil price/danger game here since they have been taking a cut of Iranian oil since 1908. Brent Crude prices are set in England. Lloyds controls distribution pricing based on fear.

What else do London and the globalist bankers produce? Nothing but debtors. That is globalism: scarcity and debt. They don't even produce ships anymore.

The City of London is losing their grip on all of their should-be illegal games and I love Trump for finally brining this nonsense to a head.

MarshaLouise's avatar

I agree fully with you. How I wish that truth in your second paragraph were widely understood!

Danimal28's avatar

I am 57 yrs old with a minor in 20th century history and always thought I was pretty informed. prometheanaction.com has totally blown me away. Not that they are 100% right, but wow. England(not the citizen folk) has done nothing but ripped off countries and their resources for centuries, including us. Most recently our wealth and blood for wars everywhere. Revolutionary War was over theft, War of 1812, Indian Removal Act of 1830 for our cotton, backing the Confederacy in our Civil War, Lincoln, McKinley's death, financing part of the Reich between War 1 and 2... Globalists are pure evil.

Damn the torpedoes's avatar

Nothing the British East India company and its central bankers, including Carney the Twit in Canada, have ever done has ever been for the benefit of anyone but the City of London, Lloyd’s, and the Banks of England and the globalist Fed. LaRouche, like Perot and Ron Paul were painted as crazies, because they got way too close to the truth of the devastation of central banks. The gang at Promethean action is right—Trump is reintroducing to the world the American System—where we produce and sell goods at home and the world, and the market sets the price, and the price determines the rate of inflation—not the Fed, and we print dollars, not federal reserve notes. Our debt will kill us until we get our inflation under control by becoming a producing nation with a strong defense, and lose these grifters called democrats who have never understood capitalism or the American way of life. Back in the late ‘60’s, luxury automakers produced cars that were $2,000; homes that were $20,000, and my rent for a one bedroom in Boston was $150 a month. We need to get back to that. And get the third world outta here!

Impatient's avatar

I grew up in the suburbs of Boston. In the early 70s my mom bought an enormous Victorian house for $20,000. The seller gave her a deal because she was a widow. I remember being told the Quincy area was a big shoe manufacturing location. Relatives had made shoes in those factories. They were long gone by the 70s.

Now I am in Albuquerque. I pay $1035 for a broken down 1 BR. Add $100 - $200 a month in "common area maintenance" (bullshit charges) and now they have invented deposit insurance where you pay them until you move out and never get your money back. So instead of a one time deposit of a couple hundred bucks you pay thousands of dollars. I told management it was a scam. The manager had no comment. Just another bend over and take it.

Kevin Hicks's avatar

You can have 3bd 2 ba and 1200 sq ft for half that in rural Arkansas. The down side is, you'll need a good ride (store 30 min away), and a gun or 3 (Sherriff deputy 30 min away) and a good dog will wake your sleep when required.

Gwennie's avatar

I'm not seeing the downside. :-)

elysianfield's avatar

But...but it is a DRY heat, right?

Mitch's avatar

I would have thought they paid people to live in Albuquerque.

Ben R's avatar

I was just told a 2-bedroom, 2-bath apartment is now going for $3822.00 a month.

A studio is now $2400.00.

Cankerpuss's avatar

The kicker for me, Ben R, is that people still have enough money to pay that rent and go to Disneyland every year and stand in lines to buy the latest upgrade in I-Phones.

Suzy Cue's avatar

They’re using credit cards. So that they can get in deep debt…this is intentional on the part of the banks. And it works, as most people have no self-discipline or money management skills.

Three and Two's avatar

Yeah. Good luck with that.

Lugh's avatar

No, we imported the 3rd world, first as coolie labor but now as white collar labor as well. Women? Same.

Ben R's avatar

They have been trying to pay back the US for saying enough since 1776.

Everything they have done since then has been detrimental to America and its people, and that includes the parasitic entities called Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, all wholly owned by King Charles the lizard king.

Cankerpuss's avatar

Their still butt-hurt about losing the original 13 and they want them back. Something tells me they are eventually going to get them.

MarshaLouise's avatar

You could well be right, if the original colonies continue to desire communism.

Gwennie's avatar

I respectfully disagree. I get that we divorced them and dissing the ex is an ever-popular sport everywhere on earth.

However! The Brits gave us the Magna Carta, establishing the idea that everyone is subject to the law, they gave us William Wilberforce, who was tip of the spear in abolishing slavery, Winston Churchill, responsible for much of free world not being German states, and now, Tommy Robinson. Don't underestimate a British man when the stakes are high enough.

Danimal28's avatar

Not really arguing with you wonderful Gwennie, but without our industrial might and Russian blood, England would be North Germany.

Gwennie's avatar

Oh, I agree w/ you completely.

Lugh's avatar

In his memoirs, he admitted that the real reason for WW2 was Germany's unwillingness to surrender sovereignty to the coming New World Order.

We abolished Black slavery and they have no gratitude, but only seek to enslave us. But our own Elite have beat them to it.

Tommy isn't English and that's not his real name. They often change their names to confuse people. Trotsky's real name was Lev Bronstein for example.

Beth Nicolaides's avatar

Promethian Action makes a lot of sense to me, but I can never get the caveat out of my head that it sprang from a rather flawed man, Lyndon LaRouche. One needs to exercise critical thinking with it.

Castelletto's avatar

Do we really know how flawed LaRouche was vs. how much of what we think is dictated by the propaganda campaign against him?

Ben R's avatar

We can see just how far the Socialist Left is willing to go.

Fake dossiers, intel agencies planning ops, lawfare, changing laws to just get one guy, right up to murder and dare I say it mass murder.

Beth Nicolaides's avatar

As I said, one must use critical thinking. He sounds less flawed to me than he did in the 70s, 80s, or 90s.

MarshaLouise's avatar

Having just “Grokked” LaRouche, I tend to agree with you.

P. Robert Thorson's avatar

When it comes to critical thinking, I believe that includes the old saying "a leopard doesn't change its spots".

Be wary of those who have suspect associations from their past. Often, they are just playing a newly assigned role from the same old taskmasters.

Lugh's avatar

He was against the right people: the Bankers and the Neo-Cons. Talked to a follower once: They knew about the important Jewish angle, but like John Birch before them, chose to not talk about it.

Most of them talked with glazed eyes. It was a cult. The one I talked to was far better than most.

Ben R's avatar

Lyndon was more right than wrong.

Danimal28's avatar

100%, but I am a flawed man as well. :-D.

JulieW's avatar

Heck I am a flawed man and I am a woman! Very discerning comments by a generation trained to think critically

Ben R's avatar

How are you a flawed man if you are a woman?

What is a woman?

Apparently, we have some Supreme Court justices who can't answer that question.

Danimal28's avatar

Yep, I am very comfortable being a lesbian! I LOVE women.

Wendy Williamson's avatar

The Promethean sounded good to me, at first, but then I looked into it deeper. Here's what I found: the narrative is compelling—and it's not entirely wrong. The British Empire did build the Muslim Brotherhood. The City of London did collect a terror premium on every barrel of oil. But what they're selling is a decoy. By blaming Britain, they let Americans feel like victims rather than citizens of an empire. Since 1944, the U.S. has been the primary beneficiary of the global financial architecture. The dollar, not the pound, is the world's reserve currency. The Federal Reserve, not the Bank of England, creates the money that strips wage earners of their purchasing power. Wall Street, not the City of London, now extracts a staggering share of corporate profits. The real extraction happens here, in our name. The Prometheans give you a villain to hate and a hero to love—what they don't give you is a way out. I wrote up the real story here—the one worth paying attention to. Trump hasn't proved to me yet that he's working on it:

https://wendywilliamson.substack.com/p/financialization-the-parasite-and-the-host

Lugh's avatar

Good. Now you know the reason for WW2 and why the Germans threw the bankers out of Germany and enacted an economic renaissance. Obviously this system had to be crushed before it spread to more countries suffering under the "British" (Rothschild) boot.

Gail's avatar

They're quite interesting. I was nearly all in until ( just drew a blank on her name- begins with K) dragged the Israel idiocy into it. Albeit, they're a LaRouche spin-off.

MarshaLouise's avatar

You mean Susan Kokinda?

Gail's avatar

Yes. Israel didn’t even exist , nor do they have oil

Danimal28's avatar

All I have seen is that PA draws attention to the Brits and the US had a huge hand in the formation of Israel.

KevinM's avatar

Thanks Bookmarked ;-)

Liber8or's avatar

Well said. Over weekend I came across video that explains via history how the Euro Bankers carved up the Mideast into what it is today. Video is a little long (30 mins) but as you say in paragraph 2, the usual suspects are the Globalist Bankers. https://youtu.be/ZPMGJHPujDE?si=zUvog_WYbRLrbpza

Ben R's avatar

Straight lines: no country or people live in straight lines.

Iran needs to be carved up and turned into at least three to four countries, which would effectively end the threat of Iran.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_peoples#/media/File:Iranian_languages_distribution.png

elysianfield's avatar

"Iran needs to be carved up and turned into at least three to four countries, which would effectively end the threat of Iran to Israel.

Ben's avatar

Guess you are ignoring the part where they are blowing up shit in four different countries now?

Now some of those Gulf states are retaliating in kind.

elysianfield's avatar

Ben,

Serves those A-Rab bastards right...they shouldn't' have attacked us on Feb 28.

Ben R's avatar

Funny guy!

Those non-Ay-rab bastards should not have funded and armed the people who have attacked us all over the Middle East.

Liber8or's avatar

Yes, I looked at map of IRAN..it's a Huge country with 6 or 7 different languages. My roommate in college was a Kurd. Nice guy and very smart in math and science. He used to tell me about his family that was trapped in Iraq by police and not allowed back into Iran. Hid dad was a watch maker in Iraq and his mother was a school teacher in Iran.

Carol Oldershaw's avatar

And what threat would that be exactly?

Ben R's avatar

Notice zero response.

Drive by.

MarshaLouise's avatar

If you include the mountain-dwelling Kurds, it’s at least 6 smaller nations with a sovereign majority for each. Makes sense. Let’s do it shall we…(after we take the whole country of Iran) and sort it out for them? But not by the British or Sykes-Pico system.

dbriz's avatar

Ha! Good one. May happen here first.

MarshaLouise's avatar

Thank you for sharing this. I found it exceedingly enlightening. With a great desire to understand the whys and wherefores of our common current conflicts, I found enriching background here for the pronouncements of Promethean Action.

Gail's avatar

BTW, I'm a member.

Danimal28's avatar

Thanks! People need to archive that vid. Wow. F*cking British 'elites'...

Wendy Williamson's avatar

You're right about the history—the British have been extracting Iranian oil since 1908, and the City of London built an entire financial architecture around pricing fear. The pattern is undeniable.

But here's where I'd gently push back. I think the "Britain is the enemy" framing is projection and distraction—blaming Britain for what America actually is. Since 1944, the U.S. has been the primary beneficiary of the global financial architecture. The dollar, not the pound, is the world's reserve currency. The Federal Reserve, not the Bank of England, creates the money that inflates asset values and strips wage earners of their purchasing power. Wall Street, not the City of London, extracts a third of all corporate profits—wealth that is not invested in factories, workers, or communities, but funneled into buybacks, bonuses, and speculation.

The City of London is a subsidiary, not the headquarters. The real extraction happens here, in our name, and we've been the primary beneficiaries of it for generations.

As for Trump—I agree he's breaking the old order. But I can't help noticing that last week he rang the NYSE bell and promised stocks would go through the roof. Why ring the bell of the very casino he claims to oppose? He's fighting the IRGC while the debt clock ticks past $40 trillion. He wants to tear it down but can't stomach the crash.

I wrote about the pattern I'm seeing here: https://wendywilliamson.substack.com/p/financialization-the-parasite-and-the-host

Would be curious to hear your thoughts after reading.

Ben R's avatar

Trump wants to be liked and have his enormous ego stroked.

Danimal28's avatar

Maybe, but he and his team are the only serious people in Sodom on Potomac.

GonzoDon's avatar

Apparently Trump is going on national television tonight to whine (yet once again, god save us) about losing an election six years ago.

Will someone just tell the sore loser to shut the hell up about “election fraud” already? He won two of three presidential elections, for Christ’s sake.

Ben R's avatar

Talk about whining.

The issue he won three in a row.

D'uh.

Danimal28's avatar

If you can’t recognize the election fraud all around you, I can’t help

Gail's avatar

Agree . For the record, America is equally complicity in the planned course of cannibalism and the cabal of cannibals are given such euphemistic labels. " Philanthropists, Advocates,Religious Leaders, Elected Representatives , Medical/Science/Engineering/Geopolitical Experts/Diplomats/Security/Military Strategists, News Media... "Think Tanks"... NGOs, Charities..

Right. Rockefeller, Carnegie,Ford, J.P Morgan, Prescott Bush,Dulles,Soros,Kissinger,the Vatican, Bloomberg,Bill Gates,Bezos,Buffett,Fauci,Fink, Brezinzski , Gergen, Pritzker,Getty, Sulzberger, Omidyar,Lynn Forester D'Rothschild... Great Americans all.

Danimal28's avatar

I will check it out later; have to go to grandboys 5 yr old soccer game :-D. I love the British People, not the central bankers, btw. Our Fed is just the extension of the CoL. I frame them as they rape countries for resources without equivalent value in return. Colonialism; I decide to pay $3 for a bottle of soda or not, which is why we love tariffs as McKinley did. Oh, and they killed him for it...

MarshaLouise's avatar

Wendy, thank you for the link to your substack which I will read soon.

I did however watch this:

https://youtu.be/ZPMGJHPujDE?si=zUvog_WYbRLrbpza. The link is provided below by Liber8or. It encapsulates the period from the end of the Ottoman Empire (WWI) to present day, approximately. It is both very interesting and most enlightening.

Gail's avatar

Danimal, it was always about oil. I has been about oil since 1900. Since Rockefeller captured the global oil supply in 1900.Including refining ,pricing,distribution and the U.S. government. It was the genesis of corporate monopolism, trans nationalism and globalism.

Very few realize the creation of oil dependency's effect on every facet of industry, goods and production.

Steel, machinery, chemicals, transportation, medicine, construction materials, communication, packaging, storage, paper goods, tech, fabric,electrical, renewables, sanitation,heart valves, credit cards , film, modeling casts, coolants, protective gear, screens... EVERYTHING is petro-derived.

Paul Ford O'Neil's avatar

Jimmaah,

Looks like CFers are finally waking-up.

Wait til they read about the:

British Territorial US Government Services Crown Corporate fiction at law

http://www.paulstramer.net/?m=1

Warriors not worriers!

Winners not whiners!

PFO

Bijakovići, Međugorje

Herzegovine - Europa

JackStrawWichita's avatar

You can't negotiate with terrorists. It has always failed.

This war won't end until the people of Iran take back their country. I'm optimistic that forces behind the scenes are working on making that a reality.

MarshaLouise's avatar

True, reclaiming their country must be achieved by the Iranian people or it wont happen, peacefully or not. One hopes there are pro-western leaders inside Iran who have these desires and capabilities.

Casey Jones's avatar

Guns would be more useful than desires and capabilities.

Lugh's avatar

The "Iranian people" consisting of people who want to wear mini-skirts, have abortions, and import millions of Black Africans.

Mitch's avatar

so potentially another Democrat(ic) country.

Lugh's avatar

Ditto the United States. Iran has said it has nothing against the American people. Thus they've held back on the terrorism over here. The vast majority of them are against the Zionists, even the ones who don't support the Mullahs.

JackStrawWichita's avatar

You say that they're Jew-haters as if it's something positive.

I'm sorry that your dream candidate up in Maine withdrew from the race. You must have been devastated.

Lugh's avatar

You're an Iranian hater, right? So.....

Ben R's avatar

Iranians are a race? Come on you can do better! Or can you? Your support of Iran makes you a hater of America.

Ben R's avatar

Lugh spouts opinion as fact but he ignores "death to America" or does he? I would suggest he believes very much in it. Look at his gushing posts.

JohnAZ's avatar

IMO, it is what Trump expected with the first shock and awe. The regime killed 40000 of the protestors and continues today. The people of Iran need the IRGC emasculated. The USA needs to do its WW2 thing, unconditional surrender and elimination of the ruling party in Tehran. The alternative is another Afghanistan.

Lugh's avatar

There would be no Iran but for the IRGC. Ask Ben. He subscribes to the Zionist plan of splitting the nation up.

JohnAZ's avatar

What a great idea. Destroy the IRGC and destroy Iran. I hope Trump sees your post. Genocide against the IRGC, Hamas and Hezbollah with some Houthis thrown in. Let them be martyrs.

Lugh's avatar

Destroy the village in order to save it, right?

JohnAZ's avatar

Who said ANYTHING about saving the enemy? You people just do not understand that the only thing this enemy understands is their own death.

Lugh's avatar

Good, John. Your God said to kill all who breathe.

Gou Campo's avatar

One can be anti-Zionist *and* anti-IRGC

Ben R's avatar

Sure, hate everyone; at least that is sort of fair.

Ben R's avatar

In order to make that happen, they will need to rubbelize Iran.

Or get some people to stand up.

JohnAZ's avatar

Just the Tehran gang. Iran understands guerrilla warfare better than the Trump USA. The only thing that defeats guerrillas is obliteration.

Think of WW2, the obliteration of German industry and cities and Japan, With the atomic bombs, the firing of Tokyo and the oncoming obliteration with more bombing.

War is to be won.

complex Craftsman's avatar

You are correct but the problem is we don't have the manufacturing capacity for that sort of thing like we did for WW2 .For instance , I don't know just exactly what the truth is when it comes to the actual extent of the depletion of our munitions , but I do generally believe that it is something of an issue and that reconstituting it because of our lack of the appropriate manufacturing base to do so , means it takes too long to resupply it . This is no way to run a superpower !!! Thank all the dipshits who sold off and offshored our manufacturing base for thirty pieces of silver (, what? ,)during the 80's and 90's . Thinking America would be better served being turned into one big office park full of Karenesque mid level and mid wit type managers , call centers , and Taco Bells . Nope , being soveriegn means not being dependent or beholden to outside interests as much as possible for the stuff we need . Its not rocket surgery .

JohnAZ's avatar

You are 95% right. The fascination with “clean” high technology started in the 90s with Clinton, fueled by the bogus climate changers, Gore. Obama did his damndest to expand the off-shoring of our manufacturing base followed by the Biden Mob. Even Bush elder and W supported immigration and offf-shoring. We have not had a single president, thus Deep State, support US manufacturing since 1988. Who is the domestic enemy? The Deep State.

Lugh's avatar

Why stop there? The Kaufman plan wanted to sterilize all German men. The Morgenthau Plan to starve tens of millions to death. You're still thinking small....

JohnAZ's avatar

What exactly do you want the world to be like? Now obliterate all opposition.

You love Hitler and the Nazis. With them you get Himmler and Mengele. What a good choice.

Lugh's avatar

Yes, your Devil God said to do that. The God of this world.....

elysianfield's avatar

John,

In all fairness, they got a lot of bad press....

complex Craftsman's avatar

Yeah and Fabian socialists like George Bernard Shaw and HG wells were hard core eugenicists as well the national socialist Adolph Hitler so what is your point ? We are not advocating the extinction of an ethnicity or genetic line , the extinction of the Persian people , we are advocating putting an end to some serious religious fanatics ability to put ourselves and the rest of the world in danger and just generally cause hate and discontent . Its a strain of fanatical Shia that is toxic to mankind , all postmodern, morally subjective claptrap aside . Sorry ,I am a pre postmodern western objectivist.So pick a lane , get some moral discernment MAAAN !!!!!

JohnAZ's avatar

Elimination of the philosophy is the key, Shia Islam being the philosophy. Elimination of the regime and ascendency of the moderate Islam or secular Persians is the key here. Having a surviving regime is a no. 1 mistake. There is no such thing as a nice war, just a total one.

Mitch's avatar

Maybe, but is it worth American lives?

JohnAZ's avatar

As much as the world wars, Vietnam or Afghanistan before the politicians got involved. This country stands for freedom of the seas so yes, American lives may be required as the rest of the world, especially Europe just does not give a shit.

Amuzed_Traveler's avatar

Didn’t 12-14 million Iranians attend the dead ayatollah’s funeral? Doesn’t seem like they want to be free from fundamentalist oppression

Ripple's avatar

Hurts my ears to listen and it burns my eyes to see.

Mary Ann Caton's avatar

To your list of those Americans who ought to be dropped onto or into Iran, I want to add Tim Walz, Mamdani, Hassan Piker, and John Thune (for being a jerk).

Ben R's avatar

OAC, Pelosi, Schumer, Omar, Al Green, and let's be honest, most of the Democratic voting base as of late, the alphabet leftist media, MOST OF THE Senate, Congress.

Mary Ann Caton's avatar

I'm with you! I thought of listing every Dem I could think of, but then decided I'd still be typing an hour later. I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I included Newsom and every other Dem governor, all those who are running for office as Dems, and even some of my friends who are Dems because I tire of their vapid arguments. 🤣 (While we're at it, I'm thinking we should keep all those Europeans who were here who fell in love with America, our Ranch dressing, our free refills, and our nice people.)

Ben R's avatar

Without a doubt, Gavin Newsom is on that list.

What an absolutely odious piece of crap.

JohnAZ's avatar

MA and Ben

50% of this country should be deported to a country where they can be happy.

Marshall Hester's avatar

Jim it pains me to see how badly you're missing the mark on the ME confabulation when you get so many other analyses right. This "war" is a self inflicted debacle for the United States at the behest of Israel and Zionists. Americans overwhelmingly oppose spending blood and treasure in this latest interation of forever wars. Declare victory and get the hell out of the Persian Gulf before it gets worse which it surely will

James Howard Kunstler's avatar

Marshall — Stop watching "The View."

Cassander's avatar

I'm inclined to agree with Marshall -- both about all the stuff you get right and your dogmatic approach to the ME situation. I find far too much to worry about in terms of Israel's responsibility for current conditions to simply indict Iran for everything wrong in the Middle East. I also am disinclined to believe that regime change in Iran will settle relations between Greater Israel and its neighbors. And I have never, ever, not even once, watched "The View."

JohnAZ's avatar

Not just the View but 90% of American and world press.

And they lie, consistently without guilt. The US is decimating Iran with help from the rest of the Middle East. The world knows what a piece of shit the Iranian regime is. Most of our press is owned by globalists, hence the bullshit they emit.

Hawaiian Pizza's avatar

Delusion and motivated reasoning have displaced sense in JHK's mind, far beyond the point of recovery. Even the looming Trump Depression will only prompt further denials and finger-pointing when it hits.

There is no military option to dislodge Iran's de facto control of the Strait of Hormuz. There aren't remotely enough American troops for a ground invasion, and no ground worth taking with the troops that exist. Resuming the air war will have the same result as before: failing to overthrow Iran's government, while also prompting them to finish the job of demolishing the remaining oil infrastructure. Iran doesn't need to face off with the USA directly. All it needs to do is harass and perhaps destroy enough ships, which it can easily do, that insurers won't insure them and traffic will remain at a standstill. Likewise, all JHK's maundering about the civil government versus the IRGC and Iran being a country of fanatics is propaganda and prejudice. Whatever you think of their government, they are intelligent, rational, and (totally unlike Donald Trump) disciplined thinkers and actors. And what's more, also unlike the USA, this fight is existential for them so they have no truck with the kind of chaotic nonsense Trump visits on everything he touches.

Trump signed the MOU because he had absolutely no choice in the matter. He needed oil to start flowing again lest he become the second coming of Herbert Hoover. Following through with the MOU was the one and only way he could salvage his interests in the aftermath of his stupid blunder back in February. But Trump is also a petulant man-baby and a weak, incapable executive who utterly lacks the capability, or the attention span, to overcome Washington hawks. So the Trump Depression it is: the remaining oil stockpiles will be exhausted, the price of a barrel will double or more than double, and a billion people the world over will see their prospects disappear.

Ben R's avatar

Idiots got to idiot and the above post screams "idiot."

Hawaiian Pizza's avatar

If you have a rebuttal case to make, make it. Otherwise you're just noise.

Ben R's avatar

The noise is anything your anti-American ass posts, and the above is an opinion.

Anything shitty and negative you spew ENDLESSLY.

Adding you to the drop list.

Hawaiian Pizza's avatar

Earplugs and blinders won't protect anyone from what's coming. And Trump's cult of personality won't protect him from the consequences of his failures.

Ben R's avatar

More idiocy on display.

Can you do more than the current trifecta?

Mark's avatar

Did you also predict a great depression when Trump took office, and more war, after Trump brokered 7 peace resolutions? Iran is athorn in everyone's side and their terrorist ways need to be severely dealt with.

Lugh's avatar

They are Nazis, right Ben? Just like the Russians!

Ben R's avatar

Russians are nazis there is a new strawman.

Cankerpuss's avatar

I tend to agree with you. The Persians have inhabited that land for thousands of years. The USA isn't going to come along and lob a few missiles and bombs and suddenly change their mindsets over controlling the Straight of Hormuz. If I recall correctly, before Trump decided to start another USA war and bomb Iran the Straight of Hormuz was open and oil was flowing. Only after the USA started fucking around in another sovereign nation's affairs did the Straight get closed and oil stop flowing.

But then again, what do I know?

Kathy Christian's avatar

Somehow I think that if it were Biden doing it, it would all be just dandy. You know, democracy and all that.

William Wallace's avatar

Hawaiian you forgot to mention the Sky is falling too.

Yes it’s Not going to be easy but they can’t continue as a World Threat. GB’s Global Mafia operation is being upended and this too will have a major impact on Iran’s ThugAutocracy!

Hawaiian Pizza's avatar

Iran was never a World Threat (tm). They could have built nuclear weapons decades ago. The fact that they have refrained from doing so, forty-seven years after their revolution, is a minor miracle, considering the threats and pressure that have been applied to them.

You call me Chicken Little. Yet for forty-seven years, it has been the USA and Israel who have been shouting from the rooftops that Iran is going to acquire a nuclear weapon Any Second Now. If Iran had an actual weapon, that made them an actual threat, we would damn well know it. It's amazing how many people buy the idea that the threat is from Iran toward the world, not from the USA toward Iran, for the crime of successful defiance.

Cankerpuss's avatar

They've been 3 weeks away from getting a nuke for 30 years now.

elysianfield's avatar

HP,

I generally agree with your post. HOWEVER, I still believe that putting pineapple on pizza is an abomination before God. For this, and this alone,you will be judged.

dbriz's avatar

It’s why purgatory was invented

User's avatar
Comment deleted
Jul 13
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Lugh's avatar

Well obviously they need to defend themselves against the Zionists. You're in favor of merging the American and the Israeli military, right? Because that's coming.

Rebecca White's avatar

Wrong. Never said or implied that. I appreciate your comment.

Ben R's avatar

He just revealed himself as a former troll named Majella.

I suspect this buffoon has had many names in the past, always with a shitty perspective and opinion.

Lugh's avatar

Ben's looking for his buddy, Sea Wolf.

Ben R's avatar

That one is still here, just under another name, recently kicked, I believe.

Hawaiian Pizza's avatar

I don't know who that is. I formerly went by Elrond Hubbard, but never Majella.

Hugh Wayne Black's avatar

Baghdad Bob?? Is that you, Bob?

Scott's avatar

You couldn't be more wrong. As others have said above, this is about breaking down the City of London's death grip on resources. Look into the founding of BP and it becomes obvious who is pulling Iran's strings. Venezuela was a similar operation, much easier to accomplish as there weren't all the competing factions. The Iranian people need to rise up and throw off the mullahs then the conflict will resolve. This is NOT a Bush forever war, that is nonsense.

Beth Nicolaides's avatar

It pains me that you and a sizeable cohort act and think like spaniel in the presence of a rabbit whenever Israel comes up. You remind me of my Lost Generation grandparents with their favorite scapegoat tribe. You dogs should go lie in the shade and gnaw a bone for a change; the pointing and barking is obnoxious.

Lugh's avatar

The Watchman must blow his horn, Nico. Are you for merging our military with that of Israel? Sounds crazy, but it's true. If you all had listened, we wouldn't be standing on this precipice now. Why not repent now at the 11th hour?

Lugh's avatar

Now that you've googled it and seen that it's real, where do you stand? For American independence or to be controlled by Israel? The dreaded either/or of Kierkegaard. Thumbs up or thumbs down on America?

Letsrock's avatar

Congratulations, you too have fallen into the Pro-Islamist, Communist trap who want all the hate and blame directed on the Jews when it's as plain as day who the threat to western civilization is.

Maureen Hanf's avatar

One of my favorite combos lol.

Larry LaBate's avatar

This is only hard if you want it to be, meaning who is winning and losing and why. Obvious to literally anyone paying attention, part of Iran wants the pounding to stop, part of it wants martyrdom.

Negotiating with an entity like that is almost impossible. God bless those trying, almost infinite patience is required

Te Burt's avatar

I would really love it if murderous Islamists had a shared moment of enlightenment and discovered that 72 virgins and rivers of honey were never real, but the hell waiting for them is. There would be jihadists wandering the streets, muttering to themselves, going insane. More insane. I know. Wishful thinking. Whatever happened to "ask and you shall receive"? I feel cheated.

Cankerpuss's avatar

"discovered that 72 virgins and rivers of honey were never real, but the hell waiting for them is."

Just curious and wanted to ask. How do you know this?

Te Burt's avatar

It's common knowledge that 72 (that maybe an inaccurate #) virgins and rivers of honey is in the Koran, promised to islamic martyrs. The wording may not be exact. Don't nitpik.

Cankerpuss's avatar

No, no, no, you misunderstand. I'm not questioning your knowledge of what was in the Koran. I'm questioning how you know for sure that hell is waiting for them? I often wonder what is awaiting all of us after we die. You seem to be fairly confident in your knowledge of where these souls are going. I'd like to know how you know that and appreciate any insight in how I can know for sure.

Te Burt's avatar

That's a LONG conversation! Most people (self included) refer to "hell" as a concept rather than an actual thing, and for decades, I did not believe in its existence due to my orientation to reincarnation as a controlling paradigm of reality. But - and this is a subtle caveat - hell can exist in ways humanity does not see as valid retribution for bad behavior while they are in the physical plane. Assume you are a person who rejects all social contact for whatever reasons. Sanctimoniously insist on a lifelong isolation but done with hatefulness and a desire to punish, not one's self, but others. (I know; it doesn't sound as if it would make sense, but the Unibomber was exactly this kind of person.) Hell could be total isolation from all contact by voice, presence, light, anything for eons of time, until the spirit understands what his attitude cost. There is a subtlety that people miss. "Pain" comes in a variety of forms. "Lake of Fire" was never a real thing. For everyone who behaved badly (laugh at a cripple, dismiss a homeless person, make fun of a child with disabilities, kill, maim, rape -- well, the list of what humanity does to itself is long) and caused pain, there is a price. It will be paid. There isn't a choice about that. It's called karma. There may not be a choice about how it's paid, which may be up to something over which no human spirit has control. This may not answer your inquiry.

William Wallace's avatar

Infinite more Sophisticated Targeted Weaponry helps speed up the martyrdom!

JDaveF's avatar

The US military since Vietnam has believed it can win any war with infinitely sophisticated weaponry. We see how well that worked out against illiterate goat herders in Afghanistan armed with Soviet-era (1950s) man-portable armaments.

JohnAZ's avatar

I just read a section of “April 1865” discussing guerrilla warfare. It has been almost 100% effective against bigger power over history.

All you need is a cause and enough people willing to die for it long enough and the bigger power eventually gives up.

Interesting is the onset of most socialistic states has been some sort of guerrilla warfare. Shades of “The Fourth Turning”. It never ends too. For every opinion, or cause, there is an equal and opposite opinion or cause.

Ben R's avatar

Or willing to kill everyone, like the Mongol Empire did to ancient Persia.

If you kill everyone, there is no one left to fight you.

JohnAZ's avatar

If you kill everyone in opposition, the world becomes you.

Hmmm, what is the purpose of war?

Lugh's avatar

Ben reveals his true mind. Give 'em the Gaza treatment! John needs to listen to his big brother, Ben.

Ben's avatar

No!

The gaza treatment is not killing everyone.

Nice try.

Cankerpuss's avatar

And how many wars since WWII has the US won with sophisticated weaponry?

"cough cough"

alberghetti's avatar

The one thing jihadis love more than jihad is their London real estate and Cayman Islands bank accounts

Scott Bessent is bleeding them out.

This is THE best weaponry there is

Howard Skillington's avatar

M-I-C / K-E-Y / M-O-U…

Deception? Does attacking on the eve of mutually scheduled negotiations count? We’ve done that to Iran – twice.

The official US death count for this needless war remains thirteen – a number from which it has not budged for over two months. Do you still believe that? Really??

We keep announcing that we have reopened the Strait of Hormuz and claiming that tanker ships are moving through. How then to reconcile that claim with today’s Wall Street Journal Headline: “Frequent Oil Draws From U.S. Strategic Reserve Push Old System to Breaking Point.”

Freely traversing the Strait will not resume until Lloyd’s of London says it’s safe, and most companies that own tankers prefer their ships to be insured against sinking.

Iran has known full well for over a generation that Israel/US would eventually try to destroy it. During that time it has wisely decentralized its military infrastructure, developed hypersonic missiles (our attempts have failed, thus far) and built the capacity to manufacture large numbers of weapons on schedule.

Our defense industry has maximized shareholder dividends, instead: “Manufacturing a single Patriot PAC-3 MES interceptor missile requires approximately 24 months, with the solid rocket motor alone taking up to 30 months to produce and cure. The overall supply chain relies on more than 400 companies before final assembly.” - Foreign Policy Research Institute

“The U.S. currently possesses approximately 60 operational Patriot batteries, but its stockpile of Patriot interceptor missiles has been severely depleted. Recent assessments indicate the U.S. has roughly 25% of the Patriot interceptors required for Pentagon war plans, with stockpiles falling below minimum required levels.” - The Guardian

We had no business trying to take over “Indochina” from the French. After eight years we failed.

After lying about a connection with 9/11 and non-existent WMDs we killed a million Iraqis and created a failed state while failing to “bring democracy” to that country. We took twenty years to definitively fail in Afghanistan.

But, of course, we are winning in Iran, because we always win – until we lose.

James Howard Kunstler's avatar

Skillington -- You are so dim it makes my head snap back.

"Does attacking on the eve of mutually scheduled negotiations count?"

We attacked them because they broke a previously negotiated agreement.

What part of that don't you get?

Ben R's avatar

Mister Skillington obviously believes himself to be the smartest man in the room, along with FOSP, aka Hawaiian Pizza.

Ask them; their egos are so far out of line with reality that it's mind-boggling.

Hawaiian Pizza's avatar

Goodness. Why would I agree with myself when I could agree with you instead? Such ego.

Howard Skillington's avatar

Our adversaries in this space have two pitiful tactics: accuse us of stupidity, or accuse us of arrogance. They will never offer any argumentation or evidence to refute our contentions because they know nothing. They're just trolls.

Howard Skillington's avatar

We inhabit different realities on this issue, Jim. What part of the WSJ headline do you not get? NASCAR has a good device to keep your head from snapping back.

William Wallace's avatar

Don’t the Murdochs from England own the Globalists WSJ?

Hawaiian Pizza's avatar

The problem with your question is that even globalists (or Globalists, whatever the capital letter means) need sources of high-quality information. In fact, *especially* globalists, since you have to understand what's going on if you want to control it. Prolefeed outlets like Fox News are for spectators: they sell narrative and spin. But the WSJ and other serious journals are for players.

Hawaiian Pizza's avatar

In a functional sense, it hardly matters if there are 25% or 100% of Patriot interceptors available if they can't actually take out incoming targets. Theodore Postol has examined video footage of Patriots in use and concluded they are almost completely ineffective:

https://youtu.be/HGRvYOWXUCE?si=49151I580ig5BIcy

Seems decoys, multiple warheads, and maneuvering/spiraling warheads do a pretty good job of turning any 'screen' of ABMs into a sieve, made of tissue paper. Anti-missile defense is basically dead.

Ben R's avatar

Wrong.

They just need to be tuned for this type of scenario and also employ Merv-style warheads.

This is an opportunity to upgrade their design.

Hawaiian Pizza's avatar

We'll see. They don't seem to have protected Trump from the consequences of his February blunder so far.

Howard Skillington's avatar

Week twenty of one. But, of course, every war is initially marketed as being over in a few days.

David "JC" Penny's avatar

The IRGC is led by survivors - by any means necessary. Those types tend to be more psychotic than competent, requiring a purge. Been too quiet regarding SpecOps over the last month. I sense a pending beeper-op in the near future.

Michael Miller's avatar

Purge? We (Israel) has already murdered 3 levels down the leadership chain. Now it is difficult to even know who can speak for the country.

James Howard Kunstler's avatar

Look at it this way, Michael Miller: they have earned the martyrdom they worked so hard for.

Michael Miller's avatar

I just think we need to honestly self examine. A lot of what happens to us is blow back from our own prior operations. For those we should not be so blind. Iran suffered under that Shah for many years. We created bin Laden to get Russia in Afghanistan, then what happened. You and I don’t even have any idea what clandestine activities are being orchestrated as we speak. We would do well to heed the exhortations of the founding fathers regarding foreign policy.

David "JC" Penny's avatar

Founding fathers? Any clue why "the shores of Tripoli" is enshrined in the USMC song? Read more, watch less.

Ben R's avatar

It has suffered far worse under the current regime of nuts.

As far as the Founding Fathers' views on outside influences go, that was a different world, and maintaining it was far easier.

We have been punished repeatedly in world wars for attempting it and even more by downsizing the US military.

Hawaiian Pizza's avatar

I don't understand... Punished by world wars? There have been two of them, and the USA was on the winning side in both. In the first, the U.S. sat out the first three years of war, then came in at the end and shared in the victory. In the second, the U.S. again sat out the first two years, came in after Pearl Harbor, and emerged in 1945 as the most powerful country on Earth and the inheritor of the former national empires of both the defeated Japanese and the victorious western Europeans. Where is the punishment exactly? I honestly don't understand what you're trying to say here.

JohnAZ's avatar

World wars did not end in 1945. Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan were world wars of capitalism against socialism, the USA fighting Russia, China and Iran in wars of attrition, ie guerrilla wars. The US has not figured out yet how to fight guerrillas. Obliteration, genocide of the enemy is the only solution. Trump is fighting the guerrilla Iran like they are responsible world leaders instead of the gang of religious punks that they are.

Ben R's avatar

Millions of Americans sacrificed to stop idiot Eurotrash from killing each other while we tried to live our lives and run our country.

It didn't work then, and it is not going to work now; yes, punished.

John Schrauth's avatar

Iran supposedly has/had 31 separate military zones with 31 commanders in order to survive the kind of things our military doctrine calls for. Theirs apparently calls for being the moles in whack-a-mole.

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John Schrauth's avatar

I referred to your question of who can speak for their country. Fairly difficult with factions in "government" competing with armed religious factions and 31 presumptive warlords. We don't know who is "the Prince" if even they can't be sure on any given day. It's a riddle inside an enigma inside a cluster flop inside a shit show, at a minimum.

JohnAZ's avatar

The most successful form of warfare through history is guerrilla warfare.

David "JC" Penny's avatar

Dunno. Nukes worked everytime.

JohnAZ's avatar

You do realize that the Japanese elite were still considering fighting on after the bombs and Tokyo were razed. It took a rebellion inside the military and the backing of Hirohito to finally make the surrender happen.

War creates insanity.

More Bombs were coming, we would have leveled Japan if we needed to. Many people have said that a half million American GIs would have been killed if invasion of Japan had been necessary. I wonder, would we have just sat back and just destroyed the Japanese people without involving an invasion?

David "JC" Penny's avatar

Soooo, they worked everytime.

Ben's avatar

They sure do and the threat of them as well.

Which is why crazy Iran wants to be part of the nuclear club just the threat of them is enough to get lots of extortion money out of the west.

MarshaLouise's avatar

I’m hoping for a “beeper-op” whatever that is, David.

John Schrauth's avatar

Hezbollah was concerned Israel had compromised their cell phone comms and decided to go with old school "beepers" to keep their people in the loop as they supposedly could not be spied on. Israel intercepted the several thousand beepers they ordered and replaced them with beepers filled with command detonated explosives and then delivered them to Hezbollah. Mo would answer his beeper and it would explode. There are videos of guys exploding in grocery stores and random cafes and on the street all over Lebanon several years back.

MarshaLouise's avatar

Thank you…I do remember the context now…and I enjoyed your “Mo would answer…”

Eric Sowers's avatar

Muslims have been making treaties and breaking them since the seventh century. They made a treaty with the Persians in 633 and broke it in 651. They made a treaty with the Berbers in 647, broke it in 698, and made them convert or be beheaded. In Spain, they promised Christian and Jews protection from Visigoths in 711 but commencing in 756 it became convert or die.

A cynic person might conclude that when it comes to expansion, you can’t believe a word that comes out of their pie hole. That cynic person would be correct.

Ben R's avatar

Expansion and forced conversion are baked into Islam, and the term radical Islam is a joke.

Hawaiian Pizza's avatar

A carton of milk placed on shelves on the day the USA most recently threatened to murder Iranians who tried to negotiate with them would still be drinkable today. That's how recent American duplicity and murderousness are.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/trump-threatens-to-kill-peace-negotiators-in-switzerland-before-they-return-home/ar-AA26cFW0

Given that, it's hilarious that someone would trot out examples over a millennium old to paint their opponents as untrustworthy.

Ben R's avatar

Another idiotic post.

Thomas Madden's avatar

The US has been intermittently at war in the Middle East since 1991. This is the fourth war we have started in the region in that timeframe. None of these wars have worked out well for the US. This one is not working out well either. Donald Trump promised that, if elected, he would work hard to ensure that American citizens and businesses would benefit from 1) cheap gasoline 2) low inflation and 3) no foreign wars. He then did just the opposite, hurting American citizens and businesses, and proudly declaring that he "loves the inflation" that his poor policies, and his disastrous war with Iran, have caused. He is such a disappointment. I drive on our rutted, potholed roads, across creaking bridges and poorly maintained tunnels and wonder what became of our great country.

Dale Stevens's avatar

One cannot, in good faith, blame Trump for the deceit of prior administrations. Your roads should have been fixed by the infamous "Infrastructure Bill" that was pushed thru in the Biden regime, at a cost of $2 trillion. But, as we now know, was mostly a leftist grift. Put that blame where it belongs.

Thomas Madden's avatar

Our President isn't the least bit focused on US roads or infrastructure. He is focused on Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria, Ukraine, Cuba, Greenland. . .and when asked what about the ruinous inflation that is badly hurting US citizens and businesses, he responded by saying that he loves the inflation. That is as dumb as anything Biden, Obama, or just about any president has ever said. . .and I think he absolutely meant it. I am putting the blame exactly where it belongs, on President Trump's desk.

elysianfield's avatar

Tom.

"...he loves the inflation. That is as dumb as anything Biden, Obama, or just about any president has ever said. ."

You mean "ever said out loud". Our economy requires and demands inflation to sustain our debt infrastructure.

Thomas Madden's avatar

I beg your pardon? He said that after the rate of inflation in the US hit a three-year high. That doesn't help our economy in the least, of course, it badly hurts consumers and businesses. Trump has said, on more than one occasion, that he is not concerned at all about the negative effects this war has had, and continues to have, on the finances of ordinary working Americans. It simply doesn't bother him.

elysianfield's avatar

Tom,

In truth, it benefits our debt service at the Federal level. Our debt cannot be maintained without the diminishing effects of inflation. The economy is a secondary consideration. The Federal Reserve is designed to maintain a low inflation rate, a 2% target, rather than to end inflation entirely. That he stated this out loud is the gaff.

A better economy (within reason), or zero inflation? The better economy would benefit the citizen, a zero inflation would destroy the federal budget. Inflation is the driver of our debt-driven economy.

Cankerpuss's avatar

Are you actually arguing in favor of inflation or are you just stating that "it is what it is" kind of thing. Please tell me you aren't arguing in favor of inflation.

Cankerpuss's avatar

Stop all the foreign wars, bring the troops home and put them to work repairing America's failing and crumbling infrastructure. I know. Crazy, right? Having the troops located here actually doing something that benefits America and Americans, being paid with tax dollars taken from Americans to benefit Americans is nuts! Not at all. It is much more advantageous to Americans to have our troops waging war on the other side of the globe and definitely in their best interests to bomb the hell out of Iran.

DUH!

Thomas Madden's avatar

"Stop all the foreign wars, bring the troops home and put them to work repairing America's failing and crumbling infrastructure. I know. Crazy, right? Having the troops located here actually doing something that benefits America and Americans, being paid with tax dollars taken from Americans to benefit Americans is nuts!" A big part of the problem lies with Defense Contractors. They get rich off of endless war, which generates a fake need for endless military spending. They make large contributions to politicians, and employs lots of people at munitions and weapons plants in various states, making those State's Senators/Congressmen/Governor have a vested interest in supporting them.

Cankerpuss's avatar

The Industrial / Military complex. The greatest threat to the USA's sovereignty. President Ike strongly warned us about this in his fare well address. Nobody listened to that old has-been.

dbriz's avatar

The old “has been” was unfortunately the guy who allowed the origins to happen. It was nice that at least he warned where it was headed.

Kennedy actually believed him and tried to do something about it. We know how that ended.

Cankerpuss's avatar

Very true.

The more I lean about JFK the more I am coming to believe that he should be ranked among the greatest President. He may have been an immoral whoremonger but he certainly wanted to do right by America and be the President. So they killed him for it.

Thomas Madden's avatar

Eisenhower warned the US of the risks of the military-industrial complex. He was notorious for cutting the requisitions and not giving the military all the expensive hardware they asked for.

Jeff the Original's avatar

We can blame him on attacking Iran and not being bright enough to take heed about how the prior administrations faired.

It is truly astounding how wars and inflation are never Trump's fault...ever. You never allow any other Dems or ex-Presidents to use the excuses you now use for Trump.

Thomas Madden's avatar

"We can blame him on attacking Iran and not being bright enough to take heed about how the prior administrations faired." Agreed. One of the very first public figures to reach out to President Trump and congratulate him for starting yet another war in the Middle East was Jeb Bush. That made me sick. Now Jeb is babbling that Cuba has mysterious drones aimed right at the US, and we better invade. . .where have we heard that story before?

Ben R's avatar

Again, don't spoil their narrative of "But TRUMP!"

Jeff the Original's avatar

That's just BS. Trump has inherited a stronger economy both times than either Obama or Biden did. Not to mention the choruses of "But...but...but...Biden" from Trump supporters...still...

It's also entirely appropriate to judge him by the economy he left behind: one in freefall, with thousands of Americans dying in hospitals every day during the pandemic.

I remember it. Do you?

Ben R's avatar

Speaking of BS, Jeff and his narrative.

Jeff the Original's avatar

At least my narrative is about the topic at hand. For you...it's just me. Sorry your life sucks so much.

Ben R's avatar

My life is great; look who is whining like a spoiled brat... hint: that is you, Jeff.

Free Will's avatar

Anna Navarro is the worst...now that Don Lemon is finally getting totally ignored.

elysianfield's avatar

...But semi-hot in her youth.

Free Will's avatar

Maybe compared to Hillary.

Skenny's avatar

Agree with everything except that Rosie O'Donnell, as a bunker buster, should be the first one dropped....

William Wallace's avatar

Skenny thanks, laughed out loud & now I got another week in Purgatory!

Ben R's avatar

No she went on the fat shot and is "skinny" right now.

She also got a facelift and is still ugly beyond words, inside and out.

DJL's avatar

The piecemeal attacks on shipping and neighboring countries reveal a disjointed, even broken, command structure in Iran which I believe you touch on. No matter what the Iranian negotiators negotiate, they have no control of the IRGC hardliners who can lash out with their remaining inventory of ordnance.

Hawaiian Pizza's avatar

Is the command structure disjointed and broken? Or is it just distributed, i.e. local commanders capable of carrying on operations even if the U.S. succeeded in another decapitation strike? The Iranians have had a long time to plan and prepare for the current scenario.

Suzie's avatar

I wonder if, behind the scenes, the US and Israel are working to organize some kind of internal resistance organization with Iranians. A lot of their “leadership” were executed during the last crackdown so that would take some time to find people willing and able to take over. And then there’s arming them, which is not out of the realm of possibility, but challenging to say the least.

That whole process will take a lot of time, though, to get to a place where they’d have even a slim chance of fighting back against their oppressors, and not without many facets of enormous risk to both us and them.

But short of a full scale civil war within Iran where the battle then belongs to them, this bombing campaign is going to continue -which is fine by me, just not so sure many Americans have the stomach for it.

Michael Miller's avatar

Of course the Us and Israel are “organizing internal resistance”. That is our MO. See The Shah’s installation, or how about our Ukraine Maidan operation? Is the US fomenting an uprising? Do bears crap in the woods?

Suzie's avatar

The difference with enabling Iranians to save and fight for themselves from the terrorist regime of the mullahs and IRGC and what the CIA and USAID, amongst others, have been doing to overturn democratic governments is like comparing apples and oranges.

GonzoDon's avatar

July 10: Trump: "Imposing tolls on ships moving through the Straight of Hormuz is illegal and it will not be allowed!"

July 13: Trump: "The United States will impose a 20% tariff on all ships passing through the Straight of Hormuz!"

July 14: Trump: "Never mind about the 20 percent fee I called for yesterday! We're not doing that!"

JFC. Heaven help the poor saps representing the United States who have to try to negotiate some sort of agreement with Iran and other countries in the region when Trump just makes random shit up from one day to the next.

Can we just openly admit that Trump doesn't know what the hell he is doing in the Middle East?

Bardolatori's avatar

Theory 1

US strategy is up shit creek without a paddle in the Straits of Hormuz and Trump is flailing around in desperation for something that looks like a good idea.

Theory 2

Trump is suffering from a nasty mixture of rage and dementia & can't actually remember what he tweeted yesterday.

Theory 3

Both Theory 1 and Theory 2 are correct.

Three and Two's avatar

It's enough to make a fella wonder what Jim is smoking.

Disaffected's avatar

A special Zionist strain of herb that only the Israeli's have.

Disaffected's avatar

Theory 3, without a doubt.

Bardolatori's avatar

Let's keep things real. Let's remember that the US started an illegal war with the assassination of the Iranian leader and the massacre of 120 schoolchildren.

The children's names and faces can be seen here:

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/names-and-ages-children-iranian-school-strike

Jeff the Original's avatar

One of the most frustrating things about the Trump era is watching otherwise intelligent people reverse-engineer everything he does into a brilliant game of four-dimensional chess, despite every indication that much of it is improvised.

I'm not cheering Iran on. I hope the regime never acquires a nuclear weapon.

But pretending the United States is "winning" because we dropped bombs misses the more important question:

What does winning actually look like?

Wasn't the objective "no nuclear weapon for Iran?" If so, what is the long-term plan to ensure that outcome?

Can we simply declare victory and go home?

If not, what mechanism now exists to prevent Iran from restarting its nuclear program? Is there an agreement? A verification regime? International inspectors conducting intrusive inspections?

Oh, that's right. We did have those things under the JCPOA. It wasn't a perfect agreement, but it provided inspections and verification that don't exist today.

So you have two choices. You can believe the sycophants who insist every twist and turn is part of Trump's master strategy that he envisioned from the beginning.

Or you can consider the possibility that this was a major strategic gamble—one encouraged by Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu, whose own political survival has been closely tied to continuing the conflict—and that we're now left hoping events unfold in our favor rather than following a coherent long-term plan.

Bombs are not a strategy—they're a tactic. The strategy is supposed to come first.

That's exactly what frustrates me about Trump and his sycophants. There was no discernible long-term strategy—just a lot of hopium that military strikes might force a positive regime change leading to the desired outcome. Well...they didn't....and now we find ourselves in a real pickle. Don't blame those of us pointing out the obvious.