746 Comments
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The Cosmic Onion's avatar

Kunstler nails one thing that many pundits miss — wars don’t usually end with ticker-tape parades anymore. They end with silence. One day the rockets stop flying and the news cycle moves on.

His argument is simple: remove Iran’s ability to launch missiles and drones and the war effectively ends without boots on the ground. No grand surrender ceremony. Just the sudden absence of explosions.

That part rings true.

Where things get murkier is the assumption that Iran is already collapsing internally. Persia has been around for thousands of years and has a long memory for surviving empires that thought they had it finished.

History suggests something else: wars in that region rarely end cleanly and almost never according to anyone’s script.

Still, Kunstler is asking a useful question that Washington usually refuses to ask:

If the threat is neutralized, why invade at all?

Sometimes the smartest victory is simply letting the dust settle and letting a nation sort itself out.

— Lone Wolf

Cankerpuss's avatar

I still hold that the United States has no business invading other nations or raining cruise missiles down on other national governments, especially when such a nation poses no significant threat to the United States or its population. As an aggressor against an inferior foe the USA has lost the moral high ground. Period. These wars aren't to make Iran a better nation. These wars are to make money. How can the USA justify a trillion dollar defense budget when there isn't a war going on. Peace doesn't make TPTB wealthy. Wars certainly do. I mean, when the profit margins are high for Lockheed, Northrup-Grummond, Boeing, Raytheon and others things are good and things are good when there is a nation to bomb!

I hate war in all of its forms. The only war where we maintain the moral high ground is when we are defending ourselves from an aggressive enemy invading our homes. You know, the millions of military aged illegal aliens lurking about in our cities and towns that nobody seems to care about. Especially the USA's military who is charged with our defense, spread abroad in hundreds of military bases everywhere but HERE! Go figure.

Perhaps Mr. Kunstler is right and this might end well for Iran and the middle east. I hope it does. Then again, it might be like Afghanistan where the people are too divided by tribalism mentality to ever come together and the USA has just created another Libya.

Either way, nothing gives the USA the right to make war on another nation especially without Congressional approval.

Paul B. Cohen's avatar

The current situation isn’t “making war.” It’s acknowledging and finishing one the US didn’t initiate. And don’t bother bringing up ‘53. That’s an overblown false narrative. We could also go back to the late 18th century if not the 7th, but facts in context make no difference to those in love with themselves in their lies.

John Watson's avatar

i hope you are a zionist bot and not a real stupid person

Cankerpuss's avatar

Oh please. Your comment is absurd. The USA has no right to be bombing or invading another sovereign nation. Period. The Congress hasn't authorized a war since Pearl Harbor.

EK MtnTime's avatar

Never mind that Hussein Obama, Bush, and Clinton all engaged in wars unauthorized by Congress. Trump derangement syndrome does tend to blind people quite effectively to the past.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

Cohen HAS been known to tell a fib or three at times...

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

Cohen believes in magic.

He believes there is an imaginary man in the sky who can look over 5-million people all at the same time! LOL

GabeReal's avatar

‘53 is not a false narrative…

Dena's avatar

Stopping China from buying oil cheap from Iran is in America’s best interest. It weakens China, who is a threat to America. Iran has been killing Americans for decades & calling death to America along the way. if they have a N bomb they will use it. I would say even if they unleashed it on Israel & not directly on us, it’s a threat to the lives in the entire world. Trump is right - we cannot punt this down the road.

Rick's avatar

You can't be serious? Iran is a huge terrorist threat to America... Israel too! So it must be solved?

Cankerpuss's avatar

Quit regurgitating Fox News and Sean Hannity talking points. You tell me how Iran is a HUGE terrorist threat to the USA?

Identify one terrorist event that has killed Americans that Iran claimed responsibility for? And don't say 9-11. The terrorists were Saudi Arabians.

Name one prominent American killed by Iranian officials?

Name one nation that has been invaded by Iran?

Tell me of any time in your life where you were threatened, harmed, harrassed or otherwise bothered by anyone claiming Iranian heritage?

I'll take my lumps if I am wrong. Prove me wrong.

ann lewis's avatar

And we know they were Saudi Arabians because we found their actual passports! It was a miracle, but there they were!

Casey Jones's avatar

In case y'all hadn't noticed, Washington is Different these days. (How many boots on the ground in Venezuela?)

Tenquid's avatar

I favor the Smoking Crater Solution. Kill the leaders, destroy their weapons, declare victory and walk away. Then make it clear that you are watching closely and will not hesitate to return to do it again, if they return to their old modus operandi.

Cankerpuss's avatar

And who gave the USA the authority to kill the leaders, destroy their weapons and declare victory.

Walk away? And let the same thing happen that happened in Afghanistan after 20 years of US occupation?

Watching closely? Who nominated the USA to be the world police? Because the USA is wealthy? Ha. Last I checked the USA was $38 trillion in the hole and counting. Rich? My ass.

Your post is absurd.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

Could not have said it better, CP

Notice all the Zionists bots trying to change the subject to energy production.

They know they are on the wrong side of morality.

NO MORE WAR.

Cankerpuss's avatar

Yeah, it is amazing to me how many people will defend the USA invading and destroying another sovereign nation that hasn't inflicted any damage on the homeland in any way. Just read Chuck's inane comment above. I guess it is easy to hop on the pro-war bandwagon when sitting in their basements in their comfy underpants posting comments rather than being the people being bombed.

I'm a pacifist. I hate war. All war.

Ben's avatar

You might be a pacifist, but the rest of the world wants war.

Cankerpuss's avatar

Yes, I am in the vast minority. I get it.

Chuck's avatar

I was going to make a cogent argument refuting specific points of your comments. But apparently it was completely lost on you that the author is framing his points with the strategic geopolitical end goals in mind. And this will probably be a waste of my time.

Geopolitics is about 2 things and 2 things only. Power and resources… If the land that you happen to live on has resources worth extracting or or its position on a map make even worthless land a desirable possession; you will be conquered and ruled by the most powerful empire that desires your resources. It’s that simple all you have to do is see the world for what it is and not what you wish it to be.

By your comments, you seem to fail to think, comprehend, or argue your points using logical strategic planning. You’re all “up in your feels” about moral superiority which is highly subjective to individual interpretations and rarely reaches consensus. And it’s also not capable of crushing entire cultures under its boot heel and lording over them…

How bout you go back to your mediocre at best performance playing checkers and leave the geopolitical chess decisions to the smart guys…

Cankerpuss's avatar

Your entire post was a waste of my time to read.

Try to do better.

Tenquid's avatar

Walk away. Not occupy. Occupation was the fundamental error in Afghanistan.

Cankerpuss's avatar

I'm on the side of how about we have fair and open trade with others and just leave them to resolve their own issues with their neighbors.

Ben's avatar

Except Afghanistan had resources.

Poppies, Nat gas, oil, rare earth, gold, silver, copper and pipelines.

Why do you think the Russians spent years there until America sent the Taliban stinger missiles to take out the hind helicopters?

Cosmo T Kat's avatar

Are you agitating for the USA to kill it's and Israel's leaders? They are the problem, not Iran.

William Bogert's avatar

Move out, you f'ing troll.

Tenquid's avatar

No, but it sounds like you are.

Cosmo T Kat's avatar

Are you dumb or just really stupid. Where did I write kill, anywhere, but you sure did. Those are the thoughts of a blood lust fool.

IGW's avatar

"I favor the Smoking Crater Solution. Kill the leaders, destroy their weapons, declare victory and walk away. .."

I'm not sure America deserves that hard a punishment. OTOH........

Cedric Erle Ward's avatar

tenquid

I agree, as long as YOU are in the Smoking Crater

Vegan Shark's avatar

With or without long-range missiles and nukes, Iran has what it needs to keep the Western world in a Strait-jacket.

GonzoDon's avatar

If only technology could devise some sort of alternative to the internal combustion engine, and figure out a way to harvest essentially inexhaustible solar and wind energy sources.

MarshaLouise's avatar

We have fossil fuels for one purpose and wind and sun for another. Let it continue to be as it was…I abhor the

“sustainable” do-gooders.

GonzoDon's avatar

Did you abhor Donald Trump when he stood on the front lawn of the White House, just about one year ago, and shilled enthusiastically for Tesla EVs in front of the assembled news media?

What a sustainable, do-gooder, woke freak, eh?

I wish the airhead right would just make up their damn minds

MarshaLouise's avatar

Donald Trump is courageous, ambitious, unruly, positive, resourceful, wealthy, and intelligent. He always has good reasons for everything he does. Witless and woke he is not. Now, measure yourself against these characteristics.

elysianfield's avatar

Gonzo,

Your statement was incomplete...If only technology could devise some sort of alternative to the internal combustion engine, and figure out a way to harvest essentially inexhaustible solar and wind energy sources.,,THAT WOULD SCALE.

Lugh's avatar

Biomass. Chop down all the fucking trees that make our lives so difficult with raking and what not. Now let them try guerilla war with no place to hide.

GonzoDon's avatar
7hEdited

"For the first time, Texas' main power system looks set to generate more power from solar farms than coal plants during a calendar year in 2025, marking a key new energy transition milestone for the largest power network in the U.S.

"The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) generated 2.64 million megawatt hours (MWh) of power from solar assets, compared with 2.44 million MWh of power from coal plants for the January-to-November period."

[Reuters]

Te Burt's avatar

There are forms of energy that were dismissed, suppressed and destroyed. Hydrogen-based (water) engine is periodically reinvented every 25 years, and abruptly disappears and the inventor is never heard from again. Tesla. The genius, not the car. The only reason electricity isn't free is because the other guy figured out how to charge for it. The list is long, and these are just historically obvious. There's magnetism. There's fission - somebody is building something to produce usable energy. Earth core thermal dynamics? Who/What is stopping development? Who benefits from suppression?

Lugh's avatar

The differential between the icy depths and warm surface ocean water in the tropics.

Hawaii has immense potential for geothermic energy, but the native don't want to insult the goddess so it has been vetoed.

ann lewis's avatar

If I'm correct, Tesla's personal papers STILL have not been released.

The Cosmic Onion's avatar

Don, the irony is those alternatives already exist.

The sun pours more energy onto this planet every hour than humanity uses in a year. The challenge has never been the source — it’s been the systems built around controlling the flow of energy.

Solar and wind are part of the picture, but they are intermittent and infrastructure-heavy. The real breakthroughs are usually the ones that never quite make it out of the laboratory or the patent office.

Energy has never really been a physics problem.

It’s a power problem.

— Lone Wolf

Ron Anselmo's avatar

That thump, thump, thump you hear is Nikola Tesla spinning in his grave.

MarshaLouise's avatar

True. The blight on the earth’s surface made by devices which capture the power from wind and sun are things that should make every caring human feel disgust. The UN’s use of the word “sustainable” caught up far too many low-information people in their Agenda 2030 trap.

Lugh's avatar

The Northern Lights could power the world.

Vegan Shark's avatar

An alternative to the internal combustion engine exists, the EV, but despite the heavy hand of government subsidies and promotion it hasn't been a raging success with the public.

Lithium-ion super-batteries don't grow on trees. They have to be produced in energy-gulping factories and transported. Their range can be stingy for some uses, and replacement costs according to the website Recharged.com can range from around $6,000 to over $20,000 depending on the vehicle.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, don't succumb to alternative amore too soon.

GonzoDon's avatar

And yet Trump stood on the front lawn of the White House about one year ago shilling for Tesla EVs. Go figure.

MarshaLouise's avatar

He has his reasons. Learn to detect bias/prejudice in everything you hear and read.

JohnAZ's avatar

Because of one absolute truth, if you do not destroy the opposition, they will rise again. We seemed to have learned that with the two world wars as we forced government and cultural change on two countries. Those countries still are good allies. Then Korea, where war still boils away as a truce was the result. Truces never work and are a festering boil on the butt of the world. Then Vietnam, the exemplary example of a political war, run by a bunch of goons that did not understand that war is to be won at all costs. 58000 people died and all that happened was they got a very somber memorial on the Mall. Kuwait, win, win and win and then lose as politics ruined the day. Iraq, get Hussein and then what, we are still there as nothing has congealed a government yet. Libya, no idea what the goal there was, as Khadafi had actually started being a frenemy. The Afghanistan, not as many killed, but a bigger fiasco than Vietnam. 20 years of maintaining a facade of domination that was undone in days by the guys we should have destroyed in the first place.

Now Iran, the latest sucker play by the MIC. They do not want total victory, taking out the military of Iran and setting up peace in the Gulf world. They want a shooting war, a war of attrition, where no one wins except the MIC. The correct path, IMO, is the destruction of the entire radical wing of Iran and the forced replacement of the government with the tenets of our bill of rights and balance of power integral to the new country. Religious freedom replacing radical Shia Islam with all other religions tolerated. Internal military suppressed down to a police force. A Supreme Court to be the moral judge of the country and a legislature that represents the people, makes wise laws, and stops totalitarianism. Take the US Constitution and change the name of the country. Then shove it down the throats of the people of Iran.

If there is not unconditional surrender and replacement of the current rulers with a legitimate government, the war is a waste of resources and lives. From where we are today, first is destruction of the remaining 40% of missiles and drones, protection of the Straits of Hormuz, disbanding of the Iranian army with replacement by a police force, institution of a U.S based Constitution, religious freedom enforce with the law, re-in statement of the Shahs son into an elder statesman position, but like all royalty, little power. Institution of a mostly capitalistic economy based on petroleum now, but encouraged to diversify. Signing up to and allegiance to the Abraham Accords is a necessity to quell any more religious bullshit from another bunch of Shia nuts. The Gulf must be pacified for the good of the world, even China. The Middle East itself needs to work together to “green up “the desert and diversify their economies. They have a master of that, Israel, in their midst.

The first step, destruction of the military of the Iranian nutcases is just starting now. The pacification of a disarmed Iran has to be the ultimate goal. I hope that the US and their friends in the Gulf have the sense to drive to that goal instead of some political half-way bullshit as has happened so many times before.

The Cosmic Onion's avatar

John, history suggests something a little more complicated.

The United States has demonstrated many times that it can destroy armies. That part is not the hard part. The hard part is what comes the day after the bombs stop falling.

Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya all showed the same lesson: removing a government does not mean you can engineer a civilization.

Cultures, histories, and belief systems are not software updates that can be installed with a constitution and a ballot box.

Sometimes the assumption that we can remake entire nations in our own image creates more chaos than the regimes we removed in the first place.

— Lone Wolf

Lugh's avatar

93 million people in nation the size of Alaska. It's not going to happen. No Normandy beach even if wanted to try. The mountain are right up the sea with countless places to use portable launchers to take out ships and planes.

JohnAZ's avatar

Yup, hence my admonition that war is not won until the opposition is destroyed, unable to return.

Lugh's avatar

Yes, as Deuteronomy says, kill all who breathe in the land that God has given you. And has he not given them the whole world? Forget that New Testament shit.

Huckabee isn't Christian or American, he's something else. Nor is he Jewish or Israeli. He's some kind of in between thing despised by both.

Cosmo T Kat's avatar

You are correct, Lugh.

Cankerpuss's avatar

Even if we are the aggressors JohnAZ?

JohnAZ's avatar

Your sense is leaving you as you are being Dennised. Who exactly has 2000 missiles and is building more. Who exactly is running out of water for its people as it just keeps building munitions to attack other countries around it and maybe the USA? Who has killed thousands of Americans around the Gulf region over the years? Who has declared “Death to America”? How many times has the USA sent unprovoked missiles into Iran?

Your anti-America bias is blinding you to the truth.

Cankerpuss's avatar

On the contrary, JohnAZ, I am more pro America than most pro-war people on this thread today. I am opposed to wasting America's resources making war in foreign lands when America herself is crumbling under illegal immigration and blighted infrastructure. I believe American resources should be for the good of America, not the good of the rest of the world or Israel. I believe America's soldiers should be here at home protecting us from the millions of military aged unvetted illegal aliens who have deposited themselves here rather than making war in shithole places like Syria and Iran. I think that makes me more pro America than any of you who are pounding the drums of war. I have a strong anti-war bias but I am all pro America at my core. America. The 50 states. The people. Not the American military-industrial complex, the American military, or the American government in DC which, apparently, you are 100% in support of.

Very disappointing, JohnAZ.

Has Iran really killed thousands of Americans around the gul region, John AZ?

How many times has Iran send unprovoked missiles into the USA?

If Iranian ships were hanging about in the Gulf of Mexico, I suppose you'd be okay with the USA lobbing missiles at their ships. But heaven forbid Iran have a little discomfort with America's might warships hanging out in the Gulf of Hormuz. We have a right to be there dammit!

$38 TRILLION and counting JohnAZ. How much more debt do you think we can pile on to continue funding all these foreign military bases and wars?

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

maybe you can help...

Was Iran an "imminent threat" to the US?

Nope. So was it not illegal for Trump to make war on a country without congressional authorization?

And what were his reasons to attack a country that was not a threat?

JohnAZ's avatar

Yes, it was. The missile ranges being developed would have reached the USA and Europe. As frustrating as it is, Europe is still our protectorate as is Saudi Arabia. Iran was setting up to attack the entire Gulf area as is being shown now with its attacks everywhere. It was brewing trouble with its proxies in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Yemen, Gaza. It was a war machine that was too cowardly to fight its own wars, which were everywhere.

Legally, we have defense obligations with Saudi Arabia, Israel, NATO, and other Gulf countries. All passed as treaties by the Senate in the past.

With the war powers act, used by Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton, Obama, Carter, he had the right to do war, passed to the executive by the Congress.

Lugh's avatar

By that logic everyone is a threat including Israel who has made countless threats and made good a number of them against us.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

You are lying again... or at least laughably spinning.

"Iran was setting up to attack the entire Gulf area as is being shown now with its attacks everywhere."

That's called preparing to be attacked... and they retaliated by attacking countries that were US allies and involved in teh UNPROVOKED, ILLEGAL attack that they knew was coming...

Your ignorance again is obvious... there needed to be an IMMINENT threat for Trump to act unilaterally (against the will of 80% of America).

There was none and please don't debase yourself further by claiming there was.

Dennis's avatar

“There was none and please don't debase yourself further by claiming there was.”

Asking nice will do no good. These folks do not go off script.

KevinM's avatar

Will when that fella stands in Your front yard with a shotgun do you shoot first or let him have the first crack?You act like you might have some inside military intel that we do not?or you just regurgitating CNN.....

"Your ignorance again is obvious... there needed to be an IMMINENT threat for Trump to act unilaterally (against the will of 80% of America)."

Even CNN doesn't have 80% BS speak methinks

YouGov 34 44 −10

Reuters/Ipsos 27 43 −16

CNN/SSRS 41 59 −18

Fox News. 50 50 0

Washton Post 39 52 −13

YouGov 37 48 −11

YouGov/mist 32 45

NBC News 41 54 −13

Average 38 49 −12

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

Imbecilic response.

try again with facts.

JohnAZ's avatar

Utter bullshit.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

Like your brain and your breath.

What did I post that was untrue, eunuch loser?

Cankerpuss's avatar

But still contrary to the Constitution, JohnAZ. The Constitution was never amended granting war powers to the Presidency. This is where the SCOTUS has failed. A SCOTUS that understands its role would have interpreted the War Powers Act as clearly Unconstitutional and sent it back to Congress to be fixed or stricken.

JohnAZ's avatar

But they didn’t.

If the Congress contained only people that could keep their mouths shut, a debate could go on where the CInC could discuss the need for war and get a good hearing. In our world, the Congress would do anything to sabotage the military, and the leaks would be a torrent. So how do you protect the military from that, security before surprise attacks is paramount. Lives are saved by NOT telling the Congress anything.

Today, especially, almost half of our Congress are traitors, who would sell their mother, let alone their country, for a vote. It is a pathetic picture, IMO.

Cankerpuss's avatar

The Constitution is still the law of the land, even if we no longer want to abide by it. Making excuses for Congress or the SCOTUS doesn't absolve them of their dereliction of their oaths and duties.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

Could not disagree more, John.

You are the PROBLEM.

You Yank nutcases have not learnt anything since WW2

Every war you start ends in chaos ~ for everybody. Even yourselves!

The War Powers Act was a sham passed by neocon nutcase warmongers.

NO MORE YANKY WARS. YANKY GO HOME

Cankerpuss's avatar

I am with you 100% on this one DM. There is a reason why America is despised, hated and called the "Great Satan" throughout the world. This isn't because the USA was at one time a wealthy nation and they were jealous of us.

JohnAZ's avatar

You all make me laugh. This world would blow itself apart in a decade if the USA was not the enforcer. Russia and China too. Do you really think that this war was started with China and Russia not being informed and signed up. The world wants Iran dealt with, and a genuine government installed so that everyone can get back to business.

Cankerpuss's avatar

I think the world would go along just as it did prior to the USA becoming a powerful nation. Humanity has existed for what, 8,000 years without a USA? No, it hasn't been perfect and full of war and tyranny, but humanity has persisted. The world will continue to go on with out the USA being the enforcer. The USA can no longer afford to be the enforcer, JohnAZ. I know you know this which is why your pro war stance surprises me.

Ben's avatar
3hEdited

Two hundred fifty years ago it took months to go around the world not hours.

There were no nukes, bunker buster bombs, Air craft carriers, semtex explosives, wmd, bioweapons, "smart phones", AI, SUMMIT, crispr, internet, ask the imam, and brain-dead people who thought they had all the answers because they read it on the internet.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

There is a reason that most countries polled in December 2013 by Gallup called the United States the greatest threat to peace in the world, and why Pew found that viewpoint increased in 2017.

This eludes that strain of US folks like JohnAZ who define war as something that nations and groups other than the United States do.

Te Burt's avatar

My concern is that chaos often results in the insane, looking like law and order, will reassert control over a people (a LOT of women and children who are concerned about survival and safe sleeping quarters, as usual) are caught up in everybody else's (men with an over abundance of testosterone and/or rage and/or insanity) goals. A force just to restore order and safety, forget about peace, rationality or anything resembling law, would prevent a lot of wasted effort and resources -- and death.

Cankerpuss's avatar

One word. Libya.

Libya was at one time the most prosperous country on the African continent. Under Gaddafi it had an economic engine, a high human development index rating and was even leading a movement to create a United States of Africa and create a currency based on gold. Then the USA engineered Gaddafi's overthrow, killed him, and left Libya to the tribes and warlords. Now the nation is a mess in perpetual state of civil war and chaos. Gaddafi may have been a bad dude but he had the ability and the force to quell the bickering and fighting amongst the many tribes and foment a nation. Here comes the good ole USA and filthy fuckers like Hillary Clinton who dismantle it the name of "spreading democracy" and leaves the place far worse than when they found it.

It is no surprise the world by and large hates the USA.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

Keep going CP.

You are on a roll of Truth today, young man!

A truth that more and more young Americans are awakening to.

The US is becoming a pariah on the World Stage.

Young Americans want the decaying US cleaned up first ~ not Iran.

NO MORE MONEY TO THE ETHNOSUPREMACIST APARTHEID STATE OF ISRAEL.

Cankerpuss's avatar

Absolute Amen. No more war. No more wasting our resources in foreign lands while our home land crumbles from neglect. I'm sick of this shit.

ann lewis's avatar

So who is going to fix it? Is there any hope for a candidate(s) who makes this a priority? I'm not holding my breath.

Strange Bedfellow's avatar

Iran Blinds US With Unprecedented Campaign of Strikes on Region's Strategic Radars

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/iran-blinds-us-with-unprecedented

____

"The biggest buzz of the day came from Iranian FM Araghchi’s interview with NBC, wherein he stunned the slack-jawed presstitute by calmly asserting that Iran welcomes a US ground invasion in a must-see exchange:

The presstitute blinks in total vacuity at the unprecedented chutzpah—he’s used to slave nations who bend over for the empire.

And note Araghchi’s demurral at the question about what aid China and Russia are providing. This has become a key focus of online discussion given that an avalanche of new satellite intel has revealed shocking region-wide damage that Iran has done to US’s most priceless assets, which—it would seem—could only have come by way of major Chinese and Russian help.

In particular, NYT and other outlets have now confirmed total attrition of US’s irreplaceable AN/TPY-2 radars meant for THAAD and other high end systems. This radar has an upwards of $1 billion dollar price tag and numbers only in the dozen range total. Only one or two units of these can be built per year at the very most. Iran just potentially destroyed 50% or more of the US’s entire global stock of this rare and irreplaceable system.

New satellite imagery released by Airbus confirms that the AN/TPY-2 THAAD radar at Muwaffaq Salti Base in Jordan was destroyed by Iran.

The U.S. openly denied this...

[...]

The shock of the outcome cannot be understated: Iran is literally blinding the US in the region. And following that, it is launching its most advanced hypersonic Khorramshahr-4—also known as the Kheybar—ballistic missiles at Israel, which are now impervious to interdiction. They are said to release upwards of 80 submunitions in a tight pattern.

Footage showed what appears to be the missile arriving in Tel Aviv, where widespread damage is now being reported in spite of Israeli authorities heavily banning and punishing the distribution of any post-strike videos to keep society from learning the extent of the damage."

____

(rest of article at above link)

____

Multipolar world.

Lugh's avatar

Their very existence is a threat. They must be neutered as a people, castrated, both literally and metaphorically.

Cersei Lannister: Our enemies are basically anybody who isn't us. Read the Old Testament for more about this. Exact instructions are given.

MarshaLouise's avatar

Has Trump indicated he wants, or will approve of “boots on the ground”? I have not heard that.

Cankerpuss's avatar

Yeah, because the USA did so well when our troops were in that toilet bowl known as Afghanistan.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

That would be insane and our troops would be slaughtered.

IF they even were able to get into the country.

Paul B. Cohen's avatar

He didn’t rule that out, which is wise. The message was, we’re not going to be restrained by our enemies foreign or domestic in accomplishing the goal of unconditional surrender. That mindset declared openly to the world is the best way to ensure there will not be the need for “boots on the ground,” which is how the President sees things.

Surprised Jim missed this.

Cosmo T Kat's avatar

Are you signing up to fight, Cohen?

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

Exactly - Cohen is just another delusional warmonger!

Had is nose stuck in those old books for too long.

I Samuel 15

God's Command: The Lord instructs Saul to attack the Amalekites and destroy all their possessions, emphasizing the need for complete destruction without sparing anything.

"Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”

Cosmo T Kat's avatar

Yes, those books of murder and mayhem from their god of vengeance.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

Cosmo, theists don’t deal with reality over emotion. They argue to satisfy their fears.

Arguing with a theist is letting them know they will die. They treat it like a death threat.

They’re fear driven, not fact driven.

Strange Bedfellow's avatar

In one of the video clips at this link; https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/iran-blinds-us-with-unprecedented, Iran's Foreign Minister says, in these words more or less, 'Let them come, we are ready.'.

The Cosmic Onion's avatar

Trump, Trump... Where have I heard that name?

Ben's avatar

He doesn't need to they are already there in the form of special forces and outside fighters.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

The United States has “special forces” operating in two-thirds of the world’s countries and non-special forces in three-quarters of them.

The U.S. government provides weapons, military training, and/or military funding to almost every dictatorship and oppressive government on earth.

https://davidswanson.org/20dictators/

Cankerpuss's avatar

$38 trillion and counting, DM and nobody gives a shit.

MarshaLouise's avatar

You’re probably right on that.

The Illusion Of Human Progress's avatar

Once again, you are incredibly out of touch James. Where do you get your news, NYT? Haven’t you read that Mossad agents were arrested in Saudi Arabia for attempting to blow some things up there? It is psychopathic Israel planting some false flags, not Iran. I don’t know who is winning the war, it is tough with all the propaganda from both sides. However,I find myself hoping Iran kicks our barbaric asses into the Stone Age. 167 Iranian schoolgirls blown to smithereens. The psychos behind this war must be very proud.

Roger Kimber, MD's avatar

Troll. Those school children died from an Iranian misfire.

Skenny's avatar

Stunning that so many share the hope that Iran kicks our ass. Mr. Kunstler exposes a lot of traitors. He must be stepping on some big, sensitive toes.

Phil Denter's avatar

Why is that "stunning"? Let me remind you:

Here is a list of the countries bombed and/or invaded by the United States from the end of WW II to present:

Afghanistan 1998, 2001-2021/Bosnia 1994, 1995/Cambodia 1969-70/China 1945-46/Colombia 2025/Congo 1964/Cuba 1959-1961/El Salvador 1980s/Germany(Nordstream) 2022/Grenada 1983/Guatemala 1954, 1960, 1967-69/Indonesia 1958/Iran 1987, 2025-26/Iraq 1991-2000s, 2015-/Korea 1950-53/Kuwait 1991/Laos 1964-73/Lebanon 1983, 1984/Libya 1986, 2011-/Nicaragua 1980s/Nigeria 2025/Pakistan 2003, 2006-/Palestine 2010, 2023-/Panama 1989-90/Peru 1965/Somalia 1993, 2007-08, 2010-/Sudan 1998/Syria 2014-/Trinidad & Tobago 2025/Venezuela 2026/Vietnam 1961-75/Yemen 2002, 2009-/Yugoslavia 1999

-----

"What goes around comes around."

"Up your nose with a rubber hose."

"You bomb me then I'll bomb you."

Skenny's avatar

# 1 - Not sure why anyone wants to be on a losing team.

# 2 - It's stunning that anyone would support the other side when their laws and culture support things like child marriage.

"Child marriage continues to be permitted under Iranian law. The legal minimum age for marriage is 13 years old for girls and 15 years old for boys, though girls who have reached the age of legal majority, 9 “lunar years” (about 8 years old and 9 months), can be married with parental consent and court approval. As a result, 9 lunar year old married girls and older are also subject to the laws governing women and girls’ lives in marriage, including Civil Code Article 1108’s obligation to fulfill the sexual needs of their husbands. With the permission of the court, the legal guardian has the right to marry for, and on behalf of, a minor daughter – legally sanctioning forced marriage." Source: Impactiran.org

It's one thing to be against the war. It's another to hope the US is conquered by a bunch of Ayatollahs who condone sex with 9 year olds.

Phil Denter's avatar

Take a look at the list that I provided. The USA is usually the "losing team" when it sticks its nose in where it doesn't belong.

You've confused what "support" even means, Skenny.

-----

I support the Founding Fathers. They sagely advised for America to befriend all, trade with all and stay the fuck out of foreign wars.

Pretty simple, really.

-----

It is not the USA's mandate to "fix" the other 200 countries on earth. Mind your own freaking bee's wax, already! D'uh!

-----

The West is run by sickos raping, killing and eating 9 year-olds, hypocrite.

Skenny's avatar

I'm against sex with 9 year olds, East, West, North or South. Where's the hypocrisy?

You're obviously not alone in hoping Iran prevails. The MSM, many members of Congress, and what seems to me a stunning number of commenters are right there with you.

Cankerpuss's avatar

"I support the Founding Fathers. They sagely advised for America to befriend all, trade with all and stay the fuck out of foreign wars."

Gorgeous George Washington said this very thing in his farewell address. Well, except for the "fuck" part. Was fuck even a word in Washington's days? If it was he never used it. I need to stop using it. It doesn't serve me well.

Great post, sir and I agree with you 105% +

Cankerpuss's avatar

And how many times have all those nations invaded or bombed the USA or the USA's territories?

Crickets.

dancingtime's avatar

You're just as much an idiot on this Substack as you are on C&C...geez..

Phil Denter's avatar

This is my home turf. I'm new over at C&C but have been posting on JHK's CFN for years.

Welcome!

Howard Skillington's avatar

You have just raised the bar for odious lies, Roger. The stench of your presence emanates from my monitor, just looking at it.

rural counsel's avatar

The Iranians already admitted it was their own missile.

JohnAZ's avatar

To the America haters, it makes no difference. No matter what the real story is, it is the American and Israeli fault.

Cosmo T Kat's avatar

The only America haters I know are progressives, Zionists, and illegal immigrants who haven't got their free stuff yet. The rest love this country, but despise the Predator Class.

Phil Denter's avatar

To Lil Trumpsters, it makes no difference. No matter what the real story is, it is never the American and Israeli fault.

Horace the Menace's avatar

Even wikipedia does not agree with you here. It refers to this assertion as claims by the Iranian opposition which have been debunked.

"Following the attack, Israeli and Iranian pro-Monarchist opposition pages began disseminating information that the airstrike was a failed IRGC interception. These claims originated from associated Telegram channels and were debunked.[29][17] The New York Times noted that "a single errant missile wouldn't have caused such precise and targeted damage to several buildings across the naval base."[1] It was also falsely claimed on the social media website X that the IRGC had admitted to mistakenly destroying the school in a missile airstrike, despite the fact that no such statement admitting responsibility had been made by the Iranian state.[30] Other social media accounts claimed the footage was supposedly old footage shot in Pakistan, which has been debunked.[10]"

When wikipedia blames the US, then my guess is it's almost certainly the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Minab_school_airstrike?ysclid=mmf2sogngz570109469

Roger Kimber, MD's avatar

Even Wikipedia????, 🤣LOL

EK MtnTime's avatar

Wikipedia is controlled by the same TDS folks who run the MSM. I can’t even trust Wikipedia to tell me the truth about Ancient Rome!

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

"MD"?

Come on, you have to be smarter than that.

Cosmo T Kat's avatar

Cite the source.

Phil Denter's avatar

Source please.

-----

That's weird because The New York Times reported on the incident just yesterday. They never once mentioned that "the Iranians already admitted it was their own missile" so I guess that you know way more about than does the NYT. 🙄

Roger Kimber, MD's avatar

The NYT stopped being a reliable source a decade ago.

EK MtnTime's avatar

Willful blindness driven by TDS.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

Everyone's a liar but you, right?

You are embarrassing yourself.

Phil Denter's avatar

Uhhh ... they are still reliable enough to include your claimed Iranian admission if it were true, Roge.

You either made this up or heard it from so credibility-lacking Lil Trumpster. You know it and I know it.

If you actually did have a reliable;e source for your ridiculously stupid claim, I'd have it by now.

-----

Go accept your defeat and learn from it. You know? Like a man.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

Jesus, I would hate to be a patient of yours... imbecilic, craven... pathetic.

Go back to doing colonoscopies on fat ladies.

Phil Denter's avatar

Credibility = zero.

Nakayama's avatar

Actually it is difficult to tell. AD missiles typically carry much smaller payload than incoming missile. From satellite imaging, it could be difficult to discern the boundary between a military compound and another entity nearby. I consider such casualty unfortunate collaterals in war because what had actually happened is difficult to track down unless wrecked pieces can be obtained and analyzed. If Iranians want to be serious, they have the technical capability to do so.

JohnAZ's avatar

??? The Iranians admitted that their missile misfired. No more explanation is needed.

The American-Israeli side uses precision bombing to eradicate the military of Iran. Iran just throws out lousy guided missiles, to hit someplace, civilians, women, children. Israel knocks down more than 80% of them with Iron Dome. It could very well be that all these missiles that hit Gulf states are misfires? As an agent of war, missiles suck, that will be a lesson from this war.

Phil Denter's avatar

Are you sure, John?

I mean, The New York Times reported on this incident just yesterday but made no mention of this supposed Iranian admission.

Analysis Suggests School Was Hit Amid U.S. Strikes on Iranian Naval Base

The Feb. 28 school strike in Minab, which killed dozens, including children, appears to have been part of an attack on an adjacent naval base in southern Iran, where officials said U.S. forces were operating.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/world/middleeast/iran-school-us-strikes-naval-base.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Q1A.KNGH.AeazjGRqxQeY&smid=url-share

-----

Please provide your source for your claim that the Iranians admitted doing this carnage to their own little girls.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

Little Johnny has been known to spout lies, from time to time.

(24/7)

Horace the Menace's avatar

This is not true. The Iranians have made no such admission.

Full discussion here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Minab_school_airstrike?ysclid=mmf2sogngz570109469

US almost certainly to blame.

Roger Kimber, MD's avatar

Iranian state media & Wikipedia are your sources??? 😂

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

JohnAZ is not interested in the truth, Horace.

Every sentence in this post is a lie.

The Iron Dome is a failure ~ now bankrupting the Zionists.

NO MORE WARS FOR ISRAEL.

Horace the Menace's avatar

I prefer to believe the best of everyone. And if even if JohnAZ were not interested in the truth today, that would not preclude a change of heart.

Lugh's avatar

The Iron Dome is inferior. Iran is hitting Israel at will at this point. Tel Aviv is burning but you don't care.

The Israelis despise you people but they also fear you. They know you don't care about them, but only your precious prophecies.

Ben's avatar

One could take the lesson of Russian glide bombs that fall in Russia at a very high rate instead of Ukraine.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

You are so tiresome, my friend.

Ben's avatar

So, you're a Russian fan boy who know.

Makes sense a dried up old commie left behind and bitter.

P.S. We are not friends go buy that handle and suck down some sauce.

Phil Denter's avatar

Of course not. He read it from some other poster on some other Lil Trumpsters' blog and swallowed it whole because it tasted so good.

Once a Lil Trumpster gains a hankering for bullshit, it's hard to get them to even consider a platte of real food.

Phil Denter's avatar

I'm doing just that. Still no source while The New York Times reported on the incident just yesterday with no mention of your "inside scoop." 🤣

-----

Analysis Suggests School Was Hit Amid U.S. Strikes on Iranian Naval Base

The Feb. 28 school strike in Minab, which killed dozens, including children, appears to have been part of an attack on an adjacent naval base in southern Iran, where officials said U.S. forces were operating.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/world/middleeast/iran-school-us-strikes-naval-base.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Q1A.KNGH.AeazjGRqxQeY&smid=url-share

-----

FYI - It is YOUR responsibility to provide YOUR source(s) to back YOUR claims. That's how published research works.

Roger Kimber, MD's avatar

Uh sub stack is notpublished research, GFYS, traitor.

Phil Denter's avatar

Uhhh ... of course it is.

-----

Regardless, you make this bold claim. Surely you did not fabricate it from whole cloth ... so, simply provide your source so that we may measure your accuracy and, thus, your credibility.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

Quit stalling and provide YOUR source... or STFU.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

That's simply not true.

No need to lie.

Roger Kimber, MD's avatar

I don’t care, Margaret.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

You seem to be a coward as well as a liar.

Bad way to go through life.

Charles Wemyss, Jr.'s avatar

Master Sargent Roy Edwards, USMC, KIA, 23 October, 1983, Beirut, Lebanon. One of my Gunnery Sargents, one of my colleagues, a brother in arms, and awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with “V” device, for actions at another shit hole called Khe Sanh. The leader of the pack that blew up the barracks, the former supreme leader of IRI, who was the master mind behind the two efforts to take over the US embassy in Teheran in February, (unsuccessfully) and again successfully in November of 1979. 52 American “diplomats” lost their civil rights for 444 days. Seems the international community and our own Kennedy C team department of state couldn’t communicate with a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammad. Pay back is a MF’er. That said, perhaps we will now be kicked out of the region, told to go fly our kite elsewhere. Then we can leave the whole miserable shit hole to those that reside there. There is nothing like 2000 plus years of angry nomadic clans roaming freely and then finding they now have borders, that an Englishman and Frenchman put on a map 110 years ago, and are now “nation states” sure they are…with countless ancient scores to settle what could possibly go wrong. As to barbaric, sure, we lop off heads here regularly, beat our wives, rape boys and girls in the name of the Prophet, yep we see that every day here. Well, actually it is coming to a country near you, Western Europe is toast and Mark Carney seeing a chance to bank another couple of billion for himself is on the immigration gravy train, see you later Canada, no one is standing on guard for thee. So, don’t ask us for any help when it goes pear shaped we have enough to deal with here.

Cankerpuss's avatar

"Then we can leave the whole miserable shit hole to those that reside there."

Excellent post, Charles, love your writing style. I could not say it any better. I'm so sick of the USA spending its strength and means warring in foreign lands that pose no threat to the USA. What do we care if the people of Iran are living under oppression? I don't care.

Horace the Menace's avatar

I do care actually. I would much rather they were not living under oppression. Even so

(a) we have no moral right to order our troops to do something about it

(b) what we are doing will almost certainly (based on the consequences of similar operations) increase the oppression these poor people will live under, and will certainly lead to massive death and poverty the effects of which will persist for generations.

I also can't believe anyone, anywhere is buying a rerun of the WMD BS. How many times will we be sold the same lie? Fool me once shame on you and all that. Israel has been claiming that Iran is "weeks away" from nuclear weapons for more than two decades.

I don't believe there is a nation on earth which tells more lies, and breaks more truces, and launches more unprovoked attacks, than Israel. And if there is such a nation then it's the US or the UK (named perfidious Albion for a reason) - Israel's two most closely controlled puppets.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

"What we are doing will almost certainly (based on the consequences of similar operations) increase the oppression these poor people will live under, and will certainly lead to massive death and poverty the effects of which will persist for generations."

Perfect, Horace ~ the Yanks never learn from history!

Horace the Menace's avatar

"the Yanks" aren't really running the show any more - if they ever truly were. And "the Brits" have exhibited the same behavior more consistently, and over a greater period, even than "the Yanks".

In reality both peoples have been easily duped and predictably manipulated for a long time.

Horace the Menace's avatar

Not sure what your point is here? Are you saying 10-7-23 is justification for striking Iran?

ezinmn's avatar

Absolutely - Hamas is a proxy of Iran, just as Iran is a tool of China. We're not going to take it anymore. FAFO.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

That's exactly what the bot is saying!

So pathetic isn't it!

JohnAZ's avatar

You will if they are allowed to control the Persian Gulf, which IS their goal, or was. Think for a moment, the US/Israel/ Gulf states are fighting a war to pacify the Gulf. Who benefits? Asia, China, Japan, and Europe. Not here. We are trying to stabilize the world’s oil market, for the good of everyone.

Janna's avatar

In other words, “for the greater good”?

That usually doesn’t work out very well.

Phil Denter's avatar

Of course not ... because it is complete bullshit fed to the MK-Ultra'ed naïve.

Phil Denter's avatar

Right. The USA bombs the shit out of civilians for "the good of everyone." 🙄

Good thinking, John.

Horace the Menace's avatar

Trying to stabilize the world's oil market? Really?

One week ago the oil market was perfectly stable and oil was as plentiful and cheap as it's ever been.

Now - not so much.

And if this goes on for another few weeks the world's oil market will be permanently damaged - because that's what happens when wells are forced to shut down - which they will be if the oil cannot be transported away from the wellheads.

If we wanted to stabilize the world's oil market, all we had to do was - well - nothing at all.

Phil Denter's avatar

But what about your MIC? Don't be selfish - they need war to snarf their billions and trillions.

Horace the Menace's avatar

Ah yes indeed. The war serves a few people and many purposes. Stabilizing the world's oil market ain't one of them though.

JohnAZ's avatar

Yeah, the key is, one week ago. The oil market, like the stock market looks ahead. Nothing has changed in a week, even the stockpiles of oil, around the world have not changed. So the markets are rising on anticipation and not change. If the war goes on, markets will level off at a new supply-demand point. When the war ends, supply will increase again and the price will drop.

During WW2, you couldn’t hardly get gas, it was rationed. This will never get to that point, because the war is not going to last that long. China will be hurt worse than us, along with Japan. I believe they want the same thing we do, a stable Middle East. So patience will rule.

FYI, the price of a gallon went up in Phoenix from 3.39 to 3..84 overnight. We, unfortunately get 60% of our gas from California.

Horace the Menace's avatar

1. Oil was plentiful. The world did not have a problem. Inflation adjusted it was extremely cheap by all historical measures. This is one of Trump's positive achievements. No war was necessary to stabilize anything. It was already stable.

2. Lots has changed in a week. Oil is piling up at wellheads because it cannot be transported away. The first wells have already been turned off.

3. Once a wellhead is turned off it takes a considerable time to turn it back on - and you never ever get the same amount of oil out as you would have done if it had not been turned off. So things do not go back to just the same as before.

4. Even if things do go back to the same as before - why was the war necessary? The oil market was perfectly stable, oil was plentiful and the price was extremely low. So we are fighting a war so that we can, after the war, return to the same state except that a lot of innocent people will be dead? Nice.

elysianfield's avatar

"We are trying to stabilize the world’s oil market, for the good of everyone."

...I wish I was again young, and all issues were either black or white.

Ben's avatar

I doubt for everyone but that is what we will say.

= )

Cankerpuss's avatar

Ever since the USA started bombing Iran oil prices are skyrocketing. Gasoline is now approaching $3.00 a gallon again. If this is stabilizing the oil market it certainly isn't helping us here in the lower 48.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

"We are trying to stabilize the world’s oil market, for the good of everyone"

Hahahahahahahahha

You need to put down your bong my man and start reading different comics!

Phil Denter's avatar

Right. Therefore ... ? C'mon ... You can do it ... Think ... The Americans are the bad guys!

Cankerpuss's avatar

In most cases of wars the USA has been involved in the USA has been the aggressor and that means the USA does not have the moral high ground. As such, yes, the bad guys. I do not approve of any of the USA's wars. Not that that matters to anyone but it matters to me.

Phil Denter's avatar

Dern tootin' it matters, Canker. That's how we will win!

Phil Denter's avatar

Yeah, thanks a fuck of a lot:

Trump interfered in Canada's April 2025 federal election AGAINST the Conservative, Pierre Poilievre, and FOR the benefit of the Harvard, Oxford, Goldman Sachs, Governor of the Bank of Canada, Governor of the Bank of England, WEF-scumbag Mark Carney. Makes ya think ... 🤔

Trump brags that he hurt MAGA ally Pierre Poilievre in Canada election — as Liberals grab win

Canada’s incumbent Liberal Party is staying in power thanks to a wave of anti-American feeling catalyzed by Donald Trump’s policies

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-pierre-poilievre-canada-eletions-b2741230.html

JohnAZ's avatar

Yup. Now how do we stop all this shit happening. By killing all the bad guys, starting right now.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

"Bad guys"? Be specific...

Like those who support apartheid?

Those who commit genocide?

Those who corrupt governments via Extortion Ops?

Those who did the 911 attacks?

Those who assassinated JFK?

JohnAZ's avatar

Apartheid? Iran

Genocide? Iran against its own people.

9/11, Saudi family backed by Iran.

JFK, our own shame.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

is your ignorance willful?

Or just a very low intellect?

JohnAZ's avatar

Well, well, it did not take you long to descend to the level of the other name calling haters. Run out of content and just name call. Right out of the sandbox.

JohnAZ's avatar

An axiom is needed here. People never change, the pussified idea that if people will “see the light” and have the sense to change is a pipe dream and one that threatens the future. If regime change is required, the opposition must be destroyed, killed for a new paradigm to take hold.

Cankerpuss's avatar

But why should the USA be the ones to do it, JohnAZ? I can't believe how pro war you are in these posts. The USA is $38 trillion in debt. We can no longer afford to be the world's self appointed police. Our nation is rotting from the inside out. Our cities are full of undocumented military aged illegal aliens running amok. Mexico is attempting to take back what it lost during the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. And we are over there bombing Iran?

It's enough. We don't need more war. We need to spend our resources restoring our home land, kicking out the interlopers and fixing the government.

I'm tired as hell of people saying the USA has a duty to make things better for other nations. Like hell we do.

JohnAZ's avatar

What happens overseas affects us here. “No man is an Island” is real in the world today? Nothing affects the world more today than the idiocy of the Middle East and particularly Iran.

Debate with me, is the purpose of war to serve the MIC or is it to eliminate enemies? What is its purpose through the ages? In my eyes, war is the elimination of one of disparate philosophies.

Cankerpuss's avatar

The United States of America is large enough and has enough resources to be entirely self dependent and not reliant upon foreign nations for its sustenance.....if it wanted to be. I do believe that the USA can be "an island" and could do quite well as an island if it wanted to. Instead we have gone broke preserving the "American empire" when there shouldn't be an "American empire."

When have you been personally afflicted by Iran, JohnAZ? Seriously. When has anyone from Iran threatened or harmed you? When has Iran invaded another nation? Can you identify any American who has recently been targeted and assassinated by Iranian officials?

The purpose of war? Money. It's all about money. It always has been about money. War makes certain industries and manufacturers rich. War is extremely profitable. FDR used our entrance into World War 2 to jump start the economy and pull our forefathers out of the depression. It's all about money. The USA has a trillion dollar defense budget. Why? Because Iran is going to invade us? North Korea is going to invade us? My big ass they are. Iran doesn't even have enough water to quench the thirst of its capitol city much less a navy to sail their vast armies over to the USA and invade. Give me a break, JohnAZ. I am stunned that you are so pro war, pro American aggression against a poor shit hole country like Iran, so pro war when the nation is categorically bankrupt and crumbling here at home.

The only time war is justified is when it is necessary to protect ourselves from an aggressor. Is this aggressor Iran? If so, why? What has Iran done to threaten the sovereignty of the USA? Sponsor suicide bombers? Please. Block the Straight of Hormuz? Could be unblocked without bombing Tehran. Chant "death to Israel?" So what. That's Israel's problem, not ours. No, in this case the USA is the aggressor of this war and many others and it is doing so contrary to the Constitution as it doesn't have Congressional support and I don't give a shit about the War Powers Act says or doesn't say. The Constitution is very clear on who can and cannot declare war and the Constitution hasn't been amended otherwise.

When the USA is the aggressor it has lost the moral high ground. Period.

Get it together my friend. You're smarter than this.

Phil Denter's avatar

Like Afghanistan? Or Iraq? Or Vietnam?

When will you "see the light," John?

Hint: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

-----

FYI - In land mass, Iran is approximately the same size as the UK, France, Germany and Spain combined!

JohnAZ's avatar

Actually agree with you here. If Trump does not eliminate the other side, he is not finished. If he takes any other path, like his predecessors, we will just return later when they arise again. Like Vietnam, like Afghanistan.

If war stops, diplomacy ceases.

JohnAZ's avatar

If war starts, diplomacy ceases.

Ben's avatar

That requires total war something we avoid at all costs including losing.

Which is why they have Kurds doing the heavy lifting right now with the boots on the ground.

Horace the Menace's avatar

I don't think the Kurds are or will do much of anything. I mean how stupid do we think they are - after we left them high and dry just a few years ago? Usually you have to wait three or so generations before you can get away with double crossing a people again...

Lugh's avatar

It's dangerous to be an enemy of the United States. But it's fatal to be our friend - Henry Kissinger

Lugh's avatar

Israel is already counting their chickens before they're hatched: Turkey is the next Iran. Knowing that, the Turks should attack Israel now. Why wait?

Old Gyrene's avatar

Because Israel would kick their ass?

Old Gyrene's avatar

I think you have an Illusion of having a functioning brain.

The "D" in TDS stands for "Derangement", as you so aptly demonstrate.

I am hopeful some right thinking guy (or gal) can explain this to you up close and personal.

Freedom 4 conservatives's avatar

The Illusion of Human Progress, I'm finding myself hoping that you rot in Hell.

Bandit's avatar

I'm hoping it gets blown up, too. 😏

rural counsel's avatar

Turns out that was propaganda ... the sabotage agents caught were Iranians.

Sue Kelley's avatar

"Illusion" is a very apt handle. Where do YOU get your news? CNN?

Night owl's avatar

RE: Mossad. I had missed it, but just heard it on the Delingpole podcast today.

This war will cost Trump what remains of his base, and those that joined him from across the aisle. Gabbard is out now.

Trump is shaping up to be a colossal failure on every major front that mattered.

Lugh's avatar

Just another Neo-Con at this point. He could have been something better but he played with the Devil and now has to pay up.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

Some think he is being controlled via Epstein materials that are being held over his head.

Maybe... hard to explain his support and funding of a genocide otherwise... or making war (illegally) on a country that posed NO threat to America.

I guess we'll see...

Anthony Murphy's avatar

Kunstler is a Zionist. So that is his worldview. I imagine next week we will be as far away from his predictions as ever

James Howard Kunstler's avatar

I doubt you know what "Zionist" means if you think I am a "Zionist."

It's just sloppy-ass slander.

Anthony Murphy's avatar

Your failure to recognise the main terrorist state in the middle east is astounding. Not once have we heard you criticise the sheer barbarism of Israel. And your reading of the military situation portrays extreme biased ignorance.

I look forward to 7 day review of your ridiculous prediction.

Paul B. Cohen's avatar

The only thing clearly recognizable here is that you are a God and truth hating retard, made so by your evil and murderous hatred.

Anthony Murphy's avatar

One of the chosen people, are we.

My creator seems all men equal.

Iran was attacked in a cowardly manner, but have now taken control. We shall see who prevails.

Lugh's avatar

The Talmud makes fun of Jehovah at times. The Jewish people are their own God, apparently.

JohnAZ's avatar

So, CFN are supposed to believe the tripe you broadcast, that you know more than our host?

Hahahahaha.

There is a guy in New Zealand you need to hook up with.

JohnAZ's avatar

Anthony, why do folks always call out “experts” to support only their side and only read their stuff. I do not give a damn about any one persons opinion.

I believe it is what is called spin.

Anthony Murphy's avatar

7 day prediction. We shall see. War department now predicting September.

Ben's avatar

Jim did it was called Iran.

You know the country now shooting missiles at up to 12 different countries which I might add is the very definition of a terrorist state.

Anthony Murphy's avatar

They sustained a cowardly attack and counterattack enemy bases.

Is that not allowed?

Lugh's avatar

During negotiations. Why bother to even talk with these people? They never negotiated with honest intent. They were always intending "Greater Israel".

Lugh's avatar

What the official American death count now? Still think it's just six? Probably dozens if not hundreds. They destroyed the base in Bahrain. There's probably dozens from that alone.

Cankerpuss's avatar

Isn't that what happens in war, Ben? When a country is bombed don't they then retaliate? The USA has dozens of bases in close proximity to Iran's boundaries.

Strange Bedfellow's avatar

"I doubt you know what 'Zionist' means if you think I am a 'Zionist.' " ~ James Howard Kunstler

____

Might indeed be a good time to start very slowly, almost imperceptibly, walking back your ostensible support for Israel.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

I'm new... could you explain "zionism" and if you are a "Zionist"?

Strange Bedfellow's avatar

"The following seems to me to be an appropriate unfolding response to the vicious attacks on United States territory. [9/11]

It would seem appropriate, first, to demand that the Taliban government of the poor and wretched nation of Afghanistan produce the terrorist Osama Bin Ladin and his assistants and place them in the hands of NATO authorities within a very brisk time frame. Failure to comply ought to result in the complete destruction of Kabul and other Taliban-controlled towns.

Second, the people of Iraq should be warned to depart their capital city, Baghdad, which should then be completely destroyed.

The nation of Israel should begin immediately the deportation of Palestinians from the West Bank to the Kingdom of Jordan. The people of Gaza Strip should be transported to Egypt, and the Gaza incorporated into the state of Israel.

The government of Syria should be notified to begin evacuations of Damascus pending its destruction within a short time frame. Ditto Tripoli, capital of Lybia."

~ James Howard Kunstler, https://www.kunstler.com/p/the-clusterfuck-nation-chronicle-240?utm_source=publication-search

Paul B. Cohen's avatar

You won’t see anything, blinded as you are, until turned from your evil.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

Evil... like apartheid? Like 911? Like the JFK hit? Like the USS Liberty?

Like genocide? Like political corruption via extortion operations? Like massive land thefts?

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

Mr. Cohen, you won’t see anything, blinded as you are by those ancient tomes.

'God's were only invented as a means to explain things that otherwise could not be explained. In reality, 'God's were no explanation at all. Humans just make them up and then claimed them to be factual.

However, the absence of evidence eventually relegates all 'God's to the trash.

When your Pastor/Priest addresses you as his flock, and sheep ~ isn’t that incredibly humiliating? Does she/he have to have control over you?

AltaiDM's avatar

Iran may not win but they will survive long enough to see us enjoy "our" victory as Israel is wrecked by payback visited on it while our already ailing economy implodes when the global oil trade comes to a screeching halt.

Assuming we survive this shit show, Nutjobyahoo will need "us" to stir up shit with Turkiye next.

Lee Wilson's avatar

The muslims kill girls on a whim. Have you been chewing the lead paint chips? I doubt you ability to think your way through a plugged toilet. Odds are more likely a flubbed Iranian missle.

Lugh's avatar

An Iranian general explained: It was a sacrifice to Satan whom they think will now help them win the war.

Laurence Temojin's avatar

Yes, the Left is filled with insanity, but the Right does too. Those fomenting the twisted theology around the establishment of the Third Temple in Jerusalem to encourage the 2nd coming of Jesus are part of the problem. Humans have no control over God’s decision to take His people home. Jesus said only the Father knows when that happens, and yet repeatedly throughout history we think we can force or influence that decision. Our hubris knows no bounds.

UncleBob9's avatar

As opposed to the Twelvers, who ate doing all they can to bring about the Twelfth Imam and the Muslim apocalypse.

Horace the Menace's avatar

Just because the other guy is wrong don't make us right...

Ben's avatar

Bob most of these morons have no clue what you are talking about.

Lugh's avatar

So you admit he's right about Christian Zionism? You don't deny what he said, merely saying that others were doing the same thing. You do this a lot and it's tantamount to conceding the debate.

bara.ex.nihilo's avatar

Thank you for writing this truth.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

"Jesus said only the Father knows when that happens" LOL

Why do a Christian's expect a book written by unknown authors in a variety of languages, that was translated, rewritten, edited countless times ~ is evidence for anything?

It's just a book.

Every statement of "Jesus said" needs to start with "my old book says that Jesus said...."

Ben's avatar

Dennis the menace incoming you summoned his incoherent demonic dry drunkerd rage.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

Nobody is listening to you insulting and telling lies about other posters, Ben.

They rightly think you are an asshole.

Resorting to ad hominem attacks.

Arguments that attack a person’s character or traits rather than addressing the substance of their argument.

Dennis's avatar

From the Neocons in Training Handbook:

Rule 7: Under NO circumstances go off script. If answer can’t be found, insult questioner from ad hominem’s listed at paragraph 5c, Chapter 2. Then consult your supervisor.

Donna Wilson's avatar

Incoherent? Drunkard? Demonic? None of these apply even remotely to Dennis. Neither does "rage."

Dunno--sounds like projection to me.

Mrs. SOB's avatar

Amen, Lawrence.

Frank S's avatar

I hope you are right Jim. I don't see the situation the same way. Iran has so many advantages. Yesterday missiles struck Tel Aviv and no sirens blared. The radar systems are on life support. Iran is now launching cluster ballistic missiles. You didn't mention that the US bombed murals thinking they were bombing actual planes. Israel is censoring CNN from reporting damage lol. I believe Iran is in the drivers seat and will make this a war of attrition that US and Israel will lose badly. Very badly. This is probably the end of Israel as we know it.

Frank S's avatar

I don't think so Jim. Let's see how this plays out.

JohnAZ's avatar

I cannot believe the level of ignorance being shown on CFN about this war. Where do these people get this bullshit they keep spouting?

elysianfield's avatar

John,

In the age of AI, you feign knowledge regarding the war. The first victim of war is truth, and that was before they could, with a few key strokes, show you, naked, save for jack boots and a scimitar, executing Christian babies during Super Bowl halftime.

You, I and the assembled multitude know nothing of what is happening...we have only opinions, vague at that.

...Oh, and regarding that video...You look pretty good...you been working out?

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

Is this guy spouting bullshit? Seems well informed to me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyc1aF4I53c

And guys like Cols Macgregor and Wilkerson... Prof Merscheimer... Jeffry Sachs... Scott Ritter... all liars, Johnny?

Old Gyrene's avatar

"Whole Cloth", as in "made up of...".

Ben's avatar

Meanwhile every country around Israel has decided Israel is easier to live with than a murderous fanatical shite theocracy.

We should also note the Kurds are rushing in to take out the Kuds forces you know the same Kurds that have been at war for thirty years while the Kuds have been training and training but seen little action beyond murdering their own people.

Frank S's avatar

The Kurds are a tiny force of around 10,000 soldiers if I'm not mistaken. If they go into Iran they will get slaughtered and I think they know that.

Ben's avatar
11hEdited

Dead wrong.

The Kurds as a people are all over Iran Iraq and into Turkey.

Just in Iran there are 8-10 million if just one percent of them take up weapons even untrained look out.

There are an estimated 5.6 to 8.5 million Kurds living in Iraq.

The Kurdish population in Turkey is estimated to be between 15 and 20 million.

Turkey is terrified of these people ever gaining a foothold and has been fighting them for ever.

They are fighting to establish a country of their own.

The theocracy in Iran is done as a government.

What will transpire is anarchy while these tribal people fight it out for control.

We can blame the British for their straight-line partitioning with zero thought to who lived where.

Some say it was done on purpose to keep these people fighting and down.

Horace the Menace's avatar

The kurds probably don't feel like the owe us much of anything these days.

I agree there is a possibility they may fight - because they have their own agenda - but they sure won't be doing it for us.

But if I were them I'd be very cautious since we left them high and dry last time just a few years ago. My guess is they wait and see which way the wind blows for some time before doing anything at all.

Frank S's avatar

I don't know a lot about the Kurds so I'll stipulate to every point you made. I still don't think you refuted my main point which is that they will get slaughtered if they go into Iran.

Ben's avatar
11hEdited

You have no point that is the problem.

They are already in Iran in huge numbers.

The Iraqi Kurds have also entered the country.

JohnAZ's avatar

There are many factions that are going to contest for control, just like Iraq. The real solution is to throw out the divisions of 1918 and divide the area into logical ethnic countries.

Liber8or's avatar

In college I had 4 Kurds in my dorm. They were actually nice guys. Very smart. Brainiacs into chemistry and math.

Old Gyrene's avatar

"...if I'm not mistaken."

You are mistaken.

JohnAZ's avatar

Your misspelling of Shia is appropriate.

Horace the Menace's avatar

I very much doubt it's the end of Israel. I strongly suspect both sides are controlled by the same puppetmasters as is usually the case. Iran is a nest of freemasons (just look at their parliament pyramid with it's 33 windows and masonic symbols) and the Ayatollah Khomeini was an Anglo-Indian British agent who was neatly shaven and dressed in a suit and living in London before he was parachuted into Iran as the new leader all those decades ago - at which point he started growing an unkempt beard and wearing the mullah outfit.

It is however another step on the road to ruin for the debt laden, over-regulated hollowed out economy of the US.

Paul B. Cohen's avatar

Meanwhile, back in Iran, the IRGC is saying, “wow, this is nuts, look how successful our propaganda is!!!”

Paul B. Cohen's avatar

Bigtime! Quadrupling “truth” in caps is just an indication of your insecurity peddling obvious lies that agree with your own.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

That response is pathetic... as you well know.

Dispute my posts with facts and links to back them. Or STFU.

I can back anything I post.

Old Gyrene's avatar

It might be possible for you to step back from the abyss of idiocy you are displaying, but I doubt it.

I hope you can find some kind of peace in your life.

Frank S's avatar

My views are not idiocy as you call it. Let's see how this plays out. I'm not personally affected by the war. I live a privileged life which I'm grateful for. Does that qualify as some kind of peace? You may want to step back from the abyss you think I'm looking at.

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

You sound bitter... and very uninformed.

Frank S's avatar

All over the internet. I resonate with Alex Krainer as much as anyone else. Hardly black pill.

Castelletto's avatar

I'm a big fan of Krainer, but you have to know how to weed out his biases. I read his column and am pretty sure he let his fear and loathing of the Brits take charge in this case. He's been both right and wrong about Trump. I think he doesn't know how to read him yet. Like the Duran, they're really useless these days when it comes to anything Trump. As for "all over the internet," that sounds like an operation. Try Coffee and Covid for better balance.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

Ironically, what the US is unleashing in Iran feels eerily reminiscent of the horrors increasingly suspected on Epstein's Pedo Island: not just rape, but "Jack the Ripper" savagery against children and women—torture, murder, the works, all under the guise of elite games.

Take that opening salvo in Operation Epstein Fury: one of the first strikes, courtesy of US and/or Israeli precision wizardry, pulverizes a girls' school in southern Iran. The US military loves bragging about its "surgical strikes" and Precision-Guided Munitions that can nail a target from orbit with minimal "collateral"—yet here we are, with over 168 prepubescent girls turned to mist. Officials in Tehran howl it's a blatant violation of international law, and growing reports finger America, not just Israel, as the trigger-pullers.

A Vietnamese news clip captures the carnage: "See the real scene at the girls' primary school in southern Iran, where a devastating Israeli strike has claimed the lives of over 100 students. Officials in Tehran have criticised the incident and said it raises concerns under international law." (https://share.google/mnTeVq5SrcsVrxcrT) But a Tehran professor spills the beans: "They purposely hit schools, hit hospitals. This is an Israeli practice. They call it the Dahiya doctrine. That means that you create a lot of suffering for ordinary citizens."

Ah, the Dahiya doctrine—named after that Beirut suburb Israel turned to rubble in 2006—using disproportionate force on civilian spots to terrorize, deter militant support, and crank up the suffering dial. Critics call it collective punishment on steroids. Under POTUS Trump and DEFSEC Hegseth, America's apparently adopted this gem, boasting systems that "thread a needle through a postage stamp from 10,000 miles away," yet "oops"—a school full of kids gets multiple hits, despite a decade-old barrier separating it from the nearby base.

If you're a fan of fibs, you'll adore the "close to a military base" alibi for slaughtering 168 schoolgirls on Day 1 of this Pearl Harbor-style blitz on civilians under Iran's far-right theocracy. Deliberate? Obviously, with that Machiavellian psychopathic flair screaming Hegseth's target-picking genius. Incompetence? Laughable—these munitions don't "oops" without intent. It was a message: no terrorist low America won't plumb. Shock and awe, now with kiddie casualties for that rally-round-the-flag zing.

Hegseth "investigating" himself? Foregone: cover-up, whitewash, medals for the murderers. Classic American accountability.

Derogate Iran's brutal regime all you like—I'm in—but spare the "Jihadists won't arm from Iran anymore" tripe. Jihadists are mostly Sunni; Iran's Shia proxies (Hezbollah, Houthis, Iraqi militias) are more like anti-Nazi partisans than ISIS. Tehran's theocracy chugs on, arming its favorites while America whacks Sunni moles it midwifed.

Last year, Iran deported over a million illegals (mostly Afghans)—more than the US—lest their girls end up like Jocelyn Nungaray or JonBenet Ramsay. Ironic, then, that America kicks off its Iran bash by butchering 168 prepubescent girls in one school strike. No illegal anywhere ever massacred that many innocents in a day—America under Trump and Hegseth owns that record, Day 1 alone. It's like screaming: "One kid killing bad? Watch us multiply your Nungarays and Ramsays by 167+ on opener, so you know who we really are."

Americans? Compared to those girls' killers, Americans are over a hundred times worse—beacons of exceptional sadism, turning precision into premeditated child-slaughter. Truly shining. 😏

UncleBob9's avatar

Tell us you're a subversive Democrat without actually writing the words.

In other news, Bill Clinton said Trump did nothing wrong in re: Epstein. This apparently is supported by the billion-plus pages of documents released by the DOJ. The fact that documents and Bubba's sworn testimony are meaningless to many people substantiates JHK's comment that half the country doesn't care about truth; all that matters to you is control.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

You assume a lot. You must be from New Mexico. The US ranks 33rd in cross national mean IQ comparisons and New Mexico has the lowest mean of any state.

I think all the behavioral indicators are consistent with Slick Willie and his wife being narcissistic psychopaths just like POTUS Trump, albeit in Willie's cases (not his wife's) a bit lower on sadism.

Now, you tell me, how would Slick Willie know if POTUS Trump did anything wrong? He's only been linked to being in Epstein's presence on a couple of dozen occasions. It's not as if he was hanging out with him for decades like POTUS Trump.

And why do you think Williw would tell the truth if he did know anything?

There's only one reason anyone hung out with Epstein for longer than five minutes.

It's because they shared his predilections.

Ben's avatar

Guilt by association huh?

Witch hunts and stupidity abound.

Let's hope we don't get tarred and feathered for posting on the same board as you.

Lugh's avatar

Yes, Ben. Bill didn't know and Hillary never met Epstein.

michael janket's avatar

In the last tranche of 3 million emails and other documents, Trump is mentioned 37,000 times. He was an altar boy and Boy Scout, salt of the earth.

UncleBob9's avatar

I can mention you 300,000 times, but it doesn't make you a criminal. For example, out of those 300,000 mentions I could call you a saint 1,000 times, a doctor 500 times, a horse's ass another 500 times, the neighbor down the road 3,000, and a pigfucking piece of shit 295,000 times -- but does that mean you like to climb into a pigpen and pork pigs? Oh, sorry. Being able to discern my point requires critical thinking skills you may not possess.

Horace the Menace's avatar

If you had received an invitation to spend some time with Jeffrey, how would you have responded?

michael janket's avatar

Increase your hat size, your head is blowing up.

elysianfield's avatar

Michael,

Alter boy? Boy scout? No...just another weak human male.

michael janket's avatar

merely a wry comment, me boy.....

UncleBob9's avatar

You assume a lot.

The Land of Enchantment is beautiful, and someone there has "YAHWEH" as his license plate -- or did when I visited Santa Fe 30 years ago.

Most successful people have narcissistic tendencies, though not all of them are psychopaths or sociopaths. Saying Trump fucks kids because Epstein was his neighbor and they attended some soirees is akin to saying you like online Japanese porn because you spend time at websites.

Horace the Menace's avatar

I think that is likely not entirely true. Epstein appears to have been at the heart of lots of intelligence/racketeering/organized criminal activity alongside the pedophilia stuff. So it seems possible to me that some people who hung out with him were merely thieves, murderers or racketeers while not actually being pedophiles. Not sure how much of a difference that makes...

Lugh's avatar

He is a Renaissance Man. Our Emmanuel Goldstein. Our Civilization IS Epstein. He now lives in Israel and is playing video games. His girl Friday, Ghislaine has joined him. They replaced her with a double in prison. Not even a good double. They don't mind if we know. They want us to know since we can't do anything about it.

Horace the Menace's avatar

Possible. Even probable perhaps.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

Thieving, murdering and racketeering as well as sex trafficking were business to him. Anyone who hung with him was doing more than doing business.

Horace the Menace's avatar

Probably. I'm still not prepared to say definitely 100% though. There must be some people he was trying to entrap and failed.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

Lutnick said words to the effect that he recognized he was a pervert within nanoseconds and then shunned him but that turned out to be a lie. On the other hand Melinda Gates said much the same thing and probably told the truth.

Horace the Menace's avatar

And Bonnie said Clyde did nothing wrong...

The DOJ released only a small percentage of the Epstein files. 2/3 of them (I think that is approximately correct) were "accidentally" deleted in (AFAIR) 2023. Even the ones that have been released are massively redacted in ways which appear to protect criminals as well as victims. Plus - at this point - there's been plenty of time for the insertion of reams of fakery into the files too.

Everyone is compromised.

UncleBob9's avatar

And, false information probably has been inserted into the documentation in order to cripple any prosecution.

Since everyone seems to know that nothing can come of this, why are so many people going around saying "Trump fucks kindergarteners"? Political dirty tricks to put Democrats into office? Fury that he's undercutting the globalist agenda? Basic stupidity among the populace that's fed by agitprop disguised as journalism? All of the above?

Horace the Menace's avatar

Perhaps your reasons are valid for some people.

Myself, although I don't go around saying that, suspect it may well be true because there is evidence outside the Epstein files that he does. I haven't looked into it deeply enough to know whether the evidence constitutes, or falls short of, proof - but there's certainly enough for suspicion. And then he hung out with Epstein a LOT. And then he seems to have hung out with several other pedos, or suspected pedos.

And then let's face it - it's not exactly unlikely that a top political leader (and especially one who seems to have been annointed into power out of nowhere as Trump was) is part of the whole pedo empire - it's sort of the price of entry isn't it?

William Bogert's avatar

I think he's more of just a common nut job....

Mrs. SOB's avatar

Yes! And "half" is being generous.

Miss Rodeo's avatar

So, there is NO doubt, absolutely none, that we bombed the school?

Ben's avatar
12hEdited

There is no doubt it was a poorly made out of control Iranian missile.

Meanwhile he ignores all the Iranian tech hitting civilian targets all over the middle east and now Cyprus.

I guess all those kids don't matter one bit.

For the life of me I will never understand the mentality of these people who ignore reality that Iran is a blood thirsty murderous theocracy that directly targets civilians all over the place.

He is not awake at all.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

To the peanut gallery claiming that missile on the Iranian girls' school was a rogue Iranian dud or an Israeli oopsie—oh, please, spare us the fairy tales. The devastation wreaked is worlds beyond what a misfiring Iranian rocket could muster; we're talking precision carnage, not backyard fireworks gone wrong. Forensic whispers scream it was hammered not once, but repeatedly—like a sadistic encore. And let's not forget: Israeli strikes weren't lighting up the south; that was prime US fireworks territory. The evidence weighs heavier than Hegseth's conscience: this was an intentional American hit, "shock and awe" with a side of schoolgirl slaughter.

But hey, why let facts ruin a good denial party? 😏

Ben's avatar
11hEdited

You really are a complete dope.

Iran's tech is garbage as far as aim, but they pack some fairly large explosives on them.

Even without a weapons package on them they can take down a building with all the fuel exploding.

As I have said repeatedly their tech works for soft civilian targets, slow moving defenseless tankers and anything that can't fire back.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

I've debunked you below, you low IQ psychopath.

Mike Ware's avatar

You have zero “facts” Go back to sleep and spare me rest of your woke lies

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

See my reply to you below.

Horace the Menace's avatar

Probably. He works for the CIA after all. I doubt anyone is telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth right now :-)

Mrs. SOB's avatar

I agree with you. 'AsleepNotWoke' might be a more accurate moniker.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

Research is brutal: women scoring high on dark-tetrad traits (narcissism, sadism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) plus authoritarian dominance cravings are disproportionately pro-Trump (Fekula et al. 2024; Zmigrod 2021). Turns out pathological narcissism and pedophilia share a lot of the same wiring—entitlement, lack of empathy, predatory grooming, obsessive control. Different target age, same operating system.

It's very likely those dead schoolgirls turn you on.

Ben's avatar
11hEdited

And he resorts to low brow attacks.

Showing his low IQ he claims other people have.

ANW posting form a Nigerian call center.

Just remember all those missiles Iran is shooting everywhere are really mana from heaven.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

Heaven? There was no Mohammed, bozo I detest how women are treated in Iran and have no problem with Americans laying down their lives for Israel, and to cleanse the global gene pool, although the launching by the US of a precision strike on 168+ schoolgirls is a bit sickening. But, as regards pedophiles, the Ayatollah never hung out with Epstein.

Furthermore, in Iran, under the Law on the Protection of Children and Juveniles (enacted originally in 2002 and updated in later years), acts of sexual abuse or exploitation of persons under 18 are criminalized and carry imprisonment terms if they do not fall under harsher religious “hudud” punishments.

In contrast, in the US, under Article 120b of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (10 U.S.C. § 920b), sex with 12 year olds is lawful for Americans who join the US military and marry or  are married to the young boy or girl. If you don’t  believe me look it up. There’s even a Wikipedia entry about it. Child marriage is legal in 2/3 of US states.

Did you marry a 12 year boy, Ben?

Mrs. SOB's avatar

Words words words

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

Yeah but I've got you figured out to a T.

Paul B. Cohen's avatar

Drop the “might.”

TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH's avatar

Can you dispute what this well-informed guy says? FAR more informed that your snarky ass?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyc1aF4I53c

Kathy Christian's avatar

I heard it was an Iranian missile gone awry that hit the school.

Ben's avatar

That's what we say and of course they say anything they can to frame themselves as innocent parties being transgressed.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

Ben and Kathy Christian and Mike Ware-

Ah, the classic "Iranian missile gone awry" defense—because nothing says "reliable" like a ballistic missile that miraculously decides to U-turn and obliterate its own girls' school full of kids, while the US and Israel are busy launching a massive precision campaign in the same region. Spare me.

Let's dismantle this fairy tale with a few inconvenient facts:

Iranian ballistic missiles (Shahab, Qiam, etc.) have notoriously poor accuracy outside a few hundred meters CEP at best—often 500m–1km or worse for older models. A "poorly controlled" one drifting off course might cause damage, but the Shajareh Tayyebeh school was directly hit multiple times with catastrophic precision (satellite imagery from Planet Labs/NYT shows clean, targeted detonation centroids on the school building itself, not scatter or peripheral blast). That level of accuracy screams precision-guided munitions (PGMs), not a runaway Iranian rocket. The damage pattern is inconsistent with a failed launch—those usually explode mid-air or crater widely, not demolish a specific building repeatedly with surgical hits.

The school was not struck once—multiple impacts, including direct roof penetrations and sequential strikes. Iranian missiles don't loiter and double-tap; US/Israeli PGMs do.

Israeli strikes were concentrated in western/northern Iran (missile sites, nuclear facilities); the south (Hormozgan/Minab area) was US domain, per CENTCOM statements and official briefings on targeting IRGC naval bases in the Strait of Hormuz region. Minab's IRGC naval complex was hit simultaneously—US assets were active there.

A barrier wall separated the school from the base for a decade (Google Earth/Satellite records)—if it was a "mistake," it required ignoring obvious civilian infrastructure right next door. US boasts "thread a needle from 10,000 miles"—yet we're to believe they "oopsied" into a school repeatedly? Implausible.

The weight of evidence—satellite imagery (NYT, NPR, Planet Labs), timing/location alignment with US strikes, precision pattern, multi-hit damage—points overwhelmingly to an intentional American strike. "Failed Iranian missile" is the comfort blanket for those who can't face the mirror. The US adopted the Dahiya doctrine (deliberate civilian suffering to deter)—they just swapped Beirut suburbs for Minab schoolgirls.

No Iranian missile failure does this. It's precision sadism with plausible deniability. Classic American exceptionalism. 😏

Lugh's avatar

Those who did this to your mind deserve to swing.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

That's propaganda as opposed to a conclusion that's consistent with the evidence. The site was hit repeatefdlyand the damage was far in excess of what one of the Iranians' pathetic excuses for missiles is capable of inflicting. And the same excuse has been used before in Gaza.

Ben's avatar

As opposed to your propaganda and opinion.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

See my reply to you below.

Ben's avatar

Not interested in your opinion sewer boy.

Lugh's avatar

They destroyed the Bahrain base. They have powerful weapons alongside the crap. Russia gives them the good stuff.

Paul B. Cohen's avatar

Every drop of blood shed in Gaza is on Hamas and its supporters and enablers. Same goes for Iran and the IRGC regime. That means YOU are responsible.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

No, it doesn’t mean I'm responsible. I'm not a supporter or enabler of Middle-Eastern non-Christian religions or of Arabs or other Middle-Easterners. I don't even like them. It seems to me that they are analogous to the the Yugoslav ablnd French partisans who fought the Nazis in WW2 but that doesn’t mean I support them.

Lugh's avatar

Israel has bombed many Churches in Gaza and even in Israel. They always say it was a mistake, you know, just like when they bombed our ship, The Liberty. Fools never learn.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

Is it also correct that they've bombed many schools and hospitals as well as churches and have used the "missile gone awry" fabrications an excuse?

Cindi's avatar

I agree, Miss Rodeo - in addition to a long standing tradition of propaganda (on both sides in any conflict) + AI, I don’t believe anything right out of the box.

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

Ah, the classic "Iranian missile gone awry" defense—because nothing says "reliable" like a ballistic missile that miraculously decides to U-turn and obliterate its own girls' school full of kids, while the US and Israel are busy launching a massive precision campaign in the same region. Spare me.

Let's dismantle this fairy tale with a few inconvenient facts:

Iranian ballistic missiles (Shahab, Qiam, etc.) have notoriously poor accuracy outside a few hundred meters CEP at best—often 500m–1km or worse for older models. A "poorly controlled" one drifting off course might cause damage, but the Shajareh Tayyebeh school was directly hit multiple times with catastrophic precision (satellite imagery from Planet Labs/NYT shows clean, targeted detonation centroids on the school building itself, not scatter or peripheral blast). That level of accuracy screams precision-guided munitions (PGMs), not a runaway Iranian rocket. The damage pattern is inconsistent with a failed launch—those usually explode mid-air or crater widely, not demolish a specific building repeatedly with surgical hits.

The school was not struck once—multiple impacts, including direct roof penetrations and sequential strikes. Iranian missiles don't loiter and double-tap; US/Israeli PGMs do.

Israeli strikes were concentrated in western/northern Iran (missile sites, nuclear facilities); the south (Hormozgan/Minab area) was US domain, per CENTCOM statements and official briefings on targeting IRGC naval bases in the Strait of Hormuz region. Minab's IRGC naval complex was hit simultaneously—US assets were active there.

A barrier wall separated the school from the base for a decade (Google Earth/Satellite records)—if it was a "mistake," it required ignoring obvious civilian infrastructure right next door. US boasts "thread a needle from 10,000 miles"—yet we're to believe they "oopsied" into a school repeatedly? Implausible.

The weight of evidence—satellite imagery (NYT, NPR, Planet Labs), timing/location alignment with US strikes, precision pattern, multi-hit damage—points overwhelmingly to an intentional American strike. "Failed Iranian missile" is the comfort blanket for those who can't face the mirror. The US adopted the Dahiya doctrine (deliberate civilian suffering to deter)—they just swapped Beirut suburbs for Minab schoolgirls.

No Iranian missile failure does this. It's precision sadism with plausible deniability. Classic American exceptionalism. 😏

Ben's avatar

Do please post this swill at least 10 more times for the spammer award of the day.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tkE1dI_fAEI

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

I know more about military operations than you'd and in particular about war criminals.

This came out about 3 hours ago and the suggestion that the US "mistakenly" targeted the school is a murderer's pathetic defense, after the failure of the "missile gone awry" bullshit. CNN is a propaganda or gan of the Trump regime. The US are war criminals of the worst type. The US was too cowardly to sign up to the ICC but this US Uvalde level cowardice needs to be prosecuted in a Nuremberg type tribunal.

Iran school strike: Analysis suggests US was responsible for deadly strike | CNN https://share.google/OFkoKH7NTF2DRK1ZZ

Ben's avatar
1hEdited

CNN is as anti-trump as any newsy outfit out there.

HAHAHAHA

You might be the most clueless shill on this message board and that is an epic feat of ignorance on your part.

The new Bagdad Bob has arrived and nothing but a troll.

Mute incoming.

Paul's avatar

You can always tell when someone has never read a history book when they assume everything happens with intent and purpose.

Freedom 4 conservatives's avatar

Wars, even expertly fought ones, cause collateral casualties. The leftists, Trump haters, and Jew haters glom onto that every time. Of course, they ignore the hundreds of thousands of Iranian citizens that the radical Islamic regime has killed in its reign of terror against anyone who opposed them in Iran itself, much less the people that the radical Iran regime has directly or indirectly killed in the rest of the world. Now, if the U.S. wanted to wage an all-out war against Iran and its entire population, it could have fire-bombed every major city in Iran the same way the we did in Japan and Germany in World War II. The U.S. did not do that in Iran on the hope that likely the majority of the Iranian population were unwilling subjects to a violent dictatorship. After Iran's radical leadership and its military capability is destroyed, we'll see if that hope was justified.

As for the U.S. leftist scumbags and their leftist scumbag media hacks, they pose a greater danger to the survival of the American Republic than those mullahs did in Iran. If you doubt that assertion, watch what happens if the SAVE Act actually becomes law, essentially dooming the Democrats from being able to rig elections in their favor. There will be a violent leftist uprising in the U.S. to rival that which occurred to start the Civil War. The cold, hard fact is that the only time that Socialists aren't outwardly violent is when they are allowed de facto dictatorial control over everything. And when they are in de facto dictatorial control, Socialists don't become non-violent--they just use the government to use sanctioned violence to target their opponents--"re-education (meaning you do exactly what the regime says or you die) camps", or just outright government violence directed at opponents of the regime.

Make no mistake, Socialists are my sworn enemy--they intend to take my wealth; extinguish my freedoms; indoctrinate my sons, daughters, grandchildren; destroy my country; oppress those who believe as I do; persecute me for my religion and spiritual beliefs; and emasculate me from being able to defend myself from their regime or their enabled criminal thugs. Today, the Democrat Party is dominated by either Communist/Socialists or Fascist/Socialists. Both ideologies are toxic to a Republic, and the Democrat Party is now a toxic mix of both. The Democrats showed what scum they nearly all are when many Democrats took sides to support murderous Iran in this war, and when they took sides with illegal aliens (and ALL illegal aliens became criminals when they entered the U.S. illegally--some just went on to commit more heinous crimes against American citizens) over American citizens.

Liber8or's avatar

True that. Bernie Sanders, Mamdani, AOC, Tim Walz, Ilhan Omar and a half million Somalis in the U.S. Enemies for sure.

Lugh's avatar

Why not fire bomb American cities to get rid of them?

William Bogert's avatar

A thousand thumbs up! Comment of the month!

Nomad Freedom's avatar

Americans are tired of these regime change wars. No one wanted this, and orange boy promised no new wars. They want to leave Iran in ruins, turn it into a balkanized basket case ruled by a puppet. And all this chatter about bringing Iran freedom seems delusional. People have very short memories. Countless lives and billions into the abyss to bring Afghanistan freedom, and look who's back. That's right, the Taliban.

JohnAZ's avatar

That is because they did not wipe out the Taliban.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

WRONG...

That is because they COULD NOT wipe out the Taliban!

With all their high-tech weapons, the Yanks were defeated by guys with AK-47's. LOL

But they have a ton of high-tech weapons and HUMVEES now ~ all left by the Yanks.

JohnAZ's avatar

Yup, no,argument. Like Vietnam, Afghanistan was a short run of shock and awe, followed by the Americans crawling into safe places in cities with no control of the countryside. We need to destroy the other side before we leave, a lesson never learned. I hope Iran is different.

Lugh's avatar

John has learned well from his masters. He's not Christian any more. Is he still American? Huckabee isn't.

Ben's avatar

neither are you.

Paul B. Cohen's avatar

Speak for yourself. It’s presumptuous and a false argument to say “no one wanted this.” And your suppositions about what “they want” are just that - evil surmisings.

Dennis L. Merwood's avatar

It’s presumptuous and a false argument to say “Jesus died for our sins."

Remember, Jesus died for our sins. If you don’t sin, Jesus died for nothing.

If one repents, his noble misery and righteous torment will have been for NOTHING.

Beth Nicolaides's avatar

I hope we can focus enough to pass the SAVE America Act, that's for sure. It looks as though Thune is playing hardball with it, demanding that Trump endorse Cornyn over Paxton, which sounds like a recipe for more incrementally or even stagnation.

Can it be passed in a meaningful way? I don't know. I just read this morning that DOGE cuts were pared way back to mostly foreign aid spending, and instead of the promised 2 trillion in savings, we get 20 billion. I guess that's something. Maybe denaturing USAID alone was worth it.

UncleBob9's avatar

Paxton said he'll drop out if Cornyn will support the SAVE Act. Cornyn, douchebag that he is, and Thune, being Cocaine Mitch's protege, have no intention of passing the SAVE Act and cutting off their (and their friends') access to graft.

Skenny's avatar

Not passing the SAVE act would constitute the last nail in the country's coffin..... incomprehensible to anyone resembling a patriot.

Ben's avatar

Yes, I don't get it!

Pass it only a corrupt idiot thinks people should not prove who they are and that they have the right to vote in this country.

JohnAZ's avatar

Ben, we are seeing the true extent of the Deep State. They are the people that believe that power belongs in the federal government and will fight for their little Rome on the Potomac over anything else. This is the real domestic war.

Tapestrygarden's avatar

It is. USAID has been a grift for decades.

Ben's avatar

For trillions!

William Wallace's avatar

A major disappointment, the American Taxpayer is being ripped off by unimaginable Government Grift and Corruption from their Local Through the State and our Federal Government.

The Save Act is an important piece towards helping the People reign in this disaster affecting our nation and its future!

bill “TX Sasquatch”'s avatar

Not one mention of Netanyahu and his goals to take over the entire ME. And using the Epstein files to force Trump, and others in DC to attack Iran. "With our greatest ally". Now Israel is bombing Lebanon, but MSM ignores this.

Kunstler is brilliant, but not showing it here. But, it's in his DNA to side with Israel.

James Howard Kunstler's avatar

This narrative of "Greater Israel" -- Israel seeking to take over all the territory of the Middle East -- is preposterous. Why would Israel wish to occupy and attempt to govern tens of millions of hostile Arabs?

AwakeNotWoke's avatar

Didn't Ambassador Huckabee, during his interview with Tucker, say words to the effect that it would be fine if they took the lot. And isn't that based on the idea that their deity gave them that land? And couldn't the tens of millions of hostile Arabs be forcibly relocated or ethnically cleansed? And, hypothetically, if an extremist party were to take power and seek to forcibly sterilize or exterminate them, who would stop them? Nobody. They would be able to do it. It would be a fait accompli.

Lugh's avatar

They're not even hiding it much anymore. For awhile the IDF were wearing patches of the map of Greater Israel on their shoulder.

JohnAZ's avatar

C’mon, JHK, you are trying to be logical here. These haters will never, ever listen to reason, they are blinded by their hate.

elysianfield's avatar

"Why would Israel wish to occupy and attempt to govern tens of millions of hostile Arabs?"

Umm, why would they then wish to occupy Israel, and attempt to deal with tens of millions of hostile A-rabs?

Lugh's avatar

As John says, they're not following God's orders to kill them all or at least all the men. They're afraid of what we would think. How weak is that?

Horace the Menace's avatar

Why did they wish to occupy Palestine and attempt to govern the people who had lived there peacefully for millennia?

ezinmn's avatar

See 10-7-23

Ben's avatar

Yet here we are the incoherent bleating that out incessantly with zero thought about what it would really take.

They can't even deal with a couple million "Palestinians" much less annexing half the sand box.

Lugh's avatar

But they are dreaming of it and making maps of it. So you admit they are fools?

Ben's avatar

More like war gamers.

The only fools I see here think Iran is winning.

Paul B. Cohen's avatar

While this is a demonstrably false theory, why would anyone in their right mind not want more Israel and less of the miserably failing nations surrounding Israel?

Lugh's avatar

Maybe the non-Jews who live there?

Mrs. SOB's avatar

Your comment makes me laugh. We used to say, "you watch too many movies" but now I think we could say, "you watch too many podcasts." ✌🏻

Ben's avatar

Yep, a universal abject hatred of Jews and Israel.

Usually with a side dish of hate America.

Most of these people are irrational.

Lugh's avatar

Yes, America has finally turned against Israel for the most part. Thank God. It took long enough.

What do you think of Marine who was silenced and had his hand broken for protesting this insane war?

JohnAZ's avatar

They are haters.

john galt's avatar

Sadly, even tragically, our worst and most pressing threat is not China, Russia, or even Iran, but the deranged leftist/marxist Demoncraps pressing destruction of our country. Their disdain for any move to improve our country and the citizens lives is too manifest in their destructive actions. Trump must be destroyed for his temerity and gall in stopping their grifting and corruption train they have so long pilfered the nation with. Those who supported him must be punished as Susan Rice so clearly broadcast. Concentration and re-education camps so favored by the communists and their kissing cousins, the Nazis, two competing ideologies of pure evil now joined by the Demoncraps. Do you still wonder why they continue to fight so hard to destroy the Second Amendment and your freedom of speech, as well as your family and children with trans support and importation of many millions of illegals that they literally fight to keep in our country against the wishes of the majority of American citizens. This is the fight we cannot afford to lose.

James Howard Kunstler's avatar

John Galt -- I have messaged you privately before to quit making those stupid political puns -- "Demoncraps." If you can't follow a simple rule, I'm gonna toss you outa here.

William Wallace's avatar

We are also suffering from now, Senator John Thune’s, UniParty Grifters busy preening while hiding behind the Leftists Agenda careening towards the desired Democrats Socialist Destruction of our Constitutional Republic!

Senator Thune procrastination around the People’s Save Act, for fair and honest elections could very well replace, Benedict Arnold’s, “The Nation’s Greatest Traitor”moniker for our next 250 Years.

The Arnold Generations past and future would love to lose this infamous notoriety.

We The People through Government Grift have almost lost our Freedoms and our Rights to our Representatives.

They have flipped the outline of our Founding Principles to their own financial Benefits!

Praying Senator Thune’s Patriotism is greater than his perceived Personal Political Gain!

Jack's avatar

Jim, early returns of comments confirms your diagnosis of the widespread insanity that has been inflicted upon the population by: the press, the democrats and the rinos.

Sheila Barkofske's avatar

A number of commenters seem to be proving your point. Darwin Awards abound. Particularly the “However,I find myself hoping Iran kicks our barbaric asses into the Stone Age”. Imagine rooting for an enemy makes Jeffrey Epstein look good. Maybe we should bring back loyalty or sanity tests. As for me, compared to the 75 years of totally incompetent political leadership (with the exception of Trump) I have lived thru, I suspect the price of eggs will be going up —- given the current supply will be on a lot of faces.

Luke's avatar

Cam Higby is a neocon douche bag but then again so is Donald Trump. He truly is a fool. This became clear when he thought offering insurance would solve the problem (Strait of Hormuz). But you see, it doesn’t. You can print money but you can’t print Ship Captains and Crew.

Congrats neocons, now we are all fucked. I don’t see any off ramps. After double crossing Iran multiple times (rest of the world too), blowing up school girls, and killing Supreme Leader, etc why would they stop now? Answer is they won’t.

I’m quite certain Russia will have something to say about re-supplying them if necessary. God knows they owe us big time.

Oil is headed for $150 and there isn’t a goddamn thing the orange dumbass can do about it. I voted for him 3x so what does that say about me? Yeah he fooled me, but I am not completely stupid.

At least Israel is getting shellacked. There has never been a more deserving entity, or vile one. From what I understand their defenses are nearly down. Iran doubled their bomb payloads yesterday.

Global recession in 2 months. 6-12 months away is hard to say how bad things get. Trump will be 25’d before midterms. This is all predicated on Israel NOT nuking Iran yet. They are cowards at their very core tho. They might and stick it to orange man one last time get him to do it for them lol. Lotta that going down lately.

Sorry for the rant…..Trump played us all. Truth be told he got played himself. He truly is driven by ego and turns out not really all that intelligent.

This probably doesn’t have a happy ending.

Lugh's avatar

Israel will say, Trump made us do it. They are already preparing the ground for this, making Trump say that he is in control - which he loves to pretend anyway.

Paul B. Cohen's avatar

Clever and devilish of you to edit your statement to nullify my response. Exposed by your evil behavior, not just your hateful rhetoric.

Whoopdy Do's avatar

Now that Paramount Skydance has bought Warner Bros Discovery, which owns CNN, we might see some of those glum talking heads roll. And wouldn't that be sad? ;-)

Art's avatar

Let’s go bowling!

en-ki's avatar

I have always loved Kunstler's opinion on most everything, delivered with informed panache. Where I break ranks with him is his support of the murderous, apartheid nation. Iran has, in modern memory, never attacked another country. Contrast that with Israel.

Iran has aligned itself with those opposed to the Greater Israel Project. I would say good going considering the absolute slaughter in Gaza and some 75 years of oppression, land expropriation, not to mention murder

IGW's avatar

Tribe runs deep

michael janket's avatar

sounds very, very Zionist to me. James is a zionist and he wants to deny that Israel is getting the shit kicked out of them despite hard attacks on Iran. Oh, how concerned our dear Trump is for the welfare of the common Iranian.