But remember—Trump has proven his maxim of being able to shoot someone on Fifth Aveune and get away with it multiple times. This is just another example.
War with...Iran?
- Thread starter Technarch
- Start date
Only the US and Israel get to so casually brush off children as collateral damage as just the cost of doing unprovoked wars of aggression as if that cleanses them morally. Everyone else is held to a higher standard.
Rewriting History? Iran was freed from its imperial shackles by a student movement powered and trained by Marxist-Leninist guerrilas... which then fell apart by squabbles between the Maoist and Trotskyist factions. The Islamic Republic took advantage of the division, seized power and cemented it during the Iraq invasion of Iran.
None of the students demonstrating against the shah thought they'd be forced to live in a religious dictatorship. They are the true heroes of the revolution, repressed and killed again and again, always rising up against the original injustice of foreign intervention, the latest of which is represented by the current regime.
Lots of sources, but here's one: https://newleftreview.org/issues/i1...perialism-the-left-and-revolution-in-iran.pdf
TBH, I think MAGA generally doesn't care about Epstein and ostensibly doesn't want Trump starting wars. They were always going to vote Trump (probably even with the warmongering). That's not who this is aimed at.
This is aimed at the uninformed people who might actually might not have heard about the recent Epstein allegations from an underage girl specifically at Trump that the DOJ redacted from their published documents. Those folk could potentially swing an election. I'd argue it's working.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg3elr1dwpo
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/24/nx-s1-5723968/epstein-files-trump-accusation-maxwell
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/26/trump-epstein-files-fbi
Don't want to edit my above post after it has reaction, but if I were Iran/Venezuela/tariffs/SCOTUS/whatever, I'd be tempted to append those allegations/articles/links to every single press release. Probably more effective than opposing the US military, maybe if that keeps happening he'll realize that whenever he's attacking, these allegations get surfaced.
Hegseth says Iran won’t be a ‘politically correct’ war as he lays out US objectives: ‘No democracy-building exercise’
The future of American foreign policy is here, and it’s just hyper gunboat diplomacy all the way down.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/us/politics/poll-americans-support-iran-attack.html
In a pre-strike poll only 21% of Americans Support the United States Initiating an Attack on Iran.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/01/iran-attack-trump-poll/88933730007/
In a post-strike poll:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/us/politics/trump-iran-attack-democratic-divisions.html
Meanwhile, the Dems as always fall to the occasion.
Right so if there was a strategic plan we'd all be perfectly fine with a war of aggression on Iran. President Mark Kelly will be a warmonger if elected, noted.
Add a couple more to the list.
Unsurprisingly there are a few that are usually on the correct side of history.
In a pre-strike poll only 21% of Americans Support the United States Initiating an Attack on Iran.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/01/iran-attack-trump-poll/88933730007/
In a post-strike poll:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/us/politics/trump-iran-attack-democratic-divisions.html
Meanwhile, the Dems as always fall to the occasion.
Right so if there was a strategic plan we'd all be perfectly fine with a war of aggression on Iran. President Mark Kelly will be a warmonger if elected, noted.
Add a couple more to the list.
Unsurprisingly there are a few that are usually on the correct side of history.
Politically Correct. Whether he likes it or not, Hegseth has betrayed the timeframe and mindset from which his thinking is derived.
I would be surprised if there was any move to put troops on the ground. Trump has been reasonably consistent with lobbing air strikes with all the impunity of the world's most capable air force. It's basically always a winning situation in his zero-sum view.
Even when it's a couple of yokels in a small boat that would be utterly trivial to seize, they go for an air strike.
At best this means they intend to install a puppet government that will hand over the oil. But the article really gives the impression that they don't even have an end goal in mind. It's like they found a slightly less flimsy pretext to bomb brown people so they're gonna bomb brown people because it makes them feel tough.
Four U.S. dead so far.
I was reading this and a couple of things jumped out at me:
"We didn't start the war," says aggressor who literally started the war.
See prior coverage before the strikes:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politi...-after-sending-2nd-aircraft-carrier-to-region
https://spia.princeton.edu/news/behind-headline-us-iran-crisis-explained
Day of: https://www.npr.org/2026/03/01/nx-s1-5731333/iran-us-israel-strikes
Back to today's story, we have this pretty frank admission from the head of the JCOS:
"This is not a regime change, we just carefully targeted everyone in the regime who had authority and decision-making capabilities after giving them no acceptable off-ramp to avoid the war."
Translation: "We're just going to bomb the everloving fuck out of them and hope for the best. That's our plan."
Hegseth: "no nation building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise"
They hate democracy, we see that here in the USA every day, but no nation-building either? In other words, just leave Iran to implode into conflict? There is no plan here, they want to break something and not own it but it's too late for that. Trump and the MAGA administration started this war and now MAGA owns it.
I forget where I saw this, but it seems like a good way to summarize the situation:
Why did Trump et al launch an operation called Epic Fury?
Because they’re fucking children.
Yeah nobody should have any illusions about what Israelis think of civilian casualties other than their own.
I just assume they really like furries... /s
It does kind of solve some of the problem. You create more enemies and more attacks, but in general the attack would be weaker. For leaders, they are usually well protected. It is the plebs that will get hurt. They can gain a lot of glory and profit through wars.
May be I am cynical, I think most wars are not worth it. Ware are used to boost leaders ego, consolidated power through nativism, or pure greed (take others' properties).
Somehow I get the strong feeling this statement will age very poorly.
But hey, why should Hegseth care? Its not like he's gonna be the one facing any real retribution over it.
Trump said they're offering amnesty to the IRGC to surrender and that many have.
That probably means they will bunker down and see if US troops hit the ground.
If not, they can keep their power and money going since they controlled large parts of the economy.
That probably means they will bunker down and see if US troops hit the ground.
If not, they can keep their power and money going since they controlled large parts of the economy.
This is completely insane. I realize most of the international order is dead letters at this point, but I wonder when the US will start getting formally kicked out of things. Will there be a G6 summit during Trump's presidency that the US isn't invited to?
Hegseth is a deeply unserious, immature man in charge of the world’s most powerful military. he was never not going to use the toys at his disposal.
Emirates Airlines is hoping to resume some flights out of Dubai. That movie line comes to mind:
Do you feel lucky?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/world/middleeast/dubai-flights.html
Do you feel lucky?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/world/middleeast/dubai-flights.html
/// OFFICIAL MODERATION NOTICE ///
Ha ha child rape jokes are so very funny.
Last warning to everyone: no more child rape jokes. Want to have a conversation about whether the American government is staffed by pedophiles? Then have that conversation, in a different thread. I’m going to start kicking people out otherwise.
“Which is why we’re appointing Bill Maher as the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”, followed Hegseth.
What does this even look like? There's no one there to surrender to. Maybe an online form? Text "DONTKILLME" to 1600?
They can't keep their story straight minute to minute. They claim we're not invading. So amnesty from what or who?
Looks like we lost F-16s due to failure to set up the IFF interrogator configuration/notification to Kuwait so they showed up on radar as primary targets without IFF and were confused for drones. Hegsbeth dropped the ball.
Only four U.S. soldiers dead is part of the problem. If there were even 10-1 losses in favor of the U.S. they might think twice about these operations. When there are basically zero domestic consequences it really skews the cost-benefit analysis. It also doesn't help that the leadership gets to make decisions with no personal stakes. If there was even a 1% chance Trump could wind up on the wrong end of a missile strike, I guarantee he'd never authorize the attack.
Which will only incentivize further use of the American military like this in the future. Annoy Trump and his friends enough? Well, here’s a carrier battle group turning your entire society into soup and stone with absolutely zero concerns beyond destruction and propaganda.
There are going to be a whole lot of Alderaans in the future.
In a lot of ways, War with Venezuela is a success in their minds. Even though I still do not see any meaningful positive outcome. I think Trump is sort of controlling Venezuela oil under the table now?
Well, of course it’s a success for them. We bullied some tinpot “Socialist” dictatorship into being a literal vassal state, and our media was once again given the opportunity to roll their eyes into the back of their heads and undulate while ample footage of American power being applied directly to brown people was played on a loop.
Given this DoD, I think the odds are greater than 1% that they accidentally drone strike themselves.
That’s actually worse. That would mean that the US fired missiles into a civilian population but couldn’t be bothered to check if their targets were still valid.
And it’s ludicrous to excuse the US - the most powerful military the planet has ever seen with the most advanced intelligence gathering apparatus - for not having up to date intel on their targets. I don’t believe that for a second.
Either it was deliberate or it was neglect. Both are choices made. Neither excuses the slaughter of children.
How short or memory of history is, that we have already forgotten our military intervention in Libya. If turns out that NATO was neck deep in that mess and his death was a direct consequence of that intervention. Of course, that hasn't worked out well for the Libyans.
I'm not sure that I would argue a society dominated by random warlords is "free". Nor would I consider a country suffering from a nearly decade long civil war to be particularly "free". Again, not a positive outcome for anyone really.
There's something else that's weird, and perhaps a bit funny and sad.
Automatically doubting or completely dismissing the initial non-Iranian reports of signs suggesting Khamenei has been killed, contrasted with taking at face value the Iranian reports of the school incident, and without any reservations.
It's not about "defending the US and blaming Iran", but rather to pause a moment and wait for more complete and reliable info before starting the blame game.
I immediately assumed it was that. I'm sure they are currently 'investigating' to find some other way to phrase it or someone to blame but... it kind of has to be that. Or just massive incompetence on the part of both the people running the ground defenses and the pilots... so... probably the first thing.
