What is even the point of occupying Kharg island? Iran can't really use it to ship oil currently (ships are easy targets for US forces) and it would put lots of US troops close together on a relatively small land area in easy reach of the mainland and Iran's drones. The tactical effect of it would be... probably worse than pointless.
War with...Iran?
- Thread starter Technarch
- Start date
Stupidity.
Oh wow. This quote out of the article:
I guess, silver lining, this whole thing will likely come back to bite him if elections proceed as normal. I'm doubtful we'll have learned anything out of it regarding the wisdom of electing blatantly corrupt con-men prone to racism and violent fantasies to the presidency though.
Nah, the propaganda machine is only beginning to spin up. In 6 more weeks, approval will be up to 40% of Americans on board with boots on the ground, billions or trillions in spend on missiles, then cutting vet health care cost after we add tens of thousands new patients for the VA.
That's logical, but nevertheless Iran has continued shipping oil this whole time: https://apnews.com/article/ships-iran-oil-china-us-trump-hormuz-82a9acb473837f1bf7a821d0c3f95205
At this juncture, it is obvious to anyone with a brain that the US is losing in Operation Epstein Fury
Military logic is irrelevant to these clowns. It's all posturing to them. They're not looking for militarily relevant targets, they're looking for a demonstration they can do things that Iran can't stop.
Of course from a military perspective you are correct. This would allow Iran to inflict military casualties on the US, possibly even capture POWs, without jeopardizing Iran's control of the strait.
This is how you know the admin's planning horizon is so short. The need to flex on Iran is so overwhelming that even a tactically untenable position quite likely to turn into a humiliation seems like a good idea, because consequences a few days from now don't matter when we need to flex on Iran today.
Not only are they still shipping it, the US admin is lifting sanctions on Iranian oil so they can buy some themselves!
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/us/politics/iran-oil-sanctions.html
What in the actual f*ck.
This is just too good. Good job America. Good job. A special note of appreciation for all the people both inside and outside of the U.S. who’ve spent decades coddling or otherwise enabling these dipsh*ts, so that they could all fail up, without any accountability whatsoever, long enough to be a grotesque plague on all of humanity. Good job.
https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-calls-nato-cowards-over-lack-support-iran-war-2026-03-20/
I don't think the other NATO members will be listening to many lectures on cowardice from Donald J Trump.
"Bone Spurs", anyone?
I don't think the other NATO members will be listening to many lectures on cowardice from Donald J Trump.
"Bone Spurs", anyone?
I imagine some of the chicanery with oil shipments and purchases are a frantic response to economic turmoil. A recession or worse is all but guaranteed at this point.
The irony is that quite a few US citizens voted for Trump thinking he'd be better for their 401ks. Not only has that been proven wrong, but many Iranians had to die to make this clear.
The irony is that quite a few US citizens voted for Trump thinking he'd be better for their 401ks. Not only has that been proven wrong, but many Iranians had to die to make this clear.
Clearly we are all too stupid to understand the genius of Trump and Hegseth. In the end we will bow down in admiration when we realise.
We have so many data points saying that Republicans are bad for the economy and yet people keep falling for it.
There were many folks who refused to serve in Vietnam out of a moral objection to the war and how it was being conducted. So I won’t hold someone a coward for refusing to go. But Trump was never one of those people.
I mean for certain tax brackets it seems to be accurate. The 1% seem to make bank while the rest of us suffer.
That would be because America has a secular religion enforced and reinforced by all institutions at all levels. Entrepreneurs are its prophets, and hindering prophets in any way is utterly unimaginable and heretical. After all, you wouldn’t want to be a Communist, would ya?
"So easy for them to do, with so little risk"
If it is that easy and with little risk, why do you need them to do it, Donald?
This is Mark 14 Torpedo levels of incompetence, which is of course exactly what you should expect considering the Commander-in-chief and the "we've nothing to learn from anyone" attitude
I think most of us understand that but, just to briefly loop back to this, it’s less of a “how do you like them apples” thing and more of a “what did you expect?” thing.
Is it embarrassing to the entire Japanese community? Sure. But a majority of the American electorate voted for the guy precisely in part because of this level of nonsense, since they tend to relate to someone proudly displaying their ignorance and rudeness without apology.
You can give him all the golden golf clubs in the world, but he will still shit on you at every turn. A decade in to this nonsense, and I have no sympathy for leaders that pander to him, hoping for better treatment, no matter what geopolitical needles she has to thread (especially far right ones, that promise to shake things up and be tough).
She might better spend her political capital going properly rightwing, standing up to him somewhat, and leveraging Japan’s strengths to counter American bullying and stupidity, but it might cost her at home. Threaten to kick American troops off Japanese territory and rapidly scale up pursuing nuclear energy and arms, and cosy up to South Korea to go full throttle into manufacturing arm and technology at scale, and strategically pair up with China in narrow doses, where applicable. You’ll get more credit from this admin who wants some of that, but they also want in on the coalition, so threaten to keep them out as leverage. Threaten to dump American Treasuries because the US is fiscally irresponsible and unreliable. She has some leverage, and she’s popular. The post WWII order is dead, so now is the time to use it.
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To get back to Iran specifically, it’s getting increasingly likely that we’ll have more boots on the ground in short order, and I expect that’s why they want a fifth of a trillion dollars more for no real reason. It wouldn’t surprise me if they go ahead and do it this weekend after markets close*, as they’re wont to do. Once troops are on the ground and getting injured/killed, it’ll be easier to get Congress to greenlight the money to “protect the troops”.
*markets are cratering, which is a little hilarious, since that means Bondi called the top of the market during her Epstein defense remarks with her “the DOW is at 50,000!!!” remarks
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There was no uncertainty about this. China is manufacturing 6 submarines per year. The US is manufacturing on average 1.2. The most recent US aircraft carrier built was in 2017. China built one in 2019 and another one in 2025, and another one believed to be under construction. You don't need super advanced spy insights to realize that China manufactures faster and cheaper than the US.
But also, the US is evidently not running out of missiles or interceptors, because Iran continues to get pummeled and US bases are suffering at most some minor damage.
Wasn't there a meme or something during the first term about Trump standing next to an empty partitioned-off tarmac space boasting about the latest 'invisible' aircraft?
Be careful with that joke, it's an antique.
^Photo is an actual display at Davis-Monthan AFB's boneyard. Kind of a running gag in military aviation.
Imagining that other people are saying racist things does not make them any less racist
Someone probably fed Trump the line about Japanese surprise. This is the administration which hires online trolls to come up with childish memes when the war started, trivializing the death and destruction.
Someone thought it would be hilarious to throw that line in the face of the slanty-eyed wench.
Someone thought it would be hilarious to throw that line in the face of the slanty-eyed wench.
I do have to wonder how Trump consistently manages to deliver the most insulting thing you can say to whoever he's sitting with. We all joke that he's like everyone's favorite racist uncle at Thanksgiving but even they can't lay it down with this regularity.
I know that Japanese PM is basically their version of MAGA but holy smokes it took all of that Japanese pose and etiquette out of her to keep calm. If you watch the video she really visibly flinches at the statement. Which is about as close to Looney Toons eyeballs popping out and jaw hitting the floor in surprise as you'll see of any Japanese person in a formal setting.
I am sure this was meant from the perspective of the racist admin, but you might want to edit this.
NewNinetyNine
Ars Centurion
I don't distinguish between the circumstances of being born into a trust fund and luxury being born into a real estate portfolio and luxury, from a developmental perspective.
NewNinetyNine
Ars Centurion
Fun historical fact: the German submariners ran into a parallel issue with their magnetic triggers earlier in the war, replete with similar denials of defect from their command. Resulting in the survival of Britain's lone aircraft carrier, key naval ships, and a host of merchant vessels.
http://www.uboataces.com/articles-wooden-torpedoes.shtml
I will grant the Trump administration one thing.
Along with everything else they've destroyed, they have, at least in my eyes, completely destroyed the myth of meritocracy.
Yeah, they might have degrees, but is there one person in that administration who isn't either a self-serving moron or an actual psycho?
And hey, if they can get to where they are by acting like fucking toddlers wearing three piece suits, so can you! Of course, you need a shitload of money and a media blitz to sell it, but hey, anybody can use AI spambots or hire troll armies from the philippines.
And even if you arent gonna win the presidency you can still at least make it into city council.
After all, its 2026, nothing matters anymore and civility is a lie. Go crazy!*
*Just don't kill anybody. Please.
Along with everything else they've destroyed, they have, at least in my eyes, completely destroyed the myth of meritocracy.
Yeah, they might have degrees, but is there one person in that administration who isn't either a self-serving moron or an actual psycho?
And hey, if they can get to where they are by acting like fucking toddlers wearing three piece suits, so can you! Of course, you need a shitload of money and a media blitz to sell it, but hey, anybody can use AI spambots or hire troll armies from the philippines.
And even if you arent gonna win the presidency you can still at least make it into city council.
After all, its 2026, nothing matters anymore and civility is a lie. Go crazy!*
*Just don't kill anybody. Please.
NewNinetyNine
Ars Centurion
Take off your strategy hat. Think like a failed property developer who tries to approach the world as a series of transactional deals.
1. We need the Straight or Hormuz open or my approval rating will dip below Kim Jong Un's golf score.
2. But they're telling us to fornicate ourselves with an F-35 when we try to negotiate peace, because we bomb them every time they come to the table.
3. We need a deal! Which means something more substantial to offer than pinky swearing a ceasefire.
4. Khorne...Kh-urg...OIL ISLAND is really important to them. If we do a hostile takeover of it, they'll have to make a deal with us to get it back! Maybe we could even take it again after that and get TWO deals.
5. Bibi assures me that it'll work, and he's like my bestie Middle East expert. It can't fail! I caught Jared whispering the idea into my ear when I was napping at the Resolute desk, so he agrees, too. I checked in with Pete Hegsworth*, and he shouted "LET'S DO IT! YEAHHHH!" between situation room keg stands.
*Author's note: Initially made the authentoc mobile typo "Kegsworth" and desperately wanted to keep it, but cutesy name rule...
NewNinetyNine
Ars Centurion
I'm pretty sure that the post-Obama foreign policy history has demonstrated that "meritocracy" was more of an insider club than an actual trait of competence in Washington. See: Gaza, Afganistan, 2022 Ukraine under-arming, etc.
Somewhat insider club, but the biggest sin was probably orthodoxy. The place was swimming in institutionalists. This was readily apparent into how the Ukraine situation was approached. Decision making appeared to rely on outdated assumptions. It could be likened to IBM, who released the soon-to-be ubiquitous PC, but due to internal politics and lack of vision ceded the field to upstarts who would drive the concept further.
I made it 39 seconds into that video before I had to stop. I may not agree with her politics, but the chops of that politician are pretty amazing. There is zero chance I could keep my mouth shut if I were in that chair.
The one bit of good news about the rushed deployment of the Boxer MEU is that it'll take a month for them to get from San Diego to the Persian Gulf. So if they're meant to participate in the initial invasion of Kharg Island, that buys us a month for some kind of regime change that would bring peace to the region.
The only regime change that will help us here is Trump having a stroke.
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Again, trying to suggest that other countries "have to get involved" in his mess, when, really, they don't. They can just strike deals with Iran, which is the likelier outcome.
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A month is a long time and I don't think they'll be able to open the Strait easily or quickly, even with the added resources. Moreover, we need to check in with Netanyahu and his far right coalition to see what he has planned for everyone else, since they're largely driving a lot of the current chaos. I know they're pretty busy Gaza-ifying Lebanon with our support, but that doesn't mean they won't stop creating a shitshow for everyone else to deal with.
This is the rot are the core of all out institutions.
They hire based on pedigree, having the right name and going to the right school, then getting the right internships or clerkship or whatever.
Its all a clusterfuck of nepotism designed to look like meritocracy.