Israel strikes Iran

The airport was targeted. Not exactly sure when since news reports don’t indicate when the attack occurred

 

Didn't Trump send some real estate developer buddy to knock out a nuclear deal with Iran?

Not sure what the problem could be, didn't that guy get it done?

 

This was just as cute and edgy when you made the same sick burn about Ukraine the first 100 times. Please once more from the top rope …

 

It's never too edgy to mock the "leadership" we have addressing these crucial issues. Or, implicitly, those who voted for it.

After all, there are absolutely no guard rails, norms or frequently even legal standards applied to this group of criminals ..... considering that both the USSC and Republican congress have declined to do their duty.

I'm sorry that you seem to take it so personally when someone speaks negatively of the Trump Administration. Perhaps we should all cease doing so and just pretend that what we're seeing is normal ...... such as all the unconstitutional lawbreaking and appointing real estate buddies to work nuclear deals.

I'll try not to criticize Donald Trump on these things, in order to better protect your feelings. Sorry about all of that.

 

I think they believe Iran’s break out time is around 12 months but could be less.

 

I regularly keep up with issues related to Taiwan and China, and I definitely disagree with Meirsheimer if that is his opinion on Taiwan. I took an undergraduate class on the CCP, the history of censorship and propaganda in China, and the political flashpoints where that censorship has historically occurred. So, I’ve been particularly interested in geopolitical issues related to China and also the internal politics and cultural issues in China since taking that course.

I can definitely understand Meirsheimer’s expertise would lie in examining things from the political science/foreign relations angle, and he is not a military strategy expert or national security expert. Knowledge in those areas have to be baked into the calculus of making decisions about Taiwan, Ukraine, etc. So, I get your vantage point.

I’m curious…why do you view Ukraine as essential for US national security? I understand Taiwan with its strategic central location in the 1st island chain in the Pacific, its dominant share of the global supply of critical computer chips, and the spiraling consequences that would follow if our allies in Asia Pacific felt they could no longer trust us since there is no NATO equivalent in the Pacific. However, what is the rationale for the claim that Ukraine is critically important to our national security?

 

I did not say I did, necessarily. What I said was, Mearsheimer categorically says it is not. But if you want me to make a contrarian argument, I would say our national security is best supported by a rules-based international order, economic interdependence to the maximum extent practicable, and the (natural) growth of liberal democracies worldwide. That, of course, is an ideal. When aggression, especially of an authoritarian or totalitarian power against a nascent democracy, is allowed by the international community unchecked it undermines all of those conditions that buttress our national security. If I were in the room with Mearsheimer when he made the argument that defending Taiwan matters but defending Ukraine does not, I would ask him if he had considered whether allowing Ukraine to fall might encourage China to make its move, therefore facilitating the very thing he most feared. By contrast, if the international community successfully aided Ukraine and forced Russia to a humiliating strategic defeat (still a very real possibility), and that served to deter China from making a similar attempt on Taiwan, does that not meet Mearsheimer’s strategic end desired?

 

Translation: The US should not be constrained by international law.

Our rules. No order.

 

FWIW, if a country is waging war by proxy against another country, then they only have themselves to blame when the war comes to their very own door step. Iran is the one who has normalized war on Israel’s soil. The fact that the war has come to their very own doorstep is purely their own doing. Everyone has a right to self defense including Israel.

 

Quite the operational theory from someone that claims to have such a deep understanding of strategy and international relations.

So under your theory, the US is solely responsible for securing all shipping lanes that US bound shipping uses?

 

I'm crossing my fingers for "the good future"; the Persian equivalent of "die Mauer muss weg!"

 

Not sure what you're talking about. I think the US should have more respect for international law. As opposed to going into say, Syria and Libya and backing Al Qaeda/Islamic state types.