Israel strikes Iran (Update: US Bombs Iran at #848)

You speak to things that it is probably impossible for me, or almost everyone else on this board, to address knowingly.

What we can and do know is;

1) Obviously, Trump signed off twice that the deal was working.

2) Trump wanted out of it either (or both) because it was a deal done by Obama and/or he wanted to tie the deal to other (terrorist) actions by Iran - an association Europe was clearly opposed to.

3) There appears to be no public evidence that Iran had broken the deal when Trump ceased honoring the deal in 2017.

4) In 2025, instead of appointing qualified diplomats to rework any kind of agreement, he appointed an unqualified real estate buddy to be in charge.


So while again stating that the most recent military actions were probably our then-best choice, these things aren't binary and exclude other truths. Specifically; it's perfectly rational to state that it's absurd to think that Trump made any kind of legitimate, or even competent, effort to effect any other productive outcome.

 

OK, great. Well, at any rate, it’s what we call “a round down range” at this point anyway. That deal is done for all time, and so is whatever leverage Iran had for a similar one. Any new deal is going to be far less lucrative for Iran. And the language has to specifically address the role of the IRGC. Only a damn fool would let that loophole pass a second time.

 

Well, Iron Eagle II* was even dumber. Does that help?



* Ironically, the plot of which was about a coalition involving the U.S., Israel, and the Soviet Union to take out the nuclear weapons program of a middle eastern country that was clearly meant to be Iran.

 

My point is that we will never know, because Trump exited the agreement. So, we (the electorate) can’t really say factually and empirically that we know the result of the alternative timeline where Trump didn’t exit the agreement. In other words, I could easily say we would have been allowed next to the sites. Who knows? We are all throwing out opinions here as facts, which is really a problem with the situation. We need fact based reporting.

 

If democrats were not notified…. that would clearly explain why there were no “leaks”. Can you imagine what would have happened if Jose Padilla, Max Waters, AOC or the Somali Princess had been told of the attack, in advance???!

 

Know to a certainty, I agree. But can you ever? The depth and breadth of the Israeli intelligence is what I find most compelling. I was not as skeptical as many about what Israel was reporting, but I still had my doubts about how they could possibly know what they said they knew. I’m no longer a doubter. That they could get the entire IRGC general staff into a room together and then take it out. That they could simultaneously take out all of the Iranian nuclear scientists where they slept. Our best people on their best day couldn’t pull that off. Israel clearly had their hand on the pulse of that program all along.

 

De Borchgrave specialized in cybertrrrorism/cyberwarfare at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in @ashington DC.

Arnaud co-chaired a task force that put out this book (or report) in 1998:

Cyber threats and information security : meeting the 21st century challenge

Since you claim "cyber" was just becoming a thing in 2006 you must be impressed that Arnaud was working on cyberterrorism/data security/etc in the 1990s. He was ahead of his time and still extremely sharp at the time of his death.

 

Pretty sure we would have seen any significant movement if it happened.

 

I notice you refer to Alex Padilla as "Jose", just like JD Vance did.

Have to wonder if this is an honest mistake (by both you and Vance), or just an attempt to "other" a political opponent by implying that his ethnicity is that of a minority ("Remember - he's not like you and me!")

To be fair, it could just be you repeating what you've heard from one of your esteemed political leaders. From Vance, who publicly stated that he intentionally told racist lies about immigrants during the election campaign, it would be rational to assume the opposite. After all, Trump and his Administration have a long history of racist statements and actions followed up with "Ooops, our mistake - why are you so bothered?".

 

A logical explanation for this is that the US told Iran about the attack in advance. The attack achieved little to nothing in all probability. Iran refrained from attacking our planes and the US promised no more attacks

Just a possibility (but remember, I'm a genius)

 

Hegseth and the gang are the only ones known for leaking information before an attack

 

I thought think tanks like CSIS are part of the deep state. Are we cool citing them now?

And I doubt Arnaud did an original work since he was caught plagiarizing during his time there. So not really impressed.

 

Or, and hear me out, Iran had nothing to shoot at them with since the Israelis destroyed the majority of Iran's air defenses and have air superiority over Iran right now. (but remember, I'm just a mediocre staff officer.)

 

wonder if China is going to want the US to help them here

 

wow, I cant actually tell anything from this...hope we dont rely on this for the damage assessment

 

Crippy seed?

 

Iran just needs to ask itself one question. Just one. Do I like having a navy?

 

What about Aces: Iron Eagle III or Iron Eagle on the Attack? Both carried by Chappy and received some Oscar buzz at the time of their release.