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Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

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Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't read the Twitter link, but that sounds made up. Where in the battlefield decision making process are they listening to social media recordings to make combat decisions?

What do you think the chain of command looks like in the third world? Even in the Russia/Ukraine conflict they use Telegram for basic operations. All chat applications are dual-use.

> What do you think the chain of command looks like in the third world?

I have no idea, but Im certain that twitter recordings do not put frontline forces in disarray.

> use Telegram for basic operations

an encrypted private communication channel is very different than public social media

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Iran clearly has the capability to flatten every major hospital and university and desalination plant in Israel, like Israel has done in Gaza, but they don't. I'm not supportive of Israel having nuclear weapons, but Iran won't do something like this because the Israelis might nuke them. That doesn't excuse Iran also building nuclear weapons. Neither should have them, in my view. Iran also supports the militants tha…

The conflict in Palestine is created entirely by Israel. The militants are just the people who refuse to lay down and take it. This has become more and more obvious - if not through the genocide in Gaza, then through the rapid illegal colonization happening at an accelerated place in the West Bank.

It's not entirely created by Israel, and most of the militants are just lunatics who are thankfully killed. But that doesn't excuse Iranian funding of other militant groups in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, or Iraq. Nor does it excuse Iran's material support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, nor does that justify Iran trying to build a nuclear weapon.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#383
post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you even realize that one of the only reason anybody still supports this war is precisely because of comments like yours? By dividing people into teams, and antagonizing them, you result in people never willing to stomach giving an inch and doubling down on stupid. Obviously this war has been the US' latest great failure, and at the beckoning of a foreign power which makes it especially catastrophic. If people cou…

“Someone was wrong, now I need to pretend they weren’t so that their feelings don’t get hurt so that we can all pretend it didn’t happen”

I am saying that adding your tribal bit to your post is just completely self defeating. And yes, the goal is indeed to avoid hurting people's feelings. I don't know why you'd mock that. People are not machines, and when you make somebody angry at you, or otherwise make him feel insulted - he'll happily argue that 2+2=5 just to avoid giving an inch to you.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#384
post #371

My understanding is we haven’t gotten to full Hormuz apocalypse mode because the Chinese have a ton of stockpiles. And the Red Sea has been an option. Those conditions seem to be changing.

Yeah Chinese oil reserves were much larger than was publicly known. They immediately cut imports by a massive amount as soon as the war started and have been able to keep it up for months. Without that the economic fallout would have been far greater. Not that they are doing it for this reason, but they have done a lot to shield trump from the consequences of his stupid war. But those supplies can only hold for so lo…

China is also reducing gasoline and diesel use by adoption of EVs.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't read the Twitter link, but that sounds made up. Where in the battlefield decision making process are they listening to social media recordings to make combat decisions?

What do you think the chain of command looks like in the third world? Even in the Russia/Ukraine conflict they use Telegram for basic operations. All chat applications are dual-use.

And most chat apps are either e2e encrypted or HTTPS, both of which are hard to break for third world nations.

But leaks of those messages onto twitter are probably the most valuable info source for what the enemy is doing.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#386

The Houthi's have a Saudi backed adversary, I haven't heard about them lately in mainstream media how are they faring? I just thought they would be a tough resistance for the houthis restraining them from what they're currently doing

They're making big noises about taking Sana’a in their current offensive and there's been heavier fighting than in recent months. Other than that, it's hard to tell. Personally, it seems like the Yemeni gov't forces have quite a hill to climb.

The mainstream media has made it sound like the fall of Mocha was at least somewhat surprising, but I don't think that's accurate. It was pretty clear the Houthis would reach the port as late as last week.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does that have to be the only reason? I personally think it has nothing to do with "Hacker" news, but I understand that sentiment has been in the fringe lately with HN becoming increasingly political.

Just to be clear, everything is political - whether you want to acknowledge it or not.

There's a far cry between someone showing off some weird contraption they hacked together versus posting about the Houthi's military campaign. If you can't see that, then I'm not sure what else to say.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#388
post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They share a "land" border through the Caspian sea and smuggling a few 10s of kilos of enriched material would be relatively easy. I'm not a nuclear weapons expert but from what I understand the United States and others are pretty easily able to identify where enriched material comes from. Also we probably have eyes on the material in general and can see where it is being moved. It has to be stored in places, put i…

> the United States and others are pretty easily able to identify where enriched material comes from Maybe, if you let them inspect the material…

Well that's a big IF. Iran wasn't allowing inspections, also we shouldn't need a special deal with Iran or else they build nuclear bombs and try to kill people.

But what I meant was that if a weapon was used we'd be able to identify the signature of the material used and pinpoint the exact location on earth that it came from. In other words, if Russia "easily" (again that's an another feather in the cap agains the JCPOA) sent material to Iran and they used it and built a bomb and used it we'd know it came from a Russian mine. Of course they could maybe steal material from somewhere else and then Russia could transport that but hey, look where we're at. We've got Russia who invaded Ukraine supplying nuclear material to Iran to build a bomb. Maybe we shouldn't be on team Russia/Iran yea?

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#389

The Houthis created a fake audio of a major Yemeni commander telling his troops to retreat which was subsequently amplified on Twitter/X, telegram, etc. Apparently, this helped the Houthis advance quickly as the opposition forces were in disarray. https://x.com/BashaReport/status/2097862335494795579

If that's true, it's insane that it worked. It should be obvious to not take orders from twitter. There's a chain of command for a reason and random people on social media are no part of it. Sounds like the opposition forces would have to be so stupid that any number of Looney Tunes style tricks would have worked. Maybe next they can send out a rabbit in a dress to make opposition fall in love with it.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. It's an intolerable premise and if the price to be paid is global oil catastrophe it's a price well worth paying Says you. All other nuclear nations behave (even Pakistan and India, which are at each other throat all the time). What makes you think that Iran won't? It will also have Russia and China keep a lid on them, same as North Korea. And I don't buy the "Iran is different" go…

> All other nuclear nations behave [...] What makes you think that Iran won't?

Iran already misbehaves, exporting violence to the entire region. How do you think they are going to act when they have nuclear weapons?

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