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Iran launched unsuccessful attack on UK's Diego Garcia

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Re: Iran launched unsuccessful attack on UK's Diego Garcia

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment made me realise that while Iran has attacked a dozen countries, they have yet to attack a school or a hospital. Not condoning anyone but shows the priority of both sides.

Well some civilians have been injured when Iran attacked the hotels where US agents were stationed. Mostly due to them being foreign workers and well we all know how Dubai and the Saudis treat foreign workers. They were not allowed evacuate in time. Of course it will be hard to completely avoid civilian casualties in the long run, I fear but yeah Iran has been pretty measured. Iran's fight is with the US imperialists…

> some civilians have been injured when Iran attacked the hotels where US agents were stationed

Surely the US are using civilians as human shields?

Re: Iran launched unsuccessful attack on UK's Diego Garcia

#172
To me this is like the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo during WWII. The tactical result isn't important, the range of the strike is, and that it happened at all. Japan thought it was immune from air attack on the home islands in 1942, and the raid shocked them.

Iran is showing the world (especially Europe), that it's more vulnerable than it thinks. Europe has more skin in the game than just the price of oil and nitrogen. Also think about what would happen if Iran is able to recreate something like the Cuban missile crisis now that we've moved a bunch of our military assets to the middle east.

Re: Iran launched unsuccessful attack on UK's Diego Garcia

#173
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is that we have leaders who actively believed the downplaying of Irans military capabilities We've been hinting about these capabilities for decades [0]. A lot of what is being brought up now is stuff a number of us touched on during the Obama years. None of this is really hidden either - it would be brought up in think tanks and even undergrad classes if you attended a target program. Civilian leaders have always…

> it's all about managing upwards That might not work with the current administration. Which probably a/the problem.

It still does/is. Most of what I'm seeing with Iran is similar to what was discussed back in the early 2010s.

There hasn't been significant churn in the NatSec space aside from political appointees, and core policymakers like Doshi, Maestro, Allison, Colby, and even Hill have worked with administrations irrespective of party affiliation.

Re: Iran launched unsuccessful attack on UK's Diego Garcia

#175
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we can only reach stalemate once a country has nukes and otherwise have to start blowing up their schools?

According to postwar foreign policy clearly that’s true: Look at Libya and Ukraine for your most direct examples - give away your nukes, get invaded. South Africa is an odd example that proves the rule: they simply bend the knee to the west. Nuclear deterrents and mutual assured destruction has been the key driver in preventing large scale conflict in the “postwar period.” Everyone knows Israel has nukes it’s just a…

Mutually assured destruction does seem to deter conflict, but even assuming it works, it always seemed like a poor tradeoff to me.

Significantly reduce the frequency of small to medium-scale conflicts, in exchange for an inevitable, possibly apocalyptic nuclear conflict at some point. Maybe not this year, maybe not for centuries, but one day, someone will press the button.

Re: Iran launched unsuccessful attack on UK's Diego Garcia

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many experts think Iran has already won. They don't have to lay mines to seed doubt, they don't need boats to close the straights, shaheds are sufficient. One does need to define what it means to "win" For Iran, it seems the regime will stay in power, you can't remove them from the air. The geography and population size of Iran will prove more challenging than Iraq or Afghanistan. There is very little support for Tru…

I was just talking about winning the “plant-bombs” vs “detect and-blow-up-bombs” chess game. I have no comment on the rest of what you said, nor do I care who “wins” here, I have no say in the matter and have chosen zero emotional investment.

Similarly, there are new laser guided hydra pods starting to roll out.

https://en.defence-ua.com/news/ukraine_could_equip_its_f_16s...

Re: Iran launched unsuccessful attack on UK's Diego Garcia

#177
post #148
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t be an apologist for what’s going on but the Iranians seemed capable of killing tens of thousands of their own citizens in order to quash an uprising against the regime only weeks before the current events.

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I really is ridiculous, and somehow the number only gets bigger as the stories are told! Last I saw was "40,000 protestors murdered in just 24 hours!", or something very close to it.

The US and Israel have been carpet bombing Iran for weeks now, blowing up hospitals, schools, power plants and residential buildings, yet the Iranian death toll is "only" around 1,500 so far. Yet we are to believe that Iran killed 40k of its own people in a day - you would literally be able to see piles of corpses from space!

Israel has also claimed that they've hacked every traffic camera in Tehran, yet are mysteriously unable to provide any actual evidence of the supposed massacre - meanwhile, Iran released several videos showing foreign agitators distributing weapons, people attacking civilians etc.

Re: Iran launched unsuccessful attack on UK's Diego Garcia

#178
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that would be stupid and their regime is not stupid

They're Muslims. You can debate whether that means 'stupid', but they've come to totally erroneous opinions on the structure of reality.

Equal to any other religion?

Re: Iran launched unsuccessful attack on UK's Diego Garcia

#179
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think launching a dumb ICBM at New York would make the US put boots on the ground. I kind of doubt it's enough. This wouldn't be another 9/11, it would be merely be retaliation.

the war is wildly unpopular in the US (rightfully so) - attacking US would rally the country (rightfully so) and regime would fall within a week (with significant casulties on our side)

Probably all true, except for the "within a week" part. We don't have nearly enough there yet to do that, and buildups take time.

Re: Iran launched unsuccessful attack on UK's Diego Garcia

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a message toward the west don't think you're safe further away. Iran is pushing the west out of west Asia. Time will tell what USIS and EU will do to combat this.

> Time will tell what USIS and EU will do to combat this. Diplomacy was working fine, per high-ranking diplomats: https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2026/03/18/americas-...

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