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U.S. intelligence shows Iran retains substantial missile capabilities

nytimes.com

31–38 of 38 posts

Re: U.S. intelligence shows Iran retains substantial missile capabilities

#31

Suprises no one. I remember reading that the IRGC is quite a distributed organization, and has planned for the exact situation they find themselves in today. Im guessing they have lots of stuff stashed away only known to each IRGC "section"

It's not just that, the entire Iranian government setup is designed to make it as difficult as possible to get rid of them. Their government isn't built around checks and balances or the other usual things, it's a group that came to power through revolution and have done everything possible to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen to them. The result is a baroque interlocking system of councils and bodies and roles without any single point of failure.

Which any career diplomat and analyst in the USG would have known, but clearly came as a complete surprise to a motley collection of reality TV stars, religious nutcases, and former Fox news pundits.

Re: U.S. intelligence shows Iran retains substantial missile capabilities

#32

The amount of buffoonery on the US side is staggering. 1. Iran is always 2 weeks away from having nuclear missiles. 2. Iran's military capability is destroyed. 3. If Iran had nuclear warheads, it could successfully deploy them against the US. 4. If Iran had nuclear warheads and could deliver them, their leadership is so suicidal/stupid that it would trigger MAD. Truly staggering buffoonery.

The enemy is both strong and weak.

"To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself -- that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink".

Re: U.S. intelligence shows Iran retains substantial missile capabilities

#34
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they should be experiencing regret. The power in nukes is not in using them, it's in the threat of using them. The threat of using them keeps you from being attacked, but once you actually use them, so will the other guys. This war has pulled the tarp off of their control over the Strait of Hormuz though. That's a strategic weapon they can use without getting nuked back. Iran is much stronger than they…

The power of nukes is that you don't get attacked by the US or Israel or Russia or anyone else. None of this would have happened if they had developed (or otherwise acquired) nuclear weapons. End of story.

> The power of nukes is that you don't get attacked by the US or Israel or Russia or anyone else.

Until they use them...

Re: U.S. intelligence shows Iran retains substantial missile capabilities

#35
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The power of nukes is that you don't get attacked by the US or Israel or Russia or anyone else. None of this would have happened if they had developed (or otherwise acquired) nuclear weapons. End of story.

> The power of nukes is that you don't get attacked by the US or Israel or Russia or anyone else. Until they use them...

No reason to think they would, unless some idiot were to attack them.

Turns out they were the idiots, for trusting us to behave in accordance with international law.

Re: U.S. intelligence shows Iran retains substantial missile capabilities

#36
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If their regular missiles are bad enough, just imagine them with nukes.

All we seem to have done is prove to every non-nuclear country that they all SHOULD have nukes. Because it would have prevented Iran being invaded.

Didn't Russia invading Ukraine already prove that?

Re: U.S. intelligence shows Iran retains substantial missile capabilities

#37
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The power of nukes is that you don't get attacked by the US or Israel or Russia or anyone else. Until they use them...

No reason to think they would, unless some idiot were to attack them. Turns out they were the idiots, for trusting us to behave in accordance with international law.

That "idiot" could attack using false flag op, blame someone else. Also, would you trust a decentralized military like Iran has to not fire a nuke for a minor provocation?

Re: U.S. intelligence shows Iran retains substantial missile capabilities

#38
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No reason to think they would, unless some idiot were to attack them. Turns out they were the idiots, for trusting us to behave in accordance with international law.

That "idiot" could attack using false flag op, blame someone else. Also, would you trust a decentralized military like Iran has to not fire a nuke for a minor provocation?

So far they've been sound, unsurprising considering they have no nuclear weapons despite being a week away from having one for three or four decades now.

The greater question is can the world trust a self indulgenent narcissist with zero checks and balances from having a 3 am whim to launch while Truthing on the toilet.

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