Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route • Hacker News Board

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

#331

Post by bluGill » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:10 PM UTC

soperj wrote: post #220

pphysch wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can Israel have a nuclear weapon? It is also an insanely violent ethno-theocratic regime.

You can ask the same question of the US. They're the only ones to have actually used them (and they try to justify it still). For all those who are about to reply saying it was justified because it saved American lives, why didn't you use it Afghanistan or Iraq?

Almost nobody today was alive when the US used nuclear weapons. We can ignore them at this point.

Judge the current US policy by the current US.

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

#332

Post by throwitaway222 » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:10 PM UTC

marcyb5st wrote: post #261

ericmay wrote: post #146

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…

Because they'll be the first to use it to kill millions since the 1940s

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

#333

Post by LtWorf » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:10 PM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #231

globalnode wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes ofc its a world problem, and guess who the world is not going to be happy with?

You can be mad at America and ignore Iran's role if you want, but that doesn't lead you to anywhere productive. The United States like any country is an actor on the world stage that has interests and can take action to defend or assert those interests. If the world thinks this is a problem, they should have mediated between the United States and Iran and helped to prevent conflict. Instead they did next to nothing.…

What was Iran's role? Defending themselves?

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

#334

Post by mitxela » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:11 PM UTC

jb3689 wrote: post #313

consumer451 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy shit. This is really interesting. AI used to impersonate, social media to amplify, and that led to a significant tactical defeat? I don't want to live in interesting times anymore.

“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet” seems like the golden rule we’ve all forgotten

Yet here we are, believing that the Houthis used fake AI voice to achieve a battlefield victory.

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

#335

Post by bluGill » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:11 PM UTC

DrScientist wrote: post #291

bijowo1676 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the reason China was using stockpiles is they want to time the gasoline price shock right to the midterm elections. The moment they stop using stockpiles and start purchasing the prices will jump

Blaming the current situation on the actions of China is beyond bizarre.

China has some influence. They did do what was said - but only if you take the absolute most charitable reading (which is a expected here).

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

#336

Post by andriy_koval » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:12 PM UTC

pphysch wrote: post #198

ericmay wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Besides the point and whataboutism, but I'm not advocating that Israel should have nuclear weapons. They do, and I'm not sure there's much we can do about it at this point. Same with North Korea. I'm opposed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons and just because one country has one doesn't mean other countries should go and get them too.

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. It's also clear that Iran having nukes would be a strategic deterrent to Israel's ultraviolent territorial expansionism.

> Iran clearly has the capability to flatten every major hospital and university and desalination plant in Israel

its not clear at all. They clearly tried to hit Izrael with barrages of missiles, but looks like their targeting systems suck.

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

#337

Post by mitxela » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:12 PM UTC

jurgenburgen wrote: post #306

inglor_cz wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We seem to be in need of a mercenary Uber, where individual mercenaries will have their reputation and the potential customers will be able to check it.

You joke but even though there’s not an app per se, Russia is using the “gig economy” to run sabotage ops in Europe.

How do they do that?

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

#338

Post by simiones » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:12 PM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #222

pphysch wrote: post #198

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. It's also clear that Iran having nukes would be a strategic deterrent to Israel's ultraviolent territorial expansionism.

> 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.

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

#339

Post by drTobiasFunke » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:12 PM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #254

MSFT_Edging wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. It's an intolerable premise Actions have consequences. The continual attack on the sovereignty of countries around the world has made nuclear weapons one of the few ways to avoid being a client state of the US at the expense of your own population. Iran has figured out another method it seems. This is blowback. The simple lesson that we refuse to learn.

> The continual attack on the sovereignty of countries around the world has made nuclear weapons one of the few ways to Name the other countries pursuing a nuclear weapon. Maybe you are drumming up a fear that nobody else really has.

There is no large country left which is not an American client state to pursue nuclear weapons . India was in the 90s, and they pursued nukes, tested them and got sanctioned by the west.

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

#340

Post by ericmay » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:12 PM UTC

mmooss wrote: post #316

ericmay wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The continual attack on the sovereignty of countries around the world has made nuclear weapons one of the few ways to Name the other countries pursuing a nuclear weapon. Maybe you are drumming up a fear that nobody else really has.

They don't announce their secret nuclear weapons programs before they are complete (though they are sometimes discovered), but some countries have violated international law and developed them, precisely to protect their sovereignty: - North Korea - Israel - India - Pakistan All retain their sovereignty, though I can't prove any causal effect and certainly nuclear weapons isn't the only cause. Others have pursued the…

India and Pakistan both rushed their programs back in the 40s/50s ( or maybe later I can't recall off the top of my head). Libya and South Africa were negotiated away. That leaves Israel probably from the, what, 70s or 80s? And North Korea was supported by Russia and China. I'm not sure you could consider any of those countries to be "pursuing nuclear weapons" today. Plus by that logic you'd have to throw in the US, UK, China, Soviets, and France too.

So when you sort of set aside countries from prior to, idk, 1980s ish you don't really have anyone at least publicly (to your point) pursuing nuclear weapons. However it's not just the enrichment of uranium which is tightly controlled it's also the missile technology to deliver the weapons. Keeping a nuclear program secret these days I think is quite a bit more difficult than in the past.

So when you look around today you've got Iran that we know of pursuing a nuclear program. I'm not sure anyone else is by virtue of how difficult (I think?) it would be to do so undetected. Though there are countries (Japan and Korea come to mind) who we think have the ability to scale up a program very quickly.