Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz

responsiblestatecraft.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

981–990 of 1001 posts

Re: Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz

#981

Post by fastasucan »

mindslight wrote: post #877
matheusmoreira wrote: post #662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how nukes work. When it comes to nuclear weapons, the world is divided into haves and have-nots. Anyone lacking effective nuclear response can be steamrolled by those who do with total impunity. The USA has been attacked before but it has never been invaded and forced to fight a war on its own soil against foreign enemies. It's possible that they unconsciously believe war is something they bring to others, nev…

> It's possible that they unconsciously believe war is something they bring to others, never something others bring to them Spot on. As an American who is quite critical of the imperialist dynamic, I still catch myself thinking this way. Like " what if Iran actually attacks something around me?" But it's war , shouldn't one expect that an enemy might attack at any point?! Except, we just don't think of war as somethi…

This is interesting. Even though its many years ago most of Europe have a big open wound from WWII. That might be a missing ingredient for the american people to be less trigger happy when it comes to bombing other countries. The act of bombing a school full of children would have turned everything on its head in my country.

Re: Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz

#982

Post by fastasucan »

gizmo686 wrote: post #491
maxglute wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real thought experiment is ~600m people in central/south American within ~6000km, i.e. IRBM range of US gulf coast, where ~50% of US oil refinery and LNG plant production are. Now that Iran has validated mid tier power can cobble together precision strike complex, it's only going to be matter of time before relatively wealthier countries realize only way out of M/Donroe is to build conventional strike against US…

The problem for a would be attacker is that the US still has enough military power to give almost any country on the planet a very bad day every day for as long as the US cares to. Historically, the way to win against the US is to survive long enough for the US to get bored and leave. The last time that happened, it took us 2 decades to get bored.

"Bored", is that what you call thousands killed, a massive national debt and a political minefield?

Re: Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz

#983

Post by fastasucan »

dinkumthinkum wrote: post #945
jacquesm wrote: post #657

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this does in the long run is set the stage for another 9/11.

With respect, this is such a terrible position. This view basically says that we should accept terrorists regimes to do what they want because if they don’t, they will commit terrorisk against us. That is not the right way to deal with bad actors.

Wait, are you talking about the US government now?

Re: Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz

#984

Post by fastasucan »

dinkumthinkum wrote: post #949
ErroneousBosh wrote: post #643

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US can fly not only F-35 but even B-52. Well, looking at the news, it turns out they can't because every time they've put something up it's ended in a horrific crash. The US is militarily weak, and is utterly reliant on its NATO allies, who don't want to get involved in the current round of war crimes.

Are you delusional? The US militarily weak? Based on what? What in your view is an example of a strong military? And the US is reliant on NATO allies? HN has really become massively under America Derangement Syndrome. This is like a fever dream.

Well, what should people infer from Trump either pleading og trying to threaten for help every other day?

Re: Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz

#985

Post by MidnightRider39 »

ACCount37 wrote: post #866
MidnightRider39 wrote: post #760

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think air dominance will hold up for long if a plane costs billions and a drone a couple thousand. Any interceptor rocket the US uses will set them back millions versus literal peanuts on the other side. Add that Iran is basically a mountain fortress and they’ll run out of money very quickly; disregarding that prolonging the war will be __very__ unpopular in the US. They really got themselves into an unwinnab…

How does a drone costing "a couple thousand" take out a plane? It doesn't. Shaheds and quads offer no threat to US air superiority. Iran can fling them at the ground targets willy-nilly, sure, and that will inflict causalities on FOBs and ground forces. There's no ready-made solution to low end attack drones. But the sky is going to remain with the US. This allows US to dispense JDAMs at anything that pops its nose o…

> How does a drone costing "a couple thousand" take out a plane?

Well when the plane is landed you fly a cheap drone into it and it’s wrecked, simple as that.

Of course you can’t intercept it in the air but it has to land sometime

Re: Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz

#986

Post by cineticdaffodil »

zimpenfish wrote: post #648
Animats wrote: post #426

A big mistake here was simply underestimating the scale of Iran. Iran has 90,000,000 people. More than 2x Ukraine. More than 2x Germany. More than 2x Iraq. More than any country in Europe. About 2/3 of Russia. Expecting to win a war on the cheap was a fantasy. Especially since Iran has been fighting Israel for years. On the naval front, Ukraine sunk the Moskva with a few truck-mounted missiles. That finally made it u…

> Iran has 90,000,000 people. More than 2x Ukraine. More than 2x Germany. More than 2x Iraq. More than any country in Europe. About 2/3 of Russia. According to [0], in 2025 Iran had 86M people. Ukraine had 29M (~33%), Germany (highest in Europe) had 83M (~96%, uh?), Iraq had 46M (~53%), and Russia had 146M (~168% / ~59% reversed). Wildly, wildly wrong about Germany but not too far off the rest[1]. [0] https://en.wiki…

Also half of the people in iran hate the government or even have a feud with it after it murderd their protesting relatives..

Re: Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz

#987

Post by SergeAx »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #662
integricho wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is so rich hearing that America can attack anybody, but godforbid an attack on the "homeland" is an unforgivable act that will invoke nukes immediately.

That's how nukes work. When it comes to nuclear weapons, the world is divided into haves and have-nots. Anyone lacking effective nuclear response can be steamrolled by those who do with total impunity. The USA has been attacked before but it has never been invaded and forced to fight a war on its own soil against foreign enemies. It's possible that they unconsciously believe war is something they bring to others, nev…

Just like Ukraine is being steamrolled by Russia, right?

Re: Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz

#988

Post by asdff »

dinkumthinkum wrote: post #951
asdff wrote: post #923

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>destroying much of Iran's military and leadership was done from US carriers. If anything it demonstrates how powerful they are. When you have a hammer that costs billions of dollars in budget you tend to find excuses to use it lest you lose that budget. Imagine if their were no carriers. US airpower just takes off from gulf state airbases and same thing happens to iran. Unless the US is fighting an air battle in the…

Did you go to War College to learn this? I mean seriously, do you really think they would spend billions of dollars and millions of man hours training …. I mean, I’d it’s possible that maybe you just don’t understand the dynamics of war fighting and there is a reason for carriers to exist besides “fighting in the ocean?”

What are they for beyond a platform for landing planes?

Re: Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz

#989

Post by smitty1e »

chneu wrote: post #124
smitty1e wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Jan 6th. Even the example you gave is incorrect. Lol. It's so obvious when conservatives cherry pick information to placate their views.

Pelosi's Folly? Give the other leg a pull too, please.

Re: Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz

#990

Post by boruto »

dundarious wrote: post #416
tim333 wrote: post #225

>The era of carrier-dominated airpower is fading, as cheap, unmanned anti-ship weapons reshape naval warfare, whether US planners are ready for it or not. is not really backed up by reality. Pretty much the whole US operation so far, destroying much of Iran's military and leadership was done from US carriers. If anything it demonstrates how powerful they are. Also straits being closed to shipping by whatever power co…

> destroying much of Iran's military and leadership Good at hitting targets, terrible at achieving goals. Same as Afghanistan, Vietnam, etc. Were the Taliban destroyed by killing their upper echelons several times over? In terms of resilience, the Iranians are similar, arguably much more so.

> Afghanistan

Mullah omar died of tuberculosis in 2013. Have to say, pashtunwali meant US found no insiders to assasinate Talibani leadership.

Post reply on HN