Hey man, you make some good posts & when it comes to the FL350 view, you and I are largely in agreement. However, in the interest of intellectual integrity, I’ve got to stop you there. Iran has, in fact, been a very bad actor in the region for a long time. They have given direct support in the form of cash, weapons, training, and advisement & even direct leadership to proxies in the region who have directly engaged US forces on myriad occasions. Hell, sometimes the “proxies” are little more than badly disguised Iranian irregular forces. While I think, as I believe you do, that the current operation was ill conceived and poorly executed & will create more problems than it solves, make no mistake, there have been plenty of recent reasons to engage the regime kinetically. I just wish we would’ve been smarter about it as I believe we will not achieve our objectives there anytime soon. About the KC-135 “collision”, we have seen no official confirmation that that’s what happened. You may be a bit premature in your assessment.

 

I had to shake my head when I read that too. My responses would have surely been deleted by the mods so I will leave it at that. Some people just can't be reasoned with.

 

Spicy, cinco peppers picante.

If you bothered to watch the Israeli PM on 60 mins last night, he made their position clear in a way which leaves little doubt on Iran, Iran’s proxies, growing progress with other Arab governments and rejection of a non binding no nuke treaty. Let’s face it, Iran is a headless Islamic jihad state with the supreme inner circle now decimated. Who knows how long such volatility may last or when resumption of semi-routine gulf trade may occur.

 

Omg, none of what you wrote here is correct. And the, “it’s not a vaccine” stuff is incorrect too. Wherever you’re “doing your research” is completely bonkers.

 

Yes CA politicians absolutely created a fuel shortage (all the ones we care about gas, diesel, kerosene).

And now they get to blame it on DJT, just in time for the midterms. Not sure why he didn't let them lie in the bed they made for a while and do Iran after midterms

 

Sure. But we are talking US soldiers. A very limited amount have died in the ME, excluding the Iraq (and Syria) wars . So, what incident are we accusing Iran of murdering U.S. soldiers?

How about 30+ U.S. Navy sailors by Israel as a “oops.” Can you imagine if Iran did an oops that killed 30+ U.S. soldiers? Or shot down an airliner that killed 290 U.S. citizens? When it comes to engagement, we seem to have done way more to them than they ever did. Besides, what group specifically armed by Iran killed US citizens? Maybe the Yemen Houthis but they have hit locals around them, not Americans.


Engaging them kinetically means drop bombs in Tehran. That, I disagree with. Yet another useless war. Like anything, follow the money. Any vocal US politician for the attacks on Iran, study their bank accounts and see how much AIPAC money they took. The Ted Cruz types. Who when interviewed by Tucker of all people, gave cowardly answers with zero actual knowledge about the country of Iran.

 

He should have been jailed for war crimes long ago. How does he get prime time on 60 minutes. Don’t answer that, I already know the uncomfortable answer to that question.

 

That was adjudicated an accident. After we drove a spy ship into a hot war zone. Fog of war happens. Yawn.

It is a good example of why not to trust IL to exercise restraint, but that's the extent of the significance.

Iran started a battle with US naval forces, and they flew an airliner right into it. Fog of war happens. Yawn.

 

All excused under the guise of “fog of war.” Somehow, I have a feeling if Iran had done that, they don’t get any benefit of the doubt of “fog of war.”



By the way, “they” needs to be a distinction between the military of Iran, versus civilian airliner who has nothing to do with the nonsense going on in the SOH.

The Americans had access to flight schedule pamphlets, a screen that showed the airplane clearly climbing away at 250 knots, not diving. And no, they weren’t monitoring 121.5. Bandar Abbas to Dubai is a short flight. Radio #2 would have have been busy getting weather, company ops, in range, etc. Not to mention, the F14 was not a carrier/destroyer attack aircraft with how they had them equipped.


But “fog of war” are some (not all) of a certain type of person I see in my CCW class. The ones who are sprung and ready, literally looking for a reason to shoot and legally kill someone.

Thankfully one time there was a certain Russian commander who was able to not be confused with fog of war, use a clear rational sound mind, and decide that he was not looking at 5 real nukes in his screen headed towards Russia from America.

 

History is written by the victors. Victors can adjudicate whatever they feel was an accident. The victim side, the loser in that case, has no say.