I think they may actually drain it… then they can have camel races on the flat salt bed.

 

Except by accounts outside the U.S. and Israel, negotiations were working.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...s-within-reach

 

IR no longer has the capacity to do that, and what capacity they still have is dwindling rapidly.

The Houthis are laying very low right now... their ability to project power beyond the city limits of Sanaa is severely curtailed now that their IR masters are cowering in their bunkers.

Hint: proxy terrorist groups do not have the means to buy or build their own ASMCs.

If the Houthis use up what they may still have, then they have nothing left for a rainy day, and no prospect of getting more.

 

I’m equally surprised I’ll have this war settled in 24 hrs didn’t happen either.



Btw, the correct answer was “because they have nukes and ICBMs. So we couldn’t give them the Iran treatment.”


If Iran had zero intentions of pursuing a nuclear program for weaponry, they are going to be 100% committed now.

 

That's true WRT to RU. Also DPRK up to a point. But RU has enough capability to really mess up the world as we know it, so it was always a non-starter to engage them directly.

Depends.

1. Regime change is still possible.

2. Even if the current regime continues in spirit, they may temper their ambitions for survival reasons. Or economic/domestic political reasons.

3. Assuming we get after enough of their nuclear-related infrastructure, they would be set back decades. Also they'll still be subject to sanctions, which would limit their access to technology, hardware, and money.

There's absolutely no way they just bounce right back from this, the damage is done.

Now if they give up the nuclear (weapons) program there will likely be treats for good behavior... better economic prospects and it's also likley that we would allow them to rebuild their *conventional* military forces just for self-defense and regional stability. It's a rough neighborhood, and IR was not the aggressor in every past regional conflict.

It's actually in our interest too for there not be a regional power imbalance. In the mid-term though all of the regional actors look stable, I don't see Iraq doing a repeat of 1980 any time soon.

 

Bat$hit crazy religious zealots have never lacked for commitment - as shown by their willingness to put suicide vests on even themselves, their wives, and their kids to drive home their point. That’s real commitment in anyone’s book.

Perhaps the best we can do is to deny them the ABILITY to have nuclear weapons.

 

The houthis are laying very low right now? As opposed to? Please share what the big bad wolf known as the houthis did to the U.S. or Israel, when compared to the atrocities of the Putin regime and their war of the past 3 years?


rickair, I know you’re intelligent (or at least I hope you are), so please answer this: Do you seriously believe Iran was imminent to attack the United States? Do you actually believe US citizens would die here on our homeland?

 

I absolutely agree with the bolded first 4 words of your post. So speaking of batpoop crazy religious zealots, let’s start with the U.S. and Israel.


And what Iranian put a vest on their wives or kids?

 

The houthis shot a lot of missiles after the beginning of this war, which was Oct 7. They are in a position to use IR supplied ASCMs and drones against shipping in the Bab and Red Sea. They also attempted to shoot US naval vessels, including a CVN.

Of course not, how many times do I have to say I was not in favor of this action.

But IR was objectively killing Americans overseas, and a threat to the global (oil) economy which ultimately needed to be dealt with. The question was how, and to what degree the US needed to be involved. I was good with the first strikes against the IR nuke facilities, IL was 100% going to do that anyway and kick up the hornet's nest.

 

Most likely explanation is that Israel knows it has a limited window to act vis a vis the Trump admin. They’ve likely calculated that chances are good the midterms in the U.S. will seriously constrain the administration’s ability to act & they want to accomplish as much kinetic effect as possible until that point.

With the current administration, Israel has been given far fewer red lights and is predictably doing what it feels is in its best interests. SOME of those interests align with ours, but certainly not all & even Trump appears to be frustrated with the extent of Israeli strikes so far in this war. Personally, I believe it was beyond foolish to cut the head off the snake & expect anything but equally venomous fangs to grow back.

We are paying a very heavy price in lives lost, lives forever changed, military capability being attritted (we lost seven tankers in a week, expending a metric f@%k ton of very expensive ordinance, and apparently F-35s are being shot up by Iranian air defenses that we were assured were zapped in the first days of the war). For what? When is it over? Hint: Middle East forever war hasn’t been over since 1990, & it won’t be over whenever we finally call this one “mission accomplished” which could be next week or ten years down the road.

In the meantime, the guys and gals that replaced me in mil cockpits will continue to waste half their lives in conex quarters that were built to last months, but will house troops for decades, we will continue to use up valuable equipment and countless taxpayer dollars (all while screaming about the national debt mind you), and China and other potential adversaries will continue to capitalize on our folly while building up military force and soft power in places we SAY are strategically important to us. This isn’t that hard folks. We’ve all seen this movie multiple times.