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Ahh…DailMail…regular newspaper of record, that is…LOL

Fair point.


But this is what is appropriate:


Former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross - who served during the president's first term - believes that Trump is now more likely to strike the Middle Eastern country following the blow to his most significant second-term policy.

'I don't think he can take this loss and then be seen as backing down on Iran,' Ross told The Wall Street Journal.

Fake. Not one ad about sexy milfs waiting to meet me in my area

Look up Operation Northwood and you'll see what the US government is capable of and that was 60 years ago. This isn't some crazy theory, it's declassified from the US Govenrment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods

Do I think Iran was designed as a distraction? Honestly I really don't know. Maybe it was convenient and accomplished multiple goals for the administration.

I think anyone dismissing the theory outright and mocking anyone who thinks it might be a possibility is being extremely cocksure though.

But the dow is at 50,000!!$&$!&

Wikipedia???

I think even the Daily Mail was more authoritative and respected.

I’ll take cocksure for $50.

Even if this excursion ends, there is nothing to guarantee that SOH and oil flow is immediate and sustained. Iran could very well continue and hamper oil flow as retaliation for time to come. Bad news for the airline industry. 2026 is gonna be a dud for profits.

They could in theory, to some degree, it would be hard (but not impossible) to remove all of their capability for that. But they will probably have other things to worry about, and maybe focus internally instead of exporting malign influence and terror.

Fraid So.

It was a rhetorical question.

Don't be so sure. DL's CEO raised revenue guidance this morning on CNBC.

It’s war. On two fronts. DL, like all carriers is a fuel dependent business. A blue chip publicly traded equity. Absent sudden change of Shia thinking, Spring ‘26 is more than less likely to become a watershed moment.

I really hope they are reading the tea leaves right on this one. My family bought 16 tickets for late this summer as a hedge against a potential fuel adjusted fare increases.

Just be mindful of that door.

"The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy" by Mearscheimer was an excellent book published about two decades ago. Joe Kent resigned today and said we are fighting this war for Israel. Is there any reason not to believe this war is because the Zionist entity controls our foreign policy? This is nothing new, it's been going on for decades. We don't fight wars because they are good for the country or the American people.

I hope our industry remains strong. But, usually my CEO says a lot of silly things which end up not verifying. I'll believe a soft landing when I see it.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/17/joe-kent-resigns-director-national-counterterrorism-center

oh here we go! Blame the Jews. Go ahead and mention The Rothschilds, The Pentaverate and Col Sanders and his wee beady eyes!!!

Netanyahu is behind our “excursion”. We got completely played, and it’s not hard to figure out. The rest of the world can see it.

Even for you, that’s a bit over the top. It’s not even past five o’clock man, hit the sauce early?

Hold up. Not once did he use the word “Jew” in that paragraph. AIPAC and ADL have created an environment today in which criticism towards Israel and AIPAC - which are both foreign government interests - is construed as anti-semtitic.


This just isn’t the case. He did not say anything against the Jewish people, rather, the actions of a foreign government. Just pointing out there is a difference.

The rest of the world isn’t answering “the call” to protect the SOH. Not surprising at all. But this means prolong excursion, which means bad news for the airline industry - worldwide.



That Delta guidance is currently looking at string bookings. We’ll see how the industry is if it stays prolonged and oil stays high.

I can totally see a case where we stop, Israel
continues, and Iran periodically attacks tankers in the SOH. That will keep oil prices volatile for a while to come. It’s hard to imagine a scenario Iran just takes their ball and goes home.

Harland ‘Col’ Sanders? Not a colonel. Not Hebrew. Of course, KFC is a yum brand co. since a while now. They’re generous animal welfare donators while staying profitable corn oil boiling billions of roosters in every corner of the finger licking world.

Zionist entity controlling our foreign policy. No more than any other lobby does. We just happen to agree with them that terrorists are bad.

" Don't need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"

Other than looking up a specific question, I never read the employee handbook for any company I worked for. Just show up, be honest, know your job, and don't be a jerk. The rest is foam on the beer.
Didn't do hired interview preps, yet still knew to not say ******* or smoke during the interview.

APC is merely entertainment and a chance to bring order to one's thoughts, not rocket science.
Everyday life just ain't that hard.

I passed by a KFC while in Israel. I thought it funny then but now…

No KFC’s cranking out value buckets in Cuba these days. Population same as Israel. Hypocrisy is the universal language of greed. They’re starving down there, as garbage piles high in feral cat infested streets. 100 miles south of Worth Ave.

There were some extreme rogue attitudes back then, likely leftover from the 'All In" mentality needed for WW-II, and enabled by a relative lack of transparency.

Media, and the likes of Frank Church, put most of that to bed in the decades since. Watergate, Iran-Contra and the Biden coverup all blew up in the faces of the perps.

It's even harder in the era of internet, leaks, and now Alt Media


I can't really nail down a single logical motive. So I tend to think you're right, that multiple factors all played into this. Off the top of my head, in no particular order....

Distraction (ICE? JE?)

Subversive political pressure via Mossad?

Payback for decades of murdering American soldiers who were not involved with Iran?

Golden Opportunity, the A-Hole-Atollahs all in the same room together?

Israeli Ultimatum (they can always use their own nukes, and it's a good argument that a conventional war is better than letting IL get backed into what they consider a corner).

Sincere desire to improve ME stability and global economy? It will objectively be better once the dust settles, going to take IR a long time to rebuild. Maybe he views this as his legacy?

Payback for insultingly refusing to negotiate? Assassination plots?

Trump is objectively a narcissist (along with many other pols). But IMO he does not, after careful and lengthy observation, appear to actually be crazy... he just plays a crazy guy on TV.

But again, it doesn't really matter how we got here...

I think there is a word for this. What is it again?

So says Bill Maher lol.

Yes there is a difference.

From experience, I respect the hell out of IL military and intel. I consider them our most valuable ally in the region.

I understand how their world-view came about.

I also don't trust their government agencies or personnel any further than I could throw Gaza with one arm.

Balanced reporting, I didn't leave anybody out.

This is not correct.

The relationship the US has with the Israeli Lobby, the control and power they enjoy, is unique not only in the USA but the world.

The US-Israeli Lobby is nothing like any other lobbying group in existence.

I'm not here to debate whether this benefits the USA and our interests, but to claim the Israeli lobby is "just like any other lobby" is a belief based in denial and lack of awareness.

All evidence points that the Lobby has an immense amount of power and control on not only our foreign policy but in many aspects domestic policy as well.

It is true that not all Jewish people are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jewish, however there is no other example of a foreign lobby in the US that has so much control and power, nor is there another example in the entire world of a foreign lobby having so much control of another country. In that respect, the US-Israeli relationship is totally unique.

It is also true that Zionism was established as an ideological goal well before the Holocaust in Europe.

So you say it doesn’t matter how we got here, and we are not going to discuss how we got here, AFTER you post all your thoughts about how we may have gotten here?? Are you the only one allowed to list those?
[MOD EDIT]

Clearly successful punching above their weight. Surprising what can be accomplished if you commit to something. The Asian world dwarfs all others. Bear that in mind.

You didn’t understand what I said. Lobbies exert influence on politics. That is largely a function of spend and the diaspora/culture/business they represent. Yes, and Zionism has existed since David. Having more in common on just about everything with Israel vs Islamist despot states certainly helps their cause.

Maybe motive(s) do matter as to how we get out of this mess. This is kind of like the covid forum, needs careful moderation so as to not go off on the usual partisan dogwhistle tangents.

All the above is true. They punch well above their weight influence-wise. Some of that is simply close cultural ties to the US, including holocaust sympathy. Some if it is a deliberate and far reaching campaign of influence and manipulation in various western governments (broader than just the governments actually). Probably some Venn diagram overlap.

Do you think getting out of this mess is likely?

I'm thinking we will climb up the escalation ladder and this will significantly hurt our industry, economy and relationships with allies.

We are pretty much already at peak escalation, a full-on invasion simply isn't in the cards from a practical military perspective. IR has nothing left after the SoH, other than random one-off TBM shots and low-intensity terror ops, all of which they've been doing for years anyway. Their AF and Navy are destroyed, and they have no IADS left. We can also plink away at their mech and armor inventory, leaving the ground forces as just light infantry. Not that their ground forces matter aside from domestic oppression and maybe deterring Iraq long-term.

The question now is how long to either open the strait, setup some scheme to enable shipping, or negotiate an armistice. Or likely some combination. Yes there's uncertainty as to duration and extent of economic impact. But the US administration *should* have a political incentive to minimize that (IL probably doesn't, like the GCC they want to get in their licks while the getting is good).

Of note, the GCC states are now pushing the US to fully dismantle IR's force projection capabilities before we call it off. Like most, they were not in favor of this evolution, but not that we're here they want to take full advantage of it.

I don’t trust Israel - they have their own religious and political agenda. You respect the hell out of their military and intelligence? Remind me who hit and killed and wounded dozens on the USS Liberty? Oops. And how many US warships did Iran take out?

Their intelligence will say what they need to for their own agenda. Eg, convincing the west that Iran was an imminent threat to the west. Despite our own intelligence saying no, they’re at least 10 yrs away at best, and I’m sure you saw the news of a certain somebody in intelligence stepping down saying pretty much just that.


None of this bodes well for us as Americans and the airline industry. And for some of us who actually travel internationally with family, this just paints a big red target on the backs of every American overseas. We are in more danger now as foreigners visiting overseas somewhere.

Professionally? Absolutely! It's almost comical to watch them run rings around the various clown shows in their neighborhood.

That was ancient history. But as I said, I don't trust them

They have *tried* to take out many, over many decades. They're just not very good at it.

Yes I don't trust the IL government. They will blatantly serve their own interests to the exclusion of else, even to the point of tripping over dollars to save dimes. It's almost pathological.

I think our industry in 2026 is going to take a hit... to sensitive to spikes. The rest of the economy is TBD.

Potentially true, but so low on my list of priorities that I don't even care. I deal with that kind of thing by picking alternative travel destinations. I like to go places where crowds and civil unrest are low and the dollar is high.

For those cheering for the Iran team on this, good news...

They damaged five US tankers in SA via drone attack. That plus the two lost from inventory in the midair will constitute a significant degradation tanker capacity, and therefore strike capacity until replaced or repaired.