Not anymore. Shifting accountability for f’ups onto anything & anyone else is an essential job skill.
Getting by on 2/3’s previous global crude output is not impossible. Meanwhile mounting internal pressure to restore tanker traffic to Asian/euro/gulf state economies is the unstoppable force behind a mediated truce.

Really, only 60%? At the start of WWII (1939) the percentage of people opposing and wanting to STAY OUT OF “Europe’s War” was 90%.

Not sure ANYONE EVER really LIKES wars.

Even so, someone shouts “Death to America” for 47 years, you become inclined to take their threats seriously.

A rational action if one truly believed high fuel prices are on the way Up and here to stay ala 1970-1980s would be to trade in the gas guzzler and buy a Prius or Tesla.

Better yet, leverage your assets and buy a fleet of Priuses in anticipation of a sharp uptick in demand in the next two months and flip them.

Just one thought experiment to ask oneself about how much one believes in doom and gloom.

During COVID You remember those two brothers from Tennessee who bought 18,000 bottles of hand sanitizer and thousands of anti bacterial wipes for the purpose of resell at higher markup.

I’m still conflicted on this…… in one way it’s what any large corporation would do and does do on a daily basis. They drove all over Kentucky and Tennessee clearing out Walmarts….but this was weeks ahead of any reported cases in TN…..so it clearly involved some effort, risk, and market insight and analysis……..furthermore I don’t think they were marking it up 5,000% like Martin Shkreli.

On the other hand, these brothers were preying on their own flock: a very vulnerable people with little money and high probability of compromised immune systems. It’s certainly something I wouldn’t do. I would never want to benefit at all if it meant it came off of the misfortune or tragedy of the the community I grew up in. I donate my time and contribute to charities to that community.

I think they found without the shield of a corporate name and a PR department; they themselves were a lot more vulnerable to viral backlash and probably regret their decision.

and think of how smart the general population was in 1941 versus now. frankly im surprised the 60% isn’t much higher with how dumb people are nowadays.

We are supposed to trust the Islamic Republic of Iran’s government when they say they have no intention of developing nuclear weapons. So why wouldn’t we trust them when they say their intention is to wipe Israel off the map and wish Death to America.

We (Western Countries) have the technologies to destroy them but we also possess the morals and ethics not to do so. …..the reason sirens aren’t going off in the middle of the night in our towns and cities and our hospitals aren’t not being destroyed is not because of the morals or ethics of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran………it’s because they lack the technology.

Great point but 10% is good enough for the midterms.

Devil's advocate - but if Iran had dropped a bomb on the WH, killed the President and accidentally killed 170 school children in the process would that make you less likely to want to attack Iran in the future?

Depends, it's quite variable. Germany and Japan don't seem to have any interest in attacking us.

A new regime might just not care much what happened to the old one. Or maybe they do, but have other priorities, or learned lessons from the past.

Baby Milk Factories are a dime a dozen. They don't serve as particularly potent rally points unless there's enough of it happening to appear systematic and intentional. If the school is a lingering diplomatic sticking point after the dust settles the US can just pay compensation and apologize. It was of course an accident.

Worth noting, that as a matter of policy, I'd be opposed to compensation/apologies in cases where military targets were hiding under/inside schools, hospitals, etc. (SOP in Gaze for example). That just encourages the behavior. Also there are no LOAC protections when you do that.

Agree we had no intention of killing children - I don't know if it was due to out of date intel (most probably?) or if the Iranians purposefully set them up as a human shield. I do however think the administration failed in the initial messaging with what seemed like a denial/casting blame on someone else's tomahawk.