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I don't think the Iranian people actually hate America all that much, at least not with the fervor that the Iranian government would have us think, Still, even if the Iranian people don't absolutely hate our guts now, they definetly will with a full scale invasion. Anyways, I was also thinking of the same mention about the forces needed to peacekeep an area the size of Iran, which is what I was trying to get at with the mention of land area, but I couldn't remember where the source was exactly. Perhaps I should mention it again, Trump said he thinks he needs no exit strategy. Whether that's because he thinks we won't actually fight Iran or whether he thinks winging it is best, I don't know, but starting a war with no end goal/endgame/exit strategy/end state is a sure way to do a forever war or one that is disastrous. Except Iran is mostly Shia, and ISIS is a Sunni group.

Maybe, but Iran is roughly 3.5 times (I used the total land area) the size of Iraq, we'd need a lot more people to occupy that much space, and that's IF you're thinking of doing an invasion like Iraq. If we do get in a war, most likely it'd be mostly naval with the only land units being various special forces carrying out whatever missions. That land area though doesn't take into account the various proxies which Iran WILL activate, so, the field of battle is going to be most of the mideast, not just Iran. Iraq didn't have any allies, Iran does.

True enough (only saw your edit a minute ago) lol

I already started trying to move on, though I didn't put links in as I was throwing offramps in there. Anyways, the bluff is one that Trump had better back up with teeth because unlike NK, we can't stomp Iran like a bug, and Iran knows it, so, there is a near guarantee that Iran will try something else. I'm not for going to war with Iran, it'd be a mess that goes nowhere, but for bluffs to work, the enemy needs to think that you can and definetly will do as you say, and Trump keeps letting people call his bluffs. There also appears to be a complete collapse in diplomacy, or it's about to completely collapse, which isn't good either.

Except the name doesn't translate to 'sharp one', not in Polish anyway. Way to spindoctor the reasoning behind using 'sharp' though, lol, but anyhow, if skarpen is still annoyed at you still calling him 'sharp', probably should resolve it in PMs. Just out of curiosity, I decided to look up 'one' in Old Norse, used http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/language/English-Old_Norse.pdf and it only had one-handed, which is einhendr, so, that's actually pretty close if you want to go with ein=en=one. Not that I'm personally going to go with the explaination. Time to get back on topic: Trump thinks he needs no exit strategy for an Iran-US war. Acting CBP secretary resigns as the border crisis escalates as 100 kids are sent back to the facility that they were sent away from. Honestly, Congress needs to investigate how things were allowed to get so bac. I know some of the answers are obvious, but still.... I don't see it as suspicious as he could have made an assumption, because, you know, secretary.

ALSO, for those that insist 'en' means one in Polish: https://www.google.com/search?ei=IJsSXZrrDMXP0PEPsYeI-A0&q=what+is+polish+for+'one'&oq=what+is+polish+for+'one'&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i22i30l3.3720.11149..11606...0.0..0.145.2804.4j21....2..0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i71j0i8i7i30j0i67j0i131j0j0i10i67..11%3A1j12%3A1j13%3A0.KbLMrBvVBsA

You know, I thought 'if skarp means sharp, then what's the problem?', so, I looked for myself (NOT using google translate, we all know how dodgy it's translation is) what it does mean. Turns out skarp means turbot (a fish) in Polish. However, skarp is in Norwegian and Swedish, where it does mean sharp, both are descended from Old Norse skarpr. How the word got to Polish, I don't know, but perhaps you guys were mistaken all along? However, it seems to be used interchangeably with scarp (an embankment or steep slope) https://context.reverso.net/translation/polish-english/skarp ? Don't know if the interchangeably part is accurate, but point is, if you had done the research *motions at gromnir*, you might not have come to the conclusion. edit: I threw the word at google translate and had it detect the language to see what it does and it thought it was Danish (which may be correct, given the Old Norse roots). edit2: I just realized that skarpen mentions his love of fishing in his profile, so, in context it really does make sense that he'd use turbot, aka skarp in Polish. I was right to be skeptical at the insinuation all along.

The Republicans compromise of putting it on the ballot sounds reasonable though. Although I do wonder if they did that because they know it'll fail in the ballot (which I suppose is the point) or if its simply the right thing to do. edit: Not sure if the US Senate has quorum rules, but if it does, I'm surprised the Democrats haven't tried using it.

On the drone, pictures of the drone on other articles put it at about large fighter jet sized, probably a little longer and with longer non-fighterjet wings.

That article is slightlu confusing at first as it sounds like the US government arbitrarily blocked it for no apparent reason other than to deprive Iran of things. But reading it a bit a few sounds like it's a side effect of sanctions being applied and the government isn't directly trying (or perhaps intending) to do this. It sounds like it's second or third order in the chain of side effects rather than the government directly deciding to block League of Legends specifically. It'd be far from the only industry or game affected, it's just particularily notable to us because we're all gamers here. It certainly sounds odd, but given how broad these sanctions are, the government likely doesn't know the full effects of all of it.

It certainly sounds like a nothingburger since no charges were pressed, but from other articles, it sounds like a heck of a spat. Even if nothing came of it, it's the last thing he needs right now while being under heightened scrutiny.

If you're trying to imply those are the drone parts, I seriously doubt that. Also, that place looks like a museum of some sort, maybe Cold War era.

And now for something completely and utterly ridiculous all of Oregons Republican state Senators literally fled the capitol in an attempt to evade a cap and trade carbon emissions bill. Rofl. The issue itself isn't utterly ridiculous (some Republicans would say it is though ) and deserves debate, as it should, but the behavior is totally ridiculous, lol....

They're now claiming they've recovered pieces of it from the water inside their territory. The problem with this is that unless they recovered it right on the spot where was hit, the debris can plausibly be drifted into Iranian territory in a span of hours (depends on the conditions) and the debris spread from the explosion could end up being quite big, so, this claim solves nothing unless they can demonstrate with proof of where and when exactly the debris was found.

How do you get around NYT's paywall? They've figured out how to block it when it's being viewed privately, so, I can't use that route. 'we aren't going to give away our strategy' can be euphenism for 'we have no detailed plans in place, we're winging it into the wind on the fly'. The problem with being upfront NOW about his strategy is that he's supernova'd away his credibility internationally and he's already well known for erratically winging it.

I saw on The Guardian liveblog that he said that, couldn't decide whether he was being stupid or if he was subtly trying to give Iran an offramp to de-escalation. The Iranian Foriegn Minister said something about taking this to the UN along with zealously defending their territory (which is their right) where they'll prove the US wrong. Mistake on several levels or not and hubris or not, taking it to the UN rather than escalating things further is definetly a wise course of action.

It's apparently right inside the strait of hormuz, close to where Omani/UAE waters meet Iranian waters and theres no space for 'international waters' between. It could have been in Omani/UAE waters or it might not, can't tell from the map provided.

Also the same people that think praying constantly during a hurricane makes their leader generate a hurricane proof shield :P Anyhow, the crisis with Iran has suddenly escalated as they've managed to shoot down an US drone (lucky shot I suppose) and apparently the WH is scrambling to decide how to respond. I can get the WH scrambling, but I'm slightly surprised that the Pentagon is scrambling since the military (rightly or wrongly) has a reputation for having contingency plans within contingency plans within contingency plans. But I suppose the saying 'the plan never survives contact with the enemy' (not quite verbatim, but that's the basic idea) applies and they can't do contingency for every possible situation and every possible permutation of everything.

As far as capabilities, yes, you’re right, but the article (well, Pompeo anyway) was making the point that there aren’t any proxy groups nearby (unless you maybe count the Revolutionary Guard, since they act like a rogue branch of the Iranian military) with the kind of sophistication and resources, maybe I could have been clearer on that. And on top of that, there’s motive. Unless NZ had some ulterior motive to make the US and Iran fight each other, it wouldn’t make sense to point the finger at NZ, right? Same for pretty much every other country along the Persian Gulf. I suppose SA could have hatched some harebrained scheme to do something like this, but they have far less drastic ways of raising oil prices if they wanted to. The others either wouldn’t do it without SA’s okay or they’d risk losing too much if they tried and got caught.

It was sort of a semi-rhetorical question, sort of 'even if Iran were doing it, it seems rather counterintuitive', probably also a touch of skepticism because Trump admin. Anyways, they aren't exactly being subtle here, right off their coast and the Revolutionary Guards are really the only group that close with the capabilities. If I wanted to be subtle, I'd probably have still planted a mine, but timered it so that it exploded a ways off from the Iranian coast, enough to make it not so obvious. Even when it ends up also hurting themselves apparently.

If Iran were doing those, wouldn't it end up hurting itself? I mean, sure, the prices get spiked, but in the long ron it's just going to hurt them.

I wouldn't be surprised if Trump decides not to select a new press secretary, after all, he thinks the best press secretary is himself (along with being the center of infinity). Really though, I wonder who would replace her, since the job involves surgically attaching your lips to Trumps ass, which it's not supposed to.

It's already a reddish-purple hue now, but yeah, it's becoming more of a swing state due to a combination of those factors. As for it being a wakeup call to the GOP, maybe not when Texas is still competitive. It'd take a more total loss for it to be a wakeup call. Speaking of, the state GOP party in California is on life support and it doesn't seem like they're trying to change. Granted, they can't move far from the national party. Maybe losing Texas to the Presidency a few times would be more of a wakeup call than Texas merely going purple and becoming a swing state like Florida. Though as Pidesco said, they've been doubling and tripling down on the same strategy for 40 years and retreating to their strongholds rather than adapt.

So, people shouldn't be concerned about serial killers as long as their relative isn't a victim? That's the problem with your logic, it's not so black and white (pun not intended) as that. I know it's mainly tongue in cheek, but still gonna point out the flaw in logic. Even hardcore libertarians wouldn't want politicians completely and utterly apathetic to their needs. Anyhow, Biden flips on China, so, I'm like, 'does he really?' How much of it was just Biden putting his foot in his mouth as he often does and how much of it is Biden really blowing off China as a threat, I don't know. The world isn't the bipolar Cold War system anymore, welcome to the (technically second, since it went on a hiatus during the second half of the 20th century) age of Great Powers. Ninjaedit: ^Very much this.

Yeah, I know you said 'from personal experience', was just sort of thinking to myself 'why single out those two?' (probably because personal experience). Anyhow, I think we should veer away from that particular religion tangent and it doesn't sound like you want to continue on that tangent anyway, nor do I really have any interest in continuing it. RERAILING IN PROGRESS