BruceVC

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/politics/trump-iran-war.html This is a MUST read link, I will post the entire article for those that cant access NYT. Its long but worth the read Its the most revealing and illuminating read I have come across about the meetings and reasoning that went into the US decision to attack Iran. It discusses the Israeli objectives and where they were different to the US objectives and most importantly you can see what Trumps inner circle thought about the war and how they finally advised him You can also see where the US got it right and wrong. And finally its fascinating at the end where you can see the opinions of Trumps war cabinet advisors In summary, Israel had some influence around the objectives but end of the day it was a US decision as expected based on Trumps own analysis on how the war would unfold @rjshae answers some real questions we have been discussing around the calculus " The black S.U.V. carrying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the White House just before 11 a.m. on Feb. 11. The Israeli leader, who had been pressing for months for the United States to agree to a major assault on Iran, was whisked inside with little ceremony, out of view of reporters, primed for one of the most high-stakes moments in his long career. U.S. and Israeli officials gathered first in the Cabinet Room, adjacent to the Oval Office. Then Mr. Netanyahu headed downstairs for the main event: a highly classified presentation on Iran for President Trump and his team in the White House Situation Room, which was rarely used for in-person meetings with foreign leaders. Mr. Trump sat down, but not in his usual position at the head of the room’s mahogany conference table. Instead, the president took a seat on one side, facing the large screens mounted along the wall. Mr. Netanyahu sat on the other side, directly opposite the president. Appearing on the screen behind the prime minister was David Barnea, the director of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, as well as Israeli military officials. Arrayed visually behind Mr. Netanyahu, they created the image of a wartime leader surrounded by his team. Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, sat at the far end of the table. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who doubled as the national security adviser, had taken his regular seat. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who generally sat together in such settings, were on one side; joining them was John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director. Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy, who had been negotiating with the Iranians, rounded out the main group. The gathering had been kept deliberately small to guard against leaks. Other top cabinet secretaries had no idea it was happening. Also absent was the vice president. JD Vance was in Azerbaijan, and the meeting had been scheduled on such short notice that he was unable to make it back in time. The presentation that Mr. Netanyahu would make over the next hour would be pivotal in setting the United States and Israel on the path toward a major armed conflict in the middle of one of the world’s most volatile regions. And it would lead to a series of discussions inside the White House over the following days and weeks, the details of which have not been previously reported, in which Mr. Trump weighed his options and the risks before giving the go-ahead to join Israel in attacking Iran. This account of how Mr. Trump took the United States into war is drawn from reporting for a forthcoming book, “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.” It reveals how the deliberations inside the administration highlighted the president’s instincts, his inner circle’s fractures and the way he runs the White House. It draws on extensive interviews conducted on the condition of anonymity to recount internal discussions and sensitive issues. The reporting underscores how closely Mr. Trump’s hawkish thinking aligned with Mr. Netanyahu’s over many months, more so than even some of the president’s key advisers recognized. Their close association has been an enduring feature across two administrations, and that dynamic — however fraught at times — has fueled intense criticism and suspicion on both the left and the right of American politics. And it shows how, in the end, even the more skeptical members of Mr. Trump’s war cabinet — with the stark exception of Mr. Vance, the figure inside the White House most opposed to a full-scale war — deferred to the president’s instincts, including his abundant confidence that the war would be quick and decisive. The White House declined to comment. In the Situation Room on Feb. 11, Mr. Netanyahu made a hard sell, suggesting that Iran was ripe for regime change and expressing the belief that a joint U.S.-Israeli mission could finally bring an end to the Islamic Republic. At one point, the Israelis played for Mr. Trump a brief video that included a montage of potential new leaders who could take over the country if the hard-line government fell. Among those featured was Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, now a Washington-based dissident who had tried to position himself as a secular leader who could shepherd Iran toward a post-theocratic government. Mr. Netanyahu and his team outlined conditions they portrayed as pointing to near-certain victory: Iran’s ballistic missile program could be destroyed in a few weeks. The regime would be so weakened that it could not choke off the Strait of Hormuz, and the likelihood that Iran would land blows against U.S. interests in neighboring countries was assessed as minimal. Besides, Mossad’s intelligence indicated that street protests inside Iran would begin again and — with the impetus of the Israeli spy agency helping to foment riots and rebellion — an intense bombing campaign could foster the conditions for the Iranian opposition to overthrow the regime. The Israelis also raised the prospect of Iranian Kurdish fighters crossing the border from Iraq to open a ground front in the northwest, further stretching the regime’s forces and accelerating its collapse. Mr. Netanyahu delivered his presentation in a confident monotone. It seemed to land well with the most important person in the room, the American president. Sounds good to me, Mr. Trump told the prime minister. To Mr. Netanyahu, this signaled a likely green light for a joint U.S.-Israeli operation. Mr. Netanyahu was not the only one who came away from the meeting with the impression that Mr. Trump had all but made up his mind. The president’s advisers could see that he had been deeply impressed by the promise of what Mr. Netanyahu’s military and intelligence services could do, just as he had been when the two men spoke before the 12-day war with Iran in June. Earlier in his White House visit on Feb. 11, Mr. Netanyahu had tried to focus the minds of the Americans assembled in the Cabinet Room on the existential threat posed by Iran’s 86-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. When others in the room asked the prime minister about possible risks in the operation, Mr. Netanyahu acknowledged these but made one central point: In his view, the risks of inaction were greater than the risks of action. He argued that the price of action would only grow if they delayed striking and allowed Iran more time to accelerate its missile production and create a shield of immunity around its nuclear program. Everyone in the room understood that Iran had the capacity to build up its missile and drone stockpiles at a far lower cost and much more quickly than the United States could build and supply the much more expensive interceptors to protect American interests and allies in the region. Mr. Netanyahu’s presentations — and Mr. Trump’s positive response to them — created an urgent task for the U.S. intelligence community. Overnight, analysts worked to assess the viability of what the Israeli team had told the president. The results of the U.S. intelligence analysis were shared the following day, Feb. 12, in another meeting for only American officials in the Situation Room. Before Mr. Trump arrived, two senior intelligence officials briefed the president’s inner circle. The intelligence officials had deep expertise in U.S. military capabilities, and they knew the Iranian system and its players inside out. They had broken down Mr. Netanyahu’s presentation into four parts. First was decapitation — killing the ayatollah. Second was crippling Iran’s capacity to project power and threaten its neighbors. Third was a popular uprising inside Iran. And fourth was regime change, with a secular leader installed to govern the country. The U.S. officials assessed that the first two objectives were achievable with American intelligence and military power. They assessed that the third and fourth parts of Mr. Netanyahu’s pitch, which included the possibility of the Kurds mounting a ground invasion of Iran, were detached from reality. When Mr. Trump joined the meeting, Mr. Ratcliffe briefed him on the assessment. The C.I.A. director used one word to describe the Israeli prime minister’s regime change scenarios: “farcical.” At that point, Mr. Rubio cut in. “In other words, it’s bull****,” he said. Mr. Ratcliffe added that given the unpredictability of events in any conflict, regime change could happen, but it should not be considered an achievable objective. Several others jumped in, including Mr. Vance, just back from Azerbaijan, who also expressed strong skepticism about the prospect of regime change. The president then turned to General Caine. “General, what do you think?” General Caine replied: “Sir, this is, in my experience, standard operating procedure for the Israelis. They oversell, and their plans are not always well-developed. They know they need us, and that’s why they’re hard-selling.” Mr. Trump quickly weighed the assessment. Regime change, he said, would be “their problem.” It was unclear whether he was referring to the Israelis or the Iranian people. But the bottom line was that his decision on whether to go to war against Iran would not hinge on whether Parts 3 and 4 of Mr. Netanyahu’s presentation were achievable. Mr. Trump appeared to remain very interested in accomplishing Parts 1 and 2: killing the ayatollah and Iran’s top leaders and dismantling the Iranian military. General Caine — the man Mr. Trump liked to refer to as “Razin’ Caine” — had impressed the president years earlier by telling him the Islamic State could be defeated far more quickly than others had projected. Mr. Trump rewarded that confidence by elevating the general, who had been an Air Force fighter pilot, to be his top military adviser. General Caine was not a political loyalist, and he had serious concerns about a war with Iran. But he was very cautious in the way he presented his views to the president. As the small team of advisers who were looped into the plans deliberated over the following days, General Caine shared with Mr. Trump and others the alarming military assessment that a major campaign against Iran would drastically deplete stockpiles of American weaponry, including missile interceptors, whose supply had been strained after years of support for Ukraine and Israel. General Caine saw no clear path to quickly replenishing these stockpiles. He also flagged the enormous difficulty of securing the Strait of Hormuz and the risks of Iran blocking it. Mr. Trump had dismissed that possibility on the assumption that the regime would capitulate before it came to that. The president appeared to think it would be a very quick war — an impression that had been reinforced by the tepid response to the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities in June. General Caine’s role in the lead-up to the war captured a classic tension between military counsel and presidential decision-making. So persistent was the chairman in not taking a stand — repeating that it was not his role to tell the president what to do, but rather to present options along with potential risks and possible second- and third-order consequences — that he could appear to some of those listening to be arguing all sides of an issue simultaneously. He would constantly ask, “And then what?” But Mr. Trump would often seem to hear only what he wanted to hear. General Caine differed in almost every way from a prior chairman, Gen. Mark A. Milley, who had argued vociferously with Mr. Trump during his first administration and who saw his role as stopping the president from taking dangerous or reckless actions. One person familiar with their interactions noted that Mr. Trump had a habit of confusing tactical advice from General Caine with strategic counsel. In practice, that meant the general might warn in one breath about the difficulties of one aspect of the operation, then in the next note that the United States had an essentially unlimited supply of cheap, precision-guided bombs and could strike Iran for weeks once it achieved air superiority. To the chairman, these were separate observations. But Mr. Trump appeared to think that the second most likely canceled out the first. At no point during the deliberations did the chairman directly tell the president that war with Iran was a terrible idea — though some of General Caine’s colleagues believed that was exactly what he thought. Distrusted as Mr. Netanyahu was by many of the president’s advisers, the prime minister’s view of the situation was far closer to Mr. Trump’s opinion than the anti-interventionists on the Trump team or in the broader “America First” movement liked to admit. This had been true for many years. Of all the foreign policy challenges Mr. Trump had confronted across two presidencies, Iran stood apart. He regarded it as a uniquely dangerous adversary and was willing to take great risks to hinder the regime’s ability to wage war or to acquire a nuclear weapon. Furthermore, Mr. Netanyahu’s pitch had dovetailed with Mr. Trump’s desire to dismantle the Iranian theocracy, which had seized power in 1979, when Mr. Trump was 32. It had been a thorn in the side of the United States ever since. Now, he could become the first president since the clerical leadership took over 47 years ago to pull off regime change in Iran. Usually unmentioned but always in the background was the added motivation that Iran had plotted to kill Mr. Trump as revenge over the assassination in January 2020 of Gen. Qassim Suleimani, who was seen in the United States as a driving force behind an Iranian campaign of international terrorism. Back in office for a second term, Mr. Trump’s confidence in the U.S. military’s abilities had only grown. He was especially emboldened by the spectacular commando raid to capture the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from his compound on Jan. 3. No American lives were lost in the operation, yet more evidence to the president of the unmatched prowess of U.S. forces. Within the cabinet, Mr. Hegseth was the biggest proponent of a military campaign against Iran. Mr. Rubio indicated to colleagues that he was much more ambivalent. He did not believe the Iranians would agree to a negotiated deal, but his preference was to continue a campaign of maximum pressure rather than start a full-scale war. Mr. Rubio, however, did not try to talk Mr. Trump out of the operation, and after the war began he delivered the administration’s justification with full conviction. Ms. Wiles had concerns about what a new conflict overseas could entail, but she did not tend to weigh in hard on military matters in larger meetings; rather, she encouraged advisers to share their views and concerns with the president in those settings. Ms. Wiles would exert influence on many other issues, but in the room with Mr. Trump and the generals, she sat back. Those close to her said she did not view it as her role to share her concerns with the president on a military decision in front of others. And she believed that the expertise of advisers like General Caine, Mr. Ratcliffe and Mr. Rubio was more significant for the president to hear. Still, Ms. Wiles had told colleagues that she worried about the United States being dragged into another war in the Middle East. An attack on Iran carried with it the potential to set off soaring gas prices months before midterm elections that could help decide whether the final two years of Mr. Trump’s second term would be years of accomplishment or subpoenas from House Democrats. But in the end, Ms. Wiles was on board with the operation. Nobody in Mr. Trump’s inner circle was more worried about the prospect of war with Iran, or did more to try to stop it, than the vice president. Mr. Vance had built his political career opposing precisely the kind of military adventurism that was now under serious consideration. He had described a war with Iran as “a huge distraction of resources” and “massively expensive.” He was not, however, a dove across the board. In January, when Mr. Trump publicly warned Iran to stop killing protesters and promised that help was on its way, Mr. Vance had privately encouraged the president to enforce his red line. But what the vice president pushed for was a limited, punitive strike, something closer to the model of Mr. Trump’s missile attack against Syria in 2017 over the use of chemical weapons against civilians. The vice president thought a regime-change war with Iran would be a disaster. His preference was for no strikes at all. But knowing that Mr. Trump was likely to intervene in some fashion, he tried to steer toward more limited action. Later, when it seemed certain that the president was set on a large-scale campaign, Mr. Vance argued that he should do so with overwhelming force, in the hope of achieving his objectives quickly. In front of his colleagues, Mr. Vance warned Mr. Trump that a war against Iran could cause regional chaos and untold numbers of casualties. It could also break apart Mr. Trump’s political coalition and would be seen as a betrayal by many voters who had bought into the promise of no new wars. Mr. Vance raised other concerns, too. As vice president, he was aware of the scope of America’s munitions problem. A war against a regime with enormous will for survival could leave the United States in a far worse position to fight conflicts for some years. The vice president told associates that no amount of military insight could truly gauge what Iran would do in retaliation when survival of the regime was at stake. A war could easily go in unpredictable directions. Moreover, he thought there seemed to be little chance of building a peaceful Iran in the aftermath. Beyond all of this was perhaps the biggest risk of all: Iran held the advantage when it came to the Strait of Hormuz. If this narrow waterway carrying vast quantities of oil and natural gas was choked off, the domestic consequences in the United States would be severe, starting with higher gasoline prices. Tucker Carlson, the commentator who had emerged as another prominent skeptic of intervention on the right, had come to the Oval Office several times over the previous year to warn Mr. Trump that a war with Iran would destroy his presidency. A couple weeks before the war began, Mr. Trump, who had known Mr. Carlson for years, tried to reassure him over the phone. “I know you’re worried about it, but it’s going to be OK,” the president said. Mr. Carlson asked how he knew. “Because it always is,” Mr. Trump replied. In the final days of February, the Americans and the Israelis discussed a piece of new intelligence that would significantly accelerate their timeline. The ayatollah would be meeting above ground with other top officials of the regime, in broad daylight and wide open for an air attack. It was a fleeting chance to strike at the heart of Iran’s leadership, the kind of target that might not present itself again. Mr. Trump gave Iran another chance to come to a deal that would block its path to nuclear weapons. The diplomacy also gave the United States extra time to move military assets to the Middle The president had effectively made up his mind weeks earlier, several of his advisers said. But he had not yet decided exactly when. Now, Mr. Netanyahu urged him to move fast. That same week, Mr. Kushner and Mr. Witkoff called from Geneva after the latest talks with Iranian officials. Over three rounds of negotiations in Oman and Switzerland, the two had tested Iran’s willingness to make a deal. At one point, they offered the Iranians free nuclear fuel for the life of their program — a test of whether Tehran’s insistence on enrichment was truly about civilian energy or about preserving the ability to build a bomb. The Iranians rejected the offer, calling it an assault on their dignity. Mr. Kushner and Mr. Witkoff laid out the picture for the president. They could probably negotiate something, but it would take months, they said. If Mr. Trump was asking whether they could look him in the eye and tell him they could solve the problem, it was going to take a lot to get there, Mr. Kushner told him, because the Iranians were playing games. On Thursday, Feb. 26, around 5 p.m., a final Situation Room meeting got underway. By now, the positions of everyone in the room were clear. Everything had been discussed in previous meetings; everyone knew everyone else’s stance. The discussion would last about an hour and a half. Mr. Trump was in his usual place at the head of the table. To his right sat the vice president; next to Mr. Vance was Ms. Wiles, then Mr. Ratcliffe, then the White House counsel, David Warrington, then Steven Cheung, the White House communications director. Across from Mr. Cheung was Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary; to her right was General Caine, then Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Rubio. The war-planning group had been kept so tight that the two key officials who would need to manage the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, were excluded, as was Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence. The president opened the meeting, asking, OK, what have we got? Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Caine ran through the sequencing of the attacks. Then Mr. Trump said he wanted to go around the table and hear everyone’s views. Mr. Vance, whose disagreement with the whole premise was well established, addressed the president: You know I think this is a bad idea, but if you want to do it, I’ll support you. Ms. Wiles told Mr. Trump that if he felt he needed to proceed for America’s national security, then he should go ahead. Mr. Ratcliffe offered no opinion on whether to proceed, but he discussed the stunning new intelligence that the Iranian leadership was about to gather in the ayatollah’s compound in Tehran. The C.I.A. director told the president that regime change was possible depending on how the term was defined. “If we just mean killing the supreme leader, we can probably do that,” he said. When called on, Mr. Warrington, the White House counsel, said it was a legally permissible option in terms of how the plan had been conceived by U.S. officials and presented to the president. He did not offer a personal opinion, but when pressed by the president to provide one, he said that as a Marine veteran he had known an American service member killed by Iran years earlier. This issue remained deeply personal. He told the president that if Israel intended to proceed regardless, the United States should do so as well. Mr. Cheung laid out the likely public relations fallout: Mr. Trump had run for office opposed to further wars. People had not voted for conflict overseas. The plans ran contrary, too, to everything the administration had said after the bombing campaign against Iran in June. How would they explain away eight months of insisting that Iranian nuclear facilities had been totally obliterated? Mr. Cheung gave neither a yes nor a no, but he said that whatever decision Mr. Trump made would be the right one. Ms. Leavitt told the president that this was his decision and that the press team would manage it as best they could. Mr. Hegseth adopted a narrow position: They would have to take care of the Iranians eventually, so they might as well do it now. He offered technical assessments: They could run the campaign in a certain amount of time with a given level of forces. General Caine was sober, laying out the risks and what the campaign would mean for munitions depletion. He offered no opinion; his position was that if Mr. Trump ordered the operation, the military would execute. Both of the president’s top military leaders previewed how the campaign would unfold and the U.S. capacity to degrade Iran’s military capabilities. When it was his turn to speak, Mr. Rubio offered more clarity, telling the president: If our goal is regime change or an uprising, we shouldn’t do it. But if the goal is to destroy Iran’s missile program, that’s a goal we can achieve. Everyone deferred to the president’s instincts. They had seen him make bold decisions, take on unfathomable risks and somehow come out on top. No one would impede him now. “I think we need to do it,” the president told the room. He said they had to make sure Iran could not have a nuclear weapon, and they had to ensure that Iran could not just shoot missiles at Israel or throughout the region. General Caine told Mr. Trump that he had some time; he did not need to give the go-ahead until 4 p.m. the following day. Aboard Air Force One the next afternoon, 22 minutes before General Caine’s deadline, Mr. Trump sent the following order: “Operation Epic Fury is approved. No aborts. Good luck."

Because Codex has no moderation so its a good place to see what a range of people really think I now prefer people being honest, even if I find it crass or offensive, about there political views than them not being able to say what they really think. But being honest doesn't mean you have to be offensive around how you make your point Dont get me wrong, I also appreciate and value the type of moderation you find here because sometimes it gets draining on Codex So I use both types of websites because they provide different perspectives Yes that's part of it and of course this doesn't apply to everyone Im specifically talking about what I have noticed since this Iran war started. We have always seen fake news and misinformation on the Internet but its much more prevalent and for me what is the most "concerning" is some people just dont care if they post something that is demonstrably untrue If I had to guess its more about the entertainment around geopolitics and not about the truth around events and developments Its just not a type of debating style I want to be part of or see the point of? But I always find people who still engage in good faith so its not all doom and gloom

And that is the reaction from some , a completely unrealistic list of demands from Iran literally translates to " The US lost " !!! On a serious note, what happened to the times or era where people had a genuine interest in only posting what is true or at least objectively true? There also use to be care about posting things that you at least verified were true or you believed ? This war with Iran has become the worst example of shameless fake news and misinformation from people on both sides that I have ever experienced. Its like nothing I have ever see, many people just dont care about posting the most inane and vacuous SM comments or fake news. The Iranian war thread on Codex is a cesspool of this, you have no idea how bad it is And Trump is also a big part of it because he is infamous for posting misinformation, fake news and sensationalized comments

POLITICOPOLITICO Poll of Polls — Hungarian polls, trends and elec...POLLING FROM ACROSS EUROPE. UPDATED DAILY. Hungary — National parliament voting intention Hungary is going to the polls to elect a new parliament on April 12. What is Poll of Polls and how does it …We haven't been talking about the upcoming Hungarian elections, 12 April For the first time in his 16 year rule Orban faces a real challenge from Peter Magyar and his center right party Tisza Orban is supported by Trump and Putin for different reasons but Hungarians will decide for themselves who wins. Polling has put Magyar ahead of Orban by more or less 10 points For me I want Magyar to win, he is more pro-EU than Orban but he is not a liberal. That type of candidate aren't popular in Hungary but I still consider him a better leader that Orban who is a Russian sympathizer Here is link that does into details around who Magyar is and his history POLITICOPéter Magyar’s revolt: The insider challenging Hungary’s...Even among his supporters, the opposition leader is a polarizing figure.

Those aren't the agreed on terms, those are ostensibly the Iranian terms and the US hasnt agreed to it There is a 2 week ceasefire where the USA and Israel wont attack Iran and then the Straits will be open for shipping. Thats all that has been confirmed https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/08/iran-10-point-plan-ceasefire-donald-trump-us We already know Israels current conflict with Lebanon is not part of this. That list is just an Iranian wishlist and several points are not realistic, for example why would the US ever agree to withdrawing from the entire ME? "What demands are in Iran’s 10-point plan? According to state media, Iran will only accept the war’s conclusion once details are finalised in line with a 10-point peace plan reportedly submitted to the White House via Pakistani intermediaries. The list of 10 points, published by Iranian state media, include a number of conditions the US has rejected in the past. The plan requires: The lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions on Iran. Continued Iranian control over the strait of Hormuz. US military withdrawal from the Middle East. An end to attacks on Iran and its allies. The release of frozen Iranian assets. A UN security council resolution making any deal binding. In the version released in Farsi, Iran also included the phrase “acceptance of enrichment” for its nuclear program. But for reasons that remain unclear, that phrase was missing in English versions shared by Iranian diplomats to journalists."

Im about 60 hours into AC Valhalla and its time for a review Im having lots of fun, Im in that Ubisoft honeymoon period where the repeated activities are still fun. So Im enjoying building my village, raiding, river raiding, hunting, fishing and finding random artifacts I am also Romancing both Randvi and Petra ....not sure how that is going to work out 💞 I have the pledges of about 5 regions so Im also progressing the main narrative and Im at the part where Sigurd is taken hostage. I stated the whole Odin\Asgard side quests but Im not sure I want to continue on those, I like just RP as Eivor But overall great AC game, lots to do and its set in an interesting era of history around culture and wars. @Gorth Despite the reality of the game being actively part of the terrible carnage and colonialism of what the Vikings did to my Anglo-Saxon ancestors I haven't had any trauma or anxiety So I should be fine to continue with this game, the potential emotional crisis is over

But Afghanistan was a different war for a different reason with a different long-term US objective You have to try to differentiate US\Western conflicts to analyze outcomes objectively Iran is not the same on almost every level as Afghanistan

Invasion? I doubt there will be an invasion, the closest we will see is islands in the Straits being captured but that has its own risks once they occupied by the US No one has ever disputed Iran doesn't have lots of drones and missiles, that's always been the real risk

Definitely a movie Impressive usage of special forces within Iran to rescue the pilot, shows how ineffective Irans military is within its own borders

ABC NewsJobs report shows strong hiring in March, exceeding econo...The labor market rebounded from job losses in the previous month.Latest US job numbers for March exceeded expectations. Good economic results for the US economy "The U.S. recorded strong job gains in March, rebounding from dismal losses a month earlier, a jobs report on Friday showed. The reading far exceeded economists' expectations. The U.S. added 178,000 jobs in March, according to the report, which marked a sharp increase from 133,000 jobs lost in the previous month. "

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/worldcup/2026/03/31/world-cup-2026-qualified-teams/89393699007/ The 42 teams who have qualified so far Host nations: Canada, Mexico, United States Asia: Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Uzbekistan, *Iraq Africa: Algeria, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, *DR Congo Concacaf: Curaçao, Haiti, Panama Europe: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Sweden, Czechia, Bosnia and Herzegovina Oceania: New Zealand South America: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay

Biggest shock so far, very disappointing but they also didn't qualify in 2022 South Africa has made it, first time since 2010 which doesn't really count because we hosted it so you automatically qualify

Juice Media did a video on that. Or they have raised this in several videos

Countries like South Africa are constantly reactive when it comes to renewable\green energy We talk about it mostly when there is some sort of fossil fuel crisis and how we " cant be dependant on importing of oil " But then we move very slow to adopt solar or wind, we are blessed with sunlight most of the year. Its something wealth cant buy and yet we still use coal for 75-80% of our energy grid We also get stuck in this outdated and illogical ideological debate around " greedy, Capitalist, global north countries want to stop us using coal " when in fact it would make sense on almost every that we adopt more renewable\green energy because we have a natural abundance of it And then our unions are also always opposed to it because they see things in a myopic way and its about "job losses" for there members who are miners. They are not interested in whats best for the country in an overall sustainable way for the future

Nice, the right to protest is often taken for granted in Western countries and especially where the LGBT community can openly participate Its one of the fundamental human rights that doesn't exist in countries like Iran or Russia And its good that you put the effort in to be part of this protest. RL activism is always appreciated and better than Internet activism

https://miningzimbabwe.com/zimbabwe-lithium-ban-policy-enforcement-not-inconsistency/ Here is another example of Chinese neo-colonialism and looting of African minerals Zimbabwe has basically banned Lithium exports because of abuse of how Chinese companies have been operating You dont hear much outrage and drama about this from most Afrocentric activists because its not a Western country involved

Nukes? Where did that come from, why would you ever think he would want to use nukes? That makes no sense. There is absolutely no chance Trump will use nukes in Iran. Its completely illogical and doesn't align to any military objectives that are inextricably tied to the economic fallout of this war Can you imagine what nuking Iran would do to global energy prices? Trumps arrogant, capricious, petulant and obsessed with his legacy and current popularity . But he is not insane Only a truly demented person would ever use nukes in this regional conflict

What are the general policies this new and younger group support and do you agree with them In South Africa we have this constant view that we need younger leaders for Africa, Im not convinced just because someone is young they will automatically do better Young people lack lived experience and they also capable of being corrupt or politically biased and or extremist

Im playing Assassins Creed Valhalla now, the last time I played an AC game was in 2021 and that was Odyssey which I thoroughly enjoyed Ubisoft games like Far Cry and AC are always the same for me, you have lots of fun initially and there always engaging side activities but then I start getting bored and I just focus on finishing the main narrative Valhalla is fun so far, I like Viking mythology and culture and Ubisoft always delivers on recreating a believable historical world @Gorth I am sure when you read this post you were immediately concerned. We have had numerous discussions through the years about the terrible historical injustice, slavery and Colonialism your Viking ancestors inflicted on my Anglo-Saxon ancestors What if playing Valhalla triggers me and creates RL trauma for me from what happened in the past? Do you think I will be okay I suppose I can just stop playing if it becomes too painful and emotional

This is my concern, it makes sense for the US to occupy various islands in the Straits to reduce the ability of Iran to attack ships But whats stopping Iran from then bombing these islands? Iran wouldnt do this on Kharg island because that would destroy there own oil infrastructure but the other islands they could

Some humor should always be appreciated

Is this how you feel for all wars? So for example both Iran and NK provided military resources to Russia for its war in Ukraine Do you now consider them belligerents and they are legitimate targets for Ukraine and its allies?

This type of development is the greatest indictment on Trumps presidency There is a degree of selective and sensationalized criticism towards Trump and much of it isnt from Americans so you cant say how much it really matters around his popularity and support for his policies. For example using SM as a gauge is imprudent and often inaccurate But when Americans decide who they going to vote for, thats the final and most significant metric of Trumps overall success as a president This is not the first time the Dems have won a special election in a deep red state, it happened in Texas as well Midterms are going to be very interesting

Obviously if you at war with someone you could and would target there economy. Thats expected and not cowardly But thats not why Iran is attacking Gulf State oil fields or closing the Straits. They want to create pressure and chaos on the global economy and even countries that are not part of this war are impacted by that decision. The petrol price in South Africa is going up because of the Straits, Iran has no legal mandate to close an International Strait which Hormuz is. Why should South Africa be negatively effected because of this specific Iranian decision? I dont think they are the same , sanctions are a tool that countries can and do use for various reasons. Its typically used to get a government to change a policy or decision Its legitimate because any country can decide to sanction another country, you may think its unfair or selective but its not illegal The Straits of Hormuz are considered an International Strait similar to International Waters, no country can unilaterally or legally decide to block this type of waterway or attack ships that aren't directly involved in the war So its not legitimate what Iran is doing The ConversationHow the law of naval warfare applies to the Strait of HormuzIn the law of naval warfare, the line between belligerents and neutrals is not always an easy one to draw."Once there are armed hostilities between two (or more) states, the law of armed conflict – or international humanitarian law – applies. The law of naval warfare is part of the law of armed conflict. Some laws of naval warfare can be traced back to the Hague Conventions adopted at the start of the 20th century. Most commonly, states will rely on the 1994 San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea. Under the law of naval warfare, states are generally divided between belligerents (those engaged in armed hostilities) and neutrals (those not involved in the war). The line between belligerents and neutrals is not always an easy one to draw. In the Middle East, at a minimum, Iran, Israel and the US could be classified as belligerents. According to the San Remo Manual, ships flagged to neutral states, including their warships, may exercise their navigational rights under general international law through a belligerent’s strait. It is recommended that neutral warships give notice of their passage as a precautionary measure. A belligerent must not target neutral ships – they are not considered military objectives and must not be fired upon. During this conflict, Iran’s territorial sea (which includes the waters within the Strait of Hormuz) counts as an area of naval warfare. The belligerent states are legally required to have due regard for the legitimate rights and duties of neutral states in an international strait."

And closing down the Straits, do you also think that is a suitable target?