2 hours ago, BruceVC said:

ABC News

Jobs 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. "

It's been a roller coaster economy; this followed a dismal February. Most of the jobs gains were in health care and social assistance, while construction was aided by good weather. Also, we haven't seen the impact of the Gulf war yet, which may be a long term drag on the economy. The continually rising prices will likely strengthen unions and lead to more strikes over wage increases.

Those jobs numbers will be significantly revised down.

Hopefully Iran will give no quarter when they capture that US terrorist.

US seizing Soleimani's relatives right now for hostages, no worries.

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Malcador

That's probably the best evidence that the US thinks Iran has got their pilot (well, crewman) so far. Fits exactly with Trump's mentality that he'd want something for a swapsies.

Pilot was rescued apparently. Firefight with armed Iranian civilians too. Although with the Americans, they may have gunned down people needlessly.

https://www.axios.com/2026/04/05/iran-f15-crew-member-rescued

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/us/politics/military-iran-airman-rescue.html

"The mission to save the crew member employed hundreds of special forces troops, dozens of U.S. warplanes, helicopters, and cyber, space and other intelligence capabilities.

U.S. attack aircraft dropped bombs and opened fire on Iranian convoys to keep them away from the area where the airman was hiding. As U.S. forces converged on the downed airman, a firefight erupted, two former senior military officials briefed on the operation said.

The airman was equipped with a beacon and a secure communication device for coordinating with forces mounting the rescue.

A senior U.S. military official described the mission to rescue the airman as one of the most challenging and complex in the history of U.S. special operations.

In a final twist after the weapons officer was rescued, two transport planes that would carry the commandos and the airmen to safety got stuck at a remote base in Iran. Commanders decided to fly in three new planes to extract all the U.S. military personnel and the airmen, and they blew up the two disabled planes rather than have them fall into Iranian hands."

So movie in, what, a year or two ?

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Malcador

1 hour ago, Malcador said:

Pilot was rescued apparently. Firefight with armed Iranian civilians too. Although with the Americans, they may have gunned down people needlessly.

https://www.axios.com/2026/04/05/iran-f15-crew-member-rescued

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/us/politics/military-iran-airman-rescue.html

"The mission to save the crew member employed hundreds of special forces troops, dozens of U.S. warplanes, helicopters, and cyber, space and other intelligence capabilities.

U.S. attack aircraft dropped bombs and opened fire on Iranian convoys to keep them away from the area where the airman was hiding. As U.S. forces converged on the downed airman, a firefight erupted, two former senior military officials briefed on the operation said.

The airman was equipped with a beacon and a secure communication device for coordinating with forces mounting the rescue.

A senior U.S. military official described the mission to rescue the airman as one of the most challenging and complex in the history of U.S. special operations.

In a final twist after the weapons officer was rescued, two transport planes that would carry the commandos and the airmen to safety got stuck at a remote base in Iran. Commanders decided to fly in three new planes to extract all the U.S. military personnel and the airmen, and they blew up the two disabled planes rather than have them fall into Iranian hands."

So movie in, what, a year or two ?

Definitely a movie

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

17 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

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

The conclusion will be the invasion will go easily then.

Just now, Malcador said:

The conclusion will be the invasion will go easily then.

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

1 minute ago, BruceVC said:

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

Well, Trump might take it that way. Not sure that this operation shows anything people weren't aware of - the US has air supremacy over Iran and good intelligence.

It would be nice to see US troops eat FPV drones though.

Ever notice Trump's posting a lot like Medvedev lately

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Malcador

GLORY BE TO GOD! ALLAHU AKBAR!

8 hours ago, Malcador said:

The conclusion will be the invasion will go easily then.

The invasion of Afghanistan went well at first.

If there was a big red nuke button on his desk he'd have pressed it a million times already.

21 minutes ago, rjshae said:

The invasion of Afghanistan went well at first.

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

8 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

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

No they aren't identical, but the same can be said of any two wars. Iran has a larger population, more territory, a (veteran) standing national army with trained officers, and it is likely to receive aid from Russia and China. Long term, US casualties are likely to be higher in an invasion and partial occupation of Iran. It will also have more pronounced economic impacts. Finally, the Afghan War had the support of the US population; this one does not.

The big question is how long would an invasion force have to remain?

Edited April 5Apr 5 by rjshae

8 hours ago, Lexx said:

GLORY BE TO GOD! ALLAHU AKBAR!

I believe the US "Christians" say Deus Vult now. Gotta have that Crusader aesthetic.

Then again...

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Malcador

Pahlavi will get to rule a nuclear wasteland.

You know he's serious since he used three exclamation marks.

lol, I didn't expect them to really write about Allah. This is just pure madness. Really wish americans had the balls to get rid of those leeches.

usa also just say they send arm to incite rebellion inside iran

everyone already know cia do this kind of stuff but saying it are still stupid

Guess they were hoping the rebellion would succeed. Then they wouldn't have needed to start a war. But since it got beaten down and thousands of people died by the regime, a direct attack was inevitable.

Despite what Trump said he almost certainly meant pre-existing armed groups rather than the protesters. Remember all those rumours that the Kurds were going to imminently invade in the first week? It'd be 100% on brand for anyone Barzani affiliated like KDPI to take proffered money and arms then sit on their hands; even more so for PJAK having seen their sister organisation in Syria get shafted by the US less than a month earlier once their usefulness was done.

While quite a lot of security forces died in the unrest as well as protesters there's no evidence that was from protesters being armed by outside forces.

Australia has finally arrested someone (non whistle blower) involved in their SAS's Afghanistan war crimes, Ben Roberts-Smith.

Probably going to try and claim now that his (failed) defamation case makes it too prejudicial for him to be tried. It would at least make his defamation suit make sense, though hubris is at least as likely.

Does Trump Suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

"According to DSM criteria, Donald Trump suffers from narcissistic personality disorder."

NPD has high co-morbidity with other mental disorders, so he may well have other issues.

At any rate, his lack of empathy (or some other condition) may explain his willingness to threaten and commit war crimes. The question is, what can be done about it? Slobodan Milošević was tried by the International Criminal Court, but I doubt they would be able to bring Redacted to trial while in office. I don't think they can try him in absentia, since he's not hiding. They would need to indict him and issue an arrest warrant, then nab him while out of the country, once he leads office. I guess then he won't be playing golf at St. Andrews.