Stanthorpe

Iran gets a say in this. As does Israel (apparently).

mr president have you considered maybe intentionally flooding the mississippi river or reading the book of the dead from the mummy out loud

Wraps up? Surely the Iranians get a say in conflict termination? I mean there are 90+ million Iranians out there & I think they might have an opinion on the matter.

On this I definitely agree. A breaking of the US-Israel / US-gulf alliances would leave Iran unquestionably better off (relatively speaking).

The regime can obviously slaughter protestors, but that only kicks the economic can down the road & doesn’t solve anything.

But any surviving regime will face the same problems, hence instability after the initial patriotic sugar-rush. Longer term, I *suspect* an army take-over producing an authoritarian & deeply conservative govt - but one that’s not overtly revolutionary Islamic. But this is just my gut feeling.

It’s an interesting thesis & I can see how that hangs together - but I don’t think that mere survival produces a stronger Iranian Islamic Republic. Sure they’ll be able to deflect immediate criticism by blaming the US, but I don’t think that buys them more than a year or so.

If it must be funded then I can think of worse plans than taking $50 Billion from ICEs budget.

I honestly can’t see that happening. I can see the war causing a breakdown of the US-Israel alliance though, esp if this conflict persists & their different goals are in conflict.

In think that trump would be fine with a repressive Islamic regime leader who allows American oil companies to control their oil sector. Israel on the other hand, seems to want a permanently destroyed Iran that can never ever threaten it again. These goals are not - longer term - compatible.

I’d put money on it being a computer game, similar to the Expanses telltale series.

a close up of a man 's face with a mustache wearing a black jacket . ALT: a close up of a man 's face with a mustache wearing a black jacket .

Can’t kill them if you don’t know who they are!

This has worrying echoes of the Dardanelles campaign.

So Israel is acting in direct contradiction of trumps stated war-aims: how can a country without a government - that is recognised by its own people as somehow legitimate - surrender? (Unconditionally or otherwise?)

Oh dear, unfortunate flare-up of cancer related symptoms. How sad. Such a shame.

I think that Starmer maintaining a dignified silence & keeping British forces in a defensive posture is the sensible, moral & populist choice.

If the next headline is "Starmer to Blair: because it all worked out so well last time?" Labour would go up 10pts in the polls.

The worst part of having such a good friend. I hope he’s ok.

Yes, but take heart! The Russians know exactly what they’re doing!

…wait.

Nonononononononono!

I’m more concerned with hubris’s twin tbh.

Completed!

It’s nice that they have an opinion, especially after making it abundantly clear that they don’t care about our opinions.

Agreed, but there are different levels of frothing. It’s one thing to be weird, quite another to be Allister „shouting-at-clouds“ Heath.

Either way, Hegseths rants are going to age like fine milk. And I think that given the clearly needy macho posturing "rah-rah-war!" tone, he knows it too.

I think this mess is going to see an inevitable munitions crisis, Hegseths firing (blamed for public chest-thumping rather than logistics management). After that, his replacement (Driscoll?) is probably going to have be Rumseld & reluctantly put boots on the ground to stabilise things.

BREAKING: U.S. Central Command is now saying internally that this war against Iran is likely to last through September, per POLITICO

Saturday night: what do you mean they’ve not surrendered yet???!!

Matthew 4:9 comes to mind.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.