No. of Recommendations: 4
An odd comparison, given that the U.S. failed to achieve almost all of our strategic objectives in the Vietnam war, no matter how successful any individual operation(s) was in killing or blowing up the targets.Not at all. But first one must understand that by that point the US' goal was to get out of Vietnam. That was literally the only goal at that point as after all, Nixon had campaigned on it.
I'm not sure why you have to be disparaging of the reasoning of folks on this board. Because much of it is rooted in Orange man, BAD! and is generally sophomoric. <--- That's me being kind. Much of the "commentary" here is pretty laughable, if not outright stoopid.
As long as the lefties on this board continue to fling random insults and generally act like jackasses, I'll (rightly) disparage the lack of brainpower that exists on that side of the aisle.
What folks point out, though, is that the main objectives of the war (to prevent them from ever getting a nuclear weapon, to prevent them from being a regional threat going forward, to prevent them from sponsoring terror groups) are not things that can be achieved with the stuff we can do to them absent a much more serious commitment of ground troops.Depends, doesn't it? First on what we mean by "serious commitment" of ground troops. Seizing Kharg Island or some of the others isn't a "serious commitment". Secondly, you're not factoring in the economic costs that Iran is reaping here for themselves. All sorts of interesting developments are taking place that are allowing us to do a lot more than was possible before.
To wit:
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/204447293210614185...HOLY SMOKES. Sec. Scott Bessent just said that because Iran BOMBED Gulf neighbors, those countries are suddenly opening up Iranian regime BANK accounts to Treasury
So he can FREEZE their assets! Checkmate playing out. 🔥
"What may prove to be FATAL mistakes the Iranians made was bombing their [Gulf] NEIGHBORS."
"Who are now willing to be much more transparent in terms of the funds, or do a deeper dive in investigating the funds that are held within their banking systems."
"So, we have pushed out to them the request that we want to freeze more funds of the leadership of the IRGC and any members of Iranian leadership."
"The other thing that we have done is we have told companies, we have told countries that if you are buying Iranian oil, that if Iranian money is sitting in your banks, we are now willing to apply secondary sanctions, which is a very stern measure."
"The Iranians should know that this is going to be the FINANCIAL equivalent of what we saw in the KINETIC activities."The Iranians thought they could effectively blackmail the region but forgot the first law of bluffing: have good options in case somebody calls your bluff. They really thought they could bully the Gulf states into splitting with us if they indiscriminately fired loads of missiles and drones at them. Ooops. Should have read the room, fellas.
What's never been understood by this board is that the United States has many levers. Many, many levers. This board thinks there are 2 modes to a conflict: bomb the sh1t out of someone or invade with 500,000 troops. That's what liberals took away from Gulf Wars 1 and 2. Pity.
What critics of the war question is the massive cost to us in doing it this way since we have been unable to dislodge the existing regime and we've opened up a massively significant strategic weapon for them in controlling the strait.Except. They don't control the strait.
Haven't you found it curious that we haven't seen much if any footage of mines being destroyed? How many merchant ships have actually been hit at all? The last time Iran closed the strait there was all kinds of pictures of burning cargo ships.
How come in the internet age we haven't seen that plastered all over the news? Do you think the media would hesitate to say "See, this is what Trump has done!"?
After all, it's Iran that's executed a very strong strategy of getting the U.S. to the Islamabad peace talks. Seizing the strait forced a ceasefire when it wasn't really in our interests to accept one. Pretty successful move on our part.This is 180 degrees off of what's been going on.
First off, this is absent a reckoning of our tactical objectives. We've largely eliminated what we wanted to eliminate. In that case, a strategic pause to reset for the next phase - economic blockade - was warranted. Which we're now doing.
Iran vastly overplayed the one card it had both in effect and in timing. By blockading them we've executed a jiu-jitsu reversal of epic proportions. Which was always the plan, btw. It was laughably absurd for the left and our european "allies" to claim there was never a plan. That was nonsense on stilts but nonetheless, away it went.
Their economy was in bad shape before. What kind of shape do you think it's in now? How about a week from now? The Israelis bombed the exact petrochemical plant that they hit for a specific reason.
And speaking of the economy, have you looked into where a lot of supertankers are headed toward right now? What do you think are the implications of that?
