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Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
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Author: EchotaBaaa   😊 😞
Number: of 75974 
Subject: Is Mark Rutte tomorrow?
Date: 04/07/26 12:03 PM
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I forgot because I barely watch -- did Trump say Mark Rutte of NATO will visit him tomorrow?

If so.... does that mean.....

Rutte is coming in to discuss the newest "extension" due jour"

OR is Rutte coming in to discuss how to contain armageddon?
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Author: Dope1   😊 😞
Number: of 75974 
Subject: Re: Is Mark Rutte tomorrow?
Date: 04/07/26 12:12 PM
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Rutte, the Polish President and Finland's PM are the 3 sane people left in the EU along with Giorgia Meloni. The rest of them are sitting there braying about Trump's Mean Tweets and how they're entitled to the US defending them.

Meanwhile, the UK has more horses than tanks and more admirals that ships <--- look it up. Germany has gutted its industrial base in the name of "green" and France will always be France.

Rutte is likely coming over here to try and mend some fences. NATO is being revealed as a paper tiger where 3 out of its top 4 economies don't have any kind of actual capability.
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Author: EchotaBaaa   😊 😞
Number: of 75974 
Subject: Re: Is Mark Rutte tomorrow?
Date: 04/07/26 3:16 PM
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As someone who for decades has expressed disdain for mooch Europe, I'm not here to carry their water.

And the mooch countries ---indeed, paper tigers.

But beyond that----right now I'm sorry, I envy France (ugh) UK, and others-----who haven't lost 13 soldiers over Iran, and over Israeli whims.

I hope there's some endgame here. Soon.

The last time we had an adventure, we for Kuwait back for the Emir, we let the Shiites get their asses fried by Saddam, then we left bases in Saudi Arabia ----Osama didn't like us being in his Holy Land, and then deep fried 3000 of us in WTC, THEN we again did the "courage" and "resolve" and went and got our soldiers killed by a bunch of street gangs in Iraq.

How much more.

How much more Israeli influence.

Had Obama presided over this, we'd say he's either a slave to Israel, or purposely trying to destroy America.

We'd be right.

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Author: Dope1   😊 😞
Number: of 75974 
Subject: Re: Is Mark Rutte tomorrow?
Date: 04/07/26 3:52 PM
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It's helpful to remember that Iran has been at war with us and the west for 47 years. To wit:

Seizing the embassy in 1979 and holding hostages for 444 days
Car bomb killing 17 Americans at the US Embassy in Beirut in 1983
Truck bomb in Beirut kills 241 Marines and servicemembers in 1983
Attempted embassy bombing in Kuwait in 1983
The 1984 kidnap, torture and murder of CIA station chief William Buckley in Beirut
1984 - Kuwait Airlines flight 221 hijacked, 2 American USAID officials murdered
1985 - TWA Flight 847 hijacked, Navy diver murdered
1989 - Marine Col. William Higgins murdered
1995 - VBED kills an American in Gaza
1996 - Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, 19 Americans killed
1998 - Hezbollah helps al Qaeda bomb US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
2001 - Tehran facilitated travel for some of the 9/11 terrorists
2003-2011 Iran supplies AQI with IEDs and training, killing at least 603 Americans and wounding thousands more.
2007 - IRGC disguises themselves as US soldiers, sneak into our compound in Karbala, and kill 5 US soldiers.
2019 - Hezbollah rockets kill an American in Iraq
2020 - Iranian ballistic missile attack in Iraq causes 100 casualties
2021 - rocket and drone attacks in Syria
2023 - Drone attack in Erbil puts a US soldier in a coma
2024 - US permanent resident executed by Iran
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2026/03/06/iranian-an...

The only question at hand here is, "Why have we put up with their sh1t for this long?"

There's none of this "America went to war for Da Jooooos". That's not the right way to look at this.

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Author: EchotaBaaa   😊 😞
Number: of 75974 
Subject: Re: Is Mark Rutte tomorrow?
Date: 04/07/26 4:19 PM
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Dope, your knowledge and facts - are unimpeachable -- so I won't even try to question that list.

Why is it that our government insinuated that Israel forced our hand to attack? I feel if Obama's government said that, we'd shout "Burisma" or "Ebola" or whatever the hell the new meme would be over and over again.

And if we're finally getting rid from this bad actor, isn't it a fair question to say----why did we kill the old Ayatollah gang---only to have it be replaced by the new Ayatollah gang?

I am amazed we didn't have a government ready. OR at least a faction of Iranians to take over temporarily.

Then we say "open the strait' then 'we dont care about the strait'. that plus - no new government yet-----I'm sorry I still question why the 13 of our guys died, and I honestly passionately say "don't enlist".
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Author: commonone 🐝🐝 BRONZE
SHREWD
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Number: of 75974 
Subject: Re: Is Mark Rutte tomorrow?
Date: 04/07/26 4:29 PM
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Dope1: It's helpful to remember that Iran has been at war with us and the west for 47 years. To wit...

Umm, you can go back more than 47 years with Russia! Russia! Russia! killing Americans.

Soviet air defenses shot down U.S. reconnaissance planes going back to the 1950s, killing dozens of airmen. In 1985, U.S. military intelligence officer Major Arthur D. Nicholson was killed by a Soviet soldier in East Germany.

Hell, Americans were executed in Russia in the 1930s.

And Russia battled U.S. forces in Syria in 2018 and killed Americans in Ukraine (Luke Lucyszyn and Bryan Young, were killed in 2022 during battles in Donetsk. In 2025, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Ethan Hertweck was killed).

How did you ever get so far up that child rapist's ass?

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Author: LurkerMom   😊 😞
Number: of 75974 
Subject: Re: Is Mark Rutte tomorrow?
Date: 04/07/26 5:25 PM
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It's helpful to remember that Iran has been at war with us and the west for 47 years. To wit:

"I am the punishment of God; if you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you"
Genghis Khan

I said as much here

https://www.shrewdm.com/MB?pid=443658921

No on from the left paid any attention.

SNIP
“Based on reports from the U.S. Department of Defense and analysis of regional conflicts, Iranian-backed forces and proxies have been responsible for hundreds of American deaths, primarily during the Iraq War (2003–2011) and subsequent attacks in the Middle East.
American Jewish Committee (AJC)
American Jewish Committee (AJC)
+1
Key Casualty Statistics Attributed to Iran
Iraq War (2003–2011): The U.S. Department of Defense assessed that at least 603 American personnel deaths in Iraq were the result of Iran-backed militants. These casualties were caused by advanced weapons—such as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs)—supplied to militias by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Beirut (1983): Iran-backed Hezbollah was responsible for the marine barracks bombing in Beirut, which killed 241 American military personnel.
Recent Attacks (2023–2024): Between October 2023 and November 2024, more than 180 attacks by Iranian proxies against U.S. forces in the Middle East resulted in at least 3 additional U.S. service member deaths.
Other Notable Attacks:
1996: The Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, with links to Iran, killed 19 American airmen.
2023: An Iranian drone strike in Syria killed one American contractor.
2024: A drone strike in Jordan by Kataib Hezbollah killed three U.S. soldiers.
American Jewish Committee (AJC)
American Jewish Committee (AJC)
+6
Total Estimated Deaths
While figures vary based on the reporting period, officials have stated that Iran is linked to the deaths of roughly 500 to over 600 U.S. troops during the Iraq War alone. Combining historic attacks (Beirut, Khobar Towers) with Iraq War casualties and recent proxy attacks brings the total number of American military members killed due to Iran-linked attacks to well over 800-900.
American Jewish Committee (AJC)
American Jewish Committee (AJC)
+3
Recent Developments (Feb 2026)
Reports indicated that in February 2026, amid major U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran, there were no immediately reported U.S. casualties from Iranian retaliation.”
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Author: Dope1   😊 😞
Number: of 75974 
Subject: Re: Is Mark Rutte tomorrow?
Date: 04/07/26 6:07 PM
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Why is it that our government insinuated that Israel forced our hand to attack? I feel if Obama's government said that, we'd shout "Burisma" or "Ebola" or whatever the hell the new meme would be over and over again.

Because there was probably some truth to that. What everyone forgets is the PROFOUND effect that 10/7/23 had on Israeli society. Picture if 9/11 had killed 45,000 Americans instead of ~3,000. That's the scale we're talking here. After 10/7, the Israelis not only took the gloves off, they wrapped their hands in tape, put glue on them and dipped them in shards of broken glass Kickboxer-style. They weren't going to play around anymore; witness the pager bombs in Lebanon and the erasure of Hezbollah's leadership and the Gaza invasion. They're done humoring the current situation.

Can anyone blame them? Imagine that al Qaeda had killed 45,000 Americans. The calls for Bush43 to just up and nuke Afghanistan would have been very loud.

What no one knows is what spurred Trump on to order the attack now. They've insinuated that the Iranians were bragging about how much nuke material they had but that was known in 2025. Their having ballistic missiles with 2-stage capability was also known about a year ago. So either the Iranians said something we didn't know (like maybe the uranium is higher than 60%) or they were bragging they had a missile that could hit the US mainland. The Israelis may have said, "We've decided to kill the Ayatollah no matter what you say" and Trump may have decided that if the West was going that far collectively we might was well go all-in. Or somebody decided that if we hit them now the population might rise up.

I don't know - no one does, really, despite all the attempts at wishing assumptions to become facts that happens on this board.

And if we're finally getting rid from this bad actor, isn't it a fair question to say----why did we kill the old Ayatollah gang---only to have it be replaced by the new Ayatollah gang? I am amazed we didn't have a government ready. OR at least a faction of Iranians to take over temporarily.

A couple of things are emerging in Iran that are pretty interesting on that score. 1, the religious nuts aren't in charge anymore because they're all dead or hiding. There's a big split right now between the political leaders (President Masoud Pezeshkian) and the IRGC. The IRGC is calling the shots right now. "Calling the shots" is probably a misnomer, because Iran effectively has no command and control any longer. But since the IRGC owns the missiles and the speedboats and drones, they're the ones prolonging the war. You might find this interesting:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/irans-pezeshki...
Iran International reported that Iran's President Pezeshkian criticized the IRGC's approach of increasing tensions in the region and attacking neighbouring countries.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian is reportedly clashing with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) chief Ahmad Vahidi over the economic and social impact of the war with the United States and Israel, Iran International reported on Saturday, citing Iranian sources.

According to the London-based Iranian opposition outlet, Pezeshkian criticized the IRGC's approach of increasing tensions in the region and attacking neighbouring countries, warning of the long-term effects that these movements could cause on the Iranian economy.

The report also mentioned that Pezeshkian has been demanding that executive decisions regarding the war be made by the Iranian government rather than the IRGC, a demand Vahidi did not accept.


Notice how the mullahs are completely absent from that.

Okay, now 2: The Israelis are doing the regime decapitation job - they're the ones hunting down Iran's leadership and blowing them up. But now it's becoming clear who the US and Israel aren't killing in these attacks: the leadership of the Artesh, which is Iran's regular army.

Seems like the idea is to whack the religious scholars (done) and then go get the terrorist fanatics in the IRGC (in progress) and weaken them enough so that the "moderates" like Pezeshkian can team up with the Army and take over.

Then we say "open the strait' then 'we dont care about the strait'. that plus - no new government yet-----I'm sorry I still question why the 13 of our guys died, and I honestly passionately say "don't enlist".

Trump is frustrated for a couple of reasons, mainly that NATO is picking this Golden Opportunity to get rid of one of the worst of the worst bad regimes - when they're at the weakest they're going to get - to "stand up to Trump". It's such a colossally stupid strategic blunder I can barely put words to it. I suspect the real truth is that the Europeans have let their Navies die on the vine for so long that even if they wanted to help, they couldn't. That was self-evident when the Houthis were shooting missiles at everyone's shipping in the Red Sea (supplied by Iran, by the way) and the Euros could barely muster a response.

So Trump is angry because back in his first term he told those morons they were weak, had taken their eyes off the ball and were paying their mortal enemy (Russia) for all their energy. Remember how the euros and the howling baboons on this board laughed at him? They're not laughing now; the Europeans are learning that they can't secure their own energy without US help.


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Author: Lambo 🐝  😊 😞
Number: of 75974 
Subject: Re: Is Mark Rutte tomorrow?
Date: 04/07/26 9:48 PM
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Dope, this looks like grand apologetics for the beginnings of the Trump ME Quagmire. Trump got us into this conflict and he promised us peace. You can attempt to deflect all you want, everyone know.
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