[Antioch]

The 11 points are effects of one overarching fault: Trump decided to put the paranoid dreams of Netanyahu and Miriam Adelson ahead of his campaign promises to the American electorate. That’s it. And this new fallback “mission accomplished” position that Iran will never get the bomb will be the final humiliation: North Korea, a nation of 20 million under vast sanctions and covert warfare, had no problem developing nuclear weapons despite America swearing that they never would. Sorry to say, but even with a full scale, years long,multi trillion dollar ruinous ground war, Iran is going to eventually acquire nuclear weapons.It’s a mountain fortress of 92 million people.

All boomer jingoism aside, can we have a brief moment of honesty? Trump should have stuck to his promises. He could have easily won the mid terms and had sn amazing legacy. This was the saddest reversal of fortunes since Nixon.

[TermLimits4All]

Your post implies that we would’ve kept the majority if he hadn’t started conflict with a country that has been at war with us since the 70’s. I submit that seeing the last two years of inaction in Congress should be exactly what you should expect even if we hold the majority.
The country is lost and short of one terrible event the likes of 9/11 or Pearl Harbor, we won’t be coming together as Americans again.

[nathanbedford]

Thank you for a considered reply.

I presume that you did not contest any of the 11 points I submitted, largely because you believe they are irrelevant. In other words, even if the war is brought to a prompt conclusion, it does not matter because " Iran is going to eventually acquire nuclear weapons ."

10 of the 11 points, however, deal with the symptoms that have confounded the president's objective because he has consistently declined to state or recognize that the fixed goal of the war is to effect regime change.

Without regime change, I agree with you, an Islamist regime will eventually acquire nuclear weapons. With regime change, miracles can happen. Epiphanies make for rehabilitation. That is the essential message of Christianity. But it has happened in Islam more than once; witness Anwar Sadat. That is why, for example, we failed to arm dissident Iranians, because we failed to define victory properly.

So the 11 symptoms are but the product of a failure to define victory. A meaningful, permanent victory is indeed achievable with regime change - however difficult that might be to accomplish without boots on the ground.

[nathanbedford]

Thank you for a considered reply.

I presume that you did not contest any of the 11 points I submitted, largely because you believe they are irrelevant. In other words, even if the war is brought to a prompt conclusion, it does not matter because " Iran is going to eventually acquire nuclear weapons ."

10 of the 11 points, however, deal with the symptoms that have confounded the president's objective because he has consistently declined to state or recognize that the fixed goal of the war is to effect regime change.

Without regime change, I agree with you, an Islamist regime will eventually acquire nuclear weapons. With regime change, miracles can happen. Epiphanies make for rehabilitation. That is the essential message of Christianity. But it has happened in Islam more than once; witness Anwar Sadat. That is why, for example, we failed to arm dissident Iranians, because we failed to define victory properly.

So the 11 symptoms are but the product of a failure to define victory. A meaningful, permanent victory is indeed achievable with regime change - however difficult that might be to accomplish without boots on the ground.

[Eli Kopter]

paranoid dreams? All boomer jingoism aside, can we have a brief moment of honesty? Seriously? Iran has been trying to kill Americans and Israel since 1979. The IRGC government model is based on destroying their enemy, which they have attempted to do by killing thousands of Jews, Christians, Americans, etc., and by orchestrating terrorism around the world against the Great Satan US and the Smaller Satan Israel (meaning western values). If they sign a peace deal or agree to coexist with the west, the IRGC is dead, so they will never agree to peaceful coexistence. JUST LIKE THE ROMAN EMPIRE 2000 years ago could never coexist with Carthage, the religious fanatics must destroy the west. If we can have a brief moment of honesty, the IRGC would drop a nuke on the US and Israel the first chance they got because it was in ‘their’ prophecies. Iran must fall from within to have lasting peace with the West, and they must have a mutual beneficial relationship. That is why Trump is trying to end their economy and keep them from controlling oil flow for Europe.

[nonliberal]

And it was completely preventable.

[Paul R.]

Wrong. Iran has very vulnerable key logistics without which it literally cannot function / be run. Just one, refined products (NOT the entire oil infrastructure!) would do the trick. We could easily do it in 2 days, with the best timing having been at the end of “Epic Fury”, mostly using cheap ukie style drones. I’ll bet Z-man would trade ‘em for a couple Patriot missiles, and promises of a few more after Iran crumbles.

Imagine trying to run Iran without refined products. Trump is just unwilling to take it out.

[bobbo666]

What a blinkered comment.

Iran was weeks away from a nuke on an ICBM that would have totally conquered the EU for total Moslem conquest.

Shia is death cult, NKorea is not even close to that.

[Theophilus]

I’m not a “boomer”, but I damn sure remember 1979 and every murderous thing the Shiites have done to us ever since, including killing and severely injuring many of my friends with EFPs in fights and territories that were not Irans. We don’t have to comb the mountains of Iran to castrate it. God willing, President Trump will castrate Iran and you can put that jingo in your bong, and smoke it!