Posted on 07/20/2026 1:16:43 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
For years, whether as president or candidate, he flayed electoral opponents and previous presidents with his signature barbs, calling their entanglements a “complete waste of time” (Afghanistan), “the worst single mistake ever made in the history of our country” (Iraq) and “stupid” (Ukraine).
Yet he now appears to be stumbling into a forever war of his own.
From the first days of the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, Trump and his officials insisted their adventure abroad would be the exception, that the conflict would end in a matter of weeks.
Now, 4½ months later, after a torturous, start-stop vacillation between truce and war, the U.S. is pressing on with a fight that has no end in sight — or even a clear definition of what an acceptable end would be.
In the last week, the ceasefire collapsed, with the U.S. and Iran trading daily waves of strikes, leading to the deaths of two American servicemen on Friday when Iranian ballistic missiles struck Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, where U.S. assets and personnel are stationed.
On Sunday, as the U.S. and Iran launched more air assaults, the U.S. announced that a service member was killed Saturday in Iraq during the controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone.
The deaths in Jordan were the first combat fatalities since the U.S...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Geek, you are so right - taking Kharg Island is the key to winning. Trust your instincts. Trump will get around to it.
stupid lying hocus pocus fortune tellers
I can’t help but wonder if the “Deep State” is covertly working with Iran against Trump.
Shame you only started posting on this forum in 2017. Would love to have seen if your predictions about Iraq were as rosy in 2003. You would have a lot of company on this site with bad takes about how that was going to turn out.
Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.
I hope he goes all out to eliminate the evil ones. They only understand power.
It’s the only way to stop them (for a while).
From the outset, the Israeli/Mossad cabal assured Trump that after 10,000 bombing sorties, Iran would be so weakened it’d be all over “in a matter of weeks.” Iran would be rendered so ineffective they’d be “unable” to close the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
Now, 4½ months later, the US is still fighting w/ no end in sight or even a clear definition
of what an acceptable end would be -— w/ costs to taxpayers escalating into the mega billions.
Oops. Israel and the Mossad “forgot” (/s) to tell Trump that the “weakened” Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) would be supplied with military hardware, precursor chemicals, and logistical support by an international network involving state actors and foreign front companies, particularly from China, Russia, and localized proxies.
Intelligence indicates Chinese entities supply the IRGC with precursor chemicals (such as sodium perchlorate) for ballistic missile fuel and dual-use components for drone manufacturing.
Russia and Iran operate a self-reinforcing exchange, where Russia supplies military hardware, aviation parts, and technological support in return for Iranian-made drones.
The U.S. Treasury “Office of Foreign Assets Control” tracks and sanctions foreign aviation, transport, and front companies operating out of jurisdictions like Hong Kong, Italy, and Nigeria that act as intermediaries to obscure IRGC procurement.
The Iranian government, now stronger than ever, diverts massive domestic resources like food and oil revenues directly to the IRGC to sustain their fighting forces and domestic operations. In conflict zones like Syria, the IRGC sustains its logistical footprint and fighters through regional corridors managed by allied militias and covert transport firms.
But it can be done.
”War is never a technical problem only, and if in pursuing technical solutions you neglect the psychological and the political, then the best technical solutions will be worthless.” - Hermann Balck
adding to your list, i do wish we could capture Mojtaba - hello,Bibi, Mossad?
hopefully he is ending the one we have been in since 1979.no one else tried.
“I swear the bulk of the posters on this forum are totally clueless.”
One certainly is, that’s a given.
This current war with Iran isn’t even 5 months old.
Their big navy is sunk, their airforce has been shot down. They can’t prevent American bombers from flying over Iran at will.
It took 3 1/2 years for Japan to end up in a similar bind.
Japan killed 161,000 American military getting there. Iran has killed 17.
There is nothing stopping us from doing to Iran what we did to Japan other than our own self restraint.
We were willing to slaughter civilians then. Two nights of firebombing Tokyo killed more people than either atomic bomb.
We could burn every city in Iran to the ground faster than what Curtis LeMay was doing to Japan, if we chose to.
But we don’t want to kill civilians. So this might take a bit longer than FR’s hysterics think it should. I hope that they don’t run out of Valium.
Agreed.
That’s a truly dumb argument.
If the police drops the crime rate by 60% in a city, but there is a robbery did they fail?
If you succeed in improving SAT scores in a school system on average in both verbal and mathematics but a few still score low, did you fail?
If you drop the obesity rate by 70% but a few people are still fat, did you fail?
If you’re a parent, and your child comes home with an A, he got a 92% on an major test, are you going to call him a failure because he missed those 8%?
Iran was able to launch:
Over 120 ballistic missiles.
More than 30 cruise missiles.
170 one-way attack drones.
That was April 14, 2024 in ONE NIGHT.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/13/middleeast/iran-drones-attack-israel-intl-latam
The sheer volume of fire has decreased.
~90% decrease: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-ballistic-missiles-us-israel/33721304.html
They continued to launch stuff for months. Day after day. And now it’s a lot less, like >90% less. Why do you think?
Iran supplies / provides massive assistance to the Houtis (do you think those guys are building the missiles and drones?), Hezbollah in Lebanon (also shooting off less), Nigerian Islamic militants, and Shia militias in Iraq.
Yemen was launching 20 - 40 missiles PER MONTH on ships and Israel (on average), they did that for a long time, and of course Iran was providing these missiles. https://acleddata.com/update/yemen-situation-update-february-2024
As month in June, Yemen launched 2.
https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/iran-update-evening-special-report-june-8-2026
Why do you think that is?
Jim, I don't really like you. It's not my 'global free market'. I get it, you hate Trump and conservatism. That's your business. Your opinion.
I love the fact that Free Republic is here to allow people to express their opinions. I disagree with almost everything you say, and I welcome opposing thought.
Everyone, don't forget to put some money in the kitty so FreeRepublic continues to exist. Just fifty cents a day. A dollar, two bucks a day. It doesn't hurt. It helps us keep a free speech forum and beat back the commies and Trump haters.
Like Jim Noble
So what.
Take it away, AI!:
President Trump's approach to the Iran war aligns with his "The Art of the Deal" philosophy of combining aggressive escalation (demands and threats) with premature declarations of victory. He frequently utilizes this cycle to secure leverage and maintain flexibility, a core tactic discussed in his book.Trump has consistently applied severe military and economic leverage—such as blockades and strikes—before pivoting to outline a path to a potential deal.
President Trump uses frequent updates on platforms like Truth Social to manage expectations and apply pressure on all sides, staying closely aligned with his strategy to "deliver the goods" by controlling the narrative and keeping the opposition off balance.
I cannot argue that point.
I agree and frankly I do not know what the political constellation looks like in DC.
Well, the LA Times has a record of foreseing catastrophe. Remember how loudly they screamed about the Los Angeles area being prone to devastating fires and how state and local officials weren’t even keeping well known reservoirs full?
No, I don’t either. Bums and political hacks with a newspaper.
Trump is “over the top” in most his media communications intended to get to the masses.
He knows how to force the MSM to give him him coverage, i.e. making Greenland ours.
If Trump were a humble, moderate / measured in his language kind of guy, do you really think the MSM and social media would carry his message?
It’s part of his act.
He knows how to “manage” the MSM and social media probably better than any president before him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_career_of_Donald_Trump
This ‘war’ could be ended in one day.
Hiroshima style.........................
1400 years so far...................
Trump is discovering that even a low casualty war that’s stalemated can depress his poll numbers. The problem is his minimalist air campaign that spared most of Iran’s men and hardware. He ran it like a corporate negotiation. But corporate chiefs don’t have to worry about public opinion to stay in charge. Trump was on borrowed time from day one with the shot clock running, but meanders like he has all the time in the world.
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