Posted on 07/25/2026 1:44:14 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
ISTANBUL—The conflict between the U.S. and Iran is escalating just as the two warring parties are running up against the limits of what they can achieve through military force.
The conflict widened this week after Iranian-allied militants in Yemen began striking ships transiting a key Red Sea chokepoint, helping drive oil prices above $100 a barrel for the first time in two months on Thursday.
The U.S., meanwhile, has escalated its bombing campaign in Iran in recent days, striking throughout the country during the most intense period of fighting since President Trump and Israel began bombing Iran in late February.
Trump and other administration leaders have threatened to ratchet up the military campaign against Iran, including by striking a suspected Iranian nuclear facility at Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain or by attacking Iran’s national infrastructure such as power plants in response to Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
“The price will continue to get higher every single night until they come to their senses,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Thursday at a summit in Manila, citing Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s description of Tehran’s approach as “an eye for an eye.”
“The president’s policy is a head for an eye,” Rubio said. “I mean, honestly, that is what it is going to be.” He added that Trump would decide whether to escalate in the coming days.
The challenge facing Washington and Tehran is that both governments have shown a willingness to escalate, but neither is capable of achieving a decisive advantage over the other. The stalemate heightens the risk that the U.S. and Iran could be drawn into further months of war as both sides attempt to generate leverage, military analysts say.
“There is an escalatory dynamic now,” said Alan Eyre, a former...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Savvy Trump MUST be aware that the only way to the specific victory that he wants is now, completely politically impossible.
Trump has deployed a strategy of extreme military pressure and severe ultimatums to force Iran to back down. His primary tactics include:
Massive Airstrikes: U.S. forces have carried out consecutive nights of bombardments targeting Iranian maritime capabilities, missile and drone storage facilities, and coastal surveillance sites.
Severe Infrastructure Threats: Trump issued a public ultimatum on Social Media Platform stating that for every Iranian attack on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. will destroy one specific Iranian bridge or power plant.
Naval Blockades: The administration reimposed a naval blockade to disrupt Iranian shipping and protect commercial vessels.
Targeting Nuclear Sites: Trump has explicitly threatened to strike deeply buried nuclear-enrichment facilities, such as the site at Pickaxe Mountain.
Despite these escalations, the conflict remains active, with Iran actively retaliating and vowing a “head for an eye” response.
Track the ongoing geopolitical and military situation provided by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Nope, Democrats are too far left.
I don't want to hear it. You people are so foolish as to think there will be no " second-, third-, fourth-, etc. order consequences" of Iran getting a bomb.
The first order consequences will be they will nuke Israel, and Israel will nuke them right back!
And then we have tens of millions of people murdered because we didn't stop it.
I saw your name first so I saved myself the time of reading what you wrote.
The Jacksonian way of War is the only way.
I copied and pasted this past of your post in Google.
I wonder how feasible it would be for a country opposed to the US to smuggle a crude nuclear device into our country by container ship and offload it. Even shielded by lead does such a device still emit a detectable signature result that we could pick up and track?
AI Overview
Smuggling a crude nuclear device via a container ship is technically feasible due to the massive volume of global trade, but it is heavily mitigated by layered security. While thick lead shielding can severely dampen gamma radiation, advanced Radiation Portal Monitors (RPMs), active X-ray/gamma radiography cargo scanners, and neutron detectors can still spot the dense anomalous block of shielding material itself, triggering alarms that prompt physical inspections.
There is revisionist history, and then there is whatever you are spinning up here.
Did we or did we not, under Bremer, embark on a policy of de-Baathification specifically modeled after the Allied defeat of Germany?
Let's talk about what a rousing success it was for the US military occupation.
No, it’s half war crap.
Yeah, I don’t like this either, as economic collapse takes a long time and the only other alternative is invasion.
Add to that, it only takes a few weeks to go from 60% to 90% weapons grade.
Add to that Iran was increasing its drone, rocket and missile capabilities, while they were pausing at, at least 60 percent.
It's not to hard to guess that Iran would have sprinted to 90% enrichment when their drone, rocket and missile capabilities reached a certain point.
That's where Biden left us.
That's were Trump came in.
The Iranians would get a nuke anyways if we do nothing.
- - - - - - -
Someone might say that Israel would stop them. What do you answer?
Again, FIGHT WARS TO WIN THEM!
Somehow I don’t think the nutjobs running Iran can ‘escalate’ to the same extent that we can...they will be found...’wanting’...
We did not. We utterly screwed up the De-Baathification of Iran. Had we used the same sort of plan on the Nazis, they would have done the same thing the Sunnis did. We wouldn't have settled Germany so peacefully, they would have kept fighting.
And I predicted everything that happened *BEFORE* it happened. I was screaming about it at the time.
We did the dumbest possible thing we could have done. I ranted to my friend about how could all those War College Graduates in the US Military be that f***ing stupid as to let Bremmer's plan proceed the way it did? It was guaranteed to result in what happened.
But thank God he acted! Unlike all those weak pathetic milquetoast Presidents we have had before him.
(Except for Reagan. Iran didn't have a nuclear program when Reagan was in office.)
That's a conventional war.
The fact that you don't recognize this as an asymmetrical war says you aren't worth debating.
I do not know exactly what Israel would have done. I've never really pondered the question before.
I will say that Israel has sabotaged everything they could in Iran to slow down the program, and they've killed or kidnapped or bribed, or threatened every scientists and nuclear worker they could reach, to slow down Iran's program.
But now that I consider it, if Iran actually did create a nuclear bomb, I guarantee Israel would do everything it could to destroy it before it could be used. They might even resort to nuking it.
That is what Israel likely would do.
They can drop many tactical nuclear weapons on Iran and all it would do is create a whole lot of radiation spreading across the region.
That threshold triggers a reaction from the neighboring nuclear power.
And, before any of that happens, Iran and Yemen will put all the gulf states out of business and render it inhabitable.
Yemen hit two of the Saudi ARAMCO sites today. The Iranians hit Kuwaits desalination plant and power plant the other day. They can take out 90% of the power and more importantly, water plants in one strike in most gulf states and about 70% of SA water.
If Trump is stupid enough to send troops into Iran, he will face the voters wrath even more because of the flag covered coffins coming back home.
But, your correct. The big chest thumping keyboard warriors on here are all for it. Because it isnt their kin going into that country during the summer when the average temps are well over 100 degrees during the day.
Trump in his infinite wisdom has created a potential global economic disaster. FOR WHAT AND FOR WHO?
I was in favor of doing this 30 years ago. When we invaded Iraq, I complained we were invading *THE WRONG COUNTRY*.
Iran has always been a much bigger problem than Iraq. They funded worldwide terrorism for the last 47 years.
And you are an idiot if you think those religious fanatics having nuclear weapons is tolerable. It just shows how *IGNORANT* you are about the nature of those fanatics.
And I was ready to go personally to stomp Iran 47 years ago.
And there it is. There is that Jew hatred coming out. Obviously we are doing it for *US* but to insinuate we are doing it for someone else? And who could that be?
How many of you people who are against the war to stop the nuclear death of millions of people are really just Jew-haters pretending to be concerned about economics or politics?
In the last six months, i've noticed there are a lot of Jew haters on this site. I am surprised it is tolerated. Conservatives do not need to be associated with that sort of crap.
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