Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 07/30/2026 4:37:56 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Iran’s rulers are not playing to win the war today—they are playing to survive long enough to fight another one tomorrow.
We are now in Stage III of the Iran War: the familiar monotony of bomb, talk, bomb.
It is now the liberal consensus that the war has failed, if not been won by Iran.
We could be entering the war’s final stage, marked by an effort to escalate decisively before disengaging.
We know the tired Iranian strategy by now. We might call it “theocratic rope-a-dope.” For the theocrats and their terrorist proxies, survival means outlasting Trump, waiting for the next cash-laden Democratic administration, and using “moderates” to play good cop while haggling away months.
The mullahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps feign indifference even as their half-century, half-trillion-dollar investments in what is now essentially a vaporized military-industrial-nuclear complex continue to be destroyed.
The war has finally revealed the full extent of Iran’s vast conventional arsenal, nuclear program, and missile and drone industry.
These munitions proved far more numerous and deadlier than experts had imagined. The regime had poured much of its GDP into conventional arms, missiles, drones, and its nuclear program in hopes of dominating the Gulf, holding Israel beneath a nuclear sword of Damocles, and eventually bringing European cities within range of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.
The Islamic government shows no real concern for the attendant suffering of its own 93 million people. In the theocrats’ view, it matters little whether 1,000 civilians die as collateral damage from allied bombing or 36,000 are murdered by their own government. All that concerns these corrupt grandees is preserving their own comfort amid the rubble.
The Iranian zealots are counting on the Trump administration to withdraw, thereby avoiding a two-year-long impeachment and lawfare circus while preserving the Republican House majority.
(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
VDH ping
Trump started this war at Israel’s request without establishing public support, and critically without the authorization of Congress. Now Congress and the public are against the war. He has no room to ‘decisively escalate’. He can only fruitlessly escalate before throwing in the towel.
In July 2026, the U.S. House passed a House Concurrent Resolution in a 214–208 vote directing the President to remove U.S. Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities against Iran
Thanks for posting
Read this morning, that tankers were turning of AIS and transferring Iranian oil off the Straits of Malacca. They should be deep sixed.
Using Iran's own money to make Hormuz feasible for cargo ships. I also like his idea a paragraph later of using frozen Iranian money to fund a new replacement Iranian govt living outside Iran.
I believe that assessment is egregiously in error, apparently shared by the administration and, weirdly, the Pentagon.
In the mullah's view this is a war of attrition and their measure of success is the damage they can cause DJT and the US.
The longer the irgc remains in power the higher the likelihood of a major event targeting US interests and/or US military POW/hostages.
Right now, the parallels between uke & iran are frighteningly similar and if POTUS doesn't get serious right soon the kickback is liable to be very, very costly (and I'm referencing WAY beyond POWs or mere handfuls of casualties in-theater).
I’m no military tactician by any means, but in my opinion the purpose of air power is to soften targets for the ground invasion. If you’re not willing to commit to a ground invasion, you’re wasting your time. I am, by no means, advocating for a ground invasion. Just stating what I believe is a fact.
This is why a democrat must not win in 2028.
Bare bones briefings to wet-behind-the-ears Trump by the calculated Israel, and the know-it-all Mossad, did have a specific purpose......to align Trump with Israel's long-held schemes.
Netanyahu’s sub rosa goal was to strike Iran to permanently neutralize Tehran as a threat to Israel. Netanyahu "said" his strategic objectives were to destroy Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, degrade proxy networks. Most of all, Netanyahu desperately wanted to trigger regime change to reshape the Mideast hellhole's balance of power in Israel's favor.
To accomplish this, Netanyahu "said" he had "verified intelligence"—---he laid out to a gullible Trump a plan for massive military action that Netanyahu assured Trump would "weaken" Iran. It would be "quick and decisive."
==============================================
For further details on strategies and objectives behind the military operations, read the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace analysis or explore the Arab Center Washington DC breakdown.
bomb, talk, bomb.
~~~
Traditional theory on war (which is not obsolete but not as true anymore) is gather intel, conflict, occupy, pacification.
We are trying not to do occupation anymore (at least under Trump), but if bomb-talk-bomb is the totality of your strategy, then you had better be really good at bombing.
Wesel, Germany, 1945: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpet_bombing
The picture shows what air power alone could do in 1945, 81 years ago. B-52s can carry more bombs than WW2 bombers could. A few dumb bomb carpet bomb runs could be followed up by a smart bomb run to remove any remaining buildings and ruins.
Drones could clearly mop up any Iranian combatants in the cleared area.
Get the picture?
I won't say more as operations have undoubtedly been prepared.
“GOING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE WORST DECISION EVER MADE.”
Guess the closure of the Strait of Hormuz got this war going because it affects more than just the Middle East.
The Strait of Hormuz was open before this stupid fiasco was started.
Trump started this war at Israel’s request
********
Will you stop? Are you totally unaware that Iran has been at war with the US for forty years? How old were you when Iran took US hostages? 3? Are you unaware of the Marines who died in their sleep in Lebanon? We are not Israel’s hired hands. The US is sick and tired of Iran causing trouble and threatening our interests and trying to be a nuclear power, see?
November 1979: Iranian students, backed by the regime, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran — taking 66 Americans hostage in a 444-day standoff .
April 1983: The Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terrorist group, carried out a suicide car bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 17 Americans.
October 1983: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 241 U.S. military personnel — including 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other service personnel — in a truck bombing at a Marine compound in Beirut.
March 1984: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorists kidnapped CIA station chief William Buckley on his way to work in Beirut, ultimately killing him the following year.
September 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 23 innocent people — including two American service members — in a car bomb attack at the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut.
December 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists hijacked Kuwait Airways Flight 221 en route to Pakistan, diverting it to Tehran — where they brutally tortured and killed two American officials.
June 1985: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists hijacked TWA Flight 847 on its way from Athens to Rome, torturing a U.S. Navy diver before shooting him point blank in the head and tossing his body onto the Beirut airport tarmac.
July 1989: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed U.S. Marine Col. William Higgins after kidnapping him the previous year while serving with a United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
April 1995: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorists killed eight people — including one American citizen — in a car bomb attack in the Gaza Strip.
August 1995: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing an American and three other passengers, and wounding more than 100 others.
February 1996: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber blew up another bus in Jerusalem, killing three Americans and wounding three other Americans.
March 1996: A suicide bomber linked to the Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups killed 20 people — including two Americans — in a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv shopping center.
May 1996: Iran-backed terrorists killed an American-Israeli dual citizen and wounded another American citizen in the West Bank.
June 1996: Iran-backed Hezbollah Al-Hijaz terrorists killed 19 U.S. Airmen and wounded nearly 500 others in a truck bombing at a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia.
September 1997: Iran-backed Hamas suicide bombers blew themselves up at a shopping mall in Jerusalem, killing an American-Israeli dual citizen and wounding seven other American citizens.
August 1998: Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, facilitated by Iran-backed Hezbollah, simultaneously bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people — including a dozen American citizens.
August 2001: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a Jerusalem pizzeria, killing three Americans.
January 2002: An Iran-backed al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade terrorist killed an American-Israeli dual citizen in the West Bank.
July 2002: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist killed five Americans in a bombing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
June 2003: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber killed 17 people — including an American citizen — on a bus in Jerusalem.
October 2003: Iran-backed Popular Resistance Committees terrorists killed three U.S. diplomatic personnel in a bombing in Gaza.
Between 2003 and 2011: Iran-backed militias killed at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq — “roughly one in every six American combat fatalities in Iraq.”
August 2003: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing five Americans and wounding one other American.
August 2006: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed American citizen and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Michael Levin during the Second Lebanon War — the only American to die in the conflict.
January 2007: A dozen men affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force killed five U.S. soldiers and wounded three others in Karbala, Iraq, after disguising themselves as U.S. soldiers and entering the Provincial Joint Coordination Center.
March 2007: Former FBI Agent Robert Levinson disappeared in Iran, likely dying in an Iranian prison.
July 2014: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed two American citizens serving in the IDF.
October 2015: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed an American citizen and his wife in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.
December 2019: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed an American civilian contractor and wounded several U.S. service members in a rocket attack at K1 Air Base in Kirkuk, Iraq.
January 2020: 109 U.S. troops suffered traumatic brain injuries in an Iranian ballistic missile attack on the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq.
September 2020: U.S. intelligence indicated the Iranian regime was considering a plot to assassinate the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa.
February 2021: An Iran-backed militia fired a rocket at coalition forces in Erbil, Iraq, wounding a U.S. service member and four U.S. civilian contractors.
July 2021: Iranian-backed militias wounded two U.S. service members in a series of rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.
September 2022: An Iranian rocket attack killed an American citizen in Iraqi Kurdistan.
November 2022: An IRGC captain orchestrated the killing of an American citizen in Baghdad.
March 2023: An Iranian drone attack killed an American contractor and wounded five U.S. service members and another contractor in a strike on a coalition base in Syria.
October 2023: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed 46 Americans and kidnapped at least 12 Americans in the October 7th massacre.
December 2023: Iran-backed militias wounded three U.S. service members in an attack on Erbil Air Base in Iraq.
January 2024: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed three U.S. service members and wounded more than 40 other service members in a drone attack against the Tower 22 military base in Jordan.
Between October 2023 and November 2024: Iran and its proxies conducted more than 180 attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East, wounding more than 180 U.S. service members and killing three service members.
November 2024: An Iranian national and IRGC asset was charged for plotting to assassinate President Trump.
June 2025: Iran-backed militias attacked at least three U.S. bases in Syria and two U.S. bases in Iraq.
“The United States has spent EIGHT TRILLION DOLLARS fighting and policing in the Middle East.”
And six trillion dollars might have been spent if they hadn’t gone in.
***************
One hundred thousand soldiers at @$250,000/year each is $25 billion/year.
If 5,000 are so wounded as to be permanently disabled, the cost per man might be $3 million. That’s $15 billion.
That excludes ammunition expenditure, aircraft maintenance, fuel, warship docking fees, etc.
Be aware that weapons except small arms tend to become worthless from time alone.
You overlooked the biggest line item on the cost side of the ledger for these stupid military misadventures: building infrastructure and maintaining a permanent presence in Middle East sh!t-holes. This is why a company like Kellogg, Brown & Root made more money out of the Iraq debacle than even the arms manufacturers did.
The same RATs which had a virus created for their 2020 coup and came within two votes in the Senate of destroying America forever. Their two Senators that refused their orders to kill America are gone now.
Now draw up another list WITHOUT the incidents that wouldn’t have happened if the U.S. had just made the decision decades ago to stay the hell out of that dump.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.