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Posted on 05/11/2026 10:17:43 AM PDT by Jim Noble
It’s hard to think of a time when the United States suffered a total defeat in a conflict, a setback so decisive that the strategic loss could be neither repaired nor ignored...The initial failure in Iraq was mitigated by a shift in strategy...
Defeat in the present confrontation with Iran will be of an entirely different character. It can neither be repaired nor ignored...The Strait of Hormuz will not be “open,” as it once was. With control of the strait, Iran emerges as the key player in the region and one of the key players in the world... Far from demonstrating American prowess, as supporters of the war have repeatedly claimed, the conflict has revealed an America that is unreliable and incapable of finishing what it started. That is going to set off a chain reaction around the world as friends and foes adjust to America’s failure...
But any resolution other than America’s effective surrender holds enormous risks that Trump has not so far been willing to take. Those who glibly call on Trump to “finish the job” rarely acknowledge the costs. Unless the U.S. is prepared to engage in a full-scale ground and naval war to remove the current Iranian regime, and then to occupy Iran until a new government can take hold; unless it is prepared to risk the loss of warships convoying tankers through a contested strait; unless it is prepared to accept the devastating long-term damage to the region’s productive capacities likely to result from Iranian retaliation—walking away now could seem like the least bad option. As a political matter, Trump may well feel he has a better chance of riding out defeat than of surviving a much larger, longer, and more expensive war that could still end in failure...
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
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Spouse: Victoria Nuland
I trust The Bee more for accuracy and truth than The Atlantic.
Those who glibly call on Trump to “finish the job” rarely acknowledge the costs. Unless the U.S. is prepared to engage in a full-scale ground and naval war to remove the current Iranian regime, and then to occupy Iran until a new government can take hold; unless it is prepared to risk the loss of warships convoying tankers through a contested strait; unless it is prepared to accept the devastating long-term damage to the region’s productive capacities likely to result from Iranian retaliation
How is a Iran without power, without money, without the ability to even keep its people from starving or to protect the Theocracy, going to do these things?
Not necessary.
Continue the blockade and escort vessels. Occupy Kharg Island. Raise a counter-revolution. Let the Gulf states invade. Bomb powerplants, bridges and more port facilities. Use ELINT to track and destroy missile sites. There are many ways short of a ridiculous invasion by US Troops.
Liberal wet fever dream, only a moron sees Iran as winning, a moron who wants America and our freedoms destroyed.
Believing this seditious trash self reveals one’s internal ugliness and evil.
Everybody chooses between two options, which is limiting.
It didn’t take 10 mechanized divisions to throw the Taliban out of power. It was done with Special Forces, Air Power and internal dissidents.
And it was a rout.
How did Japan and Germany do it, for years?
How did the Soviet Union prevail at Stalingrad, and in the long march to Berlin?
You people talk about war like it's just another form of internet BS posting.
It's not.
We don’t need to invade or occupy.
The president can wait out the regime.
We just need to trust the man we elected, the man who has repeatedly risked his life for our republic, and exhibit his determination and patience.
He knows what’s he’s doing.
Let him cook.
Very sharp of you.
Two things:
1) Who is the government of Afghanistan today?
2) What are the relevant differences between Afghanistan and Iran?
And two sentences that make no sense. Here is an idea. Destroy power generating plants one at a time until all are gone and the regime has no power and it cries uncle.
This isn’t just about the mullahs.
We don’t need to do that.
Wiki: “Kagan left the Republican Party due to the party’s nomination of Donald Trump and endorsed the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, for president.”
The Islamic State regime doesn’t care if ordinary Iranians starve or die
Kagan is Noodlehead’s husband!
God save the USA and the Iranian people! No more mullahs or ayatollahs, or their thugs!
I don’t believe that it’s in the US interest to open the strait. China needs that strait open. Let them do it. We’re there to prevent Iran from getting a nuke to pair with their ballistic missile technology.
It cannot be assumed at all that control of the strait of Hormuz will remain under the control of or hostage to the Mullahs in Tehran. That “hold” of Iran can and most likely will be broken, while the blockade of Iran will continue.
Kagan assumes the opposite of all that, and thus his premise is what is faulty. The regime will continue to be squeezed financially and can be degraded much further militarily as well. Trump is not as concerned about “the mid terms” as he is about leaving a legacy of the status quo with the Mullahs in Tehran left in place.
You know who governs Afghanistan today, a Taliban that minds their own business.
The only real difference between the two is that Iran has more hardware...and all hardware is essentially a target for air power once it comes out of its hole to be used.
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