@gtierce
Lover of dogs (proud Samoyed dad), politics, housing + TOD (especially an interesting floorplan), and all things diplomatic/military (OEF/OIF x3). In the absence of bookmarks (originally), I often choose to repost here instead (i.e. RT != endorsement).
One general trait across time is that powerful people have justified systems that maintain and extend their power over others. They have use religion or science for those justifications (see the progressive eugenicists at the start of the 20th century) but the logic is depressingly consistent.
CSPAN @cspan . @SpeakerJohnson after House blocked War Powers Resolution: "We're not at war, we have no intention at being at war. The president and the Department of Defense have made it very clear, this is a limited operation."
Darkly funny he had enough self-awareness to revert to "Department of Defense" here.
This whole notion of the US not fighting a war to win comes from Vietnam and people mad we didn't just invade and/or nuke Hanoi, and has become a perpetuated inter-generational brainworm even though it makes no sense for any US war in over 50 years. It's the US version of the stab in the back myth.
Maybe an unpopular take: most women with Mar a Lago face could dial it back 15% & they'd look fine. Like they had obvious work done, but whatever, they're largely rich women in their fifties, that's kinda de rigeur. But they can't dial it back. The total self-abnegation is the point, & it shows
i know this is the least important headline right now but come the fuck on
damn! but honestly one american radar for like? 900 MR/SRBMs is not great. However they did get a face of the not!PAVE PAWS and maybe an emirati TPY-2 too
It’s not disingenuous to point out that the NYT did not run a single front page story of the Minab bombing. You don’t dispute this claim because it’s true. And the story that you reference on your webpage does not attribute blame to US/Israel and frames it as an allegation by “Iranian state media”
Interesting long-form memorandum from an Israeli think tank which predicts that as Israel's one-state (apartheidst) reality further coheres and concretizes, the most likely pathways almost all end with the end of the Jewish state.
If you're the Iranian military, US ground troops is your absolute #1 dream at this moment, you're picking out the nice hallmark invitation cards and perfuming them, red carpet, open bar, goodie bags, everything. You might trade 50-1 in casualties, but that's worth it thrice over in political damages
Reza Pahlavi Junior's counterexample illustrates well what I mean when I say that personally I actually find Bonnie Prince Charlie a more compelling figure than most exiled princes. Unlike the typical scenario, he at least actually put his life on the line.
The military hegemon in a relatively high trust, open world can no doubt make out quite well for a while, but ultimately the world adjusts to predation
To a significant degree, I think, even people who sharply oppose Israel in American politics understate how deeply violent and cruel they have become.
Mullin is neither honest, nor competent.
And the fact that Senators respect him reflects incredibly poorly on their intelligence and judgement.
I think Israel thought they had a choice between an organized enemy moving towards nuclear arms, and a disorganized enemy who may be able to muster a missile or terror attack. They chose the latter and wiped Iran's (geographically) closest proxies off the map before throwing a knock out punch
Kristi Noem's "Open to Work" LinkedIn Profile
No, it’s worse.
It’s a war without a political objective.
Plenty of wars have opened without a clear plan to reconcile desired ends with available means, we may be the first country to go to war without even a basic concept of victory.
War for the memes. War for the vibes. War for the Warriors.
The tendency observers shaped by GWOT-era failures to reach back to Pape's work in criticising US DoD belief in airpower's ability alone to achieve specific strategic objectives has led to less attention to the broader impact of the sheer carnage American airpower has unleashed since 1941
Lol, I know your profile pic is Comrade General Milley, but somehow it still made me assume that you were retirement age, like at least 50-60...
Carney calls it "monetizing their hegemony", casting it in basically economic terms. I think the diagnosis is correct, but it needs to be broadened. Trumpism is a philosophy of leverage: If you disagree with them, they will try to harm you by whatever means they can to get you to comply. Gangster.
Sounds like Israeli SOF may be operating inside Iraq (presumably setting up FARPs and the like for aircraft that en route to/from Iran or ground launched munitions)—and some of them may have gotten into a shootout with Iraqi forces
The shock of the apartheid analogy loses a lot of its punch when you learn the israeli leadership itself was discussing the possibility of becoming an apartheid state in 1968 in conversations about whether to keep the recently taken West Bank bsky.app/profile/mich...
Limor Son Har Melech and her husband Yehuda in their Purim costumes.
Death, occupation, ethnic cleansing, colonisation: this is the Israeli government's version of Zionism and Judaism, 2025. This is Kahanism. This is the hegemonic state ideology in Israel. Only a minority of Israeli Jews pursue it (25-40%) but there's no coherent political alternative.
At least they died for a good cause, serving the American strategic objective of ________, we just have to wait for the President to give a coherent explanation of what that was.
Yeah like to put things in perspective, the damage done by Sergey Brin’s ex-wife single handedly funding large segments of the anti-vax movement probably undid shitloads of positive public health work done through philanthropy. The ability to use that money for evil shit is just far greater.
You might appreciate this (older and unrefined version of) a CONOPS for improving Leonardo's 76mm DART gun system and adapting it to mobile air defense, especially against UAVs and PGMs (partly by adding an IIR seeker round, as well as AHEAD ammunition for point defense)
files.catbox.moe/mv5jn4.pdf
Not super related but a fun fact is that the PKK as it exists today owes a lot to the DFLP. This is an excellent story about the entwinement of the two national struggles which defined the region in the 20th century.
In a world where insiders place corrupt bets on still-secret US military actions before they are initiated; & the FBI fires Iran counterintelligence specialists days before the domestic terrorism threat rises to its highest levels in years, the old notion of “insider threat” is well and truly dead.
> Rubio saying unleash Chiang
DOES HE KNOW?
Donald Trump made trade threats against Spain during an Oval Office meeting with reporters and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)
Trump: "Spain said we can't use their bases. We could use their bases if we want. We could just fly in and use it. Nobody is gonna tell us not to use it"
Not receiving consent and moving forward anyway is a consistent theme in his life — as E. Jean Carroll can attest
The problem with "offshore balancing" once pitched by leftish Restrainers is when co-opted by the American Far Right it could be turned into justification for use of immense airpower violence as raids to force submission and tribute before withdrawing back into a fortified Western Hemisphere empire