I think the correct answer, and the additional option should’ve been: “no one knows, everything is a guess, and ask me in six months”. lol. I too am cautiously optimistic because Trump seems to not have politics getting in the way of what needs to be done militarily.
Agreed. I try to be an optimist but it would be very easy for another fanatic Muslim faction to take over. The people of Iran, the moderate sane ones, may need to organize and rise up to fight. This is Biblical. Alex would do well to consult an end-times scholar.
Optimism is healthy, but decisive victories aren't won without boots on the ground (something I heard a military pilot say), which I would strongly prefer us to avoid. Wait and see...
No there will be no boots on the ground. This was strike to take out hated leadership. It is up to the Iranians now. Trump told them here is your chance you will not get another.
Agree that ground troops would be a disaster. Back to hit and run tactics from the "martyrdom is cool club".
Unfortunately, the choice is pretty simple. Iran has been at war with us for 47 years. For them it was a hot kinetic war. For us, other than a handful of examples it was a war of containment. But we were going to have a hot war with Iran. No doubt. the only question was going to be if they had a nuke in their back pocket. All indications are that even with their "negotiations" they were hellbent on getting a weapon that could wreck shop and use it to bully the region (and of course the added bonus of blowing up Israel when convenient) so really not much of a choice.
Hate to see the deaths but these "clerics" are mad as hatters. BTW since when did the words "clerics" and "psychopaths" become synonymous???
Fog of war. Domino effect emerging. Trump has decapitated hostile regimes in Venezuela and Iran. That will weaken Cuba, Russia, and China - the biggest threat. Pray for innocent civilians and that freedom will prevail without boots on the ground.
The New York Times published an article called "Trusting Khomeini" in 1979. It belongs in the fake news hall of shame. The “expert” author Richard Falk has studied or worked at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UN, and Human Rights Watch.
“Thus, the depiction of him as fanatical, reactionary and the bearer of crude prejudices seems certainly and happily false. What is also encouraging is that his entourage of close advisers is uniformly composed of moderate, progressive individuals… the key appointees share a notable record of concern for human rights and seem eager to achieve economic development that results in a modern society oriented on satisfying the whole population's basic needs… Having created a new model of popular revolution based, for the most part, on nonviolent tactics, Iran may yet provide us with a desperately‐needed model of humane governance for a third‐world country.”
I thought both the first attack on Iran and the strike for the removal of Maduro would turn out way worse than what actually happened.
I have this hope that there are elements inside Iran that have been cooperating with the USA and Israel. Hopefully they have a plan to "provide us with a desperately‐needed model of humane governance for a third‐world country.”
I think you can take it as a certainty that there are a lot of Iranians who have been working with Mossad to make sure that Israel and the USA have nearly perfect intelligence.
They struck when the majority of the leaders of the regime were gathering for a strategic planning meeting, wiping them all out at once. I'd say they have excellent intelligence!
Yes, Castro. Probably the CIA’s worst intelligence effort during the 50’s. Allen Dulles sat in front of a Senate Committee assuring everyone that Castro was not a threat to the US. You know, James Angleton spent most of his career looking for a ‘Russian mole’ in the CIA - well I would check the people out who were responsible for providing the Castro intel.
The NYT also downplayed the Holocaust. It buried details of concentration camps. Arthur Hays Sulzberger buried the genocide of Jews in the middle or back of the Times. Sometimes it was included in a few paragraphs within a longer story about the battles of the war. “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” Since 1897, this has been on the masthead of The New York Times. However, in the paper of record’s long history, some news was “Not Fit to Print".
Sorry to tag onto you, Yuri, but I seem to enjoy your comments the most.
Evil is involved, and evil is not going away. All we can do is contain it, we will never be able to destroy it. But it has to be rejected, it has to be completely shunned and fought, and in the end, utterly disdained where it has no opportunity for perverse alliances among people who are healthy accountable and responsible.
Sorry folks, the Democrat party has got lots of evil, but the Republicans by their cowardice, whoring and avoidance, has equally accepted evil‘s plans. You’re not going to get away with saying one party is right and one party is wrong. It’s a hideous symbiotic relationship that is entrenched.
I checked the choice Iran will wind up in civil war, and utter devastation. Because in the end, that’s what this country is doing, we’re just looking for something to distract this momentarily.
Hold your loved ones tight and with passion. That opportunity may be fleeting in the end.
No, I am not, it’s the denial and projection and pathological rationalization of extremely partisan Republican morons who think that being cowards whores and avoidants that makes it so much more acceptable than being evil sociopaths. The cowardly whoring avoidant behavior only empowers the sociopath. You’re a Symbiote.
You folks won’t figure it out, and when you come back telling me that “oh, we’re just incompetent people”, that’s not a mature acceptable defense, that’s a pathetic, ignorant rationalization.
And that’s why you have a narcissist as your leader, he has found the niche and is running as far as he can with it.
Everyone would enjoy that NY Times article. Especially rich are these two sections:
"To suppose that Ayatollah Khomeini is dissembling seems almost beyond belief. His political style is to express his real views defiantly and without apology, regardless of consequences. He has little incentive suddenly to become devious for the sake of American public opinion. Thus, the depiction of him as fanatical, reactionary and the bearer of crude prejudices seems cer tainly and happily false. What is also encouraging is that his entourage of close advisers is uniformly composed of moderate, progressive individuals."
and
"Having created a new model of popular revolution based, for the most part, on nonviolent tactics, Iran may yet provide us with a desperately‐needed model of humane governance for a third‐world country. If this is true, then indeed the exotic Ayatollah may yet convince the world that “politics is the opiate of the people.”
The article's author Richard Falk later had to eat a big basket of crow for being so wrong.
Agree, I've been cautiously optimistic that Trump is working his way up the adversary axis for a domino effect. On Iran specifically I'm worried we'll end up with a cornered raccoon scenario where the regime third stringers are still in charge, buying time to repeat the Khomenini plan.
I think most people born before 1970 have a very different view than those born later. We grew up with the horror of the 444 days with hostages and the repeated bombing and attacks by the Iranians.
Yes, and we also remember shortly before those 444 days the Iranian people overthrowing the Shah and installing the current regime while screaming "death to America" in the streets. So I hope this vile government is obliterated but less than enthusiastic losing Americans to help the Iranians unscrew their own mess
Fair criticism. I think of the recklessness of Afghanis. Are the Persians so different? Am I to trust that they learned their lesson after 47 years of this?
Gaugemela and the end of Persian greatness happened in 331 B.C. How much can you discern that they have learned anything to their advantage since? Islam, obviously, doesn't count
The Iranian revolution wasn't so much a popular uprising as a stab in the back by the air force revolting and defecting from within the lower ranks as well as opening up the armory for the revolutionaries and religious zealots working to bring in the ayatollah from his vacation in France.
Yes. And I remember feeling ashamed of our government when we failed to rescue the hostages. I voted for Carter even though I am a conservative, because he clearly stated that “Jesus Christ is the most important person in my life.” Carter was a hapless, ill-equipped president.
Jimmy Carter also naively (?) said that he believed the Ayatollah Khomeini was a good, religious man. If he had read a modicum of Khomeini's background history he would not have said that.
I am over losing troops, I hate it, breaks my heart!
Anyone who has truly watched Trump and doesn't have TDS can see what he is doing. This has very little to do with Iran. It has everything to do with CHINA and choking their discounted energy they have been receiving from Venezuela and Iran. The whole Nuke bombs is cover to give him a reason to take them out, put in another leader he can control like Venezuela and have CHINA by the balls. When I battle these two statements out, I get what he's doing and I agree with it, but losing the soldiers still makes me sad. But I still trust what Trump is doing, he loves this country!
This right here! There is more to this strike on Iran, this is about the subtle( not so ) global power shift happening right under our noses. While we argue about pronouns and which bathroom to use, China and Russia are gaining traction. I struggle with Trump Daily, but I see the logic behind the moves and am thankful he has the stones to do what should have been done long ago. I will add that my son is stationed in the region, and I pray this all goes according to plan.
Thank your son for his service. I will pray for his safe return to you. I can not imagine how you feel as a mother having a child in harms way. My prayers are also for you and your family as you deal with this situation.
Agreed. Especially since I have friends' husbands and sons serving currently. Lots of prayers for this to go the best possible way. I was remembering the 3 soldiers we lost in a drone attack in Jordan, January of 2024 to an Iranian backed militia. We've been losing soldiers to Iranian funded terrorism for far too long!
Per my comment above/below, George Friedman, longtime and well-respect geopolitical observer/strategist, offers a very balanced assessment of why we attacked, to wit: it is very much about the nukes. Worth a watch:
Americans hate losing troops because we love life and respect individuals. That is a beautiful thing, I love that about our nation and our culture. In war, lives are lost. It’s the nature of the beast. We should not let our lack of appetite for death deter us from our mission. The ultimate sacrifice will be made by some. If we cannot accept this as a possibility, we will turn ourselves from the strongest armed force in the history of planet Earth to a sad, ineffective, wasted mass. And those lives already lost will be in vain.
Please ask on 3/28/26. Yes, off to a good start, but too soon to tell. The old ways of dealing with Iran were not working. And what Obama and John Kerry did was simply disgraceful! So let's give this some time. There's a lot we don't know.
The poll asks for soothsaying, not opinions. The difference between victory, toothless regime, and civil war probably hinges on things present right now that somewhere between 98% and 100% of us can't see, as well as events in the next few days or weeks that cannot be anticipated. So I'll skip the poll, as my crystal ball for the future is pretty cloudy. That said, I have to deeply appreciate an administration that is willing to work toward an actual solution to all the evil that Iran has engendered across the globe over the past decades, starting with their violation of the sanctity of embassies in 1979. And, God bless our troops!
This is the third leg in Trump’s oil import reduction strategy to China. First it was the deal with India to stop buying cheap Russian oil to sell to China. Then it was the Venezuela Maduro play to stop Venezuelan oil from being sold to China. Now cutting off cheap Iranian oil to China. Trump with now have the oil card to play when he meets with Xi next month. China imports over 11.6 million barrels a day and now three major oil import sources have been reduced. Nice play !
We are not soothsayers. That said, defanging a regime whose rallying cry has been "Death to America" and been responsible for hundreds of American deaths for the past 47 years beats sitting back hoping they wouldn't become nuclear.
The end of history is not showing up - ever. Mankind is flawed. So the only response is "compared to what?"
I prefer this to sending the major terrorist sponsor planeloads of cash. And I'll remain cautiously optimistic that the results can be better than sitting on our hands.
This continues the destruction of the deep state, but among the global powers. It especially upsets the British globalists, but that “world order” is over.
I’ll change my opinion, not that I’ll have that option, if the clowns in DC zip up their pants and stop trying to knee cap POTUS Trump.
Alex, under the war powers act POTUS Trump did not need congressional approval. It’s interesting, as has been pointed out repeatedly, that when the two clowns that preceded and came in between POTUS Trump 45 & 47 took action there was no call about war powers act like this - and this action has been 47 years in the making, fed and abetted by feckless Ds and Rs alike. Is it better to help some religious fanatics move on to their poor reward or let them go nuclear - killing Israelites and Americans doing so?
I’ve written off the Middle East as an endless pit of trouble as long as Islam dominates so I’m fine with bombing them every now and then to limit the trouble they can cause.
F the Palestinians too. No group in my life has done more to cause their own problems and blow opportunities.
I think the current campaign is necessary. SadlyI suspect #4 will be the result.
Just like Hamas, so many people in Iran are true believers in the Shia concept of the return of the 12th Iman & their imaginary, hapless 72 virgins. This is a hopelessly misguided death cult that doesn’t fear death has brainwashed several generations. They will continue to fight regardless of their losses and harm to their “fellow” Muslims.
Thomas Sowell is correct: “ There are no solutions, only trade-offs.”
About 60% of Iranians are Persians. Among the Muslims there is a Christian community, made up of converts from Islam. Right now Christianity is a minority religion, though it is growing rapidly through underground conversions, with estimated numbers ranging from 100,000 to over 1 million. Conversion from Islam is forbidden under Islamic law (Sharia) in Iran, making it highly dangerous for native Persians to convert. Converts often face persecution, with dozens of Christians sentenced to prison terms annually. Maybe Christianity will help transform Iran since the Ayatollah is dead.
I saw an interview with David Nasser, an Iranian former Muslim who fled Iran with his parents in 1979. He is now a Christian pastor, and he said the largest Christianity movement in the world today is the underground Iranian Christians!
Dark Thomas, I was ardently hoping that the operation now in progress would begin in that period when the protesters in Iran’s streets were so joyful and hopeful that intervention was imminent. My best guess as to why we did not act sooner is that the necessary, complex constellation of delicately coordinated plans and preparations were not yet fully locked down to produce optimal success (including minimal loss of service members’ — ours and our allies’ — lives). It was, and is, imperative that we “get this right”. And it is tragic that the now-shattered regime chose to unleash its fury on the people of Iran, something the late Shah could have done when he was about to be deposed, but would not do.
Why not be optimistic. It feels like we have people running things that know how to win for the first time in 60 plus years. Used on a limited basis in these instances to take down bad actors who have been coming at us for long periods seems like the perfect demonstration of Americas’s might and character. I expect it to lead to better things, both here and abroad. Something we haven’t been able to say for a very long time. Cheers! Bill🙏
It's uncertain what the result inside Iran will be as it is largely depends on the Iranian people, as it should. But it appears to be fairly certain that our most important objectives, critical disruption of the nuclear program, elimination of the missile threat (especially derailing any plans for ICBM development) and termination of any naval threat to shipping and military operations. The alignment of most of the ME against the ongoing threats from Iran is most welcome and augurs for the potential of a peaceful and productive future.
At some point US citizens will come to realize that supposed experts don’t really KNOW crap. They project their personal opinions as what they say will be the reality. Since I also qualify as an expert, I’ll tell you what will happen:
There will be no troops on the ground
We will be killing the Iran leader of the week with great regularity for 45 days.
We will insure that any boat trying to mine the Gulf of Hormuz is immediately destroyed. If we can regularly kill drug smugglers in speed boats, we can easily identify and kill mine spreaders. Our mine sweepers will regularly patrol the gulf starting about 2,000feet as measured from Saudi side. This will allow oil tankers to pass in single file one direction at a time. This is the practice in turkey at The Bosporus in a much much narrower strait. We will do this for at least a
Year
There will be no nation building effort. The Iranians are on their own to control their future.
If a “bad leader” appears in a year or two, we have demonstrated our ability to take him out.
For those who disagree that Rogue regimes are not to blackmail the world, they are advised that the adults not the foreign policy children are now running the show……..Obama and his children made nice nice with Iran giving them billions and agreeing that yes they could have a nuclear bomb in 10 to 12 years. Their policy was to let them become North Korea and we would simply deal with that reality.
Trump has simply stated and acted that this “ain’t gonna happen……”
The last declaration of war was June 5, 1942. So thinking about all the "military operations" since then, no formal declarations. Not Korea (1950-53) and not Vietnam (1955-1975). And not anything else. The political cretins screaming about what Trump is now doing need to just shut up because they sound utterly stupid. They are making political hay and most likely know they are lying. There are probably more than a few who are totally ignorant about the facts, just as they are ignoramuses about so very many other things. Politicians seem to have a higher proportion of true idiots than the general population.
Very cautiously optimistic….I really hope we can minimize deaths of any American soldiers. Boots on the ground would be a horrible idea.
I think the correct answer, and the additional option should’ve been: “no one knows, everything is a guess, and ask me in six months”. lol. I too am cautiously optimistic because Trump seems to not have politics getting in the way of what needs to be done militarily.
That was going to be my option if there was one. Too soon to tell would like to remain optimistic.
Agreed. I try to be an optimist but it would be very easy for another fanatic Muslim faction to take over. The people of Iran, the moderate sane ones, may need to organize and rise up to fight. This is Biblical. Alex would do well to consult an end-times scholar.
Optimism is healthy, but decisive victories aren't won without boots on the ground (something I heard a military pilot say), which I would strongly prefer us to avoid. Wait and see...
No there will be no boots on the ground. This was strike to take out hated leadership. It is up to the Iranians now. Trump told them here is your chance you will not get another.
I hope you’re correct, Lynne. Plans can change though.
Agree that ground troops would be a disaster. Back to hit and run tactics from the "martyrdom is cool club".
Unfortunately, the choice is pretty simple. Iran has been at war with us for 47 years. For them it was a hot kinetic war. For us, other than a handful of examples it was a war of containment. But we were going to have a hot war with Iran. No doubt. the only question was going to be if they had a nuke in their back pocket. All indications are that even with their "negotiations" they were hellbent on getting a weapon that could wreck shop and use it to bully the region (and of course the added bonus of blowing up Israel when convenient) so really not much of a choice.
Hate to see the deaths but these "clerics" are mad as hatters. BTW since when did the words "clerics" and "psychopaths" become synonymous???
Islam is an ideology, not a religion.
I dont recall referring to Islam as a religion but agree w your point....
Sorry. I see what you are saying now. I guess I was "triggered" by the word cleric. lol
Think "boots on the ground" would be Intelligence Agents rather than soliders.
Agree 👍
To Deb Benedict
Ditto
Fog of war. Domino effect emerging. Trump has decapitated hostile regimes in Venezuela and Iran. That will weaken Cuba, Russia, and China - the biggest threat. Pray for innocent civilians and that freedom will prevail without boots on the ground.
The New York Times published an article called "Trusting Khomeini" in 1979. It belongs in the fake news hall of shame. The “expert” author Richard Falk has studied or worked at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UN, and Human Rights Watch.
“Thus, the depiction of him as fanatical, reactionary and the bearer of crude prejudices seems certainly and happily false. What is also encouraging is that his entourage of close advisers is uniformly composed of moderate, progressive individuals… the key appointees share a notable record of concern for human rights and seem eager to achieve economic development that results in a modern society oriented on satisfying the whole population's basic needs… Having created a new model of popular revolution based, for the most part, on nonviolent tactics, Iran may yet provide us with a desperately‐needed model of humane governance for a third‐world country.”
Joseph Goebbels would have been pleased with the propaganda that Richard Falk was peddling.
I thought both the first attack on Iran and the strike for the removal of Maduro would turn out way worse than what actually happened.
I have this hope that there are elements inside Iran that have been cooperating with the USA and Israel. Hopefully they have a plan to "provide us with a desperately‐needed model of humane governance for a third‐world country.”
I think you can take it as a certainty that there are a lot of Iranians who have been working with Mossad to make sure that Israel and the USA have nearly perfect intelligence.
They struck when the majority of the leaders of the regime were gathering for a strategic planning meeting, wiping them all out at once. I'd say they have excellent intelligence!
The Israelis hacked Iran's surveillance system of cameras. That is how they were able to track Ayatollah Khamenei and his cohorts.
Israeli, do you suppose? NOOO. lol
This comment will keep me smiling all day
They've done some amazing things.
"nonviolent tactics" includes r@pe and machine gun fire?
Thanks for another classic from the NY Times which is always trying to top itself since proclaiming Castro a savior for the Cubans.
Yes, Castro. Probably the CIA’s worst intelligence effort during the 50’s. Allen Dulles sat in front of a Senate Committee assuring everyone that Castro was not a threat to the US. You know, James Angleton spent most of his career looking for a ‘Russian mole’ in the CIA - well I would check the people out who were responsible for providing the Castro intel.
Indeed
The NYT also downplayed the Holocaust. It buried details of concentration camps. Arthur Hays Sulzberger buried the genocide of Jews in the middle or back of the Times. Sometimes it was included in a few paragraphs within a longer story about the battles of the war. “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” Since 1897, this has been on the masthead of The New York Times. However, in the paper of record’s long history, some news was “Not Fit to Print".
Sorry to tag onto you, Yuri, but I seem to enjoy your comments the most.
Evil is involved, and evil is not going away. All we can do is contain it, we will never be able to destroy it. But it has to be rejected, it has to be completely shunned and fought, and in the end, utterly disdained where it has no opportunity for perverse alliances among people who are healthy accountable and responsible.
Sorry folks, the Democrat party has got lots of evil, but the Republicans by their cowardice, whoring and avoidance, has equally accepted evil‘s plans. You’re not going to get away with saying one party is right and one party is wrong. It’s a hideous symbiotic relationship that is entrenched.
I checked the choice Iran will wind up in civil war, and utter devastation. Because in the end, that’s what this country is doing, we’re just looking for something to distract this momentarily.
Hold your loved ones tight and with passion. That opportunity may be fleeting in the end.
DUW. You’re making this way too complex - Dems and Muslims are evil. GOP simply incompetent politicians
No, I am not, it’s the denial and projection and pathological rationalization of extremely partisan Republican morons who think that being cowards whores and avoidants that makes it so much more acceptable than being evil sociopaths. The cowardly whoring avoidant behavior only empowers the sociopath. You’re a Symbiote.
You folks won’t figure it out, and when you come back telling me that “oh, we’re just incompetent people”, that’s not a mature acceptable defense, that’s a pathetic, ignorant rationalization.
And that’s why you have a narcissist as your leader, he has found the niche and is running as far as he can with it.
Good luck…
wonder how much he got paid for that.
How'd that work out for everyone?
Everyone would enjoy that NY Times article. Especially rich are these two sections:
"To suppose that Ayatollah Khomeini is dissembling seems almost beyond belief. His political style is to express his real views defiantly and without apology, regardless of consequences. He has little incentive suddenly to become devious for the sake of American public opinion. Thus, the depiction of him as fanatical, reactionary and the bearer of crude prejudices seems cer tainly and happily false. What is also encouraging is that his entourage of close advisers is uniformly composed of moderate, progressive individuals."
and
"Having created a new model of popular revolution based, for the most part, on nonviolent tactics, Iran may yet provide us with a desperately‐needed model of humane governance for a third‐world country. If this is true, then indeed the exotic Ayatollah may yet convince the world that “politics is the opiate of the people.”
The article's author Richard Falk later had to eat a big basket of crow for being so wrong.
Link to the whole article: https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/16/archives/trusting-khomeini.html
The New York Times article did not age well.
Agree, I've been cautiously optimistic that Trump is working his way up the adversary axis for a domino effect. On Iran specifically I'm worried we'll end up with a cornered raccoon scenario where the regime third stringers are still in charge, buying time to repeat the Khomenini plan.
I think most people born before 1970 have a very different view than those born later. We grew up with the horror of the 444 days with hostages and the repeated bombing and attacks by the Iranians.
Yes, and we also remember shortly before those 444 days the Iranian people overthrowing the Shah and installing the current regime while screaming "death to America" in the streets. So I hope this vile government is obliterated but less than enthusiastic losing Americans to help the Iranians unscrew their own mess
Fair criticism. I think of the recklessness of Afghanis. Are the Persians so different? Am I to trust that they learned their lesson after 47 years of this?
Gaugemela and the end of Persian greatness happened in 331 B.C. How much can you discern that they have learned anything to their advantage since? Islam, obviously, doesn't count
The Iranian revolution wasn't so much a popular uprising as a stab in the back by the air force revolting and defecting from within the lower ranks as well as opening up the armory for the revolutionaries and religious zealots working to bring in the ayatollah from his vacation in France.
Yes, they should have been grateful that we toppled their government and installed that great defender of human rights, the shah. How dare they!!
Yes. And I remember feeling ashamed of our government when we failed to rescue the hostages. I voted for Carter even though I am a conservative, because he clearly stated that “Jesus Christ is the most important person in my life.” Carter was a hapless, ill-equipped president.
Jimmy Carter also naively (?) said that he believed the Ayatollah Khomeini was a good, religious man. If he had read a modicum of Khomeini's background history he would not have said that.
Same. And Agree.
I'm with you there.
I volunteered for months at the Crisis Center set up for World Trade Center victims.
I'll never forget it. Not just my psyche, my bones.
My son went to daycare at the World Trade Center. A scheduling screw up kept us both home that morning, thank God.
After, he had nightmares and was afraid of shopping malls. I had to reassure him that they wouldn't burn down with us in them.
The people who came to me for certificates of death for their loved ones. I'll never forget.
Presumably your experiences were similar to those in the middle east who had American bombs rained on their families courtesy of our beloved Isrul.
I am over losing troops, I hate it, breaks my heart!
Anyone who has truly watched Trump and doesn't have TDS can see what he is doing. This has very little to do with Iran. It has everything to do with CHINA and choking their discounted energy they have been receiving from Venezuela and Iran. The whole Nuke bombs is cover to give him a reason to take them out, put in another leader he can control like Venezuela and have CHINA by the balls. When I battle these two statements out, I get what he's doing and I agree with it, but losing the soldiers still makes me sad. But I still trust what Trump is doing, he loves this country!
This right here! There is more to this strike on Iran, this is about the subtle( not so ) global power shift happening right under our noses. While we argue about pronouns and which bathroom to use, China and Russia are gaining traction. I struggle with Trump Daily, but I see the logic behind the moves and am thankful he has the stones to do what should have been done long ago. I will add that my son is stationed in the region, and I pray this all goes according to plan.
Bless your son and thank him for his service. I trust Trump but I’m holding my breath.
You have my prayers too.
Thank you for your service. Mothers serve too, as you know well
Praying for your son!
Thank your son for his service. I will pray for his safe return to you. I can not imagine how you feel as a mother having a child in harms way. My prayers are also for you and your family as you deal with this situation.
Agreed. Especially since I have friends' husbands and sons serving currently. Lots of prayers for this to go the best possible way. I was remembering the 3 soldiers we lost in a drone attack in Jordan, January of 2024 to an Iranian backed militia. We've been losing soldiers to Iranian funded terrorism for far too long!
Pretty much what my husband said too. Right now I'm optimistically hopeful, but still holding my breath.
Per my comment above/below, George Friedman, longtime and well-respect geopolitical observer/strategist, offers a very balanced assessment of why we attacked, to wit: it is very much about the nukes. Worth a watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-YjCkjY680
Americans hate losing troops because we love life and respect individuals. That is a beautiful thing, I love that about our nation and our culture. In war, lives are lost. It’s the nature of the beast. We should not let our lack of appetite for death deter us from our mission. The ultimate sacrifice will be made by some. If we cannot accept this as a possibility, we will turn ourselves from the strongest armed force in the history of planet Earth to a sad, ineffective, wasted mass. And those lives already lost will be in vain.
Please ask on 3/28/26. Yes, off to a good start, but too soon to tell. The old ways of dealing with Iran were not working. And what Obama and John Kerry did was simply disgraceful! So let's give this some time. There's a lot we don't know.
The poll asks for soothsaying, not opinions. The difference between victory, toothless regime, and civil war probably hinges on things present right now that somewhere between 98% and 100% of us can't see, as well as events in the next few days or weeks that cannot be anticipated. So I'll skip the poll, as my crystal ball for the future is pretty cloudy. That said, I have to deeply appreciate an administration that is willing to work toward an actual solution to all the evil that Iran has engendered across the globe over the past decades, starting with their violation of the sanctity of embassies in 1979. And, God bless our troops!
Well put. That’s the same reason I didn’t take the poll, either.
This is the third leg in Trump’s oil import reduction strategy to China. First it was the deal with India to stop buying cheap Russian oil to sell to China. Then it was the Venezuela Maduro play to stop Venezuelan oil from being sold to China. Now cutting off cheap Iranian oil to China. Trump with now have the oil card to play when he meets with Xi next month. China imports over 11.6 million barrels a day and now three major oil import sources have been reduced. Nice play !
We are not soothsayers. That said, defanging a regime whose rallying cry has been "Death to America" and been responsible for hundreds of American deaths for the past 47 years beats sitting back hoping they wouldn't become nuclear.
The end of history is not showing up - ever. Mankind is flawed. So the only response is "compared to what?"
I prefer this to sending the major terrorist sponsor planeloads of cash. And I'll remain cautiously optimistic that the results can be better than sitting on our hands.
I agree. If we don’t deal with this now, we will deal with it later and at much greater cost.
This continues the destruction of the deep state, but among the global powers. It especially upsets the British globalists, but that “world order” is over.
there was a twitter post saying "all muslim nations with the exception of great britain supported the attack"
Well, Iran does have Shia Muslim Mandami in NYC to counter strike and continue to destroy it.
it's going to be a bit awkward for him, perhaps, when marco rubio is appointed the new ayatollah
ha!
Sad truth.
who posted it?
I checked #4 - civil war and bad stuff happening.
I’ll change my opinion, not that I’ll have that option, if the clowns in DC zip up their pants and stop trying to knee cap POTUS Trump.
Alex, under the war powers act POTUS Trump did not need congressional approval. It’s interesting, as has been pointed out repeatedly, that when the two clowns that preceded and came in between POTUS Trump 45 & 47 took action there was no call about war powers act like this - and this action has been 47 years in the making, fed and abetted by feckless Ds and Rs alike. Is it better to help some religious fanatics move on to their poor reward or let them go nuclear - killing Israelites and Americans doing so?
I’ve written off the Middle East as an endless pit of trouble as long as Islam dominates so I’m fine with bombing them every now and then to limit the trouble they can cause.
F the Palestinians too. No group in my life has done more to cause their own problems and blow opportunities.
It's because they don't actually want peace, they want to destroy Israel. Islam is evil.
I think the current campaign is necessary. SadlyI suspect #4 will be the result.
Just like Hamas, so many people in Iran are true believers in the Shia concept of the return of the 12th Iman & their imaginary, hapless 72 virgins. This is a hopelessly misguided death cult that doesn’t fear death has brainwashed several generations. They will continue to fight regardless of their losses and harm to their “fellow” Muslims.
Thomas Sowell is correct: “ There are no solutions, only trade-offs.”
About 60% of Iranians are Persians. Among the Muslims there is a Christian community, made up of converts from Islam. Right now Christianity is a minority religion, though it is growing rapidly through underground conversions, with estimated numbers ranging from 100,000 to over 1 million. Conversion from Islam is forbidden under Islamic law (Sharia) in Iran, making it highly dangerous for native Persians to convert. Converts often face persecution, with dozens of Christians sentenced to prison terms annually. Maybe Christianity will help transform Iran since the Ayatollah is dead.
I saw an interview with David Nasser, an Iranian former Muslim who fled Iran with his parents in 1979. He is now a Christian pastor, and he said the largest Christianity movement in the world today is the underground Iranian Christians!
I am so happy to hear that.
Destruction of power base. Opportunity for citizens to take over.
Stopping this cancer from metastising forever!
timing would have been slightly better had iran not just murdered some 10-30k of their most fearless freedom fighters just a few weeks ago
Amen, timing is critical but did show how this satanic cult treats its citizens.
Dark Thomas, I was ardently hoping that the operation now in progress would begin in that period when the protesters in Iran’s streets were so joyful and hopeful that intervention was imminent. My best guess as to why we did not act sooner is that the necessary, complex constellation of delicately coordinated plans and preparations were not yet fully locked down to produce optimal success (including minimal loss of service members’ — ours and our allies’ — lives). It was, and is, imperative that we “get this right”. And it is tragic that the now-shattered regime chose to unleash its fury on the people of Iran, something the late Shah could have done when he was about to be deposed, but would not do.
Why not be optimistic. It feels like we have people running things that know how to win for the first time in 60 plus years. Used on a limited basis in these instances to take down bad actors who have been coming at us for long periods seems like the perfect demonstration of Americas’s might and character. I expect it to lead to better things, both here and abroad. Something we haven’t been able to say for a very long time. Cheers! Bill🙏
It's uncertain what the result inside Iran will be as it is largely depends on the Iranian people, as it should. But it appears to be fairly certain that our most important objectives, critical disruption of the nuclear program, elimination of the missile threat (especially derailing any plans for ICBM development) and termination of any naval threat to shipping and military operations. The alignment of most of the ME against the ongoing threats from Iran is most welcome and augurs for the potential of a peaceful and productive future.
At some point US citizens will come to realize that supposed experts don’t really KNOW crap. They project their personal opinions as what they say will be the reality. Since I also qualify as an expert, I’ll tell you what will happen:
There will be no troops on the ground
We will be killing the Iran leader of the week with great regularity for 45 days.
We will insure that any boat trying to mine the Gulf of Hormuz is immediately destroyed. If we can regularly kill drug smugglers in speed boats, we can easily identify and kill mine spreaders. Our mine sweepers will regularly patrol the gulf starting about 2,000feet as measured from Saudi side. This will allow oil tankers to pass in single file one direction at a time. This is the practice in turkey at The Bosporus in a much much narrower strait. We will do this for at least a
Year
There will be no nation building effort. The Iranians are on their own to control their future.
If a “bad leader” appears in a year or two, we have demonstrated our ability to take him out.
For those who disagree that Rogue regimes are not to blackmail the world, they are advised that the adults not the foreign policy children are now running the show……..Obama and his children made nice nice with Iran giving them billions and agreeing that yes they could have a nuclear bomb in 10 to 12 years. Their policy was to let them become North Korea and we would simply deal with that reality.
Trump has simply stated and acted that this “ain’t gonna happen……”
Was Vietnam or Korea ever sanctioned by Congress? Oh wait, they were just conflicts. I a not a Constitutional lawyer.....nor are you.
The last declaration of war was June 5, 1942. So thinking about all the "military operations" since then, no formal declarations. Not Korea (1950-53) and not Vietnam (1955-1975). And not anything else. The political cretins screaming about what Trump is now doing need to just shut up because they sound utterly stupid. They are making political hay and most likely know they are lying. There are probably more than a few who are totally ignorant about the facts, just as they are ignoramuses about so very many other things. Politicians seem to have a higher proportion of true idiots than the general population.
Good comment.