Discussion: Pentagon Sending 1,000 More Troops To Iran As Tensions Escalate After Tanker Explosions

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And of course, Grifty Schiff is all aboard Trumpā€™s War Train. What a fraud.

Trump Has Brilliantly Cornered Himself Where Heā€™s Now Demanding Iran Abide by a Deal He Already Reneged On

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Slowly, for the people who have poor reading comprehension.

We should be leading an international effort to protect the seas and reduce the risk of conflict.

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Despite Trump joining forces with the Saudis, that agreement is still (borderline) working.

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ā€œActing Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan announced Monday that the Pentagon is dispatching 1,000 more troops to the Middle East in the wake of the blown-up oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.ā€

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In spite of all, Trump is getting ready for war so weā€™ll have more blood and treasure lost.

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War with Iran is one of the stupidest things ever, but it will probably be the thing that breaks the Putin-Trump relationship. The Chinese have concluded they prefer the stability of Biden, even if he might hold their feet to the fire on things like human rights, to the nuttiness of Trump. Vlad may be compelled to conclude the same. I donā€™t really see a scenario where Russiaā€™s FP establishment would think that destabilizing Iran would be good for Russia. There are many within the Russian establishment who arenā€™t that gung ho about the relationship with Trump, but they admire the way that Putin trolls the US. That said, they know their position in the world is fragile and thereā€™s only so far Vlad can go.

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being an old timerā€¦i remember when GWB put out those pictures of the trucks moving WMDs, which by the wayā€¦didnā€™t existā€¦ videos can be made to be whatever one wants them to beā€¦ going to war , by way of a video, is stupidā€¦so more AMERICANS are going to die because of stupidity? I hope the rest of the world has sense enough to sayā€¦its your warā€¦go for it americansā€¦

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Maybe a Navy type can explain the pictures?

If you should remove a dud limpet mine (maybe still ā€˜liveā€™) , would you run a large boat with something like 10 persons up along it and peel it off ?

Or would you make a more careful approach with the smallest possible crew, attach a wire and then drag it off the ship from a safer distance ?

Some more info

Method of attack on tankers remains key evidence against Iran
Release of colour images adds more clarity to debate but fails to prove responsibility
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/18/method-attack-tankers-remains-key-evidence-against-iran

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Yes, definitely not a smoking gun. I see Judith Miller has been adding her two cents to the Iranian situation lately advising the US to escort oil tankers.

Go away, Judy. Far, far away.

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Iran is nothing like Iraq and anyone who thinks the US could just walk through it is an idiot. They have an ancient history and national identity. They get advanced military equipment from Russia and it would not be possible to cut their supplies off without attacking Russia. They could shut down the Persian Gulf and cause a spike in oil prices and they might even be able to take out a US aircraft carrier. They have hundreds of small boats armed with missiles that are hard to spot on radar that might be able to overwhelm our missile defenses. A land war with them would get thousands of Americans killed with no guarantee of victory and I doubt most of our allies would be interested in getting involved. Our major ally in fighting them would be the Saudis who would probably be worse than useless. They are good at bombing helpless civilians but cowards in a standup fight. Our best hope for preventing a disaster is Putin telling Trump to back the fuck off.

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Itā€™s 3x the size of Iraq. Iā€™m not totally convinced that Iran completely fears a military skirmish with the US b/c of overconfidence on our part and underestimation of the Iranian capabilities on their home turf.

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Not like this is the first time that selling this short has happened. We learned in WWII, Korea, and southeast Asia that fighting someone on their turf vs fighting them on ours is almost always a loss. They donā€™t call it home field advantage for nothinā€™.

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Iran also announced its intent to exceed its nuclear stockpile

This is very inapt. The phrase ā€œnuclear stockpileā€ refers to a quantity of nuclear weapons. Iran does not have any nuclear weapons (or they would have have detonated one to make the US back off). You could say ā€œuranium stockpileā€, but even that is too ambiguous, because what they are saying is they are going to increase either their amount of enriched uranium, and/or the enrichment level of the uranium they already have.

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Etihad, Air Emirates, Qatar Airways, you knowā€¦

In a barracks in Lebanon.

An invasion would just be stupid. And for enivronmental reasons you really donā€™t want to blow up or burn areas with lots of radioactives stored there. So really the only plausible strategy is to target population centers, i.e. to attempt to commit genocide. At which point putin would be justified in taking his puppet out as a service to world peace.

In short, so incredibly stupid to even consider a war.

You know, that might just work ā€¦

iā€™m not a navy typeā€¦I seem to remember that the GULF of HORMUZ[?] was heavily mined during the BUSH WARSā€¦many of those mines are probably still there, A lto I think there may have been some attempts to remove themā€¦wouldnā€™t it be hilarious if these mines were AMERICAN mines from the BUSH WARS. of course . if the AMERICAN NAVY recovers the mines. we will never know whose mines they areā€¦