These people are nuts. How does it remotely help Ukraine to have oil prices soar and enrich Russia? The Iranian drone production was moved to Russia ages ago. In what way is it even marginally good?
This is terrible for Ukraine. I’m failing to see how it’s great for the US either. I’d love it if somebody explained but right now I’m not seeing any positives. More world instability, more war, we lose the midterms. I don’t know, it’s hard to see the upside.
If there’s more instability and more war, then isn’t it better for the party who causes this to lose the midterms?
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Funny, I didn’t see any “Bomb Iran” posters at the republican national convention or Trump rallies. All I saw was thousands of “Mass Deportations NOW” signs, but it’s precisely on this issue that voters are being asked to compromise in the service of an agenda nobody wanted or needed.
The war is Israel’s.
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No, I won’t. The war is Israel’s. And, of course, they have our help.
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I don’t understand this portion of the debate. Yes, it’s Israel’s war. Who else’s would it be?
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“Who else’s would it be?”
Most should fear an authoritarian theocracy with nuclear weapons.
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Nobody has the slightest problem with the nuclear, autocratic, perpetually pissed off Russia. Let’s not pretend this is about the nuclear threat.
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Unfortunately, you are wrong. Russia is on a suicide course and willing to take the whole world with it. This is being kept from us because it’s too disturbing.
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I was pointing out, Israel’s war has nothing to do with the reasons people voted for Trump.
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“Nobody has the slightest problem with the nuclear, autocratic, perpetually pissed off Russia”
The dangers of a nuclear Russia were already predicted in the 1940s. That’s why Manhattan project scientists advocated for preemptively nuking Moscow. Once they had acquired nukes it was too late.
https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/1998-99/game-theory/neumann.html#:~:text=He%20predicted%20that%20were%20Russia,destructive%20nuclear%20war%20later%20on.
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JVN, one of my Math and Science heroes, was wrong on that assessment.
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It is not too late even now. But there needs to be a plan, a serious long-term strategy. Instead, we see one US administration after another repeat the same failed tactic in bizarre hopes that it will somehow lead to a different result.
It can’t still be done but it isn’t getting easier with time.
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My point is that much of the world, including much of the Middle East, fears the current Iranian government. This does not preclude us from fearing Putin;s behavior. The last thing anybody needs is yet another potentially unstable nuclear source.
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“for trump partly because he kept us out of exciting foreign”
He looked at the best part of his first administration and said: “Fuck this shit! Let’s get involved in a Middle Eastern Quaqmire!”
Meanwhile on every other front (pun not intended) he’s doing his best to keep the idea of TACO alive…
Let us also get disabused of the notion that this was Israel defying Trump’s wishes. Trump literally coordinated with them for the last few months to give a false sense of security to Iran. Remember the ceasefire a couple of months ago? The stories planted in the press about how Steve Witkoff publicly embarrassed Netanyahu on his trip to Israel etc? All fucking fake.
Really bodes well for all future negotiations with other countries.
Gotta say, masterfully planned.
Witkoff demonstrated his influence in getting the ceasefire off the ground. On 10 January, Witkoff believed a breakthrough was close, after more than seven months of meandering, inconsequential talks. That Friday evening, he called Benjamin Netanyahu’s office from Doha, where he had been meeting Arab officials, and told the prime minister’s aides that he would be flying to Israel the next day. The aides explained that it would be Saturday and Netanyahu did not do business on the Sabbath, but would gladly meet the American envoy a few hours later, once night had fallen. Witkoff was having none of it and, according to an account in Haaretz newspaper, told them “in salty English that Shabbat was of no interest to him”.
Some people saw it coming. I for sure didn’t.
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Most people thought Netanyahu would not attack Iran because his son is getting married in exactly 3 days in Israel (which he didn’t cancel). Witkoff scheduling negotiations at the same time. Trump “warning” Israel not to attack before the negotiations. Beautifully coordinated.
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Someone please answer me: who is this for? Clearly not the base. It’s the Jeffery Goldbergs, Bari Weisses, and Bill Ackmans.
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Unless there’s serious and observable action on deportations, we are losing the midterms because good luck turning out the base in excitement over another war in the Middle East.
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“ussians are not, and have never been, suicidal fanatics like the Ayatollah’s men”
I’m not sure what russians you’re writing about but russians at present seem to have almost no survival instinct… they would literally rather die in a Ukrainian ditch rather than protest against their government.
Their families openly nag/plot to send them to Ukraine to die so they can collect money…
This is far more terrifying than supposed suicidal fanatics in Iran that don’t exist (nb. most Iranians hate the mullahs and probably no longer even identify as muslim). Iran is a classic example of a people wanting to overthrow their government but not being able to. russia are people happy to live in grinding poverty and then die for their god-tsar so they can tell themselves they live in a great empire….
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“Deranged communists ain’t fanatics Muslims.”
No russian communists in decades (not sure how many).
Ant there are lots of sources that say that a majority of Iranians do not practice Islam and many (maybe a majority) no longer identify as Muslim.
An Iranian I knew in real life who identified as a (weakly) practicing Muslim told me a few years ago that “everyone hates” the government.
It’s all very similar to the situation of Warsaw Pact countries in the 1980s – everybody knows the system is broken and can’t work but no one knows how to get out of it.
Supposedly members of the Iranian government (or their families) have been fleeing the country (for russia).
Not sure what that will mean in the longer term.
Exactly. I’ll answer in a separate post.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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