Trump is now caught in the oldest trap of modern warfare – believing a swift, surgical military operation will yield quick, enduring political results. The Soviets did it in Afghanistan; the US in Iraq in 2003; Putin did it in Ukraine, and is still fighting. Whatever force a military fails or succeeds in applying at the start, the people it is attacking have greater commitment to defending their lands and homes.

The White House may have rushed into this, seizing the opportunity for a decapitation strike, provided by Israeli intelligence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has very different objectives regionally, and a long US involvement against Tehran suits his desire for an Iran in rolling collapse that is no longer a threat. But the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28 has caused as many problems as it has solved.

  • m0nt@piefed.social
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    9 days ago

    Generally what happens when you start a forever war.

    It’s the only thing Republicans do other than taxcuts for the rich and fucking up the economy.

    • Quirky Quinn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      8 days ago

      Idk what you’re talking g about, he started with multiple crises and has only made them worse: climate change, health insurance, student loans, genocide in Gaza, etc.

      Biden was nearly as incompetent and evil as Trump, he just hid it better and occasionally threw us a bone.

      • balsoft@lemmy.ml
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        8 days ago

        Don’t forget the Ukraine war and the ongoing social, health and economic consequences of the pandemic.

        Trump is a dumb, racist, idiotic pile of pedophile shit, but US wasn’t doing great before him either.

      • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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        8 days ago

        The person people who down voted you went out to brunch the whole Biden administration.

        “We’ll push him left after the election!”

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      And all he had to do was make life less soul-crushing economically, and people would have gladly lined up behind him to support anything he wants to do, no matter how awful.

      But they’re not. They’re poor and starving, so he’s losing everyone, including his own coalition.

  • F/15/[email protected]@sh.itjust.works
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    9 days ago

    I don’t see why he’d want it to stop. He’s been actively destroying the US for the overwhelming majority of his presidency. If he benefits the US at large, it’s major news to me. A stone rolling downhill shouldn’t be news.

    • zeejoo@thelemmy.club
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      8 days ago

      His ego is his only compass, and he has tied the stock market to his ego. War and Hormuz being closed will hit the stock market. He may well want to back down when that happens, and find himself unable to.

    • lechekaflan@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      He’s been actively destroying the US for the overwhelming majority of his presidency.

      What makes Putin very happy despite losses in Ukraine.

  • MrSulu@lemmy.ml
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    9 days ago

    Israel said that it worked for them, and all they want is sufficient disruption to continue their own invasions. Trump is the fool for so so many reasons.

    • Riddick3001@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      You opened this can of worms, now lie in it.

      He’s already choking in them too.

      And imo, ofcourse he can end this whenever he wants to. Strategically and morally this operation makes zero sense. Not that anything he’s said or un-said, or started and or ( never) ended ever did. And no, I don’t think Iranians will come better out of this. It’s another humanitarian disaster in the making. He’s a destructive asshole. # edit Iran not Iraq ofc.

    • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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      9 days ago

      He won’t, he’ll be long dead and we all have to live with the consequences

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    9 days ago

    EVERY war ever fought was going to be over in a month with an overwhelming victory, and yet, it NEVER happens.

    • DomeGuy@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Except in the first US gulf war, back in the early 90s. (Kuwait was attacked by Iraq. The USA spent months preparing and then three days attacking. Then stopped when Iraq surrendered.)

      Or the fall of the USSR. (Happened in about a month, no major fighting.)

      Or the Russian annexation of Crimea.

      It isn’t that short military exercises never yield results. It’s that wars persist until both attacker and defender believe peace is the best tactic.

      The USA bombing a country for whom fighting the USA is essentially their national myth is possibly the dumbest thing that my country has ever done.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Trump, as an individual may not have a way out. Remember, Epstein was Mossad-trained and probably shared a lot of useful dirt with Israel.

    But there is always a path to peace; and in this case it starts with the US backing off. Iran doesn’t have much capacity for war beyond protecting itself.

    Exactly the same as how there’s a way for Russia to have peace in Ukraine.

    • Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 days ago

      The implication I haven’t seen explicitly mentioned in the article (which it should be! Bad article) is “there is no way for Trump to stop the war without losing face and thus his power”.

      The reason they keep going is because otherwise they have to admit they were wrong. And probably not only wrong, but knowingly wrong, which equals malicious. And admitting that you’re malicious is bad, even with your most loyal supporters. The only way to not have that happen is to just keep going and act as if everything is fine, which is what’s happening.

      The actual “path to peace” is very very simple, you just have to retreat your troops. It’s supremely unlikely Iran will attack halfway around the globe with their infrastructure.

      • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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        9 days ago

        They’ve backed on tons of things before without admitting any wrongdoing, I don’t see how this is different

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          The implication I haven’t seen explicitly mentioned in the article (which it should be! Bad article) is “there is no way for Trump to stop the war without losing face and thus his power

          basically what I was trying to get at. But I’m not sure that it’s a matter of losing face, and rather that Netanyahu is holding some damning evidence (of the epstein files variety) over him.

          as mentioned on other posts, the easiest way to deal with blackmail material is to just release it all.

      • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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        9 days ago

        I don’t know if just stopping the attack is going to work this time. Iran was significantly attacked and will want some form of retribution in order to remind the USA to never do this again.

        The USA and Israel will need to pay costs for peace.

  • Triasha@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Calling it now, when striking military targets fails to get surrender, we will switch to war crimes, Israel and then the US will start hitting water, food, and transportation infrastructure.

    The only way to get victory from this war is genocide.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Well, now we all know what happens when you make a felon rapist pedo the most influential person on the planet.

  • D_C@sh.itjust.works
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    9 days ago

    That fat cunt is unable to keep it’s trousers clean from it’s own shit.

    So how the fuck anyone thinks that that waffling pile of dementia riddled syphilis can unfuck the murdering of schoolgirls in this Epstein war is laughable at best.

  • smeenz@lemmy.nz
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    9 days ago

    I mean, he could stop the war tomorrow by handing himself over to the Iranian authorities.