Comments on: How are you supposed to win a war when you avoid killing people

By: RobVG

RobVG — Tue, 12 May 2026 20:11:45 +0000

And podrock had some good points on the Iranian perspective.

I like the way you think Buck, but I doubt the theocracy is going to wither away- ever. It’s kind of like racism in this country. Race relations may be improving in the US but it’s anyone’s guess how much has just gone underground.
With Sharia law, it either is, or it isn’t.

By: BuckGalaxy

BuckGalaxy — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:02:35 +0000

The Iran nuclear deal was far better than what we have now as far as containing Iran’s nuclear program. When Trump cancelled it, nearly every single one of his advisors urged him not to. There were options in place if Iran violated it. But it was Obama’s deal and that’s all that mattered to the Orange POS. As of right now, Iran will continue to go full steam ahead on making the bomb, and their deep mountain facilities have proven impenetrable by any of our weapons – short of our own nuclear forces. So bad news for us.

Further, the Iran Nuclear deal was about more than just the nuclear program. It was a diplomatic pivot as well. Iran may be ruled by a dictatorship of religious fanatics, but their population is among the most westernized in the Middle East. The decades long timeline of the deal reflected awareness that the octogenarians who ruled Iran would soon be dead and if the pro western elements could take power, they might move closer to the west if we showed a willingness to turn down the temperature and enmity. Iran could even someday once again become an ally of the United States like it was before the revolution.

Trump ended that possibility permanently solely because he hated Obama.

As for going it alone, that rests on the Orange Idiot as well. Yes it would have been great if we had built a coalition like GHWB did. But Trump did ZERO consultation with allies before launching the war. He didn’t even learn his lesson from that when initiated the failed Project Freedom, not consulting Gulf Nations, who were so insulted they initially refused the US access to their airspace and bases. The initiative failed anyway the moment Iran attacked a few tankers.

By: RobVG

RobVG — Mon, 11 May 2026 18:20:15 +0000

For the sake of a thought experiment, what if Iran actually ‘was’ found to have the bomb? And instead of just two Western countries, the ROW decided it would be a good idea to remove the government and the weapons.
I’m looking at it as a Seldon Crisis, where the first two were solved by intellect and patience.
China would be the key player since it buys 90% of Iran’s oil. Russia could easily replace Iran’s share of imported oil. There are already pipelines between Russia and China, and one more would supply China with even more than they currently get from Iran.

I still think that world leaders quietly applauded Israeli and the US for taking action. Poor Mark Carney had to walk back his support when he saw the ROW virtue signaling.
I think the JCPOA was a pair of beer goggles, and Iran turned out to be coyote ugly.

By: BuckGalaxy

BuckGalaxy — Mon, 11 May 2026 04:43:37 +0000

“If we were to attack indiscriminately (like Trump would do if he could) the war would have ended already.”

Not so sure about that. There are regimes that just don’t give a fuck about their civilians getting killed. Iran would fall squarely in that category.

So would Hamas. Despite all the bullshit about Israel committing “genocide” and “carpet bombing” none of that has actually happened. Israel has gone much farther than the US or any other nation to avoid civilian casualties with precision strikes, ground troops when they could have used airstrikes, and multiple warnings of impending attacks. The problem has been Hamas using their civilians as human shields – actually wanting civilian deaths for propaganda value.

I could see Iran’s leaders using the same playbook.