Unit2Sucks said:
bearister said:
Dolphin-class submarine - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin-class_submarine
We have a lot of iron in the gulf right now. Putin's proxies are sharing a lot of nonsense but no one believes that Iran wants to provoke a US response.
That said, we were better off with Iran in the JCPOA. Terminating it has been as bad as everyone expected and has made Iran much harder to reason with. We've essentially eliminated the carrot entirely from the carrot and stick approach. Given that the stick is just sanctions or war, and we've been using sanctions, it doesn't give us a lot to maneuver with.
If Netanyahu actually does strike back at Iran, and it's a material strike, it will be very interesting to see how that further deteriorates Biden's support for Netanyahu (and Israel). All reports are that Biden told Netanyahu in no uncertain terms that we aren't going to support him in offensive ops against Iran.
The other things we are learning is that the GOP continues to egg on Netanyahu to respond to Iran, which is despicable. You would think Netanyahu learned his lesson from Trump "leaking" Israeli military secrets to Putin.
This is based on the unsupported belief that Iran can,
in the long term, be influenced by carrots to stop malign behavior. There is literally no rational basis for that fantasy. The Iranian regime is explicitly founded on the principal of spreading Shia Islam and death to its opponents, of which Israel and America are the leading two. There are no carrots anyone can offer them to truly change their religious beliefs and pursuit of their fascist political islam.
Meanwhile, they take Biden's carrots, turn them into weapons and centrefuges, and then do what they want. And because Obama/Biden (and now Biden and his lackeys) were/are so desperate to get a deal, they cut deals that are not (and for the reasons stated above cannot be) long term/permanent solutions (i.e., the JCPOA).
The mullahs and jihadists are psychopaths; but they are strategic and patient. They know exactly how to play Obama/Biden and their voters. They know Biden will never really use the stick against them (only against USA allies like Israel). Biden is willing to let Israel and Ukraine fight defensive wars; but is unwilling to support them in doing the things that actually win the wars (i.e., escalate or threaten to do so).
If Biden is such a cool hand, why has he undermined Israel in a way that has caused Hamas to refuse all of the cease power offers? Hamas thinks they are better off to wait - precisely because Biden and many of his dem party team are ratcheting up pressure on Israel. The only way to find a solution is to make Hamas think things will get worse for Hamas if this drags on (they don't care if things are bad for other Palestinians).
Biden has done the exact opposite of what he should do. He should be signaling to Hamas (and Qatar) that Israel will be given free reign to end this unless: (i) all hostages are released; and (ii) hamas gives up power. He should be pressuring Qatar and Turkey directly. The news leaks should be about things Biden will do on these fronts; not how he's raining in Bibi.
Biden is a modern day Neville Chamberlain. He doesn't understand deterrence or how his soft approach emboldened China, Putin and now Iran.
Nobody's perfect...
