Mantergeistmann
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User ID: 323
Mantergeistmann
8hr ago
When you're a maritime nation (weird as it can seem at first glance to say that about a nation half the size of a continent), you live or die by your boats. England knew it, and the US knows it.
Or did, at least. The state of shipbuilding is something else.
Mantergeistmann
8hr ago
an end to the regime in Syria
But a main reason for that was that Russia was otherwise occupied and couldn't come to the aid of its client state. Nothing to do with Israel, as I recall.
Mantergeistmann
8hr ago
Don't touch the boats
Houthis
I am going to laugh quite bitterly if this whole Iranian adventure turns out to have as a promary purpose being the least-PR-unfriendly method of ending the Houthis: by removing their sponsor and letting the Saudis take care of them out of the public eye, as rooting them out via US boots on the ground would create remarkably negative photos for the domestic crowd.
Mantergeistmann
10hr ago
"Hey, I didn't fight in no war. Best of luck, though."
Depends on if your friend is the one who's picking a fight or not, I suppose.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
Carney as well from Canada has been saying the US's actions are justified.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
I guess could be explained away as part of a general media strategy executed without the aide actually having any privileged information but anyhow would fit the conspiracy (IL did it, media reports whatever IL wants) explanation well.
"We're going to be bombing hospitals. Here's what you say when--not if--we're accused of bombing them" as a strategy wasn't quite prepared for "The enemy hit a hospital and we're falsely accused of it".
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
US Congresswoman Tlaib said, "This is who they are", where "they" refers to Americans
Or, more charitably, "they" refers to the Trump admin & DoD. Er, DoW, now.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
I think it's also an issue with Hollywood, videogames, and the US & Israeli militaries being too good at what they do. Especially for the US, who can often afford to put a premium on civilian lives due to overwhelming firepower and distance, many people seem to think that mistakes no longer happen in warfare, explosions are limited to arm's reach like those sword-missiles, missiles and bullets are always precisely on target, and any collateral damage or civilian target hit must have only been deliberate.
I'm not sure the US is prepared for a near-peer conflict where they can't afford to be so careful. There was a West Point (?) article on this very premise I read years ago, but haven't been able to find it since.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
Was Nordstream before or after the one hospital that a Hamas rocket fell on? That was the big one in my eye.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
That's what the DSA does, calling sanctions a "weapon of war" and demanding they be lifted from Iran and applied to Israel.
Not that I know what the rest of your point was going to be.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
I think you mean "Epic Furry".
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
How much in the way of resources does the US realistically stand to lose here?
Basically ammunition stocks. Which is a weird "bad situation", but there are major concerns about the US ammo stockpiles. They haven't been great for a whille, and while Ukraine was an excuse to ramp up production and supply chains, but I think they're still well behind on that front.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
"Critics" are generally assumed to he biased, though, and counterweighted by "supporters". "Scholars and researchers and historians" are understood to be bastions of truth and fact. It's subtle, but it's there.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
It's the Bin Laden vs Margaret Thatcher situation again. I'm one of those weirdos who is still on Tumblr, and I've got friends on Bluesky, and there were a lot of crab rave memes and "not celebrating, but totally celebrating" posts when Charlie Kirk died. There will be more when Trump dies. There has, however, been zero celebration for the death of a man who is worse in pretty much every metric they care about than those two (except Islamophobia, I suppose).
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
Was the other 50% chance Sabaton?
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
I may have been conflating Rome with general medieval siege etiquette. Different techniques, same philosophy and end result.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
The autogen prevents a situation where people guess your plan based on having a code name that's too on point, at least.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
I've heard that the defenders could negotiate up until the ram reached the wall/gates. At that point, it was too late, since defeat was assured and all the hard work on the Roman end had been completed.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
The US is bombing Iran because they can't actually invade countries anymore.
I assume you mean that from a national will standpoint, and not a capability standpoint?
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
Even if something happens, that doesn't necessarily mean it'll require a culture war megathread.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
Still not Anthropic in that case, though.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
the only AI company with models deployed on the USG's classified networks
Doesn’t MS/Copilot have some sort of a classified solution?
Mantergeistmann
3d ago
It will be interesting to see how many sockpuppets are still around this time... as I recall, during the previous bombing, a lot of pro-palestine accounts claiming to definitely not be from Iran mysteriously went dark at the same time, although I can't find a source at the moment.
To be fair, that falls into the category of "second in a trilogy", which is narratively and structurally different from "sequel". At least, it should be, but writers are often hacks.
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