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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   30046 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026

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Worth noting that Iran backed the Houthis in their attempts to shut down international trade - the US has a longstanding tradition, going all the way back to its earliest years of an independent country, of going to war if anyone touches our international trade.

Also worth noting it is greatly in the interests of the United States to prevent other countries from getting nuclear weapons, and to deter other countries from acquiring such weapons. It might backfire in this case, but it might also keep a few wobblers on the fence.

Note also that allegedly not only Israel but also the Saudis were pressing Trump to bomb Iran. Note also that the Saudis can probably acquire nuclear weapons fairly quickly, and they [more] likely would if the Iranians became a nuclear power.

There's also the increased ability to control world oil supplies that others have mentioned.

Finally, Iran constructively killed a lot of Americans during the GWOT by backing anti-coalition forces in Iraq.

I'm not sure any of these are really the deciding factor here but it's not like the US gets nothing. If nothing else, it gets revenge.

250 years of US foreign policy summed up in four words: "Don't touch our boats."

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.

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