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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026

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Bombing an apartment in Bahrain is not proportional to bombing an American military base in Bahrain.

The Iranians have extremely good intelligence from Bahrain due to the high Shia population, and there were credible reports that American soldiers were being quartered in those apartments and hotels.

Iran has little ability to harm Americans.

I actually agree with you on this, which is one of the reasons why starting this conflict was an incredibly stupid idea. The problem, of course, is that Iran's strategy is to destroy the global economy by closing the Strait of Hormuz and depriving the world of fuel, a strategy which won't harm them terribly much due to their continued ability to sell oil to China and the fact that American sanctions kept them cut off from the global economy anyway, which means that the real test of their military effectiveness is simply "How much oil left the strait of Hormuz from non-Iranian sources since the conflict began?" Much like how the Viet Cong would have handily lost a fight with the American military if they all lined up in a field and marched to death, the Iranians understand that their conventional military disadvantage forces them to fight back with alternative means.