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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   29968 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026

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We "won" in the same sense that we "won" in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan. No one would argue those countries scored any kind of military or economic or political defeat against the US. And yet. Does anyone really think we "won" those conflicts? That we achieved our objectives and it was so worth it that we'd do it again if we had it to do over? That we couldn't have spent national treasure on better purposes?

Probably very few but that's precisely because we lost focus of the ends and the means. Would the actual outcome we achieved in Vietnam be viewed as a success if our involvement involved airstrikes and bombardment for 30 days? Would Afghanistan be viewed as a success if the outcome that was achieved didn't drag on with troops getting attacked on the ground for years on end? I think it clearly would have!

So if we actually toppled their regime, or at least crushed them so thoroughly that they became a non-player in the region, and we will never, ever have to worry about an Iranian nuclear program again, I'd have considered it a questionable but at least definable victory.

In other words, if we achieved something literally impossible (guaranteeing something forever), in almost no time and with no cost, you might consider that a victory. This attitude is the problem. This extreme bias against any action, the absurd, over-the-top status quo bias, is going to kill our civilization.

Okay, so since you're hung up on the word "forever," how many years is it reasonable to expect this victory to take Iran out of play?

I don't have a bias against any action. I have a bias against actions without articulable win conditions and end states. I am not a dove. I am not an Iranian sympathizer. I am not suffering from TDS. I do more and have done more for my nation than you.

I am asking reasonable questions about what my government and my tax dollars are doing.

3-4 years seems reasonable to me.

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