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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   6997 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 14, 2026

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It's easy to forget that the Straight of Hormuz was open and not tolled by Iran before the war.

Personally, I am very painfully aware of it. Also, not only was it open but it was fully open without any sustained US effort to secure the freedom of navigation -- no need to escort ships or anything. Good luck getting back to that state anytime soon.

The first two objectives on your list seem more tactical than strategic. The Iranian navy was not some behemoth dominating the strategic landscape. The parts of it which is really useful are the small, cheap ships, and these will not be a lot of effort to rebuild. I do not think that periodic bombardment is a sustainable strategy to keep the bomb out of Iran's hand, at least not when done by the US.

Likewise, their proxies are not a problem you can solve by bombing Iran short of glassing their country (which was just one of Trump's idle threats).

Also, I would argue that taking out the Ayatollah (who is not part of their navy, nor missile production, had issued a fatwa against nukes and delegates proxy force projection) was actually a bid at regime change, which failed badly -- turning an elderly man into a martyr and putting his son (who had just lost his father and his wife in the attack) in charge instead.

had issued a fatwa against nukes

I find the repeated references to this tiring. All the while Iran continues to produce as much weapons grade uranium as they can despite the fact that it has zero peaceful uses and the immense pressure for them to stop.

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