Ed Israel/US Attacks Iran /Yet Another Country/Iran

[Planigale]

Trump's art of the deal relies on hime unrealistically escalating on the basis that others are rational and will back down. It fails when the others are prepared to redouble.

Iran says Strait of Hormuz will be 'completely closed' if Trump delivers on threat to strike power plants - latest

President Trump says the US will "obliterate" Iran’s power plants if the key shipping channel does not open before his 48-hour deadline.

www.bbc.co.uk

There will need to be some serious negotiation over the next 24 hours. Trump needs to be given a way out. Otherwise escalation will be a disaster. A diplomatic illness leaving Vance in charge might be an option?

Iran just told Trump to go ahead and pull the trigger. Thirty-three hours left on the clock, and Tehran didn’t blink. It escalated.Trump threatened to obliterate Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz wasn’t open for business within 48 hours. A reasonable person might have expected some back-channel signal, a quiet diplomatic murmur, maybe a phone call through Oman. Instead, Iran’s senior military command walked up to the microphone and announced that its entire strategic posture has shifted. Not defensive. Offensive.The country has enough reserves to last a year. The Strait is closing completely. Every vital piece of infrastructure in the Middle East, energy, water desalination, IT, is now a declared target. This is not a country signalling that it wants a way out. This is a country that has decided the cost of backing down exceeds the cost of the wall it’s about to hit. Which puts Trump in the kind of position he has never actually been in before: a deadline he set, in public, that the other side just laughed at.He can obliterate the power plants. In which case Iran closes the Strait, hits the desalination plants that keep Saudi Arabia and the UAE alive, and about a fifth of the world’s oil supply disappears overnight. Markets open Monday to scenes that make 2008 look like a minor correction. Or he doesn’t. In which case every adversary on earth just watched the President of the United States issue an ultimatum and absorb a public humiliation in real time.There is no clean exit here. There is no art to this deal.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2035738677356142760

 

[gabeygoat]

Some people here seem to be cheering for a Iranian victory simply because it would humiliate Trump

nope.
i don't know why you keep doing this

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Bessent: "Sometimes you have to escalate to deescalate"

Trump doesn't have a history of success with escalators.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

BRENNAN: When the president says he's going to bomb civilians energy infrastructure in Iran, is he going to bomb a nuclear power plant?

UN AMBASSADOR MIKE WALTZ: Well, I would never take anything oft the table for the president

Everyone ought to assume there is no war crime he would not stoop to.
So, he's the baddie. Got it.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Some people here seem to be cheering for a Iranian victory simply because it would humiliate Trump;

That would be me.

◊◊◊◊ him and those thst support and enable him
◊◊◊◊ the American forces following illegal orders and fighting an illegal war. Shoot the bastards down.

 

[jimbob]

UN AMBASSADOR MIKE WALTZ: Well, I would never take anything oft the table for the president

I would.

Crayons in case he eats them for example.

On second thoughts, I'd provide more crayons. Especially if they meet the safety standards his team want to replace current ones.

 

[Andy_Ross]

You first ◊◊◊◊ face

Lindsey Graham on Kharg Island: "We did Iwo Jima. We can do this."

https://twitter.com/x/status/2035751629836710159

 

[Andy_Ross]

Almost 18,000 Japanese soldiers were killed on Iwo Jima, only 216 were captured. 7,000 U.S. Marines were killed. Another 20,000 were wounded.
In thirty six days of fighting.

 

[Ziggurat]

Their guy on X has a good sense of humour, too. "Hormuz isn't close... to people not shooting at us and their pals." Seems fair.

Who counts as our pals? Almost everyone, from Iran's perspective. Thailand, for example, has nothing to do with this war. It's not helping us, it's not basing any forces that are attacking Iran or even defending against Iranian attacks. But they still got attacked. Is that your idea of fair?

 

[Resume]

You first ◊◊◊◊ face

Lindsey Graham on Kharg Island: "We did Iwo Jima. We can do this."

https://twitter.com/x/status/2035751629836710159

Lindsey can suck my . . . wait, he'd like that. He can ◊◊◊◊ himself with a chainsaw.

 

[Helen]

Bessent on Trump's threat to commit war crimes by blowing up Iran's power plans: "This is the only language the Iranians understand"

https://twitter.com/x/status/2035716358441181346

Have they tried Farsi? I hear that many Iranians speak, and understand, Farsi.

 

[jimbob]

Have they tried Farsi? I hear that many Iranians speak, and understand, Farsi.

Minor derail but my longest friend at work is Iranian and when an Afghan intern* started his year (a thick sandwich course, so the third year in industry) my colleague said that Afghan Farsi is more classically correct.

*He came back as a graduate engineer after finishing his degree, in the same group that his internship was in and he must have been with us for about a decade now.

 

[Helen]

Minor derail but my longest friend at work is Iranian and when an Afghan intern* started his year (a thick sandwich course, so the third year in industry) my colleague said that Afghan Farsi is more classically correct.

*He came back as a graduate engineer after finishing his degree, in the same group that his internship was in and he must have been with us for about a decade now.

Makes sense, with less outside influence on a culture, the more things, including languages, stay the same. I would assume that Farsi/Dari in Afghanistan has not developed and changed at a "normal" rate since the Soviet invasion, and the rise of the Taliban (i know this is true for Pashto).

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Almost 18,000 Japanese soldiers were killed on Iwo Jima, only 216 were captured. 7,000 U.S. Marines were killed. Another 20,000 were wounded.
In thirty six days of fighting.

Exactly this. Sure, Graham, your parents generation did Iwo Jima. Do you want to send the current generation to do it again?

Like I said before, there's no question that the US could defeat Iran militarily, the question is can Trump do it politically?

 

[lionking]

nope.
i don't know why you keep doing this

Hmmm

That would be me.

◊◊◊◊ him and those thst support and enable him
◊◊◊◊ the American forces following illegal orders and fighting an illegal war. Shoot the bastards down.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

So, it's reported that Iran fired missiles at Diego Garcia.
But they didn't reach it.
And nobody but the US military saw them.
Iran have denied it.
Suddenly all of Europe is under threat of Iranian missiles.
You see how this works?

The phrase "Are the missiles in the room with us now?" might be appropriate.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Bessent: "Sometimes you have to escalate to deescalate"

https://twitter.com/x/status/2035716934398845360

"Sometimes, you have to escalate to deescalate."
— Walther Funk, German Reich Minister of Economics, 1941

 

[alfaniner]

Less than 24 hours to go for the Ultimatum. It doesn't look like Iran will back down. What's The POSOTUS gonna do when finally someone doesn't cave? It is literally anybody's guess because there's no predicting what that ◊◊◊◊ will do.

 

[Planigale]

Perhaps if the Iranians offered to present Trump personally with gold plated uranium bars this could allow Trump to de-escalate?

 

[Roger Ramjets]

Perhaps if the Iranians offered to present Trump personally with gold plated uranium bars this could allow Trump to de-escalate?

I like your thinking. Two gold plated uranium 232 bars, each weighing just under 3.7kg.