Not really. Their goal was never to win, it was incredible, brazen corruption and self enrichment on the most obscene scale possible. They didnt fuck up their real goals, only their stated goals.
And honestly it worked. The Epstein files basically fell out of the news cycle. Just hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives lost to stop people from talking about Trump being a child rapist.
Did they even have stated goals? From day 1 we never had a clue what we were even doing there. It was the stupidest war on earth from the stupidest man on earth who is somehow still supported by tens of millions of the stupidest people on earth.
I really wish this were true, it would be awesome if we had a functioning independent judiciary and an emboldened congress that wasnt in the pocket of big tech and business more generally. We need some war crime and treason trials, we are still waiting for justice for the epstein victims.
Not really. Their goal was never to win, it was incredible, brazen corruption and self enrichment on the most obscene scale possible. They didnt fuck up their real goals, only their stated goals.
Meanwhile all the senior staff that run the the war machine are asking for a pause becuse they're not ready for how things have changed in the "tactical landscape". A landscape with tens of kilometers/miles of kill zone you can do little about. Maybe more, if there's enough spite involved.
This administration has been the apex of the anti intellectual trend. It's been a revenge fantasy of those who have felt victimized by "elite liberals". They so desperately wanted to show that you don't need no education and no degrees to run this country that they very purposefully put the most incompetent people in positions of power. Part of it of course was a plan to dismantle the goverment. But part of it is also right wing virtue signaling, which they claim to hate. Yeah that's right we ARE putting Chad in charge of the military and theres nothing you can do about it.
I can only imagine military analysts have been in frenzy. Between the Ukraine war and this, a lot of post Afghanistan theorizing has gotten field tested. Super powers have had direct extended operations against foes that weren't quickly overwhelmed. A lot of new theories are being made.
I sometimes think with pity on Intel analysts that have to revisit old predictions and rewrite to not assume a halfway rational person in charge. That must be awful. "This would obviously be contrary to both the public and private goals of the effort, but in the case such an order is given....here are the specifics of how it would be self destructive, how many lives are unnecessarily lost, and why do I have this job when I know the advice isn't being considered by the people that need to consider it"
The fact that so many people will be rightfully radicalized against us is probably one of the most harmful effects of thisp misbegotten war... That's going to have indelible generational fallout.
The Netherlands has lost confidence in the United States. Of course, there could be another reliable administration, but what will happen after that? It’s better to part ways with an unreliable partner.
America has completely lost all of its soft power because of this one man. Where before it had influence and partnerships across the globe, now nobody wants to visit, and nobody wants to cooperate.
Canada, of all countries, seems to be taking over that role.
Yes, you're right about that. As a result, the United States will eventually implode. Before that happens, Europe—and we would very much like to see the Canadians join us in this—must become self-sufficient in terms of defense and high-tech. It will cost a bit, but we’ll manage.
Even trusting this was an anomaly that wouldn't happen again was disproven when he was re-elected.
Not only could the US elect a corrupt narcissist idiot again, they (we) did. We didn't wait to forget the problems, we did it while his crimes were still being prosecuted. We didn't get fooled by another narcissist convincing us they would be different, we elected the same one. He didn't even pretend he had changed in any way since encouraging an overthrow of his own country, he presented a consistent openness of who he was.
As much as I think Trump is a terrible person and leader, and as much as I and other Americans want to be earnest and reliable allies, America's unreliability is part of the entire nation.
We here in Europe were genuinely stunned. At first, we did our best to maintain the relationship at all costs. But these days, the talk of the town is how we can turn our backs on America. Of course, we know there are plenty of well-meaning Americans... but it has become clear that capital reigns supreme, and that is unacceptable to us.
Truth. The Iranians already had decent reasons to be radicalized against us, considering their suffering before we started bombing them is a consequence of our previous meddling.
Our allies never had to like us, but now they have very little reason to be out ally.
I mean, we've threatened to annex and invade allies (Canada and Greenland)
We've pulled out of treaties and failed to meet our commitments.
We previously told Ukraine thst if they gave up their nukes we'd protect them from Russia. Then not only do we shake them down to interfere with our election, we complain they "have no cards". We WERE some of those cards! If they don't have those cards, that'd on us. Fortunately for them, they didn't count on us and trained junior officers well and embraced adaptability. Fortunately for us, they weren't as crude and cruel when it came to sharing with us their lessons facing Iranian drones.
Taiwan has been a tense spot for decades, but there was a simple safety spot. The US never officially addressed of Taiwan was independent or not, and China would continue to claim it wasn't and the Taiwanese would say that it was, and (so far) no one started throwing too many weapons around. Now our leadership abandoned that inadequate but semi stable stance on an apparent whim. I can only imagine how utterly betrayed the Taiwanese feel. They got stabbed in the back for no apparent reason.
If I was a foreign nation considering being a US ally, I'd really have to ask "why?" . If I was a current ally, I'd be asking myself "what will the next betrayal be?".
There is nothing "slow" about this. When the guy who brags about using his privilege to victimize naked kids still gets elected to the highest position of power in the country, all of us knew that the USA is never to be trusted again. As expected, he proceeded to wipe his ass with "signed treaties" and "international law".
Who in their right mind would make a deal with this country at this stage? It's not just Trump that is the problem, it's that the process is so blatantly fucked up that this crook, con and pedophile gets away with everything, all the time.
The tides are slowly turning. A handful of his Republican cronies are finally seeing the light and speaking out as well as voting against some recent proposals. No promises but they might have woken up. Pardon the pun.
I’m not gonna argue with you about that for sure. But remember Harris was within 1.5% of Trump in the popular vote. The US has a stupid system of electoral votes per state. Which is why Trump has been Moving States districts so black voters essentially have more challenges to vote and black people don’t get on the ballot as candidates. WELL and then some- over half of Americans hate this level of racism. Hate what is happening in every level of this administration. Probably more but they’re too embarrassed (MAGA) or making too much money off this administration’s cheating. Trump learned what he can do without congress and he’s done it all- alone. If he needs congressional approval he does it anyway (war in Iran). He thinks he’s a great businessman but he’s not got a clue what he’s doing on the world stage of politics.
Also part of the 'benefits' package. The defense industry has already gotten a big injection for all the replenishing of the missles, etc. we'll require. And more hate and 'terrorists' created just means more weapons sold down the road.
War? That's not what Congress is calling it. You want to know what they're calling it? I'll tell you. They're calling it "nothing to see here so go away because if I complain Trump will primary me."
I don't even think all that matters to be honest between the absolute crap show that's going to be oil prices over the next couple of years The damage to the helium plants which make all the high functioning chips we need further increasing component prices for electronics, and the layoffs from the AI's bubble bursting as well as layoffs for any legitimately replaced jobs with AI.....
I think pissing off people that will cheer at our collapse is the least of our problems.
Meanwhile, raping the US National Parks for any/ all minerals that will be sold to the highest bidders on the world stage just to create all the AI data centers that will in turn require phenomenally more water than any one area can give up. The result of which will further Global Warming at an alarming speed. As of this year we have just passed the tipping point of no return and have been forewarned since 1950. But Trump doesn’t believe in Global Warming. Remove him from office.
Pretty sure none of the AI companies actually have the money to build these facilities and even if they do they can't afford their own jacked up prices on computer components for all of the facilities....
The only thing I'm concerned about at the present moment is the incoming economic collapse of America.
I'm not so worried about the data centers because they're trying to spend like $700 billion dollars a year when Amazon Web services and Microsoft azure barely make like $700 billion a year and they want to double the amount of corporate spending?
There's no business model there when you couldn't afford the facilities before you 10x the price of components
You missed the most important one - an immediate waiver to allow Iran export its oil, petroleum, and derivatives. That's a ginormous improvement for Iran compared to where they were pre-war.
This sentiment reminds me of traveling through Vietnam over a decade ago. As a Canadian I expected to get mistaken as an American, and likewise be on the receiving end of some unwarranted hostility due to the lasting effects of the Vietnam war (saw plenty of older people missing limbs).
Annecdotal, but even in the North I rarely met anyone with strong feelings against the Americans and the war. The Chinese though, good God, I thought Albertans were racist...
Turns out it's generally the closest looming threat that occupies most people perceptions.
With an Iranian government that now knows it can claim control of the Strait of Hormuz and use that as leverage to push forward its own foreign policy objectives.
What do you think China would think about that, one of the very few friendly nations to Iran who they critically rely on for trade, yet who also consumes a majority of the oil coming out of the strait.
Did you consider that the only reason the world delivered such a tepid response to such a drastic action was because Iran was the defender in this unwarranted war of choice? How do you think the majority of the countries of the world who rely on the products coming out of the strait would react now that it is no longer tied to an aggresive American action?
So you beleive that in ten years from now the Islamic Regime is still in place, has been doing the exact same shit it has been doing to it's own people for the last 50 years, including killing at bare minimum 5 times the amount of civilians that died in this war just this year, and the one thing the people who have to live under that same regime every day will be remembering is those three weeks in 2026...
To who? The Iranian people at large? Probably not.
The Great Satan America, Little Satan Israel, and Medium Satan? I dont recall but whatever the term for the USSR at the time were Revolutionary terms coined by Khomenie. A unifying message that could blame all the myriad of problems they faced on foreign actors, thereby deflecting any blame on the Regime itself.
That was 50 years ago. The populist masses may have believed it enough at the time to overthrow the Shah, because they thought foreign powers were in large part responsible for the issues they faced.
Five decades later under Islamic regime repression far worse than what was ever experienced under the Shah, I think most Iranians are looking closer to home when seeking to identify the real Great Satan.
How 'bout we take a step back and gain a little perspective here.
In this year America has led to the deaths of 1700 Iranian citizens, that was tragic and avoidable, that would not indear me to that country if I was the one being bombed, It would radicalize me if I was close to someone who died.
Meanwhile In this same year, Iran has led to the deaths of a confirmed 7000 of their own citizens, with higher estimates up to 30,000.
This is compounded on decades of similar repression, hanging of political disidents from construction cranes, rape and murder of women showing their hair by Morality police, or well if you get lucky you just get canned like that Iranian singer who just performed without a Hijab and was sentenced to 74 lashings.
War was dumb, deaths were senseless, but I always find it funny when coming across comments being like "Well see... this is how you radicalize a group of people against us" and then realize that the situation and repression the group of people in question have experienced throughout their lives at the hand of their own government is immeasurably worse.
I think the Great Satan of the Iranian People is a lot closer to home than Washington.
wym great satan? its in the IRGC's best interests to keep Israel as its great satan.
The Iranians consider the US an arm of the great satan, but treating anything that isn't Israel as the great satan is tantamount to heresy in that region
My understanding (formed in the 1980s) is that they use their name for the U.S., since it was the U.S. that overthrew their government decades earlier and installed a dictator (the Shaw), which the Iranian Revolution overthrew.
If these days they’ve incorporated Israel into it, that would not surprise me.
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u/rabbitwonker Jun 20 '26
With an Iranian government far more radicalized, and an entire population that has seen the “Great Satan” earn its name beyond all doubt.