Multiple reliable sources reporting direct Iranian hits on the French naval base. Given France is outside this crazy shit, that is certainly a novel choice by Iran.
Lashing out at everyone, dragging unecessary combatant into the war, is not a viable strategy at all.
Also 3 US soldiers dead in Bahrain, but that is expected and no surprise. The surprise is Iran dragging unwilling combatants in, like KSA, UAE and maybe even France. As if US-Israel was not enough.
At this point of time, I don’t think Iran has a strategy anymore. They are hitting at random and just want to hit something that inflicts some form of pain to anyone. As for US-Israel offensive, I don’t know whats the end game, because it is almost impossible to eradicate all of the regime, new Supreme Leaders are just going to keep springing up whenever you kill one. The only way is a surrender from the military and the current council of 3 or whoever is responsible in the regime. Without that, the lines of transition is going to be further blurred.
Where are you? Take care. My prayers are with you (doubt that matters at all)
Hardly the case. KSA, UAE is just letting Trump, and Netanyahu do their bidding.
No. They had absolutely no intention of getting directly involved, all credible sources I have read over the last month says so. What intelligence do you have to claim to know better ? I want sources. At least some source.
They had absolutely no reason to want to get caught in the bombing, have expressedly wanted to avoid getting caught in the crossfire, and will now also be forced to attack Iran due to ill-adviced Iranian retaliation on economic targets.
Iran’s gambit is to drag unwilling states into the war to make it so uncomfortable for everyone, economically, that Trump is in the end humiliated. It’s not easy to do that though.
Edit: I see now you said doing their dirty work or bidding, and that is fair enough. But that wasn’t what I said. I used the word unwilling combatants for a reason. When war is coming, it would certainly be in their interest to lobby the US to strike Iranian military and industrial targets that could threaten them, so fair enough.
Can’t say where I am but I’m safe, and thank you.
Hezbollah joined in a while ago. Targeting only Israel for now (subject to possible change).
Given how weak they are, this suggests that they fear the fall of the Islamic Republic.
(sorry, this is unconfirmed that it is Hezbollah per see. Rocket salvo from Lebanon though; albeit it appears a bit strange with such a small salvo). Likely Hezbollah and israel will think it is Hezbollah, so difference then is maybe not so big.
This is a fairly good assessment, I thought.
This will force Britain to join the war
I wonder about this too.
He is not very wrong, though Putin’s Special Military Operation was an even bigger gamble. perhaps not as stupid as this though
Wildfire spreads and swans are born
On the other hand:
Fat orange bastard cannot even bother to pretend to be a war time president.
He is such a morale boost, Trump. It’s basically “some of you will die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make”.
Swans are born when have no brains and don’t actually plan for anything
@Magnus is it true that Iran is not just hitting US assets in the gulf countries but also civilian and residential buildings? If true, how are they different from Israel, who they claimed to be disregarding civilian lives? Monsters of different kinds.
It’s honestly a bit hard to say.
Experts I read suggest that apart from the 5 star hotels being hit, which is likely intended economic damage, most hits on civilian areas are due to air defence and/or Electronic warfare stearing drones off course. This happens all the time in Ukraine. That Russian drones and Ukrainian drones (as well as missiles) go off course due to EWAR. There is a hell of a lot of EWAR around these US bases…
Not that I want to defend Iran as such, but so far, I don’t think anyone can claim that they are targeting residential areas in the Gulf based on current video material. However, it is illegal to attack 5-star hotels as well, I would note (but there are degrees of illegality as well, obviously). Although so far they have targeted mostly hotels with US military personell (but I don’t know if this is the case in all instances).
They are not aiming for residential buildings really (they do that in Israel though, I suppose). But they do target economic targets.
More problematic is that Iran is attacking also third parties, trying to escalate the war.
If it was Hezbollah and not a minor Palestinian group, I cannot really disagree with these two
Obvious problem is that even if it is one of the Palestinian groups, those getting struck will believe or pretend to believe, that it was Hezbollah. Difference is therefore maybe slim.
It’s pretty clever, but also politically extremely risky. Going against Trump carries a risk to National Security, so there is that too. I also sense that Starmer and the UK is once again, likely in total vain, trying to push Ukraine into this (Ukrainian drone experts, “look Trump, they are helping!”) so that Trump will be less malevolent towards Ukraine.
What a shitty situation the UK is in. Not easy to navigate.
Personally, I hope all of EUR can stay out of this, but European powers are getting dragged unwillingly into this, for a variety of reasons, mostly illegal Iranian retaliation to illegal US-Israeli attracks, against Gulf states, but of course also partly to lessen tensions with Trump. Fucked up.
