Some context would be useful, Christian. I would guess you were about the right age to serve in the combat arms of our military either in Desert Storm or later in Iraq or Afghanistan. Which branch did you join and did you have foreign deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan?
We know the definition of total victory as most recently displayed by the U.S. in Japan and Germany in 1945. Does that definition still hold? Since we almost certainly won’t use nuclear weapons in Iran, and hopefully Israel won’t do that either, achieving total victory will involve something like a massive boots on the ground invasion as we witnessed in Germany. Do you agree? Will the military draft be required to ensure adequate troops are available for such an invasion? One can only hope that Don, Eric and Jared would all be among the first to volunteer to serve just as we saw the children of very important politicians serve in combat in World War II.
When will the military occupation of Iran start and the American military government of that country commence? How long will the occupation be ongoing and when will we supervise democratic elections just as we did in Japan and Germany? Anything short of that will fall considerably short of being a total victory and probably more along lines of what we have thus far witnessed in Venezuela and Iraq.
Seizing control of Iran‘s oil assets for the benefit of the United States while leaving demonstrably bad people in national leadership will not be total victory, nor will bombing large sections of Iran so that they resemble Gaza while doing insufficiently much to assure their total acquiescence to our national will.
Unfortunately, what has happened in Iran will likely convince a considerable number of countries around the world that, like North Korea, Pakistan, India and Israel, they should do everything possible to acquire nuclear weapons. One would not blame them for concluding that nothing short of that will protect them from what the U.S. has done in Iran and Venezuela. Our failure to directly engage in Ukraine or to take down a horribly bad North Korean regime is noteworthy.
Will achievement of total victory give us the confidence to demand a nuclear free Middle East, meaning no nuclear weapons anywhere in that region, including Israel?
I don't see any precedent for Trump's actions, and that is a good thing. No more of "This is the way we've always done it." Warfare has changed. I expect he will keep pounding until all that's left are the small targets, as you suggest. It's fascinating to see the Arab leaders coalesce around him. They were tired of disruptions by the radicals. Never step on the toes of MBS. Trump has completely rearranged the geopolitical chessboard.
Some context would be useful, Christian. I would guess you were about the right age to serve in the combat arms of our military either in Desert Storm or later in Iraq or Afghanistan. Which branch did you join and did you have foreign deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan?
We know the definition of total victory as most recently displayed by the U.S. in Japan and Germany in 1945. Does that definition still hold? Since we almost certainly won’t use nuclear weapons in Iran, and hopefully Israel won’t do that either, achieving total victory will involve something like a massive boots on the ground invasion as we witnessed in Germany. Do you agree? Will the military draft be required to ensure adequate troops are available for such an invasion? One can only hope that Don, Eric and Jared would all be among the first to volunteer to serve just as we saw the children of very important politicians serve in combat in World War II.
When will the military occupation of Iran start and the American military government of that country commence? How long will the occupation be ongoing and when will we supervise democratic elections just as we did in Japan and Germany? Anything short of that will fall considerably short of being a total victory and probably more along lines of what we have thus far witnessed in Venezuela and Iraq.
Seizing control of Iran‘s oil assets for the benefit of the United States while leaving demonstrably bad people in national leadership will not be total victory, nor will bombing large sections of Iran so that they resemble Gaza while doing insufficiently much to assure their total acquiescence to our national will.
Unfortunately, what has happened in Iran will likely convince a considerable number of countries around the world that, like North Korea, Pakistan, India and Israel, they should do everything possible to acquire nuclear weapons. One would not blame them for concluding that nothing short of that will protect them from what the U.S. has done in Iran and Venezuela. Our failure to directly engage in Ukraine or to take down a horribly bad North Korean regime is noteworthy.
Will achievement of total victory give us the confidence to demand a nuclear free Middle East, meaning no nuclear weapons anywhere in that region, including Israel?
I don't see any precedent for Trump's actions, and that is a good thing. No more of "This is the way we've always done it." Warfare has changed. I expect he will keep pounding until all that's left are the small targets, as you suggest. It's fascinating to see the Arab leaders coalesce around him. They were tired of disruptions by the radicals. Never step on the toes of MBS. Trump has completely rearranged the geopolitical chessboard.
The biggest problem?
The 20,000 Iranians most likely to rise up were killed 8 months ago ... when Trump did nothing to help them.
At best, this is going to look like Venezuela. Maybe a win and maybe not. Like Venezuela, it won't be clear which by November.
And that's very bad politically ... especially if the market is down and gas prices are up because of it.