Iranian Uprising

Number 1 I don't think your a "leftist" of anything other than a concerned vested individual. Whom voices their concerns and thoughts. Even when I seem on this medium to disagree with you.

My buddy Ed and I will hold discussions that one of us will play devil's advocate on issues ranging from Laws / rulings to foreign policy.
So yes in conversations that my wife and daughter hears us in, they actually thought Ed was a leftist Democrat. Ed is far from that I assure you.
Reason why is they usually don't stick around for the whole discussion to the conclusion.

To that extent we both came to the same conclusion on this matter. It did not bode well, and the outcome was brutal for the Government of Iran.
I’m not calling it a win — at best, it’s our least-bad outcome, as long as we don’t get dragged further into the fight.

Iran’s strategy has always been simple: survive and wage asymmetric warfare. They don’t need to win militarily; all they have to do is make it economically painful for the U.S. From the outside looking in, Iran basically said, “F–k you” to every U.S. demand: “Who made you boss of us?” Call it a MAGA win if you want, but in reality, they’re calling the shots, and we look weak.

This is economic warfare without firing a single shot on U.S. soil. Look back at the last 40 days — Trump’s posts versus where we are now — and it’s clear: a “ceasefire” from Trump doesn’t stop other factions from acting.

Yes, we’ve destroyed infrastructure and targets, no doubt. But Iran still holds the strength and leverage to control the situation.

I want America to win. But I’m not buying the spin this administration is selling. Convince me I’m wrong — show me real facts from the ground, not cartoon memes or White House talking points. Honestly, who do you think holds the leverage right now?
 
I’m curious though: when you say “it did not bode well,” can you elaborate on what you mean?
First and Foremost I am NOT the POTUS. Thankfully for some nations. Nor do I have any influence in policy, again thankfully for some nations.

The current POTUS is not, never been, nor has ever been exposed to being a warrior to the best of my knowledge.

He is / was a businessman turned politician. I honestly don't expect much more than a Woodrow Wilson repeat of his type of term.

He far exceeds what we could have been left with.
At the very least, they have been set back, rather than be once again just given money to pursue their quest. Does one actually think that the other candidate (s) would have been tougher or actually succeeded in stopping their Nuclear program?? One simply must "give the Devil his due" so to speak.

What did two old long in the tooth Senior Non-Comm's come up with???

step one eliminate all non nuclear power plants, disable every bridge connecting into Tehran, eliminate any building that has the IRG or militia.

step two eliminate the existence of Kharg island completely. ( to be completed within 1 hour of step 1)

Accept NO Surrender or terms except unconditional. No other terms are acceptable.

step three escalate step 1 and two, to the extreme prejudice on a increasing scale. Without a foot inside the country. Make any location that a missile or drone come from uninhabitable. Nuclear power plants are now on the table. Simply put make it un survivable as Violently and as fast as one can for the regime.


The part that sucks for You and I Jeremy is we are no longer privy to the plan and the actual intel. So yeah it sucks I agree.
And I am EXTREMELY grateful I was never stupid enough to run for President or political office.
 
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First and Foremost I am NOT the POTUS. Thankfully for some nations. Nor do I have any influence in policy, again thankfully for some nations.

The current POTUS is not, never been, nor has ever been exposed to being a warrior to the best of my knowledge.

He is / was a businessman turned politician. I honestly don't expect much more than a Woodrow Wilson repeat of his type of term.

He far exceeds what we could have been left with.
At the very least, they have been set back, rather than be once again just given money to pursue their quest. Does one actually think that the other candidate (s) would have been tougher or actually succeeded in stopping their Nuclear program?? One simply must "give the Devil his due" so to speak.

What did two old long in the tooth Senior Non-Comm's come up with???

step one eliminate all non nuclear power plants, disable every bridge connecting into Tehran, eliminate any building that has the IRG or militia.

step two eliminate the existence of Kharg island completely. ( to be completed within 1 hour of step 1)

Accept NO Surrender or terms except unconditional. No other terms are acceptable.

step three escalate step 1 and two, to the extreme prejudice on a increasing scale. Without a foot inside the country. Make any location that a missile or drone come from uninhabitable. Nuclear power plants are now on the table. Simply put make it un survivable as Violently and as fast as one can for the regime.


The part that sucks for You and I Jeremy is we are no longer privy to the plan and the actual intel. So yeah it sucks I agree.
And I am EXTREMELY grateful I was never stupid enough to run for President or political office.
I agree, and respect your views. America somehow always ends up standing in the blast zone of conflicts that were burning long before we showed up. This one’s no different.

On one side, you’ve got Shiite extremist groups backed by Iran—structured, disciplined, and driven by deeply rooted religious belief. For many of them, this isn’t just geopolitics, it’s a holy war. The idea of mujahadeen, martyrdom, and the long arc of ideology tied to faith and power means this fight isn’t measured in policy cycles—it’s generational. Antisemitism is often baked into that worldview, fueling a mission that goes far beyond borders or negotiations.

On the other side, you’ve got Israel—a nation-state with an organized military, acting through a mix of security concerns, territorial realities, and national survival. Not a single ideology, but a country responding to constant threats, where survival isn’t theoretical—it’s immediate.

And then there’s the U.S. For us, it’s framed as strategy—the cost of being the country that’s always asked, or pushed, to pick a side. That’s where the disconnect lives. One side sees a forever war. The other sees survival. Meanwhile, Americans are watching it through a completely different lens—rising costs, shaky markets, and the creeping fear of economic collapse. It’s less about ancient history and more about whether you can still afford normal life—whether a family trip to Disneyland is even realistic anymore. And through all of it, most Americans trust what they’re told. That’s the system. So when the message becomes “we were two weeks away from catastrophe,” people take that at face value.

But zoom out for a second. We’ve heard “death to America” for decades. Americans have been killed. We responded. We took out people responsible. But what happens next? Do you really think a ceasefire suddenly makes that hatred disappear? Or does it create a deeper need to avenge the martyrs that were just lost? Because history suggests something uncomfortable—every strike creates the next wave. Not always, not universally, but enough to keep the cycle alive. That’s the trap. You remove a threat, and you plant the seed for another. And even if you could wipe out every target on a map, you’re still left with the ideology. You can’t bomb belief out of existence. When something is framed as a holy war, it doesn’t end clean—it adapts. Sometimes it shifts from bullets to economics, from battlefields to pressure points—because they know where our priorities are.

That’s why this starts to feel like a half-measure, no-clear-end win. We’re the GWOT kids—the “Global War on Terror.” But think about that phrase. If it’s global… if it spans decades… if it never really ends… at what point does it start to resemble something bigger? And could anyone honestly say we “won” it? Instead, we call them forever wars now—conflicts that cost more than we can measure, with outcomes that never quite match the sacrifice.

And here we are again, standing at the edge of another version of the same question—only this time, maybe a little less certain that we understand how it ends.
 
Even after all Trump’s rhetoric and threats, this goes way beyond a “TACO”—call it what it is: a surrender.

Yeah, we took out leaders and blew a lot of things up. But before anything even kicked off, we were already pulling personnel out of our bases in the region. Then Iran hit what was left, turned 13 bases into something barely usable, and now it’s too dangerous to even send troops back in to start rebuilding.

So what did we really gain?
 
Or does it create a deeper need to avenge the martyrs that were just lost? Because history suggests something uncomfortable—every strike creates the next wave. Not always, not universally, but enough to keep the cycle alive. That’s the trap.
True, and has been noted by those whom usually don't want to do the follow through.
We have been doing this since the Korean war, the populace just as a whole will not do what the greatest generation did. While we had UN support we let the optics drive us to peace treaty with North Korea (BTW the South Korean never signed it so yeah those two are actually still in declared war). All because we was basically tired from WWII and the American people just couldn't get behind the concept of keeping the Communist at bay. It didn't effect their lives. (many ask why are we still there well to keep the two Koreas from starting another war)
What did we really gain from that?
Then the French pulled out of Indo-China, we as a nation decided to help the South Vietnamese. Only to negotiate a pull out because again we didn't commit fully and whole heartily. The graphics of it being televised shocked the American youth, it became widely unpopular.
What did we gain?

The point is the question "what did we gain?" could be asked in a vast majority of our conflict we engage in. It's not a wrong question.

Maybe the better question is what did we lose? Even if we "supposedly win", what did we lose? No one truly wins a war anyway.
They (the winner?) simply gets everyone to leave them alone for a little bit of time.

Even after all Trump’s rhetoric and threats, this goes way beyond a “TACO”—call it what it is: a surrender.

I see your view point, and can see where history would could (is what I meant to type) mark it as such. A time when a greater objective could have been achieve simply by staying the course with dogged persistence.

On one side, you’ve got Shiite extremist groups backed by Iran—structured, disciplined, and driven by deeply rooted religious belief. For many of them, this isn’t just geopolitics, it’s a holy war. The idea of mujahadeen, martyrdom, and the long arc of ideology tied to faith and power means this fight isn’t measured in policy cycles—it’s generational. Antisemitism is often baked into that worldview, fueling a mission that goes far beyond borders or negotiations.

On the other side, you’ve got Israel—a nation-state with an organized military, acting through a mix of security concerns, territorial realities, and national survival. Not a single ideology, but a country responding to constant threats, where survival isn’t theoretical—it’s immediate.

And then there’s the U.S. For us, it’s framed as strategy
This is the issue, if we as a nation say Israel is our ally, then we need to engage the enemy of our ally as if our survival depends on it. Because quite truthfully it does.

NATO just proved they have no interest in being our Ally.

Thank you Jeremy for having this discourse and insight to the view from your "foxhole". Hopefully you have found it as pleasurable as I have to simply discuss a viewpoint.
 
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True, and has been noted by those whom usually don't want to do the follow through.
We have been doing this since the Korean war, the populace just as a whole will not do what the greatest generation did. While we had UN support we let the optics drive us to peace treaty with North Korea (BTW the South Korean never signed it so yeah those two are actually still in declared war). All because we was basically tired from WWII and the American people just couldn't get behind the concept of keeping the Communist at bay. It didn't effect their lives. (many ask why are we still there well to keep the two Koreas from starting another war)
What did we really gain from that?
Then the French pulled out of Indo-China, we as a nation decided to help the South Vietnamese. Only to negotiate a pull out because again we didn't commit fully and whole heartily. The graphics of it being televised shocked the American youth, it became widely unpopular.
What did we gain?

The point is the question "what did we gain?" could be asked in a vast majority of our conflict we engage in. It's not a wrong question.
Maybe the better question is what did we lose? Even if we "supposedly win", what did we lose? No one truly wins a war anyway.
They (the winner?) simply gets everyone to leave them alone for a little bit of time.
Let’s be honest about what we actually lost. Thirteen of our bases in the region? Bombed into near-uselessness. The safety we once had to operate and build there? Gone. Iran ran our troops out, leaving us exposed and unable to even approach the Strait safely. We’ve depleted our munitions, trading high-cost missiles just to intercept cheap drones. Beyond the immediate, our perceived strength as a superpower has been handed to Iran—they now have the credibility to influence global oil markets, control access to international waters, and show the world they can make a superpower blink.

Other regional adversaries are watching. Hezbollah, Houthis, and the next generation of mujahadeen now see that asymmetric attacks can force the U.S. to withdraw or negotiate. Even tactical “victories,” like taking out leaders, only fuel cycles of revenge and inspire new radicals.

This isn’t just a tactical setback—it’s strategic, economic, psychological, and ideological. We didn’t just give in to a bully; we ceded control, credibility, and influence while keeping hope alive that a fragile ceasefire would make it all okay. In the end, no one is “winning” here—except Iran, who now gets to shape the rules while we scramble to figure out how to respond.

I see your view point, and can see where history would could (is what I meant to type) mark it as such. A time when a greater objective could have been achieve simply by staying the course with dogged persistence.


This is the issue, if we as a nation say Israel is our ally, then we need to engage the enemy of our ally as if our survival depends on it. Because quite truthfully it does.

NATO just proved they have no interest in being our Ally.

Picture it the other way around. Ceasefire called. Iran opens the Strait. A few hours later, we start bombing again. They keep the Strait open, still saying, “Hey, maybe this fragile ceasefire will hold.” Bombs raining down around them, yet they stick to their side of the deal—because hope dies last, right? And then they tell the people, “You won.” And somehow… they actually believe it. Lol.
 
So what did we really gain?

Absolutely nothing that I can see. Pure loss. Did not make even a dent in the regime. Took out some top people. They were replaced in an orderly succession according to their own constitution. Perhaps by even more radical leaders. Petro-dollar will never be the same again. And that's what has been floating our debt and giving the dollar a stranglehold on reserve currency for fifty years. China and Russia must be absolutely giddy over all this.

Disastrous outcome.

- DAA
 
Let’s be honest about what we actually lost. Thirteen of our bases in the region? Bombed into near-uselessness. The safety we once had to operate and build there? Gone. Iran ran our troops out, leaving us exposed and unable to even approach the Strait safely. We’ve depleted our munitions, trading high-cost missiles just to intercept cheap drones. Beyond the immediate, our perceived strength as a superpower has been handed to Iran—they now have the credibility to influence global oil markets, control access to international waters, and show the world they can make a superpower blink.

Other regional adversaries are watching. Hezbollah, Houthis, and the next generation of mujahadeen now see that asymmetric attacks can force the U.S. to withdraw or negotiate. Even tactical “victories,” like taking out leaders, only fuel cycles of revenge and inspire new radicals.

This isn’t just a tactical setback—it’s strategic, economic, psychological, and ideological. We didn’t just give in to a bully; we ceded control, credibility, and influence while keeping hope alive that a fragile ceasefire would make it all okay. In the end, no one is “winning” here—except Iran, who now gets to shape the rules while we scramble to figure out how to respond.



Picture it the other way around. Ceasefire called. Iran opens the Strait. A few hours later, we start bombing again. They keep the Strait open, still saying, “Hey, maybe this fragile ceasefire will hold.” Bombs raining down around them, yet they stick to their side of the deal—because hope dies last, right? And then they tell the people, “You won.” And somehow… they actually believe it. Lol.
I totally agree with your point of view. We have lost a lot including 13 lives. I dont see the ceasefire lasting, the sentiment of these eastern nations runs deeper than we realize, I see the start of WW3
 
Absolutely nothing that I can see. Pure loss. Did not make even a dent in the regime. Took out some top people. They were replaced in an orderly succession according to their own constitution. Perhaps by even more radical leaders. Petro-dollar will never be the same again. And that's what has been floating our debt and giving the dollar a stranglehold on reserve currency for fifty years. China and Russia must be absolutely giddy over all this.

Disastrous outcome.

- DAA
Agreed. I fear we have caused ourselves near irrevocable damage on the world stage. Not only have we alienated most of our allies, we have now proven that they don't really need us anyway. Everybody in the country except Trump and all his yes-men know we need allies and trading partners, but our blind leadership has driven and continues to drive them away. Not only does that significantly damage our global influence, it will likely lead to major domestic economic issues. We have shot ourselves in the foot, and then in an attempt to make it better, we shot ourselves in the other foot. I fear for the next shot from ourselves.
 
Absolutely nothing that I can see. Pure loss. Did not make even a dent in the regime. Took out some top people. They were replaced in an orderly succession according to their own constitution. Perhaps by even more radical leaders. Petro-dollar will never be the same again. And that's what has been floating our debt and giving the dollar a stranglehold on reserve currency for fifty years. China and Russia must be absolutely giddy over all this.

Disastrous outcome.

- DAA
Exactly — I didn’t even want to bring up the petrodollar in a pro-Trump echo chamber. The moment you do, you get written off as paranoid, Marxist, Democrat, or pro-Iranian.

You can’t trust what Iran says they’ll do — but you have to acknowledge they’ve been consistent with their demands since before the bombs started falling. Their goalposts haven’t moved, and their message hasn’t changed.

Meanwhile, Trump’s out here acting like he’s getting new terms passed back and forth like notes through a goat in Pakistan, while Iran keeps repeating the same position: what part of “bend over” did you not understand? And while we’re saying we’re ready to be done with this war… the war is not done with us.

Everyone’s arguing about bombs and ceasefires, but the real fight is bigger than that. Iran is openly pushing oil and transit payments outside the dollar — into yuan and other systems — and that goes straight at the backbone of U.S. global power.

You’re not hearing much about that from the media or the current administration, but Trump damn well understands the threat. Because once oil starts moving away from the dollar, this stops being about Iran — and starts being about weakening the system that gives the U.S. its leverage worldwide.

That’s the long game. Not the headlines. Not the short-term wins people keep celebrating. But what about getting punked right out of the gate with the Strait? Just tell MAGA we blew up 13,000 things and we won — they’ll drink the Kool-Aid even if it’s been pissed in.
 
Exactly — I didn’t even want to bring up the petrodollar in a pro-Trump echo chamber. The moment you do, you get written off as paranoid, Marxist, Democrat, or pro-Iranian.

You can’t trust what Iran says they’ll do — but you have to acknowledge they’ve been consistent with their demands since before the bombs started falling. Their goalposts haven’t moved, and their message hasn’t changed.

Meanwhile, Trump’s out here acting like he’s getting new terms passed back and forth like notes through a goat in Pakistan, while Iran keeps repeating the same position: what part of “bend over” did you not understand? And while we’re saying we’re ready to be done with this war… the war is not done with us.

Everyone’s arguing about bombs and ceasefires, but the real fight is bigger than that. Iran is openly pushing oil and transit payments outside the dollar — into yuan and other systems — and that goes straight at the backbone of U.S. global power.

You’re not hearing much about that from the media or the current administration, but Trump damn well understands the threat. Because once oil starts moving away from the dollar, this stops being about Iran — and starts being about weakening the system that gives the U.S. its leverage worldwide.

That’s the long game. Not the headlines. Not the short-term wins people keep celebrating. But what about getting punked right out of the gate with the Strait? Just tell MAGA we blew up 13,000 things and we won — they’ll drink the Kool-Aid even if it’s been pissed in.
BRICS has been building for a while, when it was announced I knew where we were headed years ago and its happening right now.
 
Jesus, right-wing media is completely lost in the sauce. They’re out here calling this an “astute observation” like it’s breaking news.

At this point you have to wonder — is their target audience informed adults, folks in daycare and nursing homes, or the right wingers who communicate entirely through memes?

 
Agreed. I fear we have caused ourselves near irrevocable damage on the world stage. Not only have we alienated most of our allies, we have now proven that they don't really need us anyway. Everybody in the country except Trump and all his yes-men know we need allies and trading partners, but our blind leadership has driven and continues to drive them away. Not only does that significantly damage our global influence, it will likely lead to major domestic economic issues. We have shot ourselves in the foot, and then in an attempt to make it better, we shot ourselves in the other foot. I fear for the next shot from ourselves.

Exactly. For decades, we promised our allies they didn’t need massive militaries because we’d provide the security umbrella. They focused on their economies, we guaranteed stability — that’s how we built real power.

Now Trump, in his ignorance, wants to invade a NATO member and then tells everyone else to fight for themselves in the Strait. The leaders know that would be political suicide and a military disaster — a lesson Trump is only now learning the hard way. Meanwhile, the Dems are watching him f–k everything up, fully aware it’ll hand them the midterms.

If this continues, Europe will have no choice but to rearm, build its own defenses, and hedge toward other powers. This isn’t a defeat at the hands of another nation — it’s the collapse of strategic power by our own temper-tantrum president. Trump is punishing allies for refusing to jump into a fight he’s losing, while crying for help.

The only parallel? The Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War — and even they didn’t get to choose.
 
Meh, we already have selective service registration & it's already mandatory. It isn't automatic & there are no immediate penalties for not registering.

But not registering can bite you in the ass later. There are federal assistance programs that check your registration status & if you did not register, no money for you.

I couldn't care less if they did make it automatic, seeing as how it's already mandatory but i don't think anyone can just order that. It's going to take an act of congress, so good luck with that
 
Jesus, right-wing media is completely lost in the sauce. They’re out here calling this an “astute observation” like it’s breaking news.

At this point you have to wonder — is their target audience informed adults, folks in daycare and nursing homes, or the right wingers who communicate entirely through memes?


The target audience seems to be all the majority of Americans that slurp up the propaganda on the news.

Crapshoots post above is real. Iran lowered the enlistment age to 12 !! Germans of military age cannot eave the country without approval from the military and Finland just raised the age to 65. They all are preparing for a big conflict, but thats nothing new, they started prepping at the start of the Ukraine war.

Just heard Tomahawk missiles are being moved to Louisiana, Im thinking its part of the golden dome, now it makes sense the immense rush for data centers all across the country, missile guidance and detection.
 
I'm sure that will require a lot of AI & AI requires datacenters. They've been getting built in no small part bc we're putting AI in everything

Have you tried to buy memory for your PC lately? Datacebter servers use a new, much faster type of RAM & it' more expensive. Far more profitable. So the memory makers have shifted from traditional types of memory to this stuff.

A few years ago I bought 64 GB of DDR4, 2 32 GB sticks for my PC. Cost was $124. I looked 3 days ago, the same sticks from the same seller are $599 now
 
I know, it's USA Today.....Eligible men will soon be automatically registered for military draft
If it really got to the point where automatic draft registration turned into actual conscription, you’d absolutely see another Vietnam‑style counterculture — young people refusing to die for a stupid, hopeless war they don’t believe in. Trump spent years dodging service, yet now he’s signing laws that automatically put 18‑ to 25‑year‑olds into the draft pool — a pool we haven’t pulled from since the 1970s.

I get why people mock Trump as a draft‑dodger, but I also get the youth perspective: they’ve grown up watching endless foreign quagmires, and they’re not about to be told to go die in another one that’s clearly unwinnable. And this isn’t World War II — where the country literally needed mass mobilization — this is a drawn‑out standoff that could turn into another sectarian mess like Iraq or Syria, where no one is sure who you can trust and everyone’s shooting in every direction.

So if a draft actually became a reality, it wouldn’t be because people didn’t sign up — it’d be because leadership miscalculated so badly that another generation said “no thanks.”
 
There are only 3 companies in the world that made RAM. Micron was one & they shut down all manufacturing of it, are only making it for the new servers. The other 2 companies didn't stop entirely but they did shift resources to the new stuff

I have no predictions as to where this is going to end up but it's impacting everything that uses memory now. Cell phones, tablets, PC's, autos, even automotive tools. Consumer electronics like TV sets & streaming devices.

If it has memory, it's impacted.
 
If it really got to the point where automatic draft registration turned into actual conscription, you’d absolutely see another Vietnam‑style counterculture — young people refusing to die for a stupid, hopeless war they don’t believe in. Trump spent years dodging service, yet now he’s signing laws that automatically put 18‑ to 25‑year‑olds into the draft pool — a pool we haven’t pulled from since the 1970s.

I get why people mock Trump as a draft‑dodger, but I also get the youth perspective: they’ve grown up watching endless foreign quagmires, and they’re not about to be told to go die in another one that’s clearly unwinnable. And this isn’t World War II — where the country literally needed mass mobilization — this is a drawn‑out standoff that could turn into another sectarian mess like Iraq or Syria, where no one is sure who you can trust and everyone’s shooting in every direction.

So if a draft actually became a reality, it wouldn’t be because people didn’t sign up — it’d be because leadership miscalculated so badly that another generation said “no thanks.”
I am sure there will be songs written about it.

 
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