@JohnDMacari How is it that these clowns can't even be bothered to work together for such an essential issue? The rot really does run deep in these unions.
There is a problem that remains with Iran. The source of their remaining power that I'm not entirely convinced the administration has solved. Mostly because it's a very difficult problem to solve.
Iran is a failed state. Presently speaking, they have been reduced to a civilization resemblant of a society you'd see centuries ago.
But there's power in being a failed state, especially in the short term.
To say it plainly? We already fucked them. What are we gonna do? Fuck them worse?
It's not as if we have zero targets left to hit, and I'm a vociferous proponent of additional strikes. But we do have to simultaneously note how much damage was already done.
Conservatively speaking, half of their military technologyโas a collective wholeโis up in smoke.
However much power they could project before Operation: Epic Fury, that number has been cut in half. Likely more.
And they couldn't project that much power to begin with. So their need to replenish the stockpile is existential.
But with what money are they going to replenish the stockpile? With what commerce will they fuel the rebuilding effort?
They're done. But they don't know it yet. And that's the problem.
Their leverage is that they've been totally decimated but there's no referee to stop the fight and declare the opponent knocked out. There's no higher power descending from the heavens to declare that Iran's fighting is over.
The situation becomes worse when we want from them the actions of a legitimate nation while they're a failed state.
We want them to pledge to uphold freedom of navigation, to cease operations in the Strait of Hormuz, that they never started.
We want them to commit to various rules of nuclear enrichment when they can't afford to power the lights in enrichment facilities.
About the only thing that they can offer us immediately is the stockpile of highly enriched uranium. If we have that, then they aren't a nuclear Afghanistan.
Everything else? We're managing the collapse of a failed state. Which can be done over months and years.
Separately, I might talk about why I know all of this and still support more strikes because I have thought this through.
But for the purposes of this writing, you have to understand that we aren't trying to win.
We already won by every objective and physical measure.
Now it's about navigating the consequences of victory.
@Sandyb83979@DarweeshHeiba@mayor_jlo Please take it as a given that I'm not in favor of hiring anyone in this consition nor eliminating the run. What I'm suggesting is about maintaining standards, which I don't consider to be coddling.
@DarweeshHeiba@mayor_jlo@Sandyb83979 Not to excuse it, but there are things the job could do to prevent someone from ending up like that in the first place. Starting with an annual fitness test and offering RDO and/or post/pre tour fitness coaching run by the academy gym for those that need a course correction.