Mr. President,
The pager operation against Hezbollah was a masterpiece of modern warfare. Israel also executed a brilliant 12-day operation against Iran that left the regime in shock, its top generals assassinated, and the Ayatollahs held by the throat.
Yet every time Israel had momentum, whether in Gaza, Lebanon, or against Iran, you personally intervened and stopped them at the worst possible moment.
you were personally briefed by Mossad that defeating Iran would take at least a year of consistent pressure. Yet you pushed for quick results, changed the original plan, and turned what could have been a strategic victory into a strategic defeat.
Now, after signing a humiliating deal that buried the Iranian nuclear threat instead of eliminating it, you come out blaming Israel for taking too long and for how it fights.
The question of civilian casualties should be addressed to Hezbollah, not Israel. Hezbollah deliberately operates from within populated civilian areas, using civilians as human shields and endangering their own people.
This strategic failure is not due to Israeli incompetence. The main problem has been your repeated intervention and bad timing.
You don’t get to sabotage the campaign and then blame Israel for the results.
This is the worst "deal" I've ever seen.
I knew it would be terrible, though. This entire war has been a shitshow and it's going to cost us... everything.
We're going to be eating ze bugs in short order.
Bloomberg has published the MoU.
Now we know why they did not want to release the text…
There are zero substantive enforceable commitments from the Islamic Republic in this document.
https://t.co/FjMWwXUKUj
If my neighbour increases the productivity of their vegetable garden and doubles their tomato crop, this does not subtract from the number of tomatoes I was able to produce in *my* vegetable garden. You are now more economically literate than all of leftist Twitter.
@watkins_japan You basically can't even get a rifle until you're old. You have to start with a shotgun (after a lot of tests and random inspections of your house) and if you don't murder anyone for 10 years, you can apply for a rifle. It's ridiculously onerous.
@ConceptualJames This is a really interesting take, but I'm afraid I don't share your optimism. I think we lost this because Trump is unwilling to properly invade and Iran knows it. They can just keep holding Hormuz and calling Trump's bluff, and eventually, Trump had to make a shitty deal.
The ban on social media for children under 16 is an idea that has merits. But the way it is being done is simply a way to force everyone, including adults, to identify themselves online, creating the most powerful surveillance and censorship architecture in human history.
@Telegraph 25 is pretty much average for a first child, but it’s a lot easier even a few years younger. Plus, you’re still young when the kids leave the house.
@MarcHenri88@dannyconversano What on Earth are you talking about?
In 20 years here, I have NEVER met a foreign nurse, AND I WORK FOR A HOSPITAL.
I know they exist, but they are vanishingly rare. They don’t have the Japanese language ability to pass the license test.
We just fucked over the people in Iran who don't want to live in a death cult theocracy.
This is the biggest failure I've seen in decades.
I always used to calm my liberal friends down by saying, "Don't worry so much. Trump is incompetent." But this is next-level incompetence.
My opinion on the actual Iran deal (MEK infiltration of Congress aside):
This may end up being an even bigger tar baby for the Trump administration than actually starting the Iranian war.
This has nothing to do with capitulation accusations or JCPOA comparisons. It's that it's much more than a "what's wrong with wanting peace" thing.
It all comes down to: the deal legitimizes the IRGC.
That legitimacy is going to be the decisive factor for a lot of players, Israel most of all. The moment the US signs across the table from the IRGC, it's treating it as a normal government instead of what the Iranians in exile say, what Israel believed going in, what Trump himself said a few months ago.
My read on why the US did it anyway: they got their interests served, wanted an official "war's over" to run on going into the midterms, and needed to buy time on the Strait of Hormuz. Fair enough on our own terms. Disaster in geopolitics.
IMO, the better outcome was to refuse to legitimize any regime at all, even if that meant no deal and just holding the status quo until we figured out a real answer to Hormuz.
We're banning raves, because we don't want you having fun where we can't watch you. By the way let me tell you about Woodstock.
We're cracking down on underage drinking. It's bad for you. Yeah of course we hit up the pubs at your age it was great.
We're banning smoking, but just for you - the smoking age will go up one year every year. Oh yes of course, we used to be able to smoke inside everywhere, it was great really.
We're banning flavored vapes. We don't have any evidence they're bad for you, you just like them too much.
We're banning dodgeball during recess, someone might get hurt. Yeah we really enjoyed dodgeball too.
We're banning flirting, because it might make the girls uncomfortable.
We're locking you in your room for the next two years. Yes we know you're in no danger from the virus, but we're worried that you'll get us sick. By the way you have to take this needle if you want to leave your room again. Yes, twice. Well there will be boosters too. No, we aren't worried about side effects, that doesn't effect us at all.
We're closing the frat houses, because we don't want you having fun without our permission. Please join these officially sanctioned university clubs instead.
We're bringing in labor from the third world to work the service jobs, so you can't have a summer job.
You need to go to university to get a good job. By the way we're raising the price of tuition. Oh look we're raising it again. Don't worry there are loans. At interest.
Actually we're giving the good jobs to the foreigners we just imported, to make up for our racist past. We are very good people. No of course we aren't sacrificing anything. You just have to take one for the team.
Also, we're giving the foreigners the houses. We needed to increase real estate prices. For our pensions, you see. Sadly no, you'll probably never be able to afford one yourself. By the way don't forget to pay your taxes. Need to support those pensions somehow! Eh? No, we're giving ourselves tax breaks of course. Seniors discount you know.
Oh by the way, that one thing you still have, now that we've banned joy and kicked every ladder out from under you? That social media stuff you kids like? You guessed it! We're banning that too! Just for you though, we're still going to watch AI videos on Facebook. It's for your safety, you see. We've noticed that you're all getting rather irate, and we think it would be better for your mental health if you shut up for a while. Why don't you just go outside?
Eh? No of course we aren't going to stop Ahmed and his twelve illiterate cousins from raping your sister, that would be culturally insensitive, which would make us feel very bad, and we can't have that.