Rowan Hanley

I follow scientists, journalists & collect quotes, articles & repost for info. Conservationist, activist, trainee farmer.
She/her.

[Mark @Mark4XX]

THE MOST INCOMPETENT WAR IN HISTORY: SARAH PAINE ON TRUMP’S IRAN DISASTER

Dr. Sarah Paine, a leading historian of great-power conflict and strategy, delivers a blunt verdict on the Iran war. She calls it one of the most incompetent wars in human history. The decision ignored basic principles of assessment, put maximum costs on America itself, and left permanent damage to the country’s power and alliances. This is not hindsight—it is the predictable result of hubris meeting reality.

THE CORE VERDICT
➡️ “The Iran war is probably one of the most incompetent wars in human history.”
➡️ A competent war puts the costs on the enemy and minimizes them for yourself.
➡️ This one did the opposite.

THE COST CATASTROPHE
➡️ It trashed the US economy.
➡️ It blew the US alliance system.
➡️ Iran is hurting, but the collateral damage is taking down the world’s economy.
➡️ That transforms the United States from a partner into an annoyance—and for many, a primary adversary—because it is threatening their economies.
➡️ “That’s breathtakingly incompetent.”

THE STRATEGIC BLIND SPOT
➡️ Any serious assessment looks at the enemy’s strengths and your own weaknesses, plus everyone else who might intervene.
➡️ That was absent.
➡️ The first thing Iran would do is shut Hormuz. Narrow seas close in wartime. Ukraine already showed this with the Black Sea.
➡️ Shore artillery, mines, and other tools stop traffic. There is no mystery here.
➡️ The big naval base in Bahrain becomes unreachable. The fallback is Diego Garcia, 2,500 miles away in the middle of nowhere. “That would be a mess.”

THE HUBRIS THAT MADE IT POSSIBLE
➡️ The people making the calls are historically unqualified for the job. That makes them profoundly dangerous.
➡️ Type A hubris assumes all decisions that matter happen in the United States.
➡️ Type B hubris assumes being good at one thing makes you good at everything.
➡️ Half-court tennis: you only watch your own side and never study the other team.
➡️ The Iranians understand Americans far better than Americans understand them.

THE UNFEASIBLE OBJECTIVE
➡️ Trying to “solve” Iran with 90 million people was never realistic.
➡️ Nazi Germany had roughly 80 million and required an occupation force of about 1.5 million just to hold it after the war—before counting everyone else.
➡️ The goal was unattainable. Pursuing it guarantees overextension and a bad ending.
➡️ The lesson the world takes is simple: get a nuke. The war incentivized proliferation.
➡️ This was a pivotal error. The choices that existed before are gone and will not return. “We will never be the trusted partner ever again. It’s done.”

THE BOTTOM LINE
The Iran war did not merely fail. It maximized American costs, destroyed trust with allies, and handed every rival a clearer reason to treat the United States as a threat to their own prosperity. Competence would have contained the problem at affordable cost. Hubris chose the opposite.

This is what permanent strategic damage looks like.

#IranWar #SarahPaine #StrategicIncompetence #HormuzDisaster #USHubris #AllianceCollapse #CatastrophicMistake
HT: YouTube The Diary Of A CEO

[Rowan Hanley @RowanHanley]

@gtconway3d Kakistocracy is a system of government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous people- that’s the USA atm.

[Rowan Hanley @RowanHanley]

Kakistocracy is a system of government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous people. That’s the USA atm. Go @AbdulElSayed 💪🏽

[Bruce Crossing @SenatorCrossing]

The moment I saw this, I sprinted to the drop box and submitted my ballot. I’ve never moved so fast in my life.

[Rowan Hanley @RowanHanley]

@SenatorCrossing Kakistocracy is a system of government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous people, that is the USA atm.

[the Juice Media @thejuicemedia]

The Government™ has made an ad about the protests happening around the world, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative.🌍🌎🌏

[Christine Milne AO @ChristineMilne]

Would a stockpiling warning frighten Australians? Absolutely because whilst community takes extreme weather events seriously, geopolitical chaos, supply chain breakdowns, hacks into energy and public services are not on public radar. #auspol

[Rowan Hanley @RowanHanley]

🤔 Good to know BUT what about artists, musicians, actors, filmmakers, original creatives of all persuasions who shape humanity? AI forgets the humanity bits in favour of tech & efficiency. 🙄

[Rowan Hanley @RowanHanley]

🎯

[Saganism @Saganismm]

“We have the money, the power, the medical understanding, the scientific know-how, the love and the community to produce a kind of human paradise. But we are led by the least among us – the least intelligent, the least noble, the least visionary.”

— Terence McKenna

[Rowan Hanley @RowanHanley]

State of the Climate report. 2026.

[Alexander Hagen | Thomas Paine Alliance @JeffersonianAll]

@WilliamJRipple https://t.co/mBr6oYpMEI

[Rowan Hanley @RowanHanley]

Tiresome but true. The slogan slop of politics in the media.

[Sue Barrett-Onward We Press @SueBarrett]

Political Propaganda Bingo is here.
Over seven instalments, our Political Persuasion Playbook has walked through the seven classic propaganda tactics, first named by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in the 1930s. Card stacking. Name calling. Glittering generalities. Transfer. Testimonial. Plain folks. Bandwagon.

Now they’re all on one card.

The card has 24 squares, colour-coded by tactic. “Australian values.” Hi-vis and a hard hat for the cameras. “Experts say” (which experts?). A cherry-picked start date. The centre square is free, and it holds the question every tactic hopes you skip: what’s true?

How to play: keep it beside you during the news, the next leaders’ debate or a scroll through your feed. Mark a square when you spot one. Five in a row is bingo.

You’ll fill it from every side of politics. That’s the point. No party owns the playbook.

Victorians vote on 28 November. Print it, play it, send it to five people.

Your Vote. Your Future. You know what to do.
For more subscribe to https://t.co/Y81AC9kpOs

#auspol
@deniseshrivell
@RonniSalt
@aaronsmith
@BrentHodgson

[Rowan Hanley @RowanHanley]

@SueBarrett 👏👏👏👏

[Rowan Hanley @RowanHanley]

Holding third world countries to ransom with debt.

[NEWS LION @NewsLionSA]

What if debt was never just about development?

In Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins claims that poorer countries were encouraged to take on huge loans for infrastructure projects, leaving them deeply indebted and more vulnerable to outside influence.

Perkins, who worked for an engineering consultancy, argues that this system helped shift enormous wealth and power towards the West.

His story raises a bigger question: when a country depends on foreign loans, who really holds the power, the borrower or the lender?

#JohnPerkins #Economics #AfricanDevelopment #neocolonialism #AfricanFinance #AfricanEconomy #AfricaRise #AfricaHistory

[Rowan Hanley @RowanHanley]

🙌

[Nick McKim @NickMcKim]

Work 11 hours a day. Pay a fortune in rent. Get gouged at the supermarket. Hand over more of your wages to privatised corporations. And somehow, you're told that migrants and trans people are the problem.

[Dr Dunny Kruger @DrDunnyKruger]

‘Australia without migrant workers’

Who made this? 👏

Mandatory viewing for any fool who still doesn’t understand the implications of slamming the gates shut.

[Jim Chalmers MP @JEChalmers]

GET THE FACTS: The Coalition doubled Australia's gross debt even before COVID, and racked up almost two thirds of total gross debt.

Between 2013-2022 the Coalition racked up more than $600bn of gross debt, and debt went from $257bn in 2013/14 to $542bn in 2018/19.

[Sue Barrett-Onward We Press @SueBarrett]

Who benefits when tax is paid by credit card? Mostly wealthy groups and big business, who make over 60% of those payments by value. The rest of us cover the ATO’s ~$200m card fee bill.

Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson’s Stand With Small emails leave that out, along with the $910m card fee cut that came with the surcharge ban.
Instead the shadow treasurer turns small business frustration into a sign-up: your name, your story, your donation, your contacts. In practice, it works as data harvesting built on grievance. We've seen this before in 2019 - remember Franking Credits.

Read the full picture before you add your name. 👇

https://t.co/6MBVVAcJSQ

#auspol
@deniseshrivell
@aaronsmith

[Rowan Hanley @RowanHanley]

As do his supporters in Australia. Trump is a “Clear and Present Danger” to the world’s peace and stability. Call it out @AlboMP , & call out Gina and PHON too.

[#Anonymous @TheStripesGirl]

"CANADA WARNS IT’S CITIZENS TO TREAT TRUMP - “…AS A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO OUR COUNTRY…”!

He also calls #Trump out like you’ve never seen on TV by an Allied country before!"

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

On December 3 the Pentagon will livestream a firing squad shooting the Fort Hood murderer, and the defense secretary thinks you ought to watch.

So let us be precise about the company. The Taliban shoot men in football stadiums. Iran hangs them from cranes in city squares, North Korea gathers crowds for its firing squads, and the Houthis do likewise in Sanaa. That is the entire membership.

A country may call itself the leader of the free world, or it may broadcast executions for the instruction of the masses, but it does not get to do both, and America has made its choice.

[Sue Barrett-Onward We Press @SueBarrett]

Sky News is free in regional Australia. Here is why that matters at the ballot box.

Now called News24, it is owned by News Corp, which also holds 59% of metro and national print readership.

Over a quarter of local government areas have no independent local news.

You cannot weigh a claim against nothing. Why media variety matters before you vote. 👇

https://t.co/dL04Xueavk

#auspol
@TrueNorthNewsAU
@deniseshrivell
@aaronsmith
@BrentHodgson