Germany and Japan should go ahead and claim victory in WWII.

Technically, there were no losers in WWII. All countries came out stronger than they had been.

#24

So...from the River to the Sea?

"Israeli Zionists have not done that; because they are, at their core, an expansionist, colonialist movement- and neither have the Palestinian people (why would they? Give their land to a bunch of fascist thieves from Europe and Brooklyn?)"

Like Pakistan, Jordan, and Syria, Palestine was the creation of European powers when they elected to divest their colonial holdings. Even the term "Palestinian" didn't emerge until the very end of the 19th century.

"Unfortunately, many Jews- especially the Israeli Zionists, were quick to conflate Judaism with their ethnosupremacist, fascist Zionist ideology during and after the forced formation of the colonial state of Israel, and the blowback in the Muslim world was to be expected- as is any blowback when something illegal and illegitimate is done in one's name that affects millions."

Illegal?

Do you think the creation of Pakistan was equally illegal and Illegitimate?

"How does Rome have any relevance to Crimes in North America?"

Elitism and Slavery were staples of every civilization for thousands of years.

It's like saying that Fiji was founded on cannibalism.

"He's the President for crying out loud."

So was Biden. When he was little more than a walking corpse.

Do you like Trump, Bill? If so, could you do me a fave and explain why?

I'm trying hard to understand why 81% of Republicans still support Trump.

"Slavery and Elitism are the true basis of America."

???

Really?

Ever heard of Rome?

Jesus Christ.

"So does your Vietnam analogy mean you want Trump to finish this?"

Someone has to.

But it will be the next president. Trump will simply keep claiming how victorious he has been, until his term ends or he dies of old age.

He lost interest in OEF the minute he realized he couldn't claim any bragging rights from it.

"Iran has not gone "head-to-head" with the US. The US has the military capability to level Iran if it chose to fully unleash it."

Sure. We could nuke the ---- out of Iran, but we could do that to any country.

The US could have, um succeeded, but that would first require a theory of victory. A set of objectives. From there, you would determine how to achieve those objectives. Normally, you do that by holding something your adversary values at risk. In Iran, I would say that would most likely be the coastal areas, ports, and oil production facilities.

That never happened. OEF has been the biggest strategic defeat in the history of the United States. I have no idea what objectives the DoW established prior to the conflict, but unless the objective was to burn through thousands of critical munitions, those objectives have not been achieved. And unless the US is willing to deploy a massive ground force, the Iranian victory will stand. More cruise missiles will not do anything to change Iran's decision calculus. They've already won.

"I think it's anti-Semitic to use a 3000 year-old religion to promote a 130 year-old ethnosupremacist fascist, genocidal ideology as part and parcel of that same 3000 year-old religion."

But it was OK for the Muslims to do it to promote a much, much younger religion?

Would you consider the Muslim countries that extirpated their Jewish communities ethnosupremacist, fascist, and genocidal as well?

"Hasan hates Israel for its genocide. He doesn't hate Jews."

Why does no one ever mention the extirpation of Jewish communities in nearly every Islamic country. Hell, Iran is liberal when it comes to their treatment of religious minorities.

#5

You're joking, right?

You're calling Astronauts bimbos?

#8

He will not be attending the 9/11 ceremony in NYC because he wouldn't be allowed to speak.

"More proof you were never in the US military. Even though I agree with his sentiments, he'll get the OTH discharge he deserves."

Exactly.

It is not the role of active-duty military to call for the impeachment of a president. All politics aside.

On the other hand, this will land him a nice side-hustle as a guest speaker for the rest of his life.

The military guys need to stay quiet and be ready for when Trump does something really bad. Something that will make them think about their oath of office.

"Yeah, but he had to fit his ego in as well, so there's that..."

Maybe ya boi would reload sizes?

Ya Boi would be like a super studly medium...

"Unless it was former CIA chief GHW Bush, what do you think happened? This is Common Knowledge 101, not a fever dream."

Bruh, got it. He put on the space suit, did the hours of training, and then flew to Tehran in the SAR-17.

Surely the SR-71 wasn't that different than the jet he had flown in the Navy.

How many hours do you have in a military aircraft? I'm at 2023 hours.

Wanna talk shop?

#44

I think it's a project.

I think Cutiepie is a project as well.

Or experiment. Both are similar in nature.

"You're the only guy in the Army who had mess duty on first day of boot camp and rolled out of the rack by a DI, instead of a drill Sergeant."

Maybe things were different once upon a time, but officers have never had mess duty. Even officer candidates. He also once referred to himself as a "grunt." No officer would ever disrespect true grunts like that.

#4

C0RI0LANUS is not a real person. Or at least not a real person from the US. The dictation is all wrong, and there is no officer in the world who would have written "Lieutenant Colonel" as Lieutenant-Colonel. That's not a thing. I've suspected this for a while, but for me, this confirmed it.

I think C0RI0LANUS is some sort of a project. Or maybe a real person who suffers from some sort of cognitive disability. But the strangeness is just too strange. All politics aside.

"Reagan made a deal with the Ayatollah, behind Carter's back, to not release the hostages."

It was Reagan?

I thought it was GHWB that sat in the back seat of an SR-71 to fly into Tehran and negotiate with the revolutionaries.

My daughter is an intern at Stars and Stripes here in Germany. She has done well, and the leadership wants to offer her a job.

As part of the application process, she had to explain how she would glorify the Trump administration's contribution to the military. She asked me what she should say, and I didn't have a clue. And that was before Iran.

If Trump thinks that he can influence the perspectives of service members though propaganda, I think he is wrong. They aren't stupid.

"I'm still convinced that IF civil strife happens, it's got a 98% chance of being started by MAGA because either a. they get violently angry when things get so bad they snap out of it and lash out or b. they're so beholden to Trump they react violently when everyone else finally stops humoring them or treats them with the scorn they deserve as things fall apart."

It'll be option B.

Like Sitz said, it's a cult. It's love. Trump already injured the US population (including Trump supporters) in ways no president ever has.

They're battered spouses who can't imagine life without the one they love. I don't know of any other way to characterize it.

"It's a cult."

Yeah, I just wonder how far off we are from when that cult starts doing things like suicide bombings. Within ISIS, it was a prestigious thing to die for the Caliphate. As the world (including the US) turns more against Trump, what lengths are his acolytes willing to go to win his favor?

"I will say that I was horrified when we were hosting international students and a teenager from the Netherlands who'd just exited tenth grade said the State had determined she'd be a good aesthetician and no way would they be paying for any advanced education."

You can still pay to go to college. It's just the state isn't going to pay for it.

I actually like that. I would love to see a system where qualified students in the US had access to scholarships in fields that were low density/high demand. Those who wanted to get a degree in something where there wasn't high demand could, but they would have to make a business case on how they plan to repay their loans.

"The only people acting as if their preferred but obviously false narrative is reality are MAGA morons like you, s*&^heap."

81% of Republicans have a favorable opinion of Trump. I need someone to explain to me how that is possible. I could understand the logic of supporting any Republican over any Democrat. It's stupid, but it will always be a thing. I just can't see how anyone with even the most basic level of common sense could ever view Trump as even remotely competent. Is it that they like the drama? The theatrics of the Trump presidency?