what is the goal at this point?
To reopen the Strait of Hormuz and bring gas prices down close to where they were before they started the war.
So...all they had to do was...NOTHING.
But they did THIS instead.
Yea, but now no one's talking about the Epstein files!
To do that they'd need to occupy 1000+ kms of extremely rugged coast. That's quite a commitment...
Would that even be enough? Rockets and drones can come from far away
It'd stop them launching ships to lay mines, or launching midget submarines and naval drones, which is a start. It might keep the Iranians too busy fighting on land to aim at ships. It'd basically be an open wound for USA though - completely unsustainable.
Then there's the fantasy of naval escorts for tankers. Each tanker would require a couple of ships to shadow them (anti-air, anti-sub, anti-drone) for the entire length of the gulf (not just the strait) and in normal times 120 tankers pass through there every day. You'd need a fleet ~400 ships strong, running 24/7 (no repairs or rest). And it only takes one hit from an anti-ship missile and hundreds of sailors die. So that ain't happening.
It's a trap.jpg
They want to provoke an attack on US soil so that they can relive the popularity boost of a 9/11 style disaster.
I doubt they’d get much of a boost. Most people would rightfully blame them. 9/11 was seen as unprovoked.
By November 2026… after that who knows
That's the problem. They never had a clear goal. Or at least, not an achievable one.
Broadly, in his more lucid moments, Trump wants Iran to agree to an absolutely devastating list of demands. They won't, because they've been down this road before and they fully expect that whatever they agree to now, they'll be asked to agree to twice as much tomorrow. So Iran is trying to get to a manageable list of concessions before they settle in and prepare for the next round of negotiations. They're not going to simply give up all their leverage.
As for the goal of military action... It's pretty obvious by now that Trump has no idea. It seems very much like he thinks that threatening military action, of any kind, would be enough to make Iran capitulate to all his demands, and he can't understand why that isn't working.
So he's unwilling to come down to something Iran will agree to, but he's also not eager to get stuck into a prolonged war, so instead he's stuck constantly tightening this "military escalation" ratchet in the desperate hope that this time will be the one where Iran gets scared enough to give up. What they're actually going to do with those troops could be any number of things, but really it's all just flailing attempts at further intimidation mixed with vague wishful fantasies about opening up the strait, because despite it being the most obvious move for Iran they somehow did not plan for it.
They're also contemplating some escape route options, primarily in the form of "seizing Iran's uranium", a plan that doesn't sound remotely plausible, but which would theoretically give them a way to declare victory and walk away.
What they ultimately go with is impossible to guess, because there is no long term plan and never has been. It's all going to be determined by the ever changing mood of an idiot child and the raging hate-boner of a racist alcoholic. Some kind of action to reduce Iran's control over the strait seems most likely though, as that's what's pressuring the US the most right now. If they could - hypothetically - prevent Iran threatening the strait they would have a lot more breathing room. The problem being that it's also by far the least achievable of the options in front of them.
Save face? It's probably a hundredth of the troops that would be required for any kind of real success in Iran. God forbid.
To kill as many as 17k troops as a distraction from the Epstein files.
Next up, a distraction from the thousands of dead and injured troops sent as a distraction from the Epstein files.
Eventually he's going to have to release the Epstein files just to distract from all of the death.
After that, perhaps another distraction?
Distractions all the way down.
Hello Cuba my old friend! How have you been?
Reinstall the Pahlavis, I think. I don't think there's any real plan, but that would be the end goal. Reza Pahlavi would be a US puppet.
Feed Ocean Life
Greenland. It’s always been about Greenland.
I read "Israel to deploy 17k us troops to do it's bidding"
Into the meat grinder you go. Die for the Epstein class, as is your duty.
Zoomers won't ever afford a house, but at least they can partake in the age old American tradition of going to war in the Middle East.
The Epstein-Iran war has entered a new phase.
After being won, it moved to just starting.
Lmfao "near Iran"
How near are we talking? Like -100 yards away from it?
In the wise words of a Youtube comment:
"This time the IEDs fly"
They better come with a healthy stock of interceptors.
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