n0ctrl

Well, @ShawnRyan762, I know my comparing you to @maddow seems like a joke to some, but I can assure you that it is not. As a former SEAL that has sat in briefing rooms in theater, run ops against jihadist networks, and built a platform interviewing many sharp people in both operations and intelligence, you of all people should understand how strategic warfare actually works. Despite all of that, you are sitting here and pushing posts like a cable news commentator with rimmed glasses on a communist news network, framing decisive pressure against the world's leading state sponsor of militant jihadist terrorism as "chaos" and "loss." Let's cut through this selective timeline you laid out: Trump issued a brutal, unmistakable warning over the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint Iran's regime was weaponizing to strangle global energy and fund its proxies. That wasn't just some bluster for fun, it was quite literally combatant messaging 101 in asymmetric conflict against an enemy that only respects raw and credible power. Jihadist Islamists like the IRGC, Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, and their ilk don't negotiate in good faith or respond to polite diplomacy, and you absolutely know this. They only respond to negotiations from positions of strength. If you do not negotiate that way, they will probe weaknesses, exploit hesitation, and interpret restraint as invitations to push attacks. History from the Beirut barracks to the USS Cole to Benghazi and to decades of proxy attacks has proven that. You've had guests that have spoken about these things, yet you act ignorant of them now? This apocalyptic rhetoric is the only language these people understand, and you know it. Iran blinked because of that rhetoric, floated a ceasefire tied to reopening the strait, and the administration secured a pause to lock in gains. That is not "lighting the world on fire then calling the fire department," you two bit propagandist, that is literally the way war has always worked. It is coercion through strength: downgrade the enemy's capacity, signal willingness to escalate decisively, then offer the off ramp on your terms. It's wild that you are ignorant about this. And then you cry about Israel hitting Beirut like the soft lefty you have turned into... Beirut is in Lebanon, mind you, which is a completely different country than Iran. Perhaps you need a geography lesson as well as a lesson on strategic level warfare? So yeah, that is not Trump chaos, that is Israel finishing the job against an Iranian proxy that has quite literally fired thousands of rockets and embedded itself among civilians in Lebanon for decades. And Lebanon was explicitly carved out of the US and Iran ceasefire for a reason, so even bringing it up here is silly and meant to distract. Also, Iran quickly "closed" the Strait back up because they are purveyors of taqiyya style negotiations, just like jihadists always are. But let's talk about how they "closed" the Strait, because everyone is being dishonest about that as well. They didn't actually close anything, they are just signaling that they will attack ships that cross through it. All it takes is one drone or one missile hitting one tanker and 20% of the world's oil shipping halts until insurance companies feel confident that the crazy Islamic terrorist regime in Iran won't sink any more hundred million dollar tankers. You also conveniently leave out the real reason for this war from the get go, which is curtailing China and China's Belt and Road Initiative and re-establishing the world order firmly behind the United States. I miss the days just months ago when you weren't a fully captured op... seeing what you and guys like Kent have become is truly disheartening. I hope the money is worth it.