Another highlight from Bessent: "The command and control system of the Iranian regime is in chaos. This is Hitler’s bunker. Hitler’s dead. Himmler’s dead. Göring is dead. Most of what you’re seeing are lone wolf activities. The mid-range ICBM that was shot off, these two missiles yesterday, that’s out of desperation...."
On how long the war will last: "I don’t know whether it’s going to be 50 days. I don’t know whether it’s going to be 100 days. But to have 50 years of peace in the Middle East and know that the Iranian regime is defanged...what we had before was the illusion of security...."
And about what Trump posted about the death of Robert Mueller ("Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!"): "I was with the president in the green room at Davos and there was a video playing of the — what may have been an illegal raid on his home at Mar-a-Lago. They are going through his wife’s wardrobe. And I watched the look in his eye, and I think that neither one of us can understand what has been done to the president and to his family...."
Posts
103 comments:
Winding down, escalate, I don't care; just finish the damned mullahs off once and for all.
Gentlemen, you can't fight here, this is the War Room.
So… We need a war to lower prices.
Why is the Treasury Secretary being asked about military strategy?
WELKER: Would the administration ever raise taxes in order to fund this war?
BESSENT: Again, Kristen, terrible framing
WELKER: It's a simple question
BESSENT: It's a ridiculous question
WELKER: Can you answer it?
BESSENT: Why would we do that? We have plenty. We have a trillion dollars.
"We have a trillion dollars."????
I think the “in debt” part is silent and missing in this sentence.
Did they mint the platinum coin?
Tariff money they aren’t returning?
How will the war last?
Until Iran surrenders / the Mad Mullahs are overthrown. They declared war on us in November of 1979. We are going to solve the problem.
How much longer will Iran be able to block the Straits of Hormuz?
Now that's a good question that should have been asked
Bessent is a star. Perfect answers. Perfect.
Whoever is speaking for Iran right now is delusional. They are demanding reparations from the neighboring countries, who Iran attacked by targeting civilian infrastructure.
The SoH is an interesting topic. Trump is right that the US doesn't need it open. However, Trump and Israel did cause the crisis that has limited trade through it. I think that's why the MEU is being sent into the region. The US Navy doesn't have the resources to convoy ships safely through the straits. However, I think a combination of long loiter surveillance aircraft with attack rotary and fixed wing could secure the straits.
If we can eliminate the possibility of Iran ever getting a nuke and it takes to August 1, totally worth it.
Bessent is a Wall Street guy and he knows a great trade when he sees one.
"Lone wolf activity." Much talk as Saddam was falling about how Hitler's "Werwolf" resistance didn't turn out to be much of anything. That didn't prevent Iraq from being a mess of hostile, often warring factions for years.
Well, since the threatened Iran with total war, and says that the only acceptable outcome is their total surrender, and for them to hand over their sovereignty to his personal whim, I would say that he is escalating to escalate, because I don't see what is in this for them.
His demand is basically "Hand over your weapons so that I can kill you."
Maybe it will work, time will tell.
this Endless War!
don't you fools realize?
that, for as long as this war has been going on (20 days?),
it HAS NOT ENDED!
it HAS NO END (yet).. That is The Definition of Endless!
until this war ends.. it will JUST KEEP GOING ON AND ON!!
the Only Thing, that can end this war; is for it to be over!
Don't you fools realize? that if it goes on MUCH Longer;
it will be entering its Second Month!
That is longer than EVERY OTHER WAR ON EARTH, COMBINED!
(if we count Six day war, and Yom Kippur war as the only wars, ever)
"Hand over your weapons or I will kill you."
@imTay, FIFY
Most people would rather go down fighting, than hand over their weapon, and then be killed as an ignominious coward, but maybe the Iranians are different, and are happy to be shot dead without a fight.
If they choose a cease fire, they will just have to fight this war again, because we want their oil, we want to control Hormuz, and nuclear weapons, or the threat of missiles, or terrorism, they have nothing to do with it.
In fact, was it terrorism when those Marines were killed in Lebanon, at the same time as a US battleship was shelling the Bekaa Valley, or was that just good old fashioned effective combat tactics that any group of US Special Forces would have been proud of, were the shoe on the other foot, if the enemy were shelling our homeland with a battleship, and some of their soldiers were vulnerable?
I don't care, I have been trying to follow Mark Twain's rule of arguing with idiots.
I don't know if I said this before here but of all the conflicts I have seen from Viet Nam forward this is the only one that i can say I fully support. That we have allowed this 7th Century theocracy to create the conditions that threaten the entire world is alarming enough. That several idiots in our government have assisted in the process is beyond understanding. Whether we can foster regime question is not the point. Removing Iran as a clear danger to the civilized world is.
Remember when it was just a minor excursion?
"That we have allowed this 7th Century theocracy "
As opposed to the Bronze Age theocracy we call Israel? Oops, broke my rule.
People like imTay would have been telling the Jews in Germany that Hitler just wanted to offer them a scenic train ride nothing more. This will be imTay's epitaph:
" First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me"
Its 2026 not 1996. What is the point of going on these Far-left dinasour "Sunday Talk shows" that aren't watched by anyone under 65?
Its fun, I suppose, to see Trump administration officials debating with DNC appproved "reporters", but no information of any quality is given the the USA public.
Probably be better if Trump and his subordinates just went on Fox and ignored the rest of the MSM. But y''know Trump he loves the debates.
Tired of arguing with yourself
What Minnesota Farm Guy said at 4:14 p.m.
I'd much rather watch Tucker Carlson debate the Globalist, Uber-zionist, Economist. At least that has some smart back-and-forth. The TV network reporters can only regurgitate dumb questions given to them by their only slightly more intelligent producers.
Winding down from a 6, perhaps 7, to a 4, perhaps 3?
BTW, we were only able to destroy Germany in 1945 and institute "Regime Change" (or should I says "Changes" since East Germany got a communist dictatorship) because 6 million Red Army and 3 million western allied soliders invaded Germany.
If all we'd done in 1941-1945 was bomb Germany and assassinate kill Hitler, Goering, and Himmler, the Nazis would still be in power. Even the A-bomb wouldn't have been enough.
Homan outwits welker its not a fair fight
I'd never thought I'd live to see American high level officials doing cartwheels over killed school girls and assassinating foreign leaders. I guess we and Israel are on the same moral level. At least our leaders are.
We're no longer a Christian country. We've sunk to their level.
Were you always this stupid
Are you mentally ill? How many times have you popped up and commented on my posts? Do sit around all day and wait. LOL. God, what a looney.
The defender of hamas butchery says what.
With all due respect mfg, I am so tired of this. It was thought provoking the first time I read it, it was clever the next 10,000 times I heard it but really, what does it even mean? We don’t speak out about the 5,000 injustices that happen every single day and no one ever comes after you, me, them, us.
Did you speak out about the Ethiopian civil conflict?
Did you speak out about the Sudan civil war?
Did you speak out about the Myanmar civil war?
etc, etc, etc.
Did anyone come after you?
Did Welker ask who it is that we are talking to within Iran ?
-If the answer is someone, then who is it--this spokesperson for the government of Iran ?
-If the answer is no one, then how do we know if the Straits of Hormuz are open or closed ? It's not as if there is a huge lighthouse flashing green or red.
The mainstream coverage by the press in this war has been beneath incompetent.
They deploy niemoller too readily
Donald "who knew" Trump.
Who knew they were going to fight back?
They keep dying on us
Like Reagan said about soviet leaders
I've seen some speculation those two 'ICBMs' that were launched toward Diego Garcia were probably two rockets left over from Iran's launches of satellites into Low Earth Orbit so likely the last gasp of a dying regime. (if we're lucky)
Possibly but we misgauged the range by twice the distance
Trump is now giving the Iranian leadership (whoever they maybe, Trump's administration has no idea having killed the last few) 48 hour so to open the strait. Yet only days ago Hegseth said: “The only thing prohibiting transit in the straits right now is Iran shooting at shipping. It is open for transit should Iran not do that.”
The plan to get others to put their warships between Iran and shipping has failed to stoke much enthusiasm leading to cries of cowardice from a nation that seems prepared to only bomb from the air and not put it's boots on the ground nor it's warships in the strait.
An ill planned mission with muddled objectives and global ramifications. A FOX TV Weekend co-host in charge of the “War Department” and generals chosen for political loyalty and looks, One thing that is apparent, no one outside of the ‘base’ is at all surprised that it’s turning out to be quite a farce.
A perpetual look at war:
. . . . From 1968, according to Peter Arrnet reporting on the battle of Bén Tre: an unnamed US Major says, "It became necessary to destroy the town to save it."
Although it is a never ending thought, It also always ends in a bad spot.
I assume people are noticing that for all the bellicose threats about the "ring of fire" thousands of missiles that Iran had assembled, none of them seem to be aimed at any specific targets with any precision. Almost the only damage in Israel is from shrapnel of missiles that hit no actual target. If they could target Ben Gurion airport, they would; if they could target the US embassy in Jerusalem they would. But the actual missiles seem to have all the accuracy of a bottle rocket shot from an empty pop bottle. They still might hit something big, who knows, blind pigs and acorns . . . but not impressive yet.
An apocryphal comment from arnett (probably a lie)
The reason the strait is closed is a result of the war, but the primary war aim now becomes the opening of the strait..
Classic Catch-22—perpetual escalation disguised as strategy. Joseph Heller would be proud of that storyline.
But we know what the vietcong did with hue in 68
I guess when we attacked their nuclear power plant, well, we hit a few hundred yards from it, that was escalating to de-escalate, then, and when Iran retaliated on Israel's nuclear weapons research facility, that was bloodthirsty terrorism.
The double-tap on the girls school? Well, we accidentally used ten year old data and Claude AI, rather than our own Pentagon military maps which showed that it was a school and a hospital, well, mistakes were made!
How long will we go on with a third of the chemical fertilizer production worldwide shut down? Well, Netanyahu thought it was a good idea to hit Iran's domestic gas production.
If only they would stop defending themselves!
I like the Hitler references. He was speaking the far left’s language.
Decent Bessent is a Godsend.
Those 150 schoolgirls have been deprived of their chance to be married at 13 to an uncle, to be his chattel, do be denied further education, and to be tortured, raped, and hanged for wearing a her hair incorrectly.
"Sometimes you have to escalate to de-escalate...."
[A]nswering the question "Is the president in the process of winding down this war or escalating the conflict?"
And when I ask you to explain, you say...
You've gotta be cruel to be kind in the right measure
Trump is obviously completely out of his depth. He just keeps doubling down and making threats, and digging himself in a deeper and deeper hole.
While Trump is the one who is ultimately the "decider" it is also clear that the information environment around Trump is completely controlled by Netanyahu and Netanyahu aligned allies. Part of the story of this war is the way that the Neo-cons in Trump's administration spent months sidelining, marginalizing, and silencing the voices within his administration who we might call "Iran War skeptics". Bloomberg is also reporting that Rupert Murdoch played a role in effectively goading Trump into the war, which is not surprising given Murdoch's ties to Israel and Netanyahu. The complete abdication by the U.S. Congress up to this point is another part of the story. Congress has a number of levers that it can pull in terms of funding and war powers, but the leadership of both major parties has clearly been completely compromised. Hopefully new leaders start to emerge who start prioritizing U.S. national interests.
In the short-term, the answer to this quagmire is to stop digging. It is obvious that a U.S. military presence in the region is becoming completely untenable. The region is a blackhole now for U.S. material which is being drawn from other regions. The war is doing significant damage to the global economy and the costs are already absurd in terms of what it means for the U.S. economy. Unfortunately, Trump is too far gone mentally to recognize the reality. This fact does not excuse the complete abdication of responsibility by the U.S. Congress, and some serious questions need to start being asked about why this is. (I mean, it is obvious, but perhaps not sufficiently for a critical mass of the U.S. public. i.e. the answer is the Israel lobby. To take one example, AIPAC was the single largest donor interest to GOP Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's career before he was elevated to the role of U.S. House Speaker. See also Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries on the Democratic side of the aisle).
Yeah the iranians probably misfired not the first time
Goering didn’t die in the bunker, he stood trial at Nuremberg, was convicted and set to be executed, but took cyanide first.
Trump is no longer in control of the situation. Even if Trump pulled military forces from the region tomorrow and washed his hands, the economic impacts of the war are going to be felt for several months, if not years.
The Republicans are going to get hammered in the mid-terms. The only question is how bad the political damage is going to be.
The Republicans were already in a position to lose seats because Trump's corruption and economic priorities have hurt ordinary workers. This war is so bad that it might even cost the Republicans the Senate, which is not something that was viewed as likely in 2024.
@minnesota farm guy at 4:14, seconded. The IRGC and the mullahs have had a symbiotic relationship, sharing power and authority for years. But now the mullahs are all dead. I think the remaining blocks in the IRGC organogram are propping up the images of the mullahs to hide behind them while they try to show strength. The 'mosaic defense' strategy allows local authority for deploying armaments when the head of the snake is chopped off, and this is what I am guessing we are seeing.
Every action that has been taken since the start of the hostilities has underscored the worst apprehensions of Iranian power. Every nascent fear of Iranian belligerence and their willingness to attack preemptively has come to pass.
Rooting out the remnants of the IRGC has been started and advanced by the US, but the Iranian citizenry needs to be given the tools to finish the job, and decide what kind of governance they want going forward.
definitely mfg at 4:14 well stated
They are wretched scum arent they also the irgc
Like the mayor of chicago
Bill Melugin on X: "BREAKING: DHS confirms that the suspect in custody for murdering Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman in Chicago is a Venezuelan illegal alien who was caught & released at the border by the Biden administration in May 2023. DHS says he was also released from local custody https://t.co/tIo3iSualm" / X https://share.google/cYgmgETz9RAmIvU0z
Wow. Lots of wokies here telling us how Trump has blown it big yet again.
Keep protecting your mullahs. We don't care. Since you made the USA do all of your dirty work over the decades, we kind of lost our respect for you and your opinions.
If Trump could legally run for president again, I suspect we'd vote him in. He's doing exactly what we elected him to do - even if he's constrained by a neutral Congress.
No just the same three shmendricks
Dave Begley said, “ If we can eliminate the possibility of Iran ever getting a nuke and it takes to August 1, totally worth it.”
Aren’t you the guy who has been saying all along that we would be done with this by April 1? So which is it?
Excursion said, “ The plan to get others to put their warships between Iran and shipping has failed to stoke much enthusiasm leading to cries of cowardice from a nation that seems prepared to only bomb from the air and not put it's boots on the ground nor it's warships in the strait.”
You are continuing to prove your abysmal ignorance. For the last 100 years, the American way of war has been to use overwhelming firepower to destroy the enemy while minimizing American casualties.
Day ending in y
This blog appears to have achieved the parity Althouse was Jonesing for when she declaimed the “right wing squatters” a few years ago. It now features a full complement of deranged progressives
There is not even a pretense to sanity is there?
Select, carefully placed air drops of thousands surplus M-16's with ammunition, hand grenades, and RPGs might help along that popular uprising we have been waiting for
Fifth Column leftwing m00nbats are batshit crazy.
I would say 'dont ever change' but they wont
Mongo:
Got to be flexible! Need to be certain the job is done!
"You are continuing to prove your abysmal ignorance. For the last 100 years, the American way of war has been to use overwhelming firepower to destroy the enemy while minimizing American casualties."
The retard you're responding to *wants* boots on the ground. You know- to maximize casualties.
Sometimes you have to osculate to escalate.
Is there some reason that the US cannot do with the Strait of Hormuz what Great Britain has done for 300 years with the Strait of Gibraltar? (OK it's probably not that simple, but the principle is the same--take over control and allow cooperative countries to use it).
It seems to me that that is the plan. We will be there for a while. Whether that means the end of the "war" or just semi-permanent status is sort of academic. The "International Community" has proven itself to be entirely toothless one way or the other. We don't need to re-establish civilization in Persia--just take out the mullahs. Set up a base. The surrounding countries seem to be in agreement.
Ritmo is an obvious scalliwag
imTay said...
Most people would rather go down fighting, than hand over their weapon, and then be killed as an ignominious coward, but maybe the Iranians are different, and are happy to be shot dead without a fight.
Now, if imTay was a worthwhile human being, it would be talking about the 30,000+ protesters that the thugs ruling Iran murdered.
But imTay is a worthless piece of shit, so the only "people" it sees are Islamic thugs.
If I were as vile as imTay, I'd kill myself in shame. But imTay has no shame
The war is already started, well under way, and nearing an end. You can still be for winning it or not, but what is the purpose of not supporting success, other than trying to preserve the murderous regime at the expense of the Iranian people and blowing the unprecedented opportunity for regional peace and cooperation that has already shown itself among the neighboring nations, Israel and the U.S..
Is there some goal I'm missing that's more important?
I'm just kidding. I know what the reason is, and so does everyone else, and it's pathetic at this point, even if it could have been perfumed in higher principles before. That time has passed.
I wonder if this whole effort were to fail, would those people be proud of what they accomplished, or is the failure itself enough of a victory for whatever it is they fight for?
We saw how they behave with the iraq war when the victors came to europe and even the us
"... the economic impacts of the war are going to be felt for several months, if not years."
So a major war may have economic impacts for "months", and you think that's unreasonable, and out of control?
The plan is actually for the impact to last for years or hopefully decades, but your jaundiced vision can't see what the goal is. Are you capable of seeing it? Squint real hard. It's just beyond your range.
We shall see,
"Dave Begley said, “ If we can eliminate the possibility of Iran ever getting a nuke and it takes to August 1, totally worth it.”
Aren’t you the guy who has been saying all along that we would be done with this by April 1? So which is it?"
LOL, you act like Begley has ever held himself to account for his words here.
He is King of Shifting Goalposts. No matter what Trump does, he will declare it intentional and a win.
Narciso--if Morocco were taken over by psycho mullahs, would the "international community" have a problem with the Brits taking control of the situation? (assuming that the Brits had the capacity, which is doubtful).
He is King of Shifting Goalposts. No matter what Trump does, he will declare it intentional and a win.
So if it takes until August, it's a loss?
I predicted Duke would beat Siena by 40. I was wrong about the margin but right about the outcome. Still a win.
Pretty good. Gilbar.
Nineteen days. And the whole time Iran has been showing how they would have acted had they gained the power they seek in the Middle East. For nineteen days they've stopped shooting their own civilians and turned to shooting other states' civilians - Jews, of course, Palestinians, young children scattered through Arab states, foreign workers, travellers, anyone. And for nineteen days The Wonderfuls The Wonderfuls have been calling on the US and Israel to stop their aggression. Now sing the following words gently to the tune of "Beautiful Baby" by John Lennon:
"Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful me
I'm a liberal, I don't need no stinking reality
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful ME."
People are becoming antisemites just to hold onto the illusion that we have a choice about this war. We've had choices about which wars we'll fight in and where we'll fight them (not the homeland) since the end of World War II while everyone else has just had to undergo whatever came their way. It was nice for us but it is over. Israel did not "get us into this" because Netanyahu and we can't get out by getting silly and going the full Elders of Zion route. That's all useless, my fellow citizens. Iran got us into this. Or rather, the leadership of Iran got us into this. The leadership of Iran hates us and was building what it needed to attack us with nuclear weapons. And we'll be "into this" till the people of Iran become the leadership of Iran. Think anything else and you're just living in the past, Alzheiming all recent facts.
It's good to recognize that the leftists here are actively rooting for Iran and Islamic terrorism. Look at how desperate imTay is for Trump to stop killing his good Mullah buddies.
Never quite figured out why the left, the party of LGBT Pride and abortions, loves the idea of living under a Sharia law Muslim theocracy so much... after all, they seem to demand anyone who stands against Sharia be defeated.
Leftists love what happens to women and gays and goats under Sharia, apparently.
Christopher
No payload, twice the range.
imTay said...
"I don't care, I have been trying to follow Mark Twain's rule of arguing with idiots."
So you never talk to yourself, eh?
Mark
I don't know if you've ever read any history, but what experienced heads realize is that once the shooting starts all bets are off.
If Dave turns out to be right will you apologize to him? Here on this blog.
If Trump is not out by mid-May, then yes, it's a loss. I'm not against this action, but six months before the midterms is when people make up there minds. So, I think if we aren't finished by mid-May, MAGA loses the midterms.
If MAGA loses the next election, the USA will get Spanbergered.
Because of that fact, I've bet my own actual money, and continue to bet that this will be wrapped up in some fashion by mid-May.
Now, two responses:
No, the USA and Israel did not cause this crisis in the SoH. The crisis was caused by Iran, Russia, and China--the enemies of the USA.
Pointing to Iraq as an example of the problems the USA faces in waging war actually makes the case for this action against Iran. Iran was the biggest problem we had in that theater.
I can't edit a comment. I apologize for mistakes in grammar and spelling.
Oso Negro notes the obvious. The hive mind is striving to achieve that “balance” and reading them is tiresome, repetitive and usually not worth the effort.
How bout that plane crash in Laguardia and two dead Air Canada pilots due to American workers incompetence? Get hard for that old men? uSA USa USA
We'll put innocent bodies in the ground, it's the American way! Yeehaw, amirite?
The old people here want wars for young Americans to pay off. Shame on you jew loving boomers...
Now go cheat on your taxes everyone
Say it's all the immigrants and poor ppl doing fraud that's costing us...
"He is King of Shifting Goalposts. No matter what Trump does, he will declare it intentional and a win."
Let me explain the mechanism at the heart of what Trump does to people. It starts simply:
“Are you loyal to me?”
Yes.
“Good. No more forever wars. Are you with me?”
Yes. No forever wars.
Then he starts the wars anyway. Suddenly he needs you to be with him on the wars too.
Later the Epstein files surface—allegations involving children—and now he needs you to look the other way on that as well.
That’s the pattern. He moves the goalposts in small, almost imperceptible increments. Each new demand is only slightly more compromising than the last.
By the time you notice how far you’ve drifted from your original principles, you’re already in so deep that turning back feels impossible.
Loyalty to Trump isn’t loyalty to a set of ideas, policies, or a coherent vision for the country. It’s asymmetric, unconditional, no-questions-asked loyalty to whatever he declares true today.
Grasp the fundamentally predatory nature of that demand, and you’ll understand what’s really unfolding in Washington right now.
This isn’t ordinary politics. This is a loyalty trap.
“ Then he starts the wars anyway.”
just pointing out you’ve got a hole in your logic. Is this a forever war?
"How will the war last?
"Until Iran surrenders / the Mad Mullahs are overthrown."
WE are the "Mad Mullahs" in this farrago of violence and killing, (as with so many times before).
"It's good to recognize that the leftists here are actively rooting for Iran and Islamic terrorism. Look at how desperate imTay is for Trump to stop killing his good Mullah buddies.
"Never quite figured out why the left, the party of LGBT Pride and abortions, loves the idea of living under a Sharia law Muslim theocracy so much... after all, they seem to demand anyone who stands against Sharia be defeated.
"Leftists love what happens to women and gays and goats under Sharia, apparently."
A fantastic misunderstanding...or purposeful misrepresentation. Which is it? Are you really this ignorant, or are you happily and knowingly slandering those who object to this act of pure aggression by Trump/US/Israel? They who voice warnings and objections know the dire outcomes may come in myriad unexpected forms, and that the victims of these dire outcomes may just as much (if not more) be us as those upon we have visited this criminal and ruinous violence.
Commissar cook doesnt dissapoint
Why is it difficult for the networks to hire interviewers who are not morons or at least some who know they are morons and are cautious with their intellectual superiors.
Robert Cook said...
"How will the war last?
"Until Iran surrenders / the Mad Mullahs are overthrown."
WE are the "Mad Mullahs" in this farrago of violence and killing, (as with so many times before).
Why thank you, Robert, for confirming the insanity of the Left.
We aren't murdering 32k+ peaceful protesters, we aren't dragging girls to jail for walking around with the hair exposed, raping them , then judicially murdering them, we're not funding terrorism all around the world, but to Robert WE are "the Mad Mullahs"
Because we don't want the thugs running Iran to have nuclear weapons
How shameful of us
hombre said...
Why is it difficult for the networks to hire interviewers who are not morons or at least some who know they are morons and are cautious with their intellectual superiors.
Because honesty and individual merit are neither valued by the Left. (You can either support DEI or individual merit, you can't support both. The Left supports DEI)
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