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Prayers to the crew. https://www.fox13now.com/us-news/military/b-52-crashes-at-edwards-air-force-base-in-california

I wish we'd be alive 150+ years from now to (hopefully) get a look at this period with (again, hopefully) clearer eyes on the totality of the last decade in relief. I think the Biden pardons now make sense given the multi-failed indictments from the DoJ. I thought it was shitty at the time, and while I still don't agree (bad policy, worse precedent) I understand. I'm expecting tons of pardons and an attempt at a self pardon out of the current admin. Always appreciate your comments even if we disagree.

Isn't that equally good though? Either no calls on flops, or cards for flops. I'll take a violent game of futbol over a flop fest with lots of whistle.

So setting aside the service members who died, aircraft we lost, facilities damaged, and stockpiles depleted let's see where we are at. Allies lost faith in our ability to defend them and pissed off our European allies for blind siding them. Chucked by Israel continously. Destroyed Iran's airforce and navy (as if they were ever a threat). Disrupted the global economy and validated Iran's ability to exert control over the strait and region using mines, drones, and ballistic missiles. Traded a deal that unfroze $1.7B of their cash for a deal that's going to unfreeze $25B of their casb and give them another $300B of our cash allegedly. Replaced extremist leadership with even more hardline military extremist leadership. Traded an inspected and managed uranium stockpile for unknown results but certainly not what's claimed. If the B-2s did the work they claimed last year, why are we here again? Any limitations not included in this deal. Explicitly excludes any missile program related concessions despite those on here saying that was a key flaw of Obama's deal. OH and killed a bunch of school kids making another generation or three of anti-american extremists in the region. Did we win daddy?

Did you happen to watch the Ivory Coast V Ecuador game yesterday...it was the complete opposite. At times it was like WWE and the refs were calling nothing.

And they've started issuing cards for flops, maybe this sport might finally take off in America.

I am cautiously optimistic like you, but not jumping up and down yet. Have you seen the outline of the deal? From what I read it differs from JCPOA in that it is performance based. The sanctions come off and the blockade ends when the straight opens. Eventually free up $25B of Iran's money as they meet other milestones. I much prefer a deal like this versus flying an airplane with pallets of cash just because they said they agree. As for the enriched materiel, they have "supposedly" agreed to no nukes and a plan dismantle their nuclear program, details to be negotiated... Indeed. They have far less traction these days and with the mid-terms approaching it is obvious Trump wants a deal in place, and oil back to $60 a barrel. Even with the back and forth oil is down 26% in the last 30 days and 4% just today at $74.50. I want you to be wrong, not to spike the ball but because I don't think any of us wants another forever war our kids have to fight. I will disagree for now, the jury is still out because a few things have happened. Iran's Air Force and Navy are completely toast. Yes they can still project power through TBMs and Drones but they are strategically in a much different place. Not saying it was worth it, just providing my BDA. Also, this fight reignited the discussion about building a bypass canal. A huge effort that likely won't happen but as an alternative plan the Gulf nations are investing heavily in extensive, multi-billion-dollar overland pipeline networks to secure their energy exports. The UAE operates the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, which pumps oil from the Habshan fields to the deep-water port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman, bypassing Hormuz completely. The UAE is aggressively accelerating a second parallel pipeline to double this export capacity. Saudi operates and is expanding the East-West Petroline, which transports millions of barrels of oil per day from the Eastern Province directly to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. And efforts have resumed to build the multi-billion-dollar proposals for a Gulf Strategic Energy Corridor, a network of pipelines linking Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Oman to the Arabian Sea. Amen

Fellas/sock-puppets, there are no tin pot dictators that trusted the US prior to this. Smoking Ghaddafi ironed that out for them all. Everyone gets kid gloves after getting nukes, and death by unga bunga before that. Iran knew what it could do with the straight. That was true before the advent of drones or this most recent boondoggle. We argued about this same topic on this board 20 years ago, and that was one side of that argument then. Freedom of international water ways isn't a natural state of things, it is put in place by a global police state under the threat of war. Everyone had a good idea that said threat wasn't real anymore, and was just letting it ride for mutual benefit and caution.

This problem is an easy fix but there is a lack of political appetite to actually solve this - same could be said in this country until recently.

ah, he’s mad. What’s the bullshit again? What exactly do I not have knowledge of? Be specific. Let’s get back to the thing that you keep dancing around. What have we accomplished strategically? Multiple propagandists on this site stated this all was worth it to stop Iran from getting a nuke. Womp womp, well that talking point seems a bit dumb. Don’t they have the exact same amount of nuclear material, a more hardline government, a distrust of the US, and now understand that they can control the Straits of Hormuz anytime they want with shitty drones they can make themselves? On top of that, I predict that this deal terms will give them a disgusting amount of reparations that you all will cheer for like lemmings.

.. looks like we might actually have a deal. Credit where credit is due, Trump seems to be *slightly* less completely controlled by Israel than I previously thought. The jury is still out on if any of this holds. I have a sneaking suspicion Israel is going to start leveling Lebanon or maybe just directly attack Iran again in an effort to spoil this whole thing, but this is at least progress in the right direction. It will also be fun to watch the inevitable Levin/Shapiro/Neocon meltdown. A few weeks back they were telling us what a staggering success this all was, and now you can already see the pivot to the “we need to go back in and finish the job” narrative. I said weeks/months ago I would be happy to be proven wrong if this doesn’t turn into a multi year boondoggle. And at least for the moment it appears I was wrong, and I’m quite happy about that. I’ll still maintain this accomplished virtually nothing of strategic value and even did massive strategic harm by proving to the world Iran can gain huge negotiating power through their ability to close the strait. But at least some progress! Maybe some of our dudes will even get to start coming home.

I appreciate that you lap up IRGC bullshit and continue to run your mouth about things you have no knowledge of. Seriously, is your side hustle as a contractor for IRGC PA? Take a break bud, you need it.

Are strikes on water reservoirs good? Just happened btw. How about desalination plants? I appreciate that you guys are doubling down on the “targets have always been military things” line.

War is foggy, nuanced and without 100% perfect execution. There were some things discovered after the fact that won’t be discussed here. Bottom line, it was an unfortunate event, but it was not a purposeful targeting of a known, non-military target.

I have a thesis on why Trump is fucked up. He doesn't drink beer. If he sipped IPA, chugged Modelo, had a Presidential Beer Fridge with everything from Treehouse to Pliney, and partook daily, who knows.

No idea on the "who's more strict" question. Poking around yielded this Reddit thread, which had some discussion. I'm sure there is more info out there. It's been a long time for me, and maybe things have changed, but the AF used to use a pretty wonky test for depth perception, that threw a lot of people off. There were various "techniques" for passing it (moving your eyes back and forth while taking it, it's never the first or last dot, etc). Lots of stuff out there. Like @brabus said, your age would be working against you for a ANG slot (albeit not impossible). There are study guides out there for the AFOQT that can help a lot. If you really wanted to fast-track a pilot's license, there are training programs that will allow you to do that too. Regarding "I may eventually need to spend significant money pursuing FAA medical certificate before I can even begin PPL training on my own dime," what makes you think that? To get a PPL, you only need an FAA Class III physical (as far as I know, it's been awhile). An FAA Class III is not a high bar, as I recall, it was just a basic eye exam and physical. As long as you could see decent-ish, and were basically healthy, you were good to go. Certainly, if there is something that is going to be a showstopper for an FAA Class III, it's going to be a showstopper for an Air Force Initial Flying Class I.

I've only seen what has been released so a very screened optic but the U.S. did not blindly launch TBMs into cities. I would assume the leadership strike early on had some CDE, but that was Rampage missiles from Israel. And again, I was approaching form a tactical observation that I have discussed with other friends after seeing a lot of BDA. Even some of the strikes against airplanes and ships seemed lower yield. I've since learned on 30S% of the strikes have included JDAM or LJDAM. A much higher percentage has been SDB and APKWS which seem,s to fit my observation. Of course you should...I am not like you guys, I don't have TDS and can call BS out on both sides. I think Congress is investigating and they are free to do so because has yet to hand out Pardon's to his family I believe Jared's father got a pardon for pre-election crimes that he served time for. And to be fair and open, while Trump has not pardoned his family I believe there is a binding exoneration agreement for his sons. Still not the pardon fest handed out by the "Big Guy" James B. Biden (brother), Sara Jones Biden (sister-in-law), Valerie Biden Owens (sister), John T. Owens (brother-in-law), Francis W. Biden (brother). Again, c'est la vie, nothing to see here.

USMNT slaughtered Paraguay. Let's go!

"The target have always been military things..." K. We could go back and forth on Hunter, should I bring up the BILLIONS of dollars Jared got from the Saudis at this point? Either way, this MOU seems like a giant white flag flown above the Stars and Stripes. But I'm sure someone will tell me how we're actually winning.

I can’t answer your “who’s more strict” question, but it sounds like you’re 26+, don’t have flight experience, have a medical issue that you may even have to fight to get a class 3 FAA medical, haven’t even remotely started the process (no AFOQT, etc.) All of that honestly adds up to highly unlikely to get a slot in the ANG. If my understanding of your situation is correct, I would not put in the money and time to go after that route. AD off the street (e.g. OTS route) is also very competitive, and I think you’re probably way too far behind the timeline on that path as well. I wish I didn’t have such a tough answer for you, but I think you need the truth before you sink a ton of money and effort into something that is very unlikely to happen. If you were 22, then you’d have time. Consider civ flying options (assuming medical stuff works out) - there is a lot of cool flying out there, the mil does not have the market cornered on that.

Of course you would take a tactical observation and twist it. I never said there was no collateral damage...I said it "appears" there is an effort to limit CD. It is interesting you never mention all the dead Americans as a result of Iran and their actions/funding/support...c'est la vie I guess. Burisma - Ukraine BHR Partners - China CEFC - China Look up his real estate deals around the U.S. Embassy in China God knows what else but we will never know because the "Big Guy" gave him a pardon for EVERYTHING. How about some context? #1 - How does that compare to other conflicts? #2 - HUGE disclaimer as they admittedly include and lump in figures from Israel/Lebanon/other Gulf States I was talking about U.S. efforts to minimize CD...I am sure the Iranians have done the same. War is horrible, abhorrent and disgusting and I am not defending it, merely making tactical observations.

Yeah I think as shitty as some of the decisions seem to the hoi polloi there are usually reasons why. Some good, some bad, some just odd but reasons why it went the way it did. Keeping the factories open and busy with Project A to enable Project B, valid. I think the money could have been found and still could, just would have to take some risk or do without something assuming no supplemental funding. I guess the other thing or one of several things about watch this UPT thrash is how it has it centered on acquiring the T-7 above all and that is primarily there to train for the fighter tracked guys, that’s about 15% of the pilots in the AF. Don't get me wrong, selecting strong swimmers for that career track and training them well before they go to the F-69 or other jet is very important but you have to not bend the whole enterprise around one thing to do. Other training systems (aircraft, sims, LVC, etc.) could have better trained the whole future force vs. a new, bespoke system geared toward an important but only one part of the line. Just my opinion.

Estimates, depending on source, put the proportion of civcas at 15-20% of total dead, at a minimum, with some sources estimating 50%. MilitarySpend.orgIran War Casualties 2026: US, Iran & Civilian Death Toll...2026 Iran war casualties tracker: 8,351–17,685 total killed across all sides. US 13–15 KIA, Iran 1,800–7,650 military KIA, civilian casualties across Iran, Israel, Lebanon and Gulf states, plus US equ