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When did this become a Holy war for us, the Pope making a statement that God doesn't hear our prayers when we claim we fight in his name? Glad that I am a Luthern.

Ah yes. The ol' trust me bro. Just as the founders intended. My open source mind will sit this one out. The 'good' people got this one.

Hegseth shows why he was the correct choice. He’s bringing religion back to the Pentagon by delivering a sermon himself! Pray with me: Amen!

The US has not been good at the money/cost side of warfare since Vietnam. We outproduced Germany in WWII in part by making something that is 80% as good as the German equivalent for half the price and then making 4x as many. When we had Cold War defense budgets, we could get away with making a bunch of the most advanced (expensive) weapon we could find, but hopefully this is a bit of a wake up call for our acquisition side (probably should have occurred in the 2005 time frame).

Exactly, PUBLIC. Not sure why it’s so mind blowing for people that there is way more to things than what’s going to be stated publicly. In your open source based opinion, we are “far from a cohesive reason.” Those who are fully informed know that’s not an accurate statement. My biggest recommendation to you and others is understand there are great people doing amazing work for good reasons - and just because you aren’t personally in that realm/in the know doesn’t mean it’s not true. Also, open source (including admin press conferences) is primarily dead wrong, mostly full of shit, or intentionally vague/misleading.

Too bad the US doesn't have an option for "six months hard labor". There are still a lot of ditches that need to be dug and potholes that need filling.

I guess this gets into a convo for possibly the other thread. Happy to move it there. But where would you say the balance is for making this assessment? Sure, we pounded them super hard, obliterated their Navy and AF, smoked leadership (plus a school)...but they still held strategic military and civilian assets at risk throughout the entire process. I won't even get into the money/cost portion. Speaking of which, keep the sailors who've been deployed for 10 months in your prayers. Operating off a flight deck after almost a year at sea sounds like a special hell. Even if they got the knock it off today, still a month to get home.

I hope my old bros and sis's executed well.

Possibly Revoke his passport while in jail, prevent this bullshit from him again and set an example

I guess this dipshit was competing with the quadruple amputee cornhole player for lowest IQ of the year.

So Trump is getting different intelligence than what all the other intelligence agencies that brief him? If we're committing blood and treasure, there needs to be a cohesive reason. That has been far from the case. We struck them last time because they were close to making a nuclear weapon. We 'obliterated' their capability to do so. Then we went full send this time to prevent them from an imminent nuclear weapon capability. The "I know a secret you don't know" shit doesn't fly in this case. Clearly laying out to the world where Iran was in the production of a weapon would have only helped our country in this pursuit. One can wonder why that wasn't presented or at least not contradicted intelligence agencies public statements....

@Pooter M2 summed my answer up quite well. It’s very evident your opinions and arguments are predicated on open source trash, or at best, some vaguely informed intel bro who read this one thing on SIPR (e.g. basically NIPR these days). You are far from accurately informed on this subject, but you talk like you’ve got it all figured out. There’s a lesson in this, if you can find it.

So you're complaining that the administration didn't share classified intelligence?!? Speaking of which, do you have access to any real reporting outside of open source? Because if so, there's a lot you don't actually know. Go ahead and criticize all you want, but rralize you may not be the smartest guy in the room...

Your last sentence is what gives me pause. Chopping assets in a manner not much different than push CAS seems a different animal than planning stand off munition waves. Mainly requiring a release of assets much earlier. Quibbles aside, I would think the other speed bump that would need to be sorted is who buys the munitions. SOCOM bought tends to be forbidden fruit for the CAF (laser SDB). I'd think the optimum Jiu Jitsu move would be to get Big Blue (probably through the Guard) to buy the desired munitions for NGB Vipers (or whatever) to free up the allocation process and money streams. Assuming I'm remembering my staff time correctly and there haven't been changes.

How so? The war was launched based on an “imminent nuclear threat” which none of our intel agencies corroborate and the White House won’t elaborate on. Tulsi Gabbard dodged the question when asked about it and our own counterterrorism director resigned in disgust. As far as having no plan, I think that is made more evident day by day as the goals, strategies, and rhetoric shift constantly. Every time Trump is asked what the plan is he just goes “I think something amazing will happen in the next few days and the war will be over very soon.” And then the war doesn’t end and nothing amazing happens. Just more incoherent tweets and strategy pivots. Whenever I ask you guys what the plan is, all I get is “rEduCe iRaNs iNflUenCe iN the rEgiOn aNd mAKe sUrE thEy cAnT pROjeCt pOwEr” Sick. Has any of that been accomplished? And before you say we blew up their Air Force and Navy for the 69th time, I’ll just nip that in the bud.. at no point ever was the primary power projection concern with Iran their Air Force or Navy. At this point If you believe this administration has a coherent plan, you’re the naive one. Before the last negotiations they said “Iran is desperate for a deal” and then came away with no deal… The “fell for it again” meme could not be more applicable than for some of you in this thread.

One more recommendation Funny book, haven’t seen the movie but I liked the book, was assigned in a history class more than a few years ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Man_in_Havana

Saw this article with morning coffee, which tries to address drone defense vs ground troops, I think. Yahoo TechThe Iranian Drone Problem Forced a Radical Fix — The Mari...US marines just gave the M4 a driver-assist system for shooting drones. The modern infantry battlefield is quietly undergoing a transformation that feels as much like a shift in automotive control sysAnd then there's this company, which takes standard guns and turns em into automated, anti-drone point defense systems. Looks like they got rigs for Ma Deuce, 30mm Bushmaster, and the 7.62 minigun as well as the pic below, M240. Bullfrog M240An autonomous M240 weapon station to handle the full kill chain up to group 3 UASSeems like companies are seeing the current battlefield and are making stuff.

Just ordered thanks for the rec!

Good stuff. This is a winner IMHO, if we can affect change in Cuba with ideally not a shot fired or very few. Used to be based in MIA and flew the HAV turn a fair bit, several CAs were of Cuban ancestry I flew trips with and the personal connection to the nation was always strong, if… the government changes the support from the diaspora community would be there, likely too from other places where Cubans have settled.

Yup Recommend this book to anyone wanting historical context on the US, Cuba, Spain on our relationship with Cuba and the Caribbean broadly https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=32225389305&dest=USA&ref_=ps_ggl_18382194370&cm_mmc=ggl-_-US_Shopp_Trade0to10-_-product_id=US9780805035001NEW-_-keyword=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17190383930&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkYLPBhC3ARIsAIyHi3Qnl5NVKWRMObFCPideawRKr4h0xWBhurXdqxzWpnvJrhhGI73B0HwaAnWYEALw_wcB

Why do you say that? There are very rational reasons for FISA, and I think people generally don’t understand how it works (hence why someone like Trump said “kill it,” then subsequently changed stance when he learned how it actually works and what it produces). That’s not to say abuse doesn’t happen, but that abuse is happening whether rules exist or not. So, why bureaucratically hamstring us on foreign intel collect that saves lives and wins fights?

The numbers actually do support the “they really shined” comment. I know that emotional, subjective assessments may differ. You’re not wrong about needing more interceptors or that the Army needs to put more effort into cUAS. But, your overall tone is Iran accomplished a lot - they did not.

I wish I could say it is stunning but the left desperately wants to protect illegal immigrants. In California alone there is an estimated $6B per year in fraud related to illegals.

Growing up in Miami I am still close with many Cubans who came over during the Mariel boatlift. Several of them absolutely hate Trump but are over the top supportive of his actions as they related to Cuba. One has an older brother that served many years in the Cuban Army. My friend paid a LOT of money to help his brother emigrate to the U.S. about 20 years ago. His brother was much older when he came over and he was never able to integrate here in the U.S. and ultimately decided to go back. My friend sends his brother food each month and has shared words about the conditions which are terrible to say the least. My friend worked for the CIA for many years then moved to academia and is ready to fully retire. He was here visiting a few weeks ago and told me he is planning to postpone his retirement for several years and plans to return to Cuba to help them rebuild if the current government falls. he has shared there are several Cuabn American groups that have been planning for months to return and help rebuild the island.