frog

Except he will be cast as a Navy pilot instead because….?

In addition to all of this: I believe the administration has continued to accelerate the national debt at an unprecedented and unsustainable rate. I believe the administration is taking government ownership of private companies while simultaneously condemning socialism. I believe the administration is abusing executive authority in a manner that is inconsistent with limited government and will undoubtedly lead to abuse during the next Democratic administration. I believe the administration is undermining legitimate conservative candidates to support uncompetitive MAGA loyalists. I believe this administration undermines election integrity at every opportunity. I could go all day. The bottom line is this administration is populist but is in no way conservative, and the chickens are coming home to roost. T

It’s almost like he isn’t a conservative. Who would have thought? Hilarious that 30% of the country has gotten clowned for 10 years.

Well played! 😂

Oh, that’s right, those Russian paratroopers in Kyiv were peacekeepers.

Quibbling. We took it from a bad situation to a much worse situation in which our adversary has significantly more geopolitical influence than they did a year ago. And now they know that we don’t have the capability or intent to do what is necessary to stop them.

Trump started a war of consequence without the support of Congress or the American people and changed a status quo that favored the US to a status quo that favors Iran. Iran has been a problem for a long time, but maybe previous administrations didn’t “do something about it” because there was a high probability or a poor outcome.

The morality of the general public, whether correct or incorrect, is going to prevent us from bringing the firepower needed for Iran to capitulate if this kicks off again. The administration vastly under-estimated the effort needed to succeed. We are world champs at converting tactical success into strategic loss.

This is how far we have fallen. The MAGA bar is now “better than Biden”. That bar is incredibly low, and our country deserves so much better. Trump is big government in a conservative’s clothing and always has been. More federal control, more foreign entanglements, more federal spending. He puts on a great reality TV show that the MAGA crowd loves. It’s disgusting to watch from a conservative perspective.

WSJ confirmed. Praise God and get that dude/dudette a beer.🍻

That’s a valid tactical position. However, how do you evaluate if the costs are worth the objectives if the objectives are fluid and ill defined? I felt the same way when I was young and GWOT was kicking off. Now, twenty-five year later, I’d be pissed if my child was captured or killed in an operation that was not well coordinated or communicated at the political level. I’m a conservative, and I hope we absolutely smoke them and everyone comes home safe now that we are in this fight. However, so far, we are worse off politically and strategically, and we are losing lives and money. We are going to get sucked into a ground war if we are serious about the objectives that have been floated because they can’t be achieved solely through the air without nuclear weapons. We know that our ground force in Iraq and Afghanistan were way too small to achieve the desired political objectives. So, where does that leave us? This administration is going to run into the same conundrum that previous administrations have encountered. We have the firepower to eliminate Iran to the point that it will no longer exist as a country, but we aren’t willing to do it because of the humanitarian cost. If we aren’t willing to bear those costs, then maybe we shouldn’t have turned down this road to start with.

WSJ confirmed a shoot down but didn’t list their source. Godspeed to the crew if true.

Wow, this thread took off since I last checked it. I think one thing most of us can agree on is that the American people should be skeptical anytime any Administration promises a swift, clean military operation. The enemy gets a vote, and it almost always ends up more messy than promised. We’ve lost access to the Strait of Hormuz, several American lives, and billions of dollars of hardware. We have no choice but to double down now. <s>

What is the desired end state? No one seems to be able to explain it. If no one knows what the desired end state is, how can the American people define the cost they are willing to pay?

I’m not saying how it should be, I’m saying how it is. Relax the response time requirements and don’t hold people accountable for missing them if you want to go in the direction you suggest. And, the visibility from a fire truck absolutely sucks except out the front window. The driver has very little visibility out the side window.