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U.S. military was caught off guard by Israeli strike on Qatar

75 points by vinnyglennon 1y ago

Forgeties79 1y ago
I know this is going to sound flippant but honestly: is anyone surprised? This admin’s response said it all. It was, as usual, inconsistent from person to person and vague on details. Half the people speaking on it sounded like a student called in class who is trying to BS their way through an answer because they never read the book.
- jimmydoe 1y ago
  Trump essentially rebuilt GOP, so this is a brand new party taking over governing a large county, you will expect a lot of inexperienced people put into the positions. things will get better in the next 1~2 decades as they learn. btw I don't like Trump or MAGA, but this is what happens when the regime changes. When CCP won civil war and took over China, they had a lot of stupid policies, but decade later they are able to grow China to a super power.
  - Forgeties79 1y ago
    It’s been a decade and this is their second admin. This “new to the job” line wore out years ago, though if you’re going to be president I just don’t think that’s a suitable excuse to begin with. His entire pitch has always been “Me and my folks are the best for the job, everyone else is incompetent and corrupt.” The promise he made has turned out to be quite the disappointment. Hell how can anyone learn when his admin is such a revolving door and they vilify career civil servants? Here’s an idea: maybe don’t bring on Fox News pundits, podcasters, and anti-vaxxers to run your admin. Maybe don’t let the ketamine-fueled, unpredictable billionaire run around indiscriminately cutting federal programs in a legally dubious (at best) fashion. It’s not like these people were thrusted on him. As for your china example: I’d rather not go through periods of completely manufactured starvation and death. Maybe it’s naive of me to think there’s a better path forward here. People who think the only way forward is to break everything strike me as the kind of people who don’t understand how bad things can get when everything is broken.
- ahmedfromtunis 1y ago
  Some might think of it as a feature, not a bug.
ferguess_k 1y ago
Was it? I serious doubt NONE in the U.S. Military knew about it beforehand.
- hairofadog 1y ago
  I strongly suspect that as the US repeatedly burns its allies, refactors its military and intelligence leadership to center around loyalty rather than competence, and refocuses its attention on domestic critics rather than foreign adversaries, we'll find ourselves "caught off guard" more and more regularly.
  - ferguess_k 1y ago
    But not with Israel, though. US has been an ardent ally of Israel, up to the point of joining the bombing of Iran and providing a significant amount of THAAD and SM-3, plus a lot more. BTW back to the original point. The reason of my suspect is: - The whole area has heavy US military existence - UK is doing some military exercise in the same area I can't imagine Israel just bomb Qatar without messaging these two. The twist is, they messaged to someone, but did not necessarily message the whole US/UK government, and that someone might as well keep the information for himself anyway.
    - Tadpole9181 1y ago
      On the other hand, Israel targeted the compound intending to kill the officials considering the US ceasefire proposal. Israel would not tell the US they were about to quite literally blow up our plans. Israel wants to continue their genocide, and we would have warned the other party (since we want our ceasefire).
bilekas 1y ago
> there had been questions as to why the various highly advanced air defense systems and sensors, both American and Qatari, which would normally provide alert to an impending attack on Qatar, had not provided warning and defense. Yeah good question, and their response is basically saying that they didn't have it turned on ? > we had no indications and warnings of, because our surveillance and all our attention was not put on [it], What is the point in it then ? Surely they're there to notify you in real time? I don't buy this, maybe if I can put my tinfoil hat on, they did know but play dumb because Quatar is such a critical partner in the middle east, and to let Isreal do what they want and launch a strike would be seen very unfavorably by the Qataris. This way they get to claim "oh we didn't know about it". And expect everyone to just believe that. Or it is how they say and it feels that those notification systems are not really sufficient.
- matwood 1y ago
  > they did know but play dumb because Quatar is such a critical partner in the middle east They just gave Trump a jet so of course the administration will have to play dumb. People/countries will quit paying bribes if they don't get anything for them.
- mikeyouse 1y ago
  I don't think it's that complicated - the warning and air defense systems aren't tuned toward an attack from Israeli jets - they're looking for cruise missiles from Iran (roughly North) or Yemen (roughly South) -- the missiles from Israel were ballistic missiles fired from the West over the Red Sea.
  - sudosysgen 1y ago
    Houthis use long range drones and cruise missiles which can easily be fired from the West over the Red Sea. There is no plausible situation where they simply don't point the radars that way. There is also SBIRS and radars across Saudi Arabia. By far the likeliest scenario is that the US detected the attack and made the choice not to defend Qatar.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
OgsyedIE 1y ago
How long until this pattern of communication breaking down in the downwards direction from the admin to CENTCOM induces a reciprocal failure in communication upwards from CENTCOM to the admin?
- ratelimitsteve 1y ago
  I believe wholeheartedly that these "breakdowns" are just manufactured deniability. Someone knew about this, or at least knew that there was something they didn't know about and didn't want to know about. I think it benefits the US immensely to have bad things happen to middle eastern states that she's not directly responsible for or even provably aware of, which is why we keep buying bombs for the guy who is continually bombing several middle eastern states at once then not asking what they're gonna do with the bombs.
- potato3732842 1y ago
  Did communications actually break down or are they just being all "oops, the bodycam was off, silly me" because "yeah, we totally knew about it" would be bad for their relationship with Qatar?
  - dfxm12 1y ago
    But what's worse? Having a worse relationship with Qatar or going out of your way to look like you have an incompetent Military?
mrtksn 1y ago
There are claims that Israel considered hitting Turkey but backed off and went ahead with Qatar as they feared the destruction of NATO(US would have been obligated to support Turkey but considering the thing? between Israel & USA, the actual US response could have totally destroyed the alliance) which could lead to unconfined wider consequences to Israel. I have a prediction: Antisemitic conspiracy theories are in the pipeline to get mass popular appeal and the wider Jewish communities will suffer greatly of this. It honestly disturbs me deeply because some of the nicest and smartest people I ever met are Jewish and I developed respect and admiration towards their culture. Which puzzles me seeing what's happening in Palestine. Are they captured by cabal or something?
- throwaw12 1y ago
  If not blackmail and subsequently lobby group activities, which should have been registered under FARA act already, what keeps US officials attached so much to Israel? Do they invest so much? Do they help Americans so much? What's there I don't know? US is giving all possible excuses, just to whitewash Israel's crimes. By now we have seen attacks on: * Iran * Qatar * Lebanon * Syria * obviously genocide in Gaza (according to UN, genocide scholars, Amnesty international and many others)
  - mrtksn 1y ago
    There always have been questions on over representation in every single influential position, which was explained by the Ashkenazi Jews who developed reputation to be statistically gifted or the culture that was shaped to seek such professions and positions due to prosecution. But the straight up committing genocide, then US supporting that despite losing all kind of public support and the support of the allies and then Israel attacking the US allies without consequence to them is what will bring thing together and will make antisemitism mainstream and popular. Kicking people out, limiting accounts, cutting off finance and services, cancelling people, smearing people won't cut it because this thing is brewing into a perfect storm. Anyone who cares about the Jewish people should make it stop and then make it right. Or maybe this by design to "convince" Jewish minority to move to Israel so that the Israeli political class becomes more powerful?
nyolfen 1y ago
the uk flew a refueling sortie out of qatar for the israelis supporting this strike. i will let you draw your own conclusions about who knew what
- nickdothutton 1y ago
  It is my understanding that the UK refuelling system is incompatible with the one the Israelis use. Probe and drogue vs flying boom (or whatever the US/Israeli one is properly called).
  - cm2187 1y ago
    That surprises me, I thought all NATO planes were interoperable. Israel isn't part of NATO but their systems are mostly sold by NATO countries. US jets can't use UK tankers?
    - moralestapia 1y ago
      Is this something that is known? Or is it like a military secret kind of thing?
      - cm2187 1y ago
        I am looking on the web and it seems to be indeed the case. It also seems UK tankers can't even fuel UK F-35, which is a bit lame.
    - ahmedfromtunis 1y ago
      Even the US airforce and US navy don't use systems that are compatible between them.
    - openasocket 1y ago
      Each system has its pros and cons, and as a result both methods are widely used. Even the US isn't standardized. The US Air Force I believe largely uses the boom method, while the US Navy largely uses the probe-and-drogue system. Though I believe some aerial tankers are capable of providing fuel via either method.
stricdder 1y ago
[dead]
churchill 1y ago
I always try to make sense of America's Middle East policy in a way that doesn't veer into antisemitic conspiracy theorist thinking and it just doesn't compute. At all. For instance, apart from ups and downs here and there, the Arab petro-states have been reliable US allies. Support military actions in the region, notify Western powers of their unruly citizens getting chummy with terrorists, etc. For instance, years before 9/11, Saudi Arabia expelled Bin Laden, voided his citizenship, and notified the US & allies, IIRC. They have rivers of oil & gas - a cheap, superabundant energy source. They buy hundreds of billions worth of US weapons. Spend hundreds of billions on Western contractors. Israel, by contrast, buys US weapons with US money. Basically, the US gives it to them for free. Yet, the US won't even sell their Arab allies top-end stuff. In fact, Congress has a law on the books guaranteeing Israel a Qualitative Military Edge, QME. So, America can't sell the Arabs - some of their best allies - F35s or any of the cool toys, just because Israel says so. Now, America also seems comfortable with Israel bombing their best allies, destabilizing their entire region, offending the region's Muslim majority, which weakens the legitimacy of all their royal houses. For what? The chump change AIPAC offers? What do you think these countries will do when China reaches out and offers them the new J35 stealth fighter? Egypt, which collects lots of US cash to leave Israel alone, is currently trying it out, as I'm sure, many of the other Arab states are. China's rapid rise means that they can now offer these countries weapons that match top-end Western systems 90-95%, at 30-40% of the cost. And China is a more logical, reliable geopolitical player. I just don't know. Is this erosion of American power worth it for whatever Israel is offering?
- matusp 1y ago
  The Arab petrostates and their citizens regularly support all kinds of Sunni terrorist organizations. During the Syrian Civil War, it was a common knowledge that certain islamist groups were funded by certain states, and the states were competing with each other in this regard on the battlefield. I would also argue that the regimes in these countries are not considered particularly stable and they don't want to end up with Iran situation again.
  - pessimizer 1y ago
    > The Arab petrostates and their citizens regularly support all kinds of Sunni terrorist organizations. The US supports all kinds of Sunni terrorist organizations. > During the Syrian Civil War, it was a common knowledge that certain islamist groups were funded by certain states, and the states were competing with each other in this regard on the battlefield. This is the US again. Not only that, but proud of it. We put Jalani in a suit and have Petreus give him a Barbara Walters style celebrity interview. The US poured more money into using Al Quaeda to topple the secular regime and turn it into an Islamic state than anyone else. If you believe Hillary Clinton's leaked email, we've been funding them since at least 2012.
rdtsc 1y ago
> The U.S. military was unaware of the unprecedented Israeli ballistic missile strike earlier this month on a Hamas compound in Doha, Qatar, until it was already inbound This has that Dr. Strangelove feel to it. "Looks like the missile is already inbound, might as well commit to support the attack" > The IAF hit a compound where negotiators for Hamas were meeting to consider a Gaza ceasefire proposal put forward by the U.S. government. The attack killed six people Right... and someone remind us, how many billions of dollars does US send to Israel's military, directly and indirectly?
- Hikikomori 1y ago
  Israel sure loves killing negotiators. Most recently Iranians negotiating with USA, their own prime minister Rabin and going far back Folke Bernadotte.
  - rasz 1y ago
    "We do not negotiate with terrorists". Remind me whos saying is it?
random9749832 1y ago
This just led to a defence pact with Pakistan (with nuclear weapons) and Saudi Arabia. Turkey is significantly ramping up domestic military production. The scale and threats will only increase as long as Israel continues attacking several countries.
dfxm12 1y ago
If you take this senior military leader at their word, between this and Russia's incursion into Poland, it seems like foreign nations see the current US administration as a doormat that can be walked over.
karakfa2 1y ago
Only a fool will believe that Israel will attempt this kind attack without informing US and UK counterparts and getting confirmation that they would stand down even disable the warning systems.
- random9749832 1y ago
  Everyone is aware: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/18/middleeast/pakistan-saudi-arabia-defense-allies-intl https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/18/middleeast/pakistan-saudi...
akagusu 1y ago
Why this was flagged?
southernplaces7 1y ago
The moderators of this site feel like explaining why they let this kind of post be flagged? No sense even guessing the idiot reason of whatever baboon did the flagging since they abound and have their own brainless logic, but the moderation at HN could adapt slightly better standards. Some pearl clutcher feel like chiming in that it's "not relevant to tech!!!?" Well, neither is this, for example, yet it's on page one of hacker news with 360+ comments and no problems with being flagged by some assclown. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45372442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45372442
maxglute 1y ago
Even if they didn't know about the operation, they knew when the missiles were inbound... and did nothing. VS interceptions againt well telescoped attack like Iran. The interpretation that US protection fall backs to no interception is bad optics.
senectus1 1y ago
Like all proxies eventually do... they got out of hand. big surprise there.
xtiansimon 1y ago
Wonder how the recently announced journalist pledge will effect reporting such as this. https://www.npr.org/2025/09/20/nx-s1-5547884/the-pentagon-requires-a-new-pledge-for-reporters https://www.npr.org/2025/09/20/nx-s1-5547884/the-pentagon-re...

75 points by vinnyglennon 1y ago

I know this is going to sound flippant but honestly: is anyone surprised? This admin’s response said it all. It was, as usual, inconsistent from person to person and vague on details. Half the people speaking on it sounded like a student called in class who is trying to BS their way through an answer because they never read the book.

jimmydoe 1y ago
Trump essentially rebuilt GOP, so this is a brand new party taking over governing a large county, you will expect a lot of inexperienced people put into the positions. things will get better in the next 1~2 decades as they learn. btw I don't like Trump or MAGA, but this is what happens when the regime changes. When CCP won civil war and took over China, they had a lot of stupid policies, but decade later they are able to grow China to a super power.
- Forgeties79 1y ago
  It’s been a decade and this is their second admin. This “new to the job” line wore out years ago, though if you’re going to be president I just don’t think that’s a suitable excuse to begin with. His entire pitch has always been “Me and my folks are the best for the job, everyone else is incompetent and corrupt.” The promise he made has turned out to be quite the disappointment. Hell how can anyone learn when his admin is such a revolving door and they vilify career civil servants? Here’s an idea: maybe don’t bring on Fox News pundits, podcasters, and anti-vaxxers to run your admin. Maybe don’t let the ketamine-fueled, unpredictable billionaire run around indiscriminately cutting federal programs in a legally dubious (at best) fashion. It’s not like these people were thrusted on him. As for your china example: I’d rather not go through periods of completely manufactured starvation and death. Maybe it’s naive of me to think there’s a better path forward here. People who think the only way forward is to break everything strike me as the kind of people who don’t understand how bad things can get when everything is broken.
ahmedfromtunis 1y ago
Some might think of it as a feature, not a bug.

ferguess_k 1y ago

Was it? I serious doubt NONE in the U.S. Military knew about it beforehand.

hairofadog 1y ago
I strongly suspect that as the US repeatedly burns its allies, refactors its military and intelligence leadership to center around loyalty rather than competence, and refocuses its attention on domestic critics rather than foreign adversaries, we'll find ourselves "caught off guard" more and more regularly.
- ferguess_k 1y ago
  But not with Israel, though. US has been an ardent ally of Israel, up to the point of joining the bombing of Iran and providing a significant amount of THAAD and SM-3, plus a lot more. BTW back to the original point. The reason of my suspect is: - The whole area has heavy US military existence - UK is doing some military exercise in the same area I can't imagine Israel just bomb Qatar without messaging these two. The twist is, they messaged to someone, but did not necessarily message the whole US/UK government, and that someone might as well keep the information for himself anyway.
  - Tadpole9181 1y ago
    On the other hand, Israel targeted the compound intending to kill the officials considering the US ceasefire proposal. Israel would not tell the US they were about to quite literally blow up our plans. Israel wants to continue their genocide, and we would have warned the other party (since we want our ceasefire).

bilekas 1y ago

> there had been questions as to why the various highly advanced air defense systems and sensors, both American and Qatari, which would normally provide alert to an impending attack on Qatar, had not provided warning and defense. Yeah good question, and their response is basically saying that they didn't have it turned on ? > we had no indications and warnings of, because our surveillance and all our attention was not put on [it], What is the point in it then ? Surely they're there to notify you in real time? I don't buy this, maybe if I can put my tinfoil hat on, they did know but play dumb because Quatar is such a critical partner in the middle east, and to let Isreal do what they want and launch a strike would be seen very unfavorably by the Qataris. This way they get to claim "oh we didn't know about it". And expect everyone to just believe that. Or it is how they say and it feels that those notification systems are not really sufficient.

matwood 1y ago
> they did know but play dumb because Quatar is such a critical partner in the middle east They just gave Trump a jet so of course the administration will have to play dumb. People/countries will quit paying bribes if they don't get anything for them.
mikeyouse 1y ago
I don't think it's that complicated - the warning and air defense systems aren't tuned toward an attack from Israeli jets - they're looking for cruise missiles from Iran (roughly North) or Yemen (roughly South) -- the missiles from Israel were ballistic missiles fired from the West over the Red Sea.
- sudosysgen 1y ago
  Houthis use long range drones and cruise missiles which can easily be fired from the West over the Red Sea. There is no plausible situation where they simply don't point the radars that way. There is also SBIRS and radars across Saudi Arabia. By far the likeliest scenario is that the US detected the attack and made the choice not to defend Qatar.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

OgsyedIE 1y ago

How long until this pattern of communication breaking down in the downwards direction from the admin to CENTCOM induces a reciprocal failure in communication upwards from CENTCOM to the admin?

ratelimitsteve 1y ago
I believe wholeheartedly that these "breakdowns" are just manufactured deniability. Someone knew about this, or at least knew that there was something they didn't know about and didn't want to know about. I think it benefits the US immensely to have bad things happen to middle eastern states that she's not directly responsible for or even provably aware of, which is why we keep buying bombs for the guy who is continually bombing several middle eastern states at once then not asking what they're gonna do with the bombs.
potato3732842 1y ago
Did communications actually break down or are they just being all "oops, the bodycam was off, silly me" because "yeah, we totally knew about it" would be bad for their relationship with Qatar?
- dfxm12 1y ago
  But what's worse? Having a worse relationship with Qatar or going out of your way to look like you have an incompetent Military?

mrtksn 1y ago

There are claims that Israel considered hitting Turkey but backed off and went ahead with Qatar as they feared the destruction of NATO(US would have been obligated to support Turkey but considering the thing? between Israel & USA, the actual US response could have totally destroyed the alliance) which could lead to unconfined wider consequences to Israel. I have a prediction: Antisemitic conspiracy theories are in the pipeline to get mass popular appeal and the wider Jewish communities will suffer greatly of this. It honestly disturbs me deeply because some of the nicest and smartest people I ever met are Jewish and I developed respect and admiration towards their culture. Which puzzles me seeing what's happening in Palestine. Are they captured by cabal or something?

throwaw12 1y ago
If not blackmail and subsequently lobby group activities, which should have been registered under FARA act already, what keeps US officials attached so much to Israel? Do they invest so much? Do they help Americans so much? What's there I don't know? US is giving all possible excuses, just to whitewash Israel's crimes. By now we have seen attacks on: * Iran * Qatar * Lebanon * Syria * obviously genocide in Gaza (according to UN, genocide scholars, Amnesty international and many others)
- mrtksn 1y ago
  There always have been questions on over representation in every single influential position, which was explained by the Ashkenazi Jews who developed reputation to be statistically gifted or the culture that was shaped to seek such professions and positions due to prosecution. But the straight up committing genocide, then US supporting that despite losing all kind of public support and the support of the allies and then Israel attacking the US allies without consequence to them is what will bring thing together and will make antisemitism mainstream and popular. Kicking people out, limiting accounts, cutting off finance and services, cancelling people, smearing people won't cut it because this thing is brewing into a perfect storm. Anyone who cares about the Jewish people should make it stop and then make it right. Or maybe this by design to "convince" Jewish minority to move to Israel so that the Israeli political class becomes more powerful?

nyolfen 1y ago

the uk flew a refueling sortie out of qatar for the israelis supporting this strike. i will let you draw your own conclusions about who knew what

nickdothutton 1y ago
It is my understanding that the UK refuelling system is incompatible with the one the Israelis use. Probe and drogue vs flying boom (or whatever the US/Israeli one is properly called).
- cm2187 1y ago
  That surprises me, I thought all NATO planes were interoperable. Israel isn't part of NATO but their systems are mostly sold by NATO countries. US jets can't use UK tankers?
  - moralestapia 1y ago
    Is this something that is known? Or is it like a military secret kind of thing?
    - cm2187 1y ago
      I am looking on the web and it seems to be indeed the case. It also seems UK tankers can't even fuel UK F-35, which is a bit lame.
  - ahmedfromtunis 1y ago
    Even the US airforce and US navy don't use systems that are compatible between them.
  - openasocket 1y ago
    Each system has its pros and cons, and as a result both methods are widely used. Even the US isn't standardized. The US Air Force I believe largely uses the boom method, while the US Navy largely uses the probe-and-drogue system. Though I believe some aerial tankers are capable of providing fuel via either method.

stricdder 1y ago

[dead]

churchill 1y ago

I always try to make sense of America's Middle East policy in a way that doesn't veer into antisemitic conspiracy theorist thinking and it just doesn't compute. At all. For instance, apart from ups and downs here and there, the Arab petro-states have been reliable US allies. Support military actions in the region, notify Western powers of their unruly citizens getting chummy with terrorists, etc. For instance, years before 9/11, Saudi Arabia expelled Bin Laden, voided his citizenship, and notified the US & allies, IIRC. They have rivers of oil & gas - a cheap, superabundant energy source. They buy hundreds of billions worth of US weapons. Spend hundreds of billions on Western contractors. Israel, by contrast, buys US weapons with US money. Basically, the US gives it to them for free. Yet, the US won't even sell their Arab allies top-end stuff. In fact, Congress has a law on the books guaranteeing Israel a Qualitative Military Edge, QME. So, America can't sell the Arabs - some of their best allies - F35s or any of the cool toys, just because Israel says so. Now, America also seems comfortable with Israel bombing their best allies, destabilizing their entire region, offending the region's Muslim majority, which weakens the legitimacy of all their royal houses. For what? The chump change AIPAC offers? What do you think these countries will do when China reaches out and offers them the new J35 stealth fighter? Egypt, which collects lots of US cash to leave Israel alone, is currently trying it out, as I'm sure, many of the other Arab states are. China's rapid rise means that they can now offer these countries weapons that match top-end Western systems 90-95%, at 30-40% of the cost. And China is a more logical, reliable geopolitical player. I just don't know. Is this erosion of American power worth it for whatever Israel is offering?

matusp 1y ago
The Arab petrostates and their citizens regularly support all kinds of Sunni terrorist organizations. During the Syrian Civil War, it was a common knowledge that certain islamist groups were funded by certain states, and the states were competing with each other in this regard on the battlefield. I would also argue that the regimes in these countries are not considered particularly stable and they don't want to end up with Iran situation again.
- pessimizer 1y ago
  > The Arab petrostates and their citizens regularly support all kinds of Sunni terrorist organizations. The US supports all kinds of Sunni terrorist organizations. > During the Syrian Civil War, it was a common knowledge that certain islamist groups were funded by certain states, and the states were competing with each other in this regard on the battlefield. This is the US again. Not only that, but proud of it. We put Jalani in a suit and have Petreus give him a Barbara Walters style celebrity interview. The US poured more money into using Al Quaeda to topple the secular regime and turn it into an Islamic state than anyone else. If you believe Hillary Clinton's leaked email, we've been funding them since at least 2012.

rdtsc 1y ago

> The U.S. military was unaware of the unprecedented Israeli ballistic missile strike earlier this month on a Hamas compound in Doha, Qatar, until it was already inbound This has that Dr. Strangelove feel to it. "Looks like the missile is already inbound, might as well commit to support the attack" > The IAF hit a compound where negotiators for Hamas were meeting to consider a Gaza ceasefire proposal put forward by the U.S. government. The attack killed six people Right... and someone remind us, how many billions of dollars does US send to Israel's military, directly and indirectly?

Hikikomori 1y ago
Israel sure loves killing negotiators. Most recently Iranians negotiating with USA, their own prime minister Rabin and going far back Folke Bernadotte.
- rasz 1y ago
  "We do not negotiate with terrorists". Remind me whos saying is it?

random9749832 1y ago

This just led to a defence pact with Pakistan (with nuclear weapons) and Saudi Arabia. Turkey is significantly ramping up domestic military production. The scale and threats will only increase as long as Israel continues attacking several countries.

dfxm12 1y ago

If you take this senior military leader at their word, between this and Russia's incursion into Poland, it seems like foreign nations see the current US administration as a doormat that can be walked over.

karakfa2 1y ago

Only a fool will believe that Israel will attempt this kind attack without informing US and UK counterparts and getting confirmation that they would stand down even disable the warning systems.

random9749832 1y ago
Everyone is aware: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/18/middleeast/pakistan-saudi-arabia-defense-allies-intl https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/18/middleeast/pakistan-saudi...

akagusu 1y ago

Why this was flagged?

southernplaces7 1y ago

The moderators of this site feel like explaining why they let this kind of post be flagged? No sense even guessing the idiot reason of whatever baboon did the flagging since they abound and have their own brainless logic, but the moderation at HN could adapt slightly better standards. Some pearl clutcher feel like chiming in that it's "not relevant to tech!!!?" Well, neither is this, for example, yet it's on page one of hacker news with 360+ comments and no problems with being flagged by some assclown. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45372442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45372442

maxglute 1y ago

Even if they didn't know about the operation, they knew when the missiles were inbound... and did nothing. VS interceptions againt well telescoped attack like Iran. The interpretation that US protection fall backs to no interception is bad optics.

senectus1 1y ago

Like all proxies eventually do... they got out of hand. big surprise there.

xtiansimon 1y ago

Wonder how the recently announced journalist pledge will effect reporting such as this. https://www.npr.org/2025/09/20/nx-s1-5547884/the-pentagon-requires-a-new-pledge-for-reporters https://www.npr.org/2025/09/20/nx-s1-5547884/the-pentagon-re...