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U.S. Capabilities Are Showing Signs of Rot
- exceptione 7mo agoGift link: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/military-failures-trump-iran/686244/?taid=69a9eed7404f690001cb08d9&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=true-anthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/military-failures-... _________________ EDIT, new link: https://web.archive.org/web/20260306120140/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/military-failures-trump-iran/686244/ https://web.archive.org/web/20260306120140/https://www.theat... I guess the gift link has reached its limit.
- vardump 7mo agoDoesn't seem to work.
- exceptione 7mo agoToo bad. I provided a new link in an edit.
- collabs 7mo agoIt says to read this story, sign in, start a free trial, or subscribe today.
- bryancoxwell 7mo agoI believe the Atlantic requires an account to read gift links
- exceptione 7mo agoIt shouldn't, I guess there is a limit. I added a new link.
- DivingForGold 7mo ago[flagged]
- analognoise 7mo agoYou’re hoping the government chills free speech so that America is no longer a place worth defending? That sentiment is the least America thing I’ve seen today, but it’s early.
- alkyon 7mo agoI was able to read it whole without gift link but with reader mode turned on
- monista 7mo agoHave you guys tried to read it with javascript turned off, as I always do? Works for me.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- crikeykangaroo 7mo agoIt's important to mention the morals of the US which seem to have already rotten. Carpet bombing a country to "free" them. Let's not kid ourselves, this is all because of Israel.
- ap99 7mo agoFrom mine and plenty of others point view, US morals are on the rise. Go ask some Iranians (both in the US and in Iran) what they think about their leadership change. Same with Venezuelans.
- OKRainbowKid 7mo agoThere's no inherent contradiction between rotten morals and high morale.
- surgical_fire 7mo agoIranians must indeed be thrilled at having their capital bombed and civilian infrastructure in chaos. Tehran is not a mudhut backwater, it is an actual city of 15M+ people. As much they could possibly despise their current leadership, they will likely despise a lot more the country that is throwing bombs in their neighborhood. And rightly so.
- lostmsu 7mo agoThey might be, if the losses are really less than from killings of protestors. Hell, it's better to die for something than for nothing.
- UncleMeat 7mo ago[flagged]
- hhh 7mo agoThe country is perfectly capable of having its own rotten morals, and outsourcing of all blame to Israel is just excusing the mistakes of American leadership.
- petesergeant 7mo agoAs someone living in a city currently under an Iranian barrage ... come on man, this is a fuckin' reach. The amount of drivel commentary being generated from this war so far is shameful. Also: I hadn't quite realized just how dead-internet Twitter had become. The amount of simply untrue comments, misattributed photos, etc. I mean it's always been bad, but the noise is just absolutely overwhelming now.
- _menelaus 7mo agoWhy are you under an Iranian barrage right now? What led to it?
- petesergeant 7mo agoThe Americans and Israelis are bombing Iran, and Iran is attacking the GCC countries. Do they not have the news where you are?
- manyaoman 7mo agohttps://archive.fo/ZFThP https://archive.fo/ZFThP
- cyberax 7mo agoIt seems to be a rather weak article. I think everyone in the US military was expecting that a certain number of drones/rockets are going to make it through. But they're not going to present a serious threat to the overall military capabilities. Look at Ukraine, it's getting pummeled by literally thousands of drones. For years. Yet it's still fighting. No, a more serious question is what the US is going to do if the air bombing campaign fails to effect a regime change.
- embedding-shape 7mo ago> No, a more serious question is what the US is going to do if the air bombing campaign fails to effect a regime change How is this even a question though? The Islamic Republic's religion literally gets fueled by martyrdom, something the US and Israel is handing out freely these last few days, it only serves to make the republic stronger and more fearsome, and plays into their hand. Ok, you killed one leader, now there are ten more that are even more willing to die for the cause, and for each next one you kill, you spawn ten more. What really is the point here? Unless the US and Israel decides to actively invade with humans on the ground and some serious overtaking of organizations, entities and institutions, this war serves nothing else but create more future martyrs, which their entire religion centers around.
- moi2388 7mo agoThe point is weakening the regime so the population can rise up. Iranians do not want this government, in case you didn’t know
- embedding-shape 7mo agoYeah, and making current leaders into martyrs is a great way to make the regime stronger, not weaker, is my point. "Iranians" is a big umbrella, just like all Americans don't want the same thing, the same is true in other countries. After a week of bombings the regime seems as strong as ever, so clearly there are Iranians who are still supporting the regime, otherwise it would have fallen already. But again, killing them with senseless assassinations only seems to make them stronger, because of their religion.
- aaron695 7mo ago[dead]
- pu_pe 7mo agoI would add the Ukraine war as indicative of this as well. It exposed the fact that American supplies are severely constrained by their supply chain (apparently some AA equipment is going to be redirected from Ukraine to the Middle East now), and that the US/Western military did not have an answer to modern drone warfare.
- exceptione 7mo agoYep. Add to that that there is, on the tactical level, a severe unpreparedness for the new battlefield. A recent exercise with the Ukrainians only underlined that once more, as in: their drone team completely obliterated the western teams. Luckily, it was just an exercise.
- emptyfile 7mo ago[dead]
- manyaoman 7mo agoIf the US isn't even competent at war anymore, what's left?
- Ekaros 7mo agoFinancial manipulation of markets... And even there it is probably half pure luck and other half inertia...
- beAbU 7mo agoAdtech
- Henchman21 7mo agoLying.
- slater 7mo agoCan I interest you in some crypto coin...?
- array_key_first 7mo agoThe military has always been a jobs program in disguise. And it's pretty decent at that. It's kind of the perfect way to funnel government money into the private sector and keep people employed.
- yomismoaqui 7mo agoThe decline of the USA empire is clearer, day by day. I'm starting to watch videos from today's China and comparing with 30 years ago its like night and day, sons have a much better life than their parents. The typical evolution from parents that worked on the fields to sons working with computers or selling things on Douyin. You see new cars, new buildings, from the outside you feel like this country is "going up". Compare this to the USA now and 30 years ago. The disillusionment, the social strife, electing a president like Trump that makes George W. Bush seem like a good pick, people than can leaving the country for greener pastures... Sons have worse opportunities than their parents. If you just compare the gradient of China and USA you will see it clear.
- onetokeoverthe 7mo ago[dead]
- _DeadFred_ 7mo agoAs someone who grew up in the US, we went through the same cycles in the 1970s and 1980s and it's about that time period where it comes through again. I remember the fear that we were losing and the Soviet Union was outcompeting us. Reagan (the President that just shutdown mental institutions and put the people in them to live on the streets) told us constantly in much scarier words than we talk about China we were losing to the Soviets. My parents were in constant fear for their jobs. Interest rates made home buying unaffordable. Everything was rundown because there was a boom in the 50/60s and that stuff was getting tired and run down. There were huge crack epidemics and city downtowns looked bombed out. China will start going through it as all that new infrastructure starts needing to be replaced and/or maintenance costs go up, 'new' cool cities just become regular old cities, peoples bodies break down and populace gets tired. I am so glad that China is doing good though. I'm excited for more people's lives to improve!
- lunar-whitey 7mo agoWhat’s especially frightening about this comparison is that post-Glasnost figures clearly show the U.S. was never even close to being surpassed by the U.S.S.R. economically or militarily. We don’t need to speculate about production gaps between the U.S. and China today - they have been out in the open for years, and all the political class here does about it is counter, “But the stock market is up!”
- MarkFields 7mo ago[dead]
- Teever 7mo agoIt's fascinating what things get flagged on HN.
- Henchman21 7mo agoDo we just automatically flag anything true now?