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Why does the U.S. military seem stymied in the war with Iran?
- hotdog1492 2mo agoBecause there is no achievable win condition, and there never was. Starting this war was equivalent to losing it.
- tencentshill 2mo agoIt really illustrates how a lot of historic decisions were essentially arbitrary. The powerful just do things all the time for no concrete reason. Almost nothing can truly affect them.
- DoctorOetker 2mo agoRegardless of the likelihood of Trump reaching win conditions, I see no reason why the pentagon couldn't reach such win conditions. We see both sides inflicting pseudo-creative attacks on the other, and the other side responding with mirror images. Basically whenever someone does something, first ask, can the same be done in reverse? Iranian TV claims a $ 10M prize on Barron Trump's head: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202608247954 https://www.iranintl.com/en/202608247954 What prevents pentagon from promising the same reward + exfiltration + safe haven for ~50 people (select family and friends)? US has demonstrated exfiltration of pilot on Iranian territory. Can Iran demonstrate the same on US soil? If pentagon is really wise, it wouldn't just promise this and leave the implicit insight of mirror threat up to the reader, it could provide an exit by demanding the same news channels to publicly and explicitly withdraw the reward promise, leaving implicit conclusions on bargaining power, when state television publicly eats its own words. Regardless how anti-Trump or pro-diplomacy one may be, a state that permits its state television to initiate issuing mercenary bounties in public is simply not a candidate for diplomacy.
- sorokod 2mo agothere's a lot of debate and little evidence that airpower alone normally produces a durable political outcome or even a military one.
- dreambuffer 2mo agoThe logistics required to win intercontinental wars against a reasonably large and well-defended country are simply beyond human organisational capabilities and it's only getting harder as defence gets better and easier, and the world becomes more interconnected. Israel have Monkey's Pawed themselves. They wanted Trump to win because they knew he would be malleable to start a war in Iran. But he's also Trump, which means every decision he makes comes with a big asterisk.
- bediger4000 2mo agoThe logistics required to win intercontinental wars against a reasonably large and well-defended country are simply beyond human organisational capabilities But the Trump admin was using AI, which has no cognitive biases, no 5 +/-2 working memory limit, and a very large short term memory. They should have the ability to do this.
- netsharc 2mo agoMeanwhile whole warships of sailors are getting mentally wrecked. Heck of a job, Donnie. If they had a cause to fight for, they'd probably have more resilience, but it's just a ship being swayed bu the back-and-forth of moronic decision-making.
- gerash 2mo agoBecause the world is a more level playing field compared to a few decades ago. The US and the west don’t have the means or power to dictate terms all across the globe. They need to pick their battles wisely.