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US troop deaths during Iran war exceed Pentagon count by at least four
- bix6 15d agoAnd all the republicans will still vote red for the lying, cheating, grifting man. All my life I have had faith in the governments reports and statistics for the most part. This admin has torn everything down and for what?
- atmavatar 15d agoFor a sizable fraction of people, when the facts conflict with their biases, they choose to reject the facts and double-down on their biases.
- lokar 15d agoRacism is a very powerful belief system.
- shermantanktop 15d ago-isms of all kind are powerful. But the most powerful are those that give the believer a distant group of people for them to blame for all their troubles, which are often self-inflicted.
- anonymous_user9 15d agoAre you saying that calling people racist is the worst bigotry?
- mitxela 15d agono they're agreeing racism is bad
- zmgsabst 15d ago[flagged]
- bix6 15d agoPretty fascinating dem vs rep split. Dems say everyone experiences racism. Reps say white people experience it. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/05/20/views-of-how-much-discrimination-racial-and-ethnic-groups-in-the-u-s-face/ https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/05/20/views-of-how...
- zmgsabst 15d agoWe must be reading different charts — the only one I can see has consistent numbers among Republicans (50%) but high numbers for Democrats (90%) except for Whites (20%). So your characterization is completely wrong: Republicans mildly think everybody does, while Democrats deny white people do.
- bix6 15d agoWe must be on different planets since America and its institutions are majority white. > 94% of Democrats say Black people face at least some discrimination, compared with 54% of Republicans. 90% of Democrats say the same about Hispanic people, compared with 54% of Republicans. 83% of Democrats say Asian people face widespread discrimination, versus 51% of Republicans. By contrast, Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to say that White people face at least some discrimination (55% vs. 21%).
- deleted 15d ago[deleted]
- solid_fuel 15d ago> False accusations of racism (and similar moral slander) is the first step in dehumanizing an outgroup. Accurately describing the racism that motivates the politics and actions of a group is the first step in addressing the way they dehumanize their opponents.
- maxerickson 15d agoMore likely something like describing Trumpism.
- shermantanktop 15d agoI guess people are reading a lot into what I said. If the shoe fits, yadda yadda. Others pointed out the meta, which is that if you want -ism to hate some people, a good way to do that is to say that their -ism hates you. I suppose that could be extended to third or fourth levels of meta.
- atmavatar 15d agoIt's more general than that. Anti-vaxxers are a good example. Despite studies repeatedly debunking the link between vaccines and autism, plenty of people still believe vaccines cause autism. Many people who know someone who has experienced side effects from a vaccine start to believe vaccines are dangerous regardless of any studies demonstrating how exceedingly rare said side effects are. Flat Earthers are another example. While undoubtedly some of their ranks are people just trying to be contrarian, the true believers will find alternative explanations for every piece of evidence you try to show them that Earth is indeed round.
- airstrike 15d agoFrom an outsider's perspective, it's to be expected given the existence of cognitive dissonance. I just wish people would snap out of it _eventually_
- darubedarob 15d ago[dead]
- jimt1234 15d ago> ...and for what? To keep the grift going, of course.
- Buttons840 15d agoThat's fair to say, but lacks details. Most of Trump's public statements are done through a company that he owns. That same company charges a modest $100,000 per month for early access to his posts; just straight up facilitating insider trading for the President's personal profit. Plus people might find the administration making decision in their favor while paying the $100,000 a month. There's also Trumpcoin through which people can transfer money to the President. This just happens in the open. Remember when Trump had personal 1-on-1 meetings with the top Trumpcoin holders? I remember. I've barely scratched the surface here. Trump's personal worth has increased $3,000,000,000 during his second term, so far. Corruption has existed before, but it has never been this out in the open.
- kraken_cult 15d agoWhich can only probably be a benefit. If the corruption is this blatant and bad maybe the next swing around the pendulum there is less because people realize how much it's bad.
- Buttons840 15d agoIs secret corruption or open corruption worse? It's an interesting question; each has unique cons. I will say that open corruption is only better if people recognize it as corruption. The people in my life do not know about the things I mentioned, and they don't care to learn about it.
- dfxm12 15d agoIt'll remain bad unless these people face the proper punishment for selling out the country.
- edmundsauto 15d agoOnly if it’s corrected, otherwise people naturally adopt a tit-for-tat and you end up quickly in a no trust society. The bigger problem is t Trump, it’s that everyone now kinda shrugs and we are all worse off.
- yakz 15d agoThey had a firm belief that the reports and statistics were fake. Let's see how this turns out. *by "they" I mean the voters... the people that were elected were, and are well informed
- lumost 15d agoHow confident are we that they know it’s fake? I somehow doubt they close the door and pull out the real information.
- silisili 15d agoPeople tend to vote with their wallets in mind more than anything. I think that's why it ping ponged(inflation), and why they're getting destroyed in the midterm polling. The next president will likely have a D next to their name(more inflation).
- HumblyTossed 15d agoI don't trust polling.
- deleted 15d ago[deleted]
- dylan604 15d agoBoth times Trump won, the polls predicted he would lose.
- ceejayoz 15d agoNot by anything like the 8-9 points we're seeing in midterm polling right now.
- PenguinCoder 15d agoLegally can't run a third time or be voted for again. But then again, legality hasn't stopped the things he does. Others need to step up.
- mitxela 15d agoThey reinterpreted the constitution to say no president can be presidentmore than twice consecutively, even though it doesn't say that. Like how in Russia, the constitution obviously meant to say Putin will always be the president.
- jimt1234 15d agoI heard a good quote once: People don't vote to say thank you. People vote to say fuck you.
- underlipton 15d agoStill have my fingers crossed that the guy in Kentucky gunning for McConnell's seat can pull off a historic upset.
- verdverm 15d agoMay I assume you ask "for what?" rhetorically?
- throw2a 15d agoThat tells a lot about Christian values
- jimt1234 15d ago> All my life I have had faith in the governments reports and statistics ... My Boomer mother tells me about this all the time. She said, growing up, people had absolute faith in everything the US government did or said; it was like religion. Then Vietnam happened. Specifically, the reporting around Vietnam and the number of casualties. My mother said that everyone knew someone who lost a family member in Vietnam, but the government was like, "Everything's fine."
- bix6 15d agoYeah I’m more talking things like the census. Or the report that they skipped a month of this year (inflation, jobs, I can’t recall for certain).
- pianopatrick 15d agoTime will tell how the votes will go in November. Right now the thing I'm hearing on podcasts is that a significant group of people who voted for Trump in 2024 might stay home. We'll know in less than two months.
- micromacrofoot 15d agonow we get to wonder why we're no strangers to troops dying due to ongoing conflict pretty much everywhere so why are they seemingly hiding a small number like this?
- ceejayoz 15d ago> so why are they seemingly hiding a small number like this? They deny everything, no matter how low the stakes. See, for example, the reflecting pool fuss.
- micromacrofoot 15d agoIndeed it's likely foolish to read into all the pure stupidity at this point
- Avicebron 15d agoBecause they are flailing? Fuel prices will decide the midterms. There are pockets of die hards but after asking plenty of trump voters, they aren't happy. As long as the democrats in the US keep the identity shit to a minimum and make gains on actual issues likr housing and healthcare they can't lose.
- dylan604 15d ago> they can't lose. Thanks for the laugh. The Dems have a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
- iugtmkbdfil834 15d agoI will admit that after today's CNN report and subsequent CNN ban, I wondered why he is so annoyed. And now it makes more sense.
- lukan 15d agoMight be also that AI slob screw up, that allmost lead to armed confrontation with china: https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/18/politics/us-military-ai-false-intelligence-china-ship https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/18/politics/us-military-ai-f...
- guillybarres 15d ago[flagged]
- ceejayoz 15d agoWe've had decades of apparently accurate counts in Iraq/Afghanistan.
- cocacola1 15d agoIt’s 2006. The President has embroiled us in an unpopular war in the Middle East and has lied about it. It’s 2026. The President has embroiled us in an unpopular war in the Middle East and has lied about it.
- jMyles 15d agoNotably, the US is on precisely the opposite side of the conflict in 2026 compared to 2006. To put it differently: its stated allies are direct lineal political and military descendants of the parties who were ostensibly its enemies in 2006, including Al-Qaeda / Jabhat Al-Nusra.
- tessierashpool 15d agoThis is par for the course for US foreign policy in the region. There's even (disputed) allegations that Bush Sr funneled money and weapons to bin Laden in opposition to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. If true, the big 2006 enemy was a 1986 ally.
- thenthenthen 15d agoDisputed by who? “Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive covert CIA operations ever undertaken”[1] [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone I also recommend the book “The Great War for Civilisation” by Robert Fisk
- jMyles 15d ago> Disputed by who? Yeah, I was gonna say, as conspiracy theories go, this one is pretty much in the books at this point. Fuck man, Tom Hanks stars in a movie about it; that's about as mainstream as it gets.
- Enginerrrd 15d agoThat’s… hilariously not exactly new either. It can be said that our enemies and allies in 2006 were the almost exact opposite of the conflict in the 1980’s when we were funding the afghan mujahideen to fight the soviets. So theoretically in another 20-30 years we can take a guess at who we’ll be fighting.
- bitcurious 15d ago> The newspaper also reported, citing another unidentified official, that not all of the undisclosed deaths were directly tied to the months-long conflict but involved US personnel who were in the Middle East amid ongoing hostilities. If someone dies near a war, but not due to the war, is it really fair to count them as a war fatality?
- lokar 15d agoIt's routinely written and recounted that for most wars in history more people died from disease than combat. But we still count them all as war deaths.
- lukan 15d agoIf they are killed by houthi drones and not iranian drones, I would think so. If someone on a military base with no attacks going on, got a heart attack by watching the news, probably not a war fatality. But we don't know, so any concrete speculation is probably not very helpful.
- AnotherGoodName 15d agoTo get more specific this often means 'suicide' which absolutely is a casualty of war given the strain of war conditions, especially given the logistics concerns and duration of tours that they are forcing right now.
- mitxela 15d agoDid it end up being true that the troops on that aircraft carrier had to catch rats and cook them to survive?
- ceejayoz 15d agoAre you, uh, mixing up the term "midrats" with something? I've not seen this claim. The fact that they sent it immediately home for a port call (and had SecNavy visit for a pep talk) when the news of conditions on the Lincoln broke is probably indicative.
- shadowtree 15d agoZero service members died in our just announced de facto annexation of Greenland. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/us/politics/trump-greenland.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/us/politics/trump-greenla...
- ceejayoz 15d agoThey probably just re-extended the existing treaty so he could call it a win. https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/04-806-Denmark-Defense.done_.pdf https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/04-806-Denm...
- shadowtree 15d ago"Among the agreed provisions is one stating the deal would not expire even if Greenland became an independent country in the future. The official added that under the deal, the US has unilateral power to build additional military structures with no approval needed from Greenland or Denmark. It includes "permanent access, basing and overflights rights," the official said. It also bans non-Nato countries from building bases in Greenland, and "bans adversaries from making investments in Greenland that could threaten the United States". The official added that under the current status quo, adversaries have been allowed to invest in Greenland's "sensitive sectors without investment screening". The official specifically referenced Russia and China, saying it blocks them from deploying troops or making investments in "sensitive sectors". Without the official text being released, it is unclear how exactly the deal differs from a 1951 agreement with Denmark, under which the US can send as many troops as it wants to Greenland." https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c63d7lexyym1o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c63d7lexyym1o
- ceejayoz 15d agoThey already had these sorts of things (and Denmark, as a NATO member, was already pretty unlikely to permit Russian basing there). https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/den001.asp https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/den001.asp "United States aircraft may fly over and land in any territory in Greenland" "the Government of the United States of America, without compensation to the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark, shall be entitled within such defense area and the air spaces and waters adjacent thereto... (ii) to construct, install, maintain, and operate facilities and equipment" etc.
- option 15d agoUS murdered 123 children in school, this has to be the top story of all world news for a year
- ericmay 15d ago[flagged]
- throwaway173738 15d agoThat doesn’t excuse us doing it when we’re trying to cop the moral high ground. Otherwise we’re just in a race to see who can do the worst things.
- ericmay 15d agoOurs was a mistake, not intentional. There is a huge difference.
- ceejayoz 15d ago"We were just very negligent" is probably not a huge comfort to the kids' families. https://www.npr.org/2026/08/31/nx-s1-5948118/pentagon-explores-partially-restoring-civilian-protection-program https://www.npr.org/2026/08/31/nx-s1-5948118/pentagon-explor... > Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gutted a program that's designed to limit the number of civilians killed by American forces. He did that over unanimous objections from top commanders after polling them, according to reporting from ProPublica.
- ericmay 15d agoAny given policy choice we make results in bad things happening to someone. War is just politics by other means. If we stand around and do nothing, maybe Iran kills 5000 kids for being homosexual over the next few years? If we close all the coal mines a whole entire state goes on an opioid addiction. If we don’t close the coal mines the environment suffers and people die from pollution. If we don’t kill millions of Japanese soldiers maybe China is still a Japanese colony. Life is tough. There aren’t perfect answers. Cackling criticism from the safety of the couch doesn’t solve anything.
- matteoraso 15d agoIt's crazy just how bullshit this war has been. At least with Iraq, you can argue that Saddam Hussein used to own WMDs in the 90s. What the hell is America doing in Iran?
- krferriter 15d agoWe’re attempting to degrade the capability of Israel’s primary regional opponent so that Israel can continue and accelerate its ethnic cleansing and land annexations in both the Palestinian territories it administers, and in the neighboring states of Lebanon and Syria. That’s what we’re doing.
- diegolas 15d agoi never thought i would live to see the US support such a campaign by a clearly rogue terrorist ethnostate run by war criminals
- mitxela 15d agoHitler learned his craft by copying how the USA treated Native Americans.
- orwin 15d ago(not really, it was more from how French, Belgians and Germans treated the African population they occupied) (not a fan of the US but I have to defend them here)
- MiroslavPokorny 15d agoThe F, B and Germans might have killed millions in Africa, but the American conquest of the West was different. American built cities and killed the natives and started farms and introduced cattle and crops, while the Europeans mostly kept to a few strategic towns and cities and did neither. Hitler was a big fan of American stories, just like Stalin loved westerns.
- Razengan 15d agoI recently fell into a rabbit hole of YouTube docs about wars from WW2's end till 2000 Most of those wars were mostly caused or perpetuated by the US or USSR not wanting countries to go to the other side. In any video that shows the timeline of any war, there's scenes from the war, then it cuts to photos and scenes of politicians in the "master countries" sitting in their offices making decisions, looking worried, on the phone, arguing, exasperated etc but otherwise comfortable, in their armchairs or on their sofas, far far removed from the people dying in the war.. ...It's amazing how people keep agreeing to that.
- AuthAuth 15d agoDo you happen to know the video? I'm noticing a lot of channels putting out these history videos that tell a very anti us narrative because they leave out half the story.
- Razengan 15d agoReal Time History was one, and I think it's good. Includes the USSR's blunders as well e.g in Afghanistan etc. not just "anti US" https://www.youtube.com/@realtimehistory https://www.youtube.com/@realtimehistory
- mandeepj 15d agoIf Congress can get its act together, it can clearly tell this lunatic to fall in line and start performing according to his Job description, otherwise boot him out. But there's no chance they are going to do it. They politicized fallen heroes from the Afghanisation withdrawal for their campaign time during RNC 2024. Current events clearly show they don't give a F about anything but themselves.
- diego_moita 15d agoDon't worry! Trump has a solution for that! He's gonna change the name of the Strait of Hormuz to "Large of America". And all ships will be able to pass because freedom. Take that Iran!
- senectus1 15d agowho cares? no seriously.. who cares? the administration sure doesnt, such cavlier attitudes to their own constituents is astounding.