IIMT did by commenting on the way the Iranian leaders looked because he wanted to make a point that he thinks they are superior since they are supposedly more Aryan looking.
Mainland China IQ is in the low to mid-80's like American blacks, but they probably get these scores from cheating by cherry picking, as there are certainly a small % who have 105 IQ, which I noticed while living there for over a decade.
theconservativetreehouse.com
Are you sure about those numbers? I thought Iran had about 90 million people in total.
I would not at all be surprised if a handshake agreement was made between Trump and Putin, where the U.S. agreed to take its foot off the gas in Ukraine and offer a degree of sanctions relief, in exchange for Russia agreeing to remain mostly on the sidelines if the U.S. and Israel moved against Iran. Putin cares much more about successfully wrapping up the Ukraine war and securing Russia's long term economic and political security than he does about Moscow's loose alliance with Iran. This would also help to explain why Trump and Netanyahu felt emboldened to attack Iran: they believed that with Russia standing down, they could quickly eliminate Khamenai and trigger regime change with little blowback. In hindsight, it is clear they underestimated both Iranian resolve and its retaliatory capabilities.
Iran does not have 250M people.
Careful with Foreign Affairs. It used to be a well respected publication. But like most publications, they've woken in previous years. They share many people with the Atlantic.Good read from Foreign Affairs.
What Is the Endgame in Iran?
Trump needs to figure out what he wants—and quickly.www.foreignaffairs.com
If the U.S. and Israel do not manage to find an off-ramp rather quickly (say within the next month or so), I fear they will become trapped in an escalatory spiral that ends either with a massive ground campaign or the use of nuclear weapons. Both of these outcomes would be catastrophic (the former primarily for the U.S., the latter for the entire world) and any reasonable person would recognize they must be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately, such common sense seems to be in short supply between Trump and Netanyahu, who blundered their way into this war against the recommendations of their military and intelligence experts, and who - shockingly - seem to have had no actual plan beyond simply killing Khamenai.
As far as I can tell, literally the entire idea was simply, "Let's kill Khamenai and as much of the other leadership as possible and hope that this triggers regime change." Anyone familiar with the religion and culture of Shia Iran, and particularly with the structure of the IRGC, could have told you that this plan had extremely low odds of success, and was therefore a total long shot. If it was undertaken at all, it should have been done so knowing from the start that it would be a limited operation similar to last year's attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, and the killing of Soleimani in 2020. The idea that they would simply wage an open-ended air war against Iran with no clear objective or victory condition is preposterous, and yet that seems to be what has happened.
The lack of second- and third-order thinking in regard to Iran's likely responses to this aggression is also totally perplexing. We know the Iranians have a massive stockpile of missiles and drones. We know the logistical importance of the Straight of Hormuz. We know the relatively vulnerability of U.S. and Israeli assets in the Middle East. And we seem to have been caught with our pants down by Iran's counterattacks. The only way this makes any sense is if the U.S. and Israel assumed that Iran was simply going to roll over almost immediately in response to the initial attacks and the death of the Supreme Leader. And this, as I pointed out above, simply delusional. A totally imbecilic notion that could and should have been dispelled almost immediately by briefings from Iran experts in the military and CIA. I have no doubt that these briefings were made, and that these truths were stated plainly. Which means that they were purposely ignored. This is grand malfeasance by Trump and Netanyahu, and if this foolish adventure isn't wrapped up very soon, not only is it going to destroy the presidencies and legacies of both Trump and Netanyahu, it risks inflicting catastrophic and permanent damage on both the U.S. and Israel as a whole.
It will be 10 times worse if we don't find an off ramp. No need to strawman. I am sorry that Iranians are considered Caucasian, no they are not White, White is reserved for European, and they would be closer related than Africans or Hispanics or Indians, or any other Asians.IIMT did by commenting on the way the Iranian leaders looked because he wanted to make a point that he thinks they are superior since they are supposedly more Aryan looking.
Other posters then called him out on that. I thought IIMT being challenged for his ridiculous assertions (for example saying that this war is 10x worse than both Vietnam and Iraq War combined which he did earlier this week) is pretty standard operating procedure.
Classic IIIMT maneuver. He gets called out on an over the top ridiculous claim and then modifies once it's exposed as being silly. It's basically similar to how during the last war he said Tel Aviv wasn't going to exist and then when he was called out on the modified it to "well the Iranians were compassionate and wise and decided to hold back right before destroying the city!" Look at his original post, he just simply said "Iran is 10x worse than Vietnam and Iraq" with nothing about it's only if there's no off ramp. He only mentioned "if there's an off ramp" once he was called out.
How destructive Iran ends up being, no one knows. I know Trump has said he wants to find an off ramp. If he can, then this thing will not be all that big of a deal and just a few weeks of news cycling. If he can't, then this thing has the potential to destroy the US empire forever. The USA of 2026 is a shell of its former self, and Iran is way more powerful than Iraq and Vietnam combined.
That's not accurate.
It is accurate. But this isn't the thread for it.
