US/Israel conduct airstrikes on Iran again

Plus it literally showed up the CIA trained MEK group, and that's what the Iranians showed the Ambassadors of various countries.

You mean something out of a despotic dictatorship. Because it's easy to make those things happen, in authoritarian countries, it's not some unheard of mastery of 4D chess.

Somehow I doubt you would be saying any Western countries "played a blinder" if their response to popular unrest was to cut the internet, threaten mass executions, and kill countless thousands of people.

This weekend could be interesting

Oh I'm sure Israel with UAE help will also be involved

Who is salivating at this?

Would be nice to see one of these aircraft carriers getting a hypersonic present, would be a great buffet for the fish

I would hate to see any loss of life. There is no need to attack Iran. Trump walked away from the JPCOA and created much of this mess.

Who knows - didn't Israel do the same in Gaza - kill countless thousands.

Many in the West say Israel is "playing a blinder".

You're right, Iran is not Iraq.

At the time of Desert Storm, Iraq had the most powerful military in the Middle East by a far margin. It had, at least on paper, a relatively well equipped modern air force and land army, as well as defensive systems.

None of it amounted to anything against overwhelming US power granted, but Iran has none of that even on paper.

It's air force is non-existant. It's air defense network is non existant. It's land army would be irrelevant in any conflict between Iran-US, because it would be utterly obliterated like Iraq's was by overwhelming aerial superiority.

People can decry whatever the US threatens to do, does, or whatever, but let's not go down the deluded rabbit hole of pretending Iran could actually resist the US militarily, because it absolutely couldn't do anything.

Iran was soundly defeated by Israel in a long range war. The US military is about 10x as powerful as Israel again in terms of power projection and long distance strike capability.

The US rolled over Iraq twice while suffering negligible casulties in the context of a war, and each time Iraq had a regionally superior miltiary. I am not sure where people are pulling out a wildcard where Iran suddenly would fare any better.

And before anyone starts talking about Afghanistan, it's nothing to do with total occuptation and pacification of a major land mass, we are talking about a military war here.

If the US were to strike Iran, it would be a precision war, and the result would be the near destruction of conventional Iranian capability with very minor US casulties. It's just the reality of the situation.

You can dance around facts in a drum circle all you want.

The objective facts are that the Iranian military can't hold a candle to the Israeli military, let alone the US military.

They are just facts. Facts aren't opinions and they don't take sides.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is not living in reality, at all.

It's perfectly fine to hate the US and Israel or any other partner in anything for their meddling or involvement in the Middle East, but it can't change basic facts.

Pretending that Israel was "saved" by other countries is ridiculously naive.

Was Israel spared damage by US intervention? Sure, it absolutely was.

But it wasn't "saved".

As for Israel meddling in Iran now? Why wouldn't they? Obviously they want to see Iran toppled. Hardly a shock to anyone whatsoever. Iran has spent decades trying to destabilise Israel, hardly a shock that Israel would do the same in return.

Iran is neck deep is everything that's happening in the Middle East. Iran is also led by a despotic regime that thinks nothing whatsoever about massacring its own population to retain control.

There was already someone in this thread claiming Iran played a "blinder" by cutting off internet, threatening mass executions and killing thousands, and somehow implying that each and every death was the fault of Israel.

By all means criticise Israel, their methods, or whatever, but batting for Iran is just ridiculous.

It's not questionable. It is literal fact.

The Iraqi army in 1991 was the best in the region.

Unless you can supply some credible historical assessment that says otherwise?

Being the best army in the region demonstrably meant nothing against a military power like the US, but it's still a basic fact that it was.

Iraq in 1991 had a full flegded air force and aerial defence network, ultimately proved worthless, but it had them.

Modern day Iran isn't even comparable. It effectively has no air force or air defense network worth talking about.

Once again, you can dress up real life facts how you like, but at the end of the day, they are still facts.

You mean the ones where it is illegal to demonstrate and protest ?

The conversation started based on the simple fact that Iraq's military was far more powerful in 1991 relative to Iran's today.

Now you're talking about western propaganda and Turkeys military?

The sheer will to avoid acknowledgments of facts is quite strange I must say.

Firstly, I said the Iraqi military in 1991 was better equipped relative to that time, than Iran is today. And that is completely true.

Though now that you mention it, as one example Iraq's air force in 1991 was incomparably more powerful than Iran's air force in 2026.

As for Iran-Iraq war, having a big and well equipped army is no guarantee of success. This is clearly evident more recently in the botched Russian invasion of Ukraine, even before any meaningful western aid arrived, it should have been a repeat of the Gulf War in 1991.

But it wasn't, guess why - corruption, weak leadership, loyalty favored over ability, lack of training, weak combined arms, and so on. Things that generally don't plague Western militaries.

Secondly, that ties into Iraq not being able to outright defeat Iran, but it does not change that Iraq came out of that war with a powerful military that was considered well equipped and relatively modern, and it was built up to a decent standard by 1991.

I mean Nazi Germany wasn't even capable of defending the Rhineland in 1936, three years later they had one of the best trained and equipped armies in the world that ran over Europe.

So saying Iraq couldn't defeat Iran is true, but saying that disproves a basic fact that Iraq had a powerful and relatively modern army in 1991, that was far higher quality that the Iranian military is today, is equally untrue.

It is not different to pointing out that Russia had/has the biggest and most powerful military in Europe, but it has still also performed absolutely horribly on the battlefield relative to its size and arsenal for reasons I pointed out above.

One fact does not negate the other.

I don’t hate any Iranian protesters, I don’t know where you got that impression. Obviously the right wing accounts I mentioned in my post are not Iranian protesters, they are neocon and Israeli shills not living in Iran, who desperately want to see a war with Iran. Their social media posts are repeating the same anecdotal BS about speaking to an Iranian Uber driver who wants Trump to bomb Iran. It’s coordinated and formulaic.
Interestingly, many of these same accounts that were so outraged about protesters being killed in Iran, are completely supportive of protesters being killed in the US.