432

Whether it was due to the early hour of the day or just to the blood-thirsty nature of the moment, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared particularly unhinged during the first official news ...

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] mcv@lemmy.zip 75 points 1 day ago

No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise, no politically correct wars.

No democracy, no nation building. So what is the actual goal here? Just to shoot stuff for its own sake?

[-] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 hours ago

The goal is not to make Bush's mistake of setting a goal that they can later be held accountable to.

[-] mcv@lemmy.zip 2 points 7 hours ago

So just shoot the place up, see what comes out, and then declare that that was the goal all along.

[-] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 hours ago

Yeah, pretty much. I think they're really hoping for Syria, but I'm not sure they can achieve that, Iran is a much more unified country.

[-] masta_chief@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 hours ago

I have a feeling it's as simple as wanting to use all the toys they've spent trillions on over the years and just want to see big explosions and play war.

Imagine if our society provided taxpayer funded paintball/airsoft/bomb ranges so all these warmongers can get their rocks off without hurting people.

[-] aquovie@lemmy.cafe 7 points 15 hours ago

"Democracy" and "nation building" is just "occupation" by another name. So I guess we can take some comfort in that not being their goal?

[-] duncan_bayne@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

Sometimes. It can be done honorably and with good outcomes; Japan and Germany post-WW2 are good examples.

[-] aquovie@lemmy.cafe 1 points 4 hours ago

There are very few absolutes in life. War is bad, until you need to kill some Nazis. Occupation is bad, until you tread that fine line between Treaty of Versailles (too heavy) and 1800's Reconstruction (too light). Statistically, you're almost certainly not doing the right thing.

[-] mcv@lemmy.zip 2 points 7 hours ago

Those are the good examples, and they worked very well. But ever since, the US seems to think they can replicate the effect by going in, bombing the place, shooting some locals, and declaring mission accomplished.

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Also, bold move to more or less openly defy the American ideals. The moral justification for a lot of what we've done is to further the cause of democracy. I don't think starting a war to bring democracy is necessarily the right decision, but starting a war and not even trying to spread democracy with it is un-American (derogatory)

[-] mcv@lemmy.zip 1 points 22 hours ago

I thought the whole reason for this was the fact that Iran has killed and imprisoned record numbers of protesters. That sounds to me like regime change is the goal here, but perhaps I'm wrong.

I certainly don't think they'll ever succeed in bringing democracy (US track record is atrocious there), but at least it'd be nice if they pretended to try.

[-] UpperBroccoli 3 points 1 day ago

"real man" cosplay.

[-] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Balkanization I think, but I don’t think that will happen because Iran has been a pretty cohesive country for thousands of years. So I suspect Trump will back down, or there will be a multi decade regional war, or there will be a world war.

[-] GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

I dunno, the author of this article is Iranian-American. I think he has plenty of information and insight on the situation, I'm inclined to trust his assessment.

[-] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 3 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

What assessment it’s nine sentences making fun of Pete Hegseth

[-] GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

I just realized I commented on the wrong article, I'm sorry.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 day ago

Blow shit up so Iran can't attack back for the next generation.

this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
432 points (100.0% liked)

politics

28707 readers
2037 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS