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submitted 2 days ago by breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca to c/news@lemmy.world

The remarks differ from what Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is said to have told the president in high-level White House meetings.

President Trump said on Monday that Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, believed that any eventual military action ordered against Iran would be “something easily won.”

But that is not what General Caine has told Mr. Trump and other senior advisers in recent high-level White House meetings on Iran, people briefed on internal administration deliberations said.

Instead, General Caine has said that the United States has amassed forces in the Middle East to carry out a small or medium strike, but that there would be a potentially high risk of American casualties and that such an operation would have a negative effect on U.S. weapon stockpiles. General Caine has also underscored that the operations under consideration in Iran would be much more difficult than the successful capture last month of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela.

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[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Easily won war = decade-long conflict.

If the “Generals” said that, they’re idiots.

[-] sturmblast@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

Trump lies about all

[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 51 points 2 days ago

How many more people have to die unnecessarily before someone does something about Trump and his inhumane regime?

[-] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 11 points 2 days ago

ive seen in other forums about joining, that trump boosted more recruitment for joining via budget increase and laxing on disqualifications. they are just going to keep using cannon fodder. When obama was downsizing it was difficult to join.

[-] phoenixarise@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

If it’s the same useless chuds that get hired at ICE, then I’m fine with it.

[-] paul@lemmy.org 5 points 1 day ago

Those cowards won't go to the military or else they'd already be there

[-] phoenixarise@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

They probably tried but got rejected for being fat and/or stupid. Well now is their chance. 😂

[-] AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world 38 points 2 days ago

History is full of easily won wars that went on for decades. Look at the embarrassment that I is Putin's war on defenseless Ukraine.

Everyone in this administration is either dumb as rocks, or pure evil. Mostly both.

[-] lauha@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

Look at the embarrassment that I is Putin's war on defenseless Ukraine.

Ah yes, the famous 3 day special military operation in Ukraine that ended February 27th 2022.

[-] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

"Mission Accomplished"

[-] Aqarius@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

That Onion article about Iraq, but both sides are the same guy.

[-] pdxfed@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

I'll end this easily won war in, 24 hours tops.

[-] CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zone 13 points 2 days ago

It's a special military operation

[-] hector@lemmy.today 2 points 2 days ago

Israel has a veto on everything though, this is them using their epstein blackmail while they have it, and the compromised leaders in there, to start their forever war.

They don't want to end the war. Even if the president gets them to end the war, so he doesn't look like a bitch of Israel, Israel will find pretexts to cross over at will and assassinate leaders and infrastructure. Every time their domestic affairs need a pick me up, every time their leaders are looking at having to admit past mistakes or lies, failures of allowing the ghetto revolt to break through, they can manufacture pretext to go kill their leaders and bomb some military installations, hospitals, whatever, and the US will be forced to endorse whatever they say, as always.

[-] leraje@piefed.blahaj.zone 13 points 2 days ago

Yes the US army historically has performed superbly against countries they deemed small easily beaten opponents.

[-] hector@lemmy.today 6 points 2 days ago

Iran is not so small, what 80 million people, a large country with mountain ranges, which lend themselves to guerrilla action, and hiding forces that it's hard to bomb them dead, as afghanistan could tell you. Flat countries like Iraq they can just get bigger bunker busters, they have communications corrupted so can see where these guys are more than they think the US can see them too.

But Iran will not be seeing regime change, and it would take millions of troops to occupy it properly, even if our leaders weren't too corrupt and mean to do it properly. We were too corrupt and mean to do Iraq and afghanistan well, this new administration would take it to a new level. They never set up an economy under an honest system. Never set up and fostered smallholding farmers and helped give them the tools and machinery to feed the country and make a base of support for a new government. In iraq they could've set up families with new farms they could split off for instance. They could've set up some industry, and made good solid jobs that pay for a dignified life.

Instead they paid off warlords that spent the entire time in a game of thrones type power struggle. Supremely corrupt, no one wanted or liked that government, and it predictably immediately collapsed when we pulled out. The taliban may be religious extremists, but they are honest. They don't tolerate that level of corruption and graft. If they said they didn't do an attack, you could believe it, if they did an attack, they would claim credit. Meanwhile the puppet government lied systematically, even about provably false stuff.

So anyway, they won't go in boots on the ground as such, but if they did it would be a massive boondoggle given an already bad leadership made worse by this administration and their blackmailers the Israelis. But they might seize pieces of land around the Straits of Hormuz, that is the likely scenario unfortunately. And of course bombing, including civilian infrastructure, assassinating their leaders, including their ayatollah. Power grids, hospitals, you name it. Ongoing, peace won't stop the attacks Israel doesn't care about dishonoring agreements they've absolute military advantage and blackmail controlling the superpower.

Nothing better will result, their islamic republic will endure, and many will die needlessly as economic harms will become worse in Iran and spread worldwide.

[-] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah, there won't be an occupation. It'll be an aerial and artillery bombardment causing hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties and destroying the Iranian people's efforts at regime change.

The goal is to destroy Iran's economy, take Iranian oil offline (which will drive up fossil-fuel prices, helping Putin) and steer a few billion in oil-industry reconstruction projects to the fossil-fuel gangsters.

[-] iopq@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Actually, yes. Venezuela, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, etc. None of those were on the level of Vietnam that was supported by China and the Soviet Union

[-] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

Even worse in Vietnam, it wasn't just Chinese and Russian support for the VC. the non-communist regime was rotten to the core and despised by its own population.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Desert Storm

Was so heavily propagandized and subjected to so little scrutiny that it's likely impossible to know whether it was actually successful by any objective criteria.

Afghanistan

Was famously two DECADES of achieving absolutely nothing and then retreating, ending in a decisive victory for the Taliban, who are in charge again.

The situation for anyone opposing them is identical to before the US invasion AT BEST, and the US (and allies) lost FSM knows how many soldiers, civilians, and billions of dollars on that abominable quagmire.

As far as colossal military failures go, it's arguably somewhere between the US interference in the Vietnam civil war and Hitler's invasion of the USSR.

[-] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

From a military standpoint, the US military did not fail its tasks. It's the political side that's a failure

[-] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

But in real life, it's impossible to decouple purely military objectives from political ones.

As far as colossal military failures go, it’s arguably somewhere between the US interference in the Vietnam civil war and Hitler’s invasion of the USSR.

Afghanistan was nowhere near the scale of either of those two fiascos, and the Vietnam war was far smaller in scale than the USSR/Nazi war.

Vietnam war: US plus SVNA military deaths: 282k. VC: about 500k. Civilians: also about 500k.

USSR v Nazis: Easily 20 times those numbers.

[-] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

No arguments there, but I was addressing the claim that the US army had a rough time vs. smaller countries. From a military standpoint it had not, other than Vietnam. Getting Zerged in Korea doesn't count since it was a Chinese offensive.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

That's the "the operation was a success, the patient died" of wars 🙄

[-] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Pyrrhic victory.

[-] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago
[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

My point is that the military is inherently political, so it doesn't make sense to say that the military performed admirably and the politicians ruined it.

The military leadership ARE politicians.

[-] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Military leadership is, since the president is commander-in-chief

But you can't claim that because we left Afghanistan we were defeated militarily. The US could have stayed forever, if the presidents wanted it. Now that the US left, girls are not allowed to have an education

[-] bufalo1973@piefed.social 10 points 2 days ago
  • Venezuela: Kidnap
  • Desert Storm: civil war for years after US retreat.
  • Afghanistan: give back the power to the "bad guys"

I don't see any of them as an example.

[-] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I'm not talking about results of those things, I'm talking about whether the military won or lost

[-] bufalo1973@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago
[-] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

No, it's just a failure to understand that war is the continuation of politics by other means.

[-] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Use the fallacies correctly, I was directly addressing the claim in the post I was responding to

Yes the US army historically has performed superbly against countries they deemed small easily beaten opponents.

Unironically true most of the time they were not fighting China and USSR (like Korea and Vietnam)

In the case of Korea it was all worth it, 50 million people live better lives than North Korea

[-] SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

The war will start right before the March primaries.

[-] cmbabul@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Fuck I thought they made Dean Caine a general for a moment

[-] gdog05@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

General Mills, maybe

[-] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 points 2 days ago

his top generals is defer his advice to CHARLES kushner and wittkoff.

this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026
155 points (100.0% liked)

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