Yet another war, this time with Iran

[ZiprHead]

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10 day ceasefire.

 

[Toni]

The USA will blockade the Strait of Hormuz in order to force Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

Does anyone else find that confusing?

Iran is only blockading enemy ships, their allies are allowed through "for a small fee". We are essentially threatening to copy what they are doing, and cut off access to the Strait altogether. Presumably unless "for a small fee". The difference being that they aren't our waters, so when we do it, it's piracy.

What is confusing is why that would induce Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

That isn't the goal. The goal is to try and goad them into firing on one of our ships

I know we in the west are accustomed to believing that Iranians are nothing but a bunch of religious ideologues stuck in the 14th century, too backward to understand much or care about anything beyond their religious beliefs. As weird as it is to write this, in this situation, Iran is the rational one. They don’t want to destroy the world. Trump will have no problem destroying the world. If he has an excuse.

There is no "the Iranians", any more than there is "the Americans". Every nation and every government on Earth is filled with every kind of person imaginable.

Unfortunately, a few fingers on a few triggers can cause an awful lot of trouble for all of us.

Of course the world is comprised of unique individuals. But it takes a great deal of naïveté or willful blindness to believe that it requires every individual comprising a group to agree on everything it even most things for that group to share a common goal, mindset, group or national identity.

Do I believe that most Iranians want war with..,anyone, much less the US? No. Nor do I believe that most Americans want to have a war with Iran or Cuba or whoever else dementor in chief decides must be obliterated.

My point is quite the opposite. "Serbia" did not shoot Archduke Ferdinand. One frightened, angry teenager did. Austrians did not declare war in response. Their government did. And well over 200 million people died over the next thirty years as a result. Not really Princip's fault. But we designed a social system that guaranteed millions of deaths in retribution for such an act. Of our response to notorious events is uncompromising war, it quickly ceases to matter what Iranians want or what Americans want or what Russians want or what Vietnamese people want or what anyone at all wants. Most people in most countries just want to live in peace, do their jobs, raise their families. Once the shelling starts, that opportunity is denied them.

There are still opportunities. Many of them do involve violence and they all involve risk. Conscientious objectors avoided combat, for example.

Most people do want to live in peace —and safety or at least the illusion of safety or as much safety as one can have in life.

People make choices about the type of governance they want. In the US, people chose a demented madman somehow believing anything he says, despite his well documented record of falsehoods, deceptions and frauds. Not enough people are demanding he be removed from office or that Hegseth be removed from office. Enough Iranians are willing to put up with their Ayatollah, whichever one is in power at that point in time. Both nations are choosing extremism. It is shameful to me that the US has done so and fails to recognize how little different Trump is from Hitler and other extremism’s or how similar Project 2025 is to shariah law.

 

[Derec]

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10 day ceasefire.

But will Hezbollah honor it?

 

[laughing dog]

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10 day ceasefire.

But will Hezbollah honor it?

Will Israel?