How much of Iran’s nuclear weapons program must be destroyed mk? 99.999999% by your measurement? Otherwise it is a TACO failure?

How much is enough?

It can never be enough?

Don’t let emotions run rampant.

Regarding Europe and Greenland. Will they keep China and Roosia out? For the most part they haven’t been too effective dealing with Russia’s war on Ukraine but they are Oh so worried about Greenland. Nearly useless they are.

But Trump did chicken out. In both of those cases Trump only allowed military force to be used for a few hours and forbade their use for any longer. In the first case, the damage to Iran’s nuclear program was only partial. In the second case, no significant change was done to the evil regime in Venezuela. The extended military campaign to actually achieve long-lasting change in each case was forbidden by Trump. That’s chickening out.

The same thing is happening now in Iran. The word on the street is that Trump only wants a military option that can overthrow the mullahs in a day, but there aren’t any. So instead Trump does nothing. That’s chickening out.

”Part of this is recognizing the limits of our military power.”

If Trump wasn’t going to do anything because he didn’t have the power, then he shouldn’t have told the protesters that “Help is on the way!” In a betrayal reminiscent of the Bay of Pigs but on a much, much larger scale, hundreds of thousands of people trusted him, and now thousands of them are dead. I seem to be the only one here who cares about that.

In other news today, Britain, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark have announced that they are all moving troops to Greenland to protect it **from the United States.**

mkent:

Maduro is gone … exactly.

Your point was TACO — Trump Always Chickens Out. Apparently you require the dictionary definition:
_______________________________

always – At all times; invariably.
_______________________________

Therefore, Trump doesn’t ALWAYS chicken out and you were wrong. Throw in the history-changing destruction of Iran’s nuclear sites and you were doubly wrong on a crucial issue by saying TACO.

QED.

Does saying wrong things bother you? Or do you just make a lame attempt to change the subject then move on to your next opportunity to attack Trump?

now there is no quick and easy regime to collapse the regime, the strikes at Fordow and associated locations, weakened some of their retaliatory capability,
but has limited impact on population centers deep in the interior,

naval assets were more focused in the caribbean although some air assets have been moved into the region,

It is thus possible that the U.S. has a historical surplus of intel and crypto tools available to use against the mullahs, and this might have the effect of delaying or deferring any kinetic military action.

Yes, this is a SWAG.

Don’t let emotions run rampant. It being “all about oil” regarding Venezuela is particularly specious.

I asked the question whether air power alone can topple a regime.
One example given was Libya– but that was aiding armed rebel groups.
I think a closer example might be Kosovo, but that included a continuous air campaign lasting several months with over 10,000 bombing strikes and around 78,000 sorties.

But one of the problems Iranians face is they have no/little armed resistance. There is no evidence that any of the IRGC has defected, because the structure of the Iranian economy makes it harder for them to capitulate. The success of the regime is their personal economic success, according to some people knowledgeable about the regime. Some the Basij militia may have stopped fighting, but there should be evidence that there are cracks in the IGRC or Artesh forces.

According to Grok:

Estimates vary due to opacity, but sources like the Council on Foreign Relations, RAND Corporation, Janes, and Wikipedia compilations (drawing from U.S. Treasury and other designations) describe the IRGC as controlling or dominating key sectors. Some analyses suggest it influences 25–50% of Iran’s economy (including indirect control via patronage networks, bonyads/foundations like Bonyad Mostazafan, and monopolistic practices). It benefits from preferential access to state contracts, sanctions-evasion opportunities, and funds military/nuclear programs, proxy support abroad, and internal security.

The US and Israel may still mount an air campaign, and it’s been reported that some in Israel think the regime will continue to weaken over time– since the structural economic problems are not going to resolve themselves.

Then Trump lied two weeks ago when he told the protesters that we were “locked and loaded” and ready to help if things went south. The main Iranian opposition leader, apparently believing that lie, quoted it when telling the protesters to take to the streets. Hundreds of thousands of protesters followed that direction, and now thousands of them are dead.

So Trump shot off his mouth, and thousands of innocent people died. Yeah, I’m kind of sore about it.

”Ask Maduro who challenged Trump to come and get him.”

And what did that accomplish? Maduro is gone, and Rodriguez has replaced him, just as Maduro replaced Chavez. The same regime still controls Venezuela. Trump won’t take them out, because it can’t be done in just a few hours. So now the people who were out on the streets of Caracas celebrating a week and a half ago are being rounded up and imprisoned. They weren’t freed after all.

Nor will he allow Gonzalez, the leader the Venezuelans chose by a 67-30 margin, to take power, because Trump just doesn’t like him. He says Rodriguez and her murderous regime can stay in power as long as she gives us the oil. So it really was a (short) war for oil.

The result of all of that is that now America is seen around the world as a pariah nation. It used to be that our allies didn’t always agree with our methods, but they trusted our motives and agreed with the results. Now neither of those are true as well.

”Do you want Trump going toe-to-toe and threatening Putin with ultimatums?”

Trump has already given Putin ultimatums, four times in just his second term. All four times Putin ignored them and did exactly what Trump told him not to do. Trump backed down all four times. It was not a good look.

For the past several years, until I experienced severe medical problems, I worked with a retired U.S. Army officer (25 years of service, numerous deployments to the Middle East) to help the Assyrian Christian community in Iraq (Nineveh Plain region) organize a military force capable of defending itself against genocidal Islamist attacks. He was born in Iran and raised, in Iran, as a Roman Catholic. He immigrated (legally) with his family to America while in his early teens, became a naturalized U.S. citizen, played football at Gordon Tech HS in Chicago, went to college, and joined the army after graduating, eventually rising to the rank of LT. Colonel.