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For the record: I was banned from the forum by Helodude for responding to personal attacks after multiple users refused to engage with sourced arguments. I'd invite anyone reading to scroll back and judge whether the tone of my posts was meaningfully different from what CH, LR, brabus, M2, and others post regularly without consequence. M2 liking DFRESH's reminder to the forum is a nice touch, given that personal attacks, or unsourced, baseless statements are a regular feature of his contributions here. M2, name one politician or member of this forum, any person that matters that ever said Iran should have nuclear weapons? Not "criticized the strategy," not "questioned the outcomes," not "doubted the rationale." Said Iran should have nukes. I'll wait. What people are actually frustrated with is an administration that can't keep its story straight. In June 2025, the program was "completely and totally obliterated." By November, the White House's own document downgraded that to "significantly degraded." In February, Witkoff said Iran was "a week away from industrial-grade bomb-making material." Days later, Trump said Iran could "soon" hit the American homeland with missiles, when the DIA's own assessment says 2035 at the earliest. Then we launched Operation Epic Fury, and Gabbard told the Senate the program had been obliterated again, while refusing to confirm it had been an imminent threat. The Director of the National Counterterrorism Center resigned over it. That's not one position. That's five, in twelve months, depending on what needed justifying that day. Pointing that out isn't advocating for a nuclear Iran. It's asking the administration to pick a story and stick to it. But sure, use an internet meme and stick to a strawman, false equivalence, and false dilemma with the 2A.

I can see that. Two reasons: The media at large wants to paint anything Trump does as a failure. So, every American is bombarded with bullshit, half truths, and the legit info is typically suppressed significantly - it takes real effort to find it. For example, here’s a good example of clearly defined objectives (at unclass level): https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/trumps-4-objectives-in-iran-explained-1.500461406 Bottom line, the objectives have been pretty clear and not nebulous, but they also have been severely suppressed and therefore it makes sense that they seem non-existent/nebulous to a large portion of the population. Trump says all kinds of wild comments coming from left field that may or may not be true/fully accurate. He does this on purpose a lot - debatable how much it helps vs hurts his goals. So he is certainly a PCF to making it all seem nebulous at times when, in fact, it’s not nebulous at all. Bottom line, the admin could do better at clearer messaging, but it’s also hard to get clear messaging out when the “middle man” is doing everything possible to suppress or misconstrue that messaging.

Pretty sure we're all big boys and girls here

This seems very very pedantic but sure I’ll use your terms in the spirit of friendly debate. I have googled it and traffic through the strait has been reduced by 95% plus. In any other context a 95% degradation of something would be considered kaput. Your car’s gas tank is 95% empty.. that’s empty. Your home air conditioning is pumping out 5% of the cold air it normally does.. your AC is broke. Your son only mows 5% of the yard.. hey buddy you didn’t mow the yard like I told you to. To the rest of your comment I noticed you used the word “nebulous” a lot. And I actually think it’s a perfect description of what’s going on. Maybe the reason we can’t agree on basic facts isn’t a problem of either of us but it’s because the war goals have been so nebulous no one is even sure what the desired end state is supposed to be. We have Trump proclaiming the war is over a few days back and then Bibi goes on the news and says the work isn’t done and we still have to get the nuclear material, more missile sites etc… And since our support for Israel is clearly limitless I’ll defer to the guy who I think is actually calling the shots (Bibi) and will assume this thing is far from over

There are shit holes all over the United States, not just in California. Some of the worst places I ever visited were in the American South. Montgomery has parts of town that rival Compton. Edit: There is plenty to hate about California but there's also a lot to like. I stay here because it's not that bad. The governor sucks, a lot of the people suck as well but that's also been my experience in most of the places I lived outside of California while on active duty.