The odd thing is they meant to do this. The chaos is deliberate, a "let's open all the cages and see what happens" plan. The actual goal is "regime change" without any semblance of a plan for what comes after. Not even a plan to evacuate Americans in obvious target areas.
This is the kind of bold risk taking that is a hallmark of Trump's unprecidented approach to inernational relations, as the Times might say. Flip over the board and walk away, as decribed in Art of the Deal. The fact they likely knew their hand-picked successor was at the fatal meeting and they went ahead anyway underlines their committment to chaos as a tactic. Chaos works for Trump in domestic tactics because his goal is monopolizing and redirecting media attention. But internationally? Its been a bust so far but he hasn't noticed. This one might get his attention, though the darker side of me whispers that an Iranian terrorist attack on US soil would be a godsend to Trump.
Looks like I was wrong when I said he wouldn’t attack. It’s funny, I don’t 100% hate that this happened, and same with Maduro, because these are incredibly destructive criminals who are now out. I do feel queasy at the idea that we are setting a precedent of “it’s fair game to kill a nation’s leaders,” as that seems likely to inspire some Iranians (or Cubans or… Danes?) to try killing President Newsom or… Shapiro? It is hard to make sure the fine print gets read, i.e., “kill them only if they’re not democratically elected and most of their own nation hates them.” But I did, to be honest, feel awe at the intel operation that made this possible. Just amazing. I thought at first.
Of course I did not realize we had killed our stooge ayatollah and our backup stooge ayatollah. Seems like an intel failure. Or more likely the intel was solid, and Trump misused it. That might be the reason for the CIA backing away. Like “we told you about the meeting so youʼd order it bugged, not bombed, you idiot.” Decent odds he also killed all our intel sources, every mole we planted 30 years ago who we would depend on in a crisis…
And of course there is no plan. Create a vacuum and hope for the best. Well, thanks, geniuses, I will.
The Bomb Bomb Iran crowd has always thought simple brute force was all we'd need to make their point, whatever it was (for the 1st time in my life I wish someone would interview John Bolton). But the question "and then what" was enough to shut them up.
Until Trump. A President completely uninterested in consequences or accountability was what they needed to finally pull the trigger. Yeah, the execution is impressive, like a mushroom cloud slowly rising up on the horizon is impressive. I guess we'll find out just how good Mossad's moles in government are, assuming they're still alive, because the only certanty is Iran won't be satisfied with launching missles and drones.
Yes. With every day this goes on, it becomes more clear that not only did our idiot president have no plan, the state department and military also have nothing. They seem as surprised we did it as I am. I am feeling queasy about this.
The military had a plan, because the military has a plan for every contingency. Its clear that somebody convinced Trump to attack, so he attacked. The story is Bibi said we're doing it with or without you, and Trump can't resist a chance to look Strong. Subsequent events imply it was a last-minute decision, one that didn't allow time for evauation plans, assuming they had any lying around. To the extent Trump has a plan, it is to Bomb Bomb Iran until it "crys uncle" as he said (really! He said that) or their central government collapses and turns into Somalia.
I believe the Bomb Bomb Iran crowd was always denied because there were people who worried about being responsible for what came next. Well we're going to find out what comes next. I suspect we're really not gonna like it.
This clusterfuck is making Chimpy's Great Iraq Adventure look like a measured, carefully planned operation.
They found even dumber guys to run this than Doug Feith, Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz.
The odd thing is they meant to do this. The chaos is deliberate, a "let's open all the cages and see what happens" plan. The actual goal is "regime change" without any semblance of a plan for what comes after. Not even a plan to evacuate Americans in obvious target areas.
This is the kind of bold risk taking that is a hallmark of Trump's unprecidented approach to inernational relations, as the Times might say. Flip over the board and walk away, as decribed in Art of the Deal. The fact they likely knew their hand-picked successor was at the fatal meeting and they went ahead anyway underlines their committment to chaos as a tactic. Chaos works for Trump in domestic tactics because his goal is monopolizing and redirecting media attention. But internationally? Its been a bust so far but he hasn't noticed. This one might get his attention, though the darker side of me whispers that an Iranian terrorist attack on US soil would be a godsend to Trump.
Just as long as we are all riveted to our screens and his image...
I'm an order muppet
I know. One of the good kind.
I think you meant chaos Muppets
https://slate.com/life/2012/06/chaos-theory.html?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=traffic&utm_source=article&utm_content=copy_link
Chaos monkey is a Brad DeLong joint: here's one of many...
https://braddelong.substack.com/p/trump-as-a-chaos-monkey-fed-independence
Right, pretty sure it’s his invention.
Pretty sure I’m a chaos Muppet myself, by Lithwick’s definition.
The casino analogy is cherce. 2 marks.
Looks like I was wrong when I said he wouldn’t attack. It’s funny, I don’t 100% hate that this happened, and same with Maduro, because these are incredibly destructive criminals who are now out. I do feel queasy at the idea that we are setting a precedent of “it’s fair game to kill a nation’s leaders,” as that seems likely to inspire some Iranians (or Cubans or… Danes?) to try killing President Newsom or… Shapiro? It is hard to make sure the fine print gets read, i.e., “kill them only if they’re not democratically elected and most of their own nation hates them.” But I did, to be honest, feel awe at the intel operation that made this possible. Just amazing. I thought at first.
Of course I did not realize we had killed our stooge ayatollah and our backup stooge ayatollah. Seems like an intel failure. Or more likely the intel was solid, and Trump misused it. That might be the reason for the CIA backing away. Like “we told you about the meeting so youʼd order it bugged, not bombed, you idiot.” Decent odds he also killed all our intel sources, every mole we planted 30 years ago who we would depend on in a crisis…
And of course there is no plan. Create a vacuum and hope for the best. Well, thanks, geniuses, I will.
The Bomb Bomb Iran crowd has always thought simple brute force was all we'd need to make their point, whatever it was (for the 1st time in my life I wish someone would interview John Bolton). But the question "and then what" was enough to shut them up.
Until Trump. A President completely uninterested in consequences or accountability was what they needed to finally pull the trigger. Yeah, the execution is impressive, like a mushroom cloud slowly rising up on the horizon is impressive. I guess we'll find out just how good Mossad's moles in government are, assuming they're still alive, because the only certanty is Iran won't be satisfied with launching missles and drones.
Yes. With every day this goes on, it becomes more clear that not only did our idiot president have no plan, the state department and military also have nothing. They seem as surprised we did it as I am. I am feeling queasy about this.
The military had a plan, because the military has a plan for every contingency. Its clear that somebody convinced Trump to attack, so he attacked. The story is Bibi said we're doing it with or without you, and Trump can't resist a chance to look Strong. Subsequent events imply it was a last-minute decision, one that didn't allow time for evauation plans, assuming they had any lying around. To the extent Trump has a plan, it is to Bomb Bomb Iran until it "crys uncle" as he said (really! He said that) or their central government collapses and turns into Somalia.
I believe the Bomb Bomb Iran crowd was always denied because there were people who worried about being responsible for what came next. Well we're going to find out what comes next. I suspect we're really not gonna like it.
And now we have the blood of an entire school full of girls on our hands...