Consider the following and wonder at the depth of savvyness and intelligence that combined to put this on display for the whole world to see..
The British government and military knowing that the US was going to launch an attack on Iran decided to take a long nap and think about it before deciding that the best and only course of action was to do nothing and also to drag their last minehunter home and to scrap their last frigate in Bahrain.
The significant lesson this week was that each of NATOs other members just confessed that they have no actual weapons or warships that are up to the task of fending off even a dismal 3rd world air threat. OTAN will not be joining the battle in the Gulf and will not even attempt to furnish escorts for their oil and gas needs coming through the Strait of Hormuz. I guess they think that their needs will be met via the pipeline to Yanbu. Still, it's a day of reckoning and the tally is in:
This is no surprise and for those who cannot see I will suggest that what President Trump did by asking the world to send warships to the Gulf was to underline, highlight, bold print and force them to confess that they have nothing to send that will stand up to the shock of battle. He knew they would all refuse or mumble a non-answer and so did we. They say a Navy is a terrible thing to waste. Think of all the money, effort, time and man years wasted on navies in Europe.
There have been some rude shocks to the system as we watched Ukraine inflict killing blows on serious warships and the total lack of any meaningful navy efforts in the Black Sea during the war. I do wonder though if the idiots at NAVSEA are now reconsidering the blisteringly stupid and insane idea of buying and building unmanned 'warships.' Show platforms are not worth a penny in a shooting war and now everyone knows it. It would be nice if NAVSEA acknowledged the truth.
Oh, and U-2s? Srsly?
The first U-2 flight was over 70 years ago.
15 comments:
And as soon as non-combatant India's oil flows through the strait more and more folks will offer an agreement to Iran to be non-combatants and get their oil moving.
I'm sure some dingbat with Trump's ear will suggest pirate submarines and a few naval mines so we can scream IRAN's blowing them up again.
But our nasty habit of bragging WE SUNK a warship during joint naval exercises well way from the "War Zone" in Indian waters and Bragged IRAN doesn't HAVE a NAVY, we're Blasting Every boat and so on...
We abandoned Soft power, China, Russia and Iran didn't, and the world frankly trusts them MORE than ATTACK them AT Diplomacy Tables America. Will use Diplomacy to FIND OUT where they are so we can BLAST their Leaders.
As Pogo said "we've met the enemy and he is us".
International reputation once lost is not easily nor cheaply regained.
Any bets how long before we double down again and land that Marine Expeditionary force into a nice, contested beachhead AND get a sudden Lesson that Ukraine's drone wars should have passed on.
SOFT POWER and the ability to take our bombing is why Iran is doing so well.
SOFT POWER is why despite our massive fleet build up wasn't Attacked by Iran despite much bellicose chatter and movements.
Iran had to wait until Israel predictably would force America's hands by attacking (as Bibi said publicly "with or without America" want links?)
THEN the whole world SAW who was the Aggressor.
That Iran chose to retaliate AFTER America BRAGGED they blew up this or that showed the whole world they were the defenders, NOT the problem.
China's NOT going to attack Taiwan, never was going to. You might Google if Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese wealthy families cross marry.
China's warship-aircraft display is just a reminder how America cannot defend them and maybe a friendly FAMILY deal is better.
Asia is watching us strip our Umbrella of American power from China to fight the Epstein Fury operation. And how American actions are stopping their Oil that passed for DECADES by Iran is stopped.
Pogo was right.
Praying we can figure out a way out of this ego driven tar baby war before we end up with a Scillian Expedition situation. You can google the expedition for details.
BTW BUT Iran for 47 years and all that. The world doesn't care.
They care that their oil is stopped, their Fertilizer isn't getting to the farmers (can you spell famine?) and that for most of the world oil and or natural gas power plants stop making electricity.
The non communist world has become SO reliant on the US for security they no longer have the will, the capacity or the means to do ANYTHING for themselves.
Honestly? TDS is never pretty. Over reliance on something as unfit for purpose as any American broadcast or published news is worse than being ignorant or stupid since the media here only ever presents news it considers will cause the most damage to America and Trump. You appear to have drumk deeply at the well of misjournolism.
People who moan about attacks against the enemy irritate me. Learn what WAR is before you whine about killing the enemy.
-Noncombatant is one of those words that gains strange new meaning and purpose in the hands of stupid people. Let me introduce to you the idea of noncombatants giving the most high tech weapons in the world to one side in a war and strangling the economy and lifeblood of the other side and you tell me who you think is behaving like a noncombatant. Waging economic war and arming one side in a conflict is assuming the role, identity and purpose of being a combatant.
Soft Power is the invention of communist scholars and State Department/USAID losers and Europeans who imagine they have soft power because the roll over on every argument and show their belly in surrender to every tinpot dictator on the planet. It is a myth. And no, nobody trusts those 3 any more than the trust anyone else except..... and by the way international relations are founded on something far beyond what you seem to know.
Diplomacy is an art and a power unique to itself and what a lot of losers and idiots lost sight of over the last 50 years is that it is at its core the art of getting what you want. That's it. Based on your understanding of things it would appear that what you and they want is for an endless war to rip apart every corner of the middle east and for evil to triumph everywhere. The other side, my side, is behind things like the Abraham Accords and a modus vivendi that lets two armed parties put down their weapons and work together. Maybe you noticed just whose airspace we are operating in and also WHO BANNED US.
You appear to fall for every trick and feint in the book. Now that you have watched the actual real Trump/Hegseth in action you should know that they really do operate on a level unfamiliar to you. The most likely landing spot for any Marine amphibious assault is either Veracruz down south or Daiquiri and Siboney again.
Uh, one hates to point this out but our "massive fleet buildup" appears to have been one offshore battle group. But go ahead and attack it because Iranian attacks on US have been the order of the day since 1979.
viz the China problem, as I have repeated, a. it's not a problem, b. it's not our problem, and c. the Asian Tigers would do well to look to their own weapons and not count on the faded giant to pull them out of the soup. America cannot afford to play squash the bad guy any more. As both I and Trump have tried to make clear to the idiots in Europe. WE are LEAVING them behind and they've been well advised for over 20 years to adjust their diseased minds to the fact that their Soft Power is ALL they have and they need to either pull in their horns or learn to stand up by themselves. The PACT against the PACT is dead.
I always laugh at how some people regard every single battle for advantage or for reducing our debt burden is somehow the sole province of the neo-cons or the lovingly renamed and branded Epsteins.
Viz all your other points I want to direct your attention south. You want to see what diplomacy and reason combined in tandem look like, look no further. It started in El Salvador and then Argentina and latest in Chile and it looks like it may suit just about everyone except the basket cases in Brazil and Mexico and even there it is possible that something good will come of it.
and finally, wrt to FAMINE, didn't we hear that word when the wheat fields and sales out of Ukraine went out of production? As I recall Egypt and the dire South were all going to starve without that wheat..... I wonder what happened.
In one way the Ukraine War is probably good for the larger world. It reveals that poking and baiting another country into war is likely to result in all out war and that the old barricades against letting countries make unlimited war faded away with the Cold War. The world is united in not caring what idiocy 2 countries get up to as long as it doesn't rope them in. Massively do not care and nobody is going to rush in to put the brakes on and argue you out of war. The adult has left the room.
Google AI - "In 2024 What percentage of GDP goes for social services?"
Germany 41%
France: 40%
Italy 30%
Sweden 30%
Denmark 30%
UK 33%
Netherlands: 13.8%
USA 21%
Of course the actual numbers are much larger when you look at other funding that also support public sector. Germany is actually closer to 50%.
How can anyone seriously think their 'allies" can pony up an army, navy or air force when they're busy providing free housing, food and cell phones for millions of free-loaders they intentionally imported? Especially when their economies have been contracting for the past 2-3 decades and their political leadership continues to implement and enforce woke/left ideological policies against their own citizens.
The US is alone and it has been since the end of WW2. It's not actually a world war if the rest of the world doesn't participate. Europe's involvement in "WW3" will be identical to Japan's "involvement" when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were vaporized.
Time will tell sir.
I'd love to be wrong and even happier I voted for Trump as the alternative was far worse.
But time will tell.
https://appalachianrenegade.com/2026/03/16/fertilizer-update/
India is asking China for help with fertilizer. Seems that TDS about Fertilizer isn't accurate. If you recall I told you this wasn't just about Iran.
Soft Power when India becomes reliant on China's kindness.
I wonder who's going to join in our quest for American Greatness next.
Well said, HMS DEFIANT!
https://appalachianrenegade.com/2026/03/17/joe-kent-resigns/
Joe Kent Director of National Counterterrorism.
Seems the first major adviser has resigned.
Worth reading his post and letter to resign.
11 combat tours, lost his wife in the war against terrorism.
Salute.
Big Serg does a great study but still fails to notice that China's in this dance.
Nor that non-combatants are getting permission to travel the strait.
https://bigserge.substack.com/p/the-iran-war-the-eagle-and-the-lions
Still an excellent evaluation.
You realize you are writing about an tier 15 at best apparatchik who fumes on the way out the door that he does not know what Trump knows. You see my point? He does not know what Trump knows. What does the fuming idiot know about atomic weaponry and uranium enrichment? What does he know about the TS/SCI information that Trump is privy to but is not shared with a low level advisor?
I've never been impressed by these drama queens and their dramatic press announcements to that effect to a press and people that never even heard of them before the ever so dramatic exit stage left.
I wonder, how do you know his daughter wasn't threatened with death if her father continued in office and made a principled sounding departure to save her life? That's not what happened but how would we know? Life does sometimes imitate tv.
I don't know. I know Trump's economic experience was success and Bankruptcy failures with plenty of Fathers money and connections to make him a success. While I have over 20 years military medical experience (mostly with the 82 Airborne) and 4 combat tours in various places, Trump I understand hasn't military experience.
I suspect like all CEO's Trump KNOWS what his trusted advisers TELLS Him. While Trump is very bright, I doubt his PERSONAL Experience in Middle East history affairs and exotic to most civilians' nuclear knowledge is all that expansive. Trump often brags he doesn't read books and makes "Hugely Successful Off the Cuff DECISIONS".
Presidents have found themselves in information bubbles since forever I hear.
I frankly was amazed that when General Caine told Trump:
SNIP President Donald Trump has pushed back against news reports that his top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, privately cautioned that if Trump ordered a U.S. military strike on Iran, a lack of critical munitions and support from allies could pose risks to American troops.
"General Caine, like all of us, would like not to see War but, if a decision is made on going against Iran at a Military level, it is his opinion that it will be something easily won," Trump posted Monday on his social media platform.
A remarkable JUMP from what the General told him and "it is his opinion that it will be something easily won,"
Trump like Caesar took in his advisers' words and made the decision to cross the river saying Alea iacta est, the dice is cast.
Caesar also heard some adviser say something about Beware the ides of March and knowing he had enemies in the Senate thought he still had enough allies to again rule the situation.
Thus Et Tu Brutus, Even you Brutus a trusted friend stabbed him to bits.
As we've discussed before, it's not just Iran, it's the crippling of China's oil and trade efforts to save the Dollar.
You as a navy man BASHING some 11 COMBAT Tour leader of special operations against Terrorism as an apparatchik a fuming IDIOT know-nothing about nuclear weapons and such is pretty poor Sir.
Pity you don't have time to teach us about the strait and shipping channels.
Michael, you have to look at the whole thing. READ MY WORDS SLOWLY, they are jammed together.......When you tell us about an 11 tour vet so he must have the sole authorized valid input on any given situation I want you to consider that the decision makers in the total fiasco and disaster of our post combat policy in both Iran and Iraq were those 11 and 33 tour "experts" who made those disasters and those idiots did it in just about every single corner of both countries and wherever there was a Provincial Reconstruction Team or an Embassy guru.
The worst thing of all about those disasters was that they were total disasters and nobody anywhere seems to be to blame and nobody was ever held accountable for any of it but I know who was largely to blame and it was the senior guys who had completed tour after tour over there, got promoted doing the most stupid insane and idiotic things you can imagine because they didn't know what else to do and couldn't tell their boss that they were full of shit. 20 fucking years of pseudo war and at the end of it the Generals running it made every single one of those unforced errors and so did the colonels and those below.
Both of us have good points here. Promoting the YES MEN Incompetents isn't a good way to generate leadership. Rewarding failures that suck up to you isn't successful for the business, eh?
Nor is bashing disagreeable folks that you were PRAISING to High Heaven when YOU Got them their JOBS.
People NOTICE. Good Folks DON'T APPLY to work in that sort of environment.
So Shitbirds that will suck up to the KING get the jobs and Promotions.
So we can agree that disastrous Leadership is part and parcel of this FAFO War we got "Wag the Dog" into?
Poor preps, shitbird leadership and wow, were surprised we've stumbled into that Scillian Expedition I mentioned a time or two here?
Your historically literate, you know what happened to Athens after that little FAFO party.
Buy more ammo.
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