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Previous protests in Iraq were largely over corruption, lack of civil services, and protesting against too much Iranian influence in Iraqi government/forces. Iran blamed some of the protest on general Iraqi government incompetence and some on anti-Iran US -led agitation or info ops. Other reporting: Now a US contractor was killed in a volley of katyusha rocket attacks (rocket attacks have been getting more common in Iraq lately), and the US responded by bombing targets, including militias inside of Iraqi territory. Iraq’s PM was notified very shortly (minutes) before the strike and objected to the strikes, but the US carried them out anyway. Bonus: The Iraqi PM is the ultimate lame duck because he already offered to resign over the first round of protests, but there’s no identified replacement yet afaik. Regardless, Iraq has a real vested interest in not becoming the battlefield between US and Iranian forces, so they have a very rough and complicated hand to play.
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Dec 31, 2019 14:43
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Did someone say SP-MAGTF-CR-CC? https://twitter.com/centcom/status/1212084008655446017?s=21
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Dec 31, 2019 20:52
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Someone roll that MV-22 footage: https://twitter.com/scavino45/status/1212243829052624896?s=21
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Jan 2, 2020 00:33
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Mortabis posted:Consider for a moment if the embassy attack had been successful. What are you talking about? What embassy attack?
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Jan 3, 2020 05:42
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Mortabis posted:Okay now I'm confused. I'm talking about the attempt to storm the embassy on Tuesday. So you think that was an “attack” that “failed” after watching the previous weeks’ alternate protests? Really? I expect it was never intended to overrun the embassy and was instead intended to both send a message and possibly cause the US to appear weak and/or overreact.
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Jan 3, 2020 05:55
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Mortabis posted:Yes and this is the first I've seen that view be taken as controversial. Considering that the protests are largely over Iranian influence in government and basically nobody seems to believe that there's any grassroots component to the embassy siege. For what it's worth I've been out of the country for the past week and only halfway plugged in, but the pictures I've seen don't look like a crowd trying not to break into the embassy. Well, you do not know what you are talking about and clearly have not paid attention to the last several months. Most of that isn’t your fault, but you are completely and utterly out of your element.
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Jan 3, 2020 06:03
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I wonder if we’ll still be on the same AUMF when kids today are grown and fighting in the middle east.
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Jan 3, 2020 14:39
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The Secretary of State has said he believes the AUMF would work for a war with Iran and presented a briefing making that case to Congress last year.
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Jan 3, 2020 14:49
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Captain von Trapp posted:It's not a great analogy, Could’ve stopped there, honestly.
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Jan 3, 2020 23:33
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Huh. VP got the number of hijackers on 9/11 wrong and blamed Iran for helping them. As far as weird after the fact justification goes, what?
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Jan 4, 2020 00:10
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Hauldren Collider posted:Read pages 240 and 241 of the 9/11 commission report. lmao, wow, if that's what he's referencing, the VP is deeply misleading in intent and also wrong in fact. His tweet does not say what the 9/11 commission report says at all.
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Jan 4, 2020 01:20
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Cyrano, the new Boeing pull up alarm actually pushes the nose down, get with the times.
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Jan 4, 2020 04:41
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Lowtax is second in command. All others are below him and must read the tea leaves of his Gamer Garbage rants. They collectively worship an Old One god known as Radium Code, who requires regular sacrifices.
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Jan 4, 2020 15:27
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https://twitter.com/nick_l_miller/status/1213474764670545922?s=21 Max Pressure Campaign is hard, it turns out.
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Jan 4, 2020 16:35
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When you’re tasked to diagram the IRGC, but you’re also a nerd who likes the triforce and other fantasy runes.
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Jan 4, 2020 16:39
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Captain von Trapp posted:It would be nice if we could draw down in a logical fashion, but Bush didn't manage it in five years and Obama didn't manage it in eight. How convinced are we that it's even possible? At this point getting kicked out would at least be out. Iraq hasn’t announced the US being formally booted yet, but if they do, that would be more haphazard than the US decision to withdraw from Syria this year, ceding territory and airspace to Turkey, Syria, and Russia. If the goal is departure, rapid announced departure, as was executed in 2019 is still a far cry from an eviction, should an eviction occur. And to be clear, the US government has not stated that the goal is rapid departure or eviction.
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Jan 4, 2020 23:27
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Hey, this harkens back to the cold war era! https://twitter.com/conflicts/status/1213594723920875520?s=21 btw targeting cultural sites for vengeance purposes is something JAGs tell us not to do for war crime reasons, but threats on Twitter are different from actual strikes.
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Jan 5, 2020 01:37
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Captain von Trapp posted:Legitimate military targets can have cultural importance (Pearl Harbor, the Pentagon, the White House (1812!), Etc). That said, that's quite the tweet. It's a very visible redline, so it had better work. More likely: Commanders and lawyers will not enact this tweet, because finding a legal way to roughly approximate the intent of the president has been status quo for a while. Because doing the tweet as written would be criminal.
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Jan 5, 2020 03:03
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BIG HEADLINE posted:There were people who were no-poo poo calling 911 in Northern Virginia because Air Force One was in a low holding pattern over their precious property and they wondered if it was "another 9/11 situation." “See something, say something” messaging from the government has real consequences. Those phone calls are directly invited.
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Jan 5, 2020 03:08
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Captain von Trapp posted:But Trump is surprisingly consistent. He bullshits like breathing, but he he rarely backs down from policy as expressed on the campaign trail. That is why the following is true and definitely not ignored or unaccomplished: There is a southern US border wall that the government of Mexico paid for. China is formally labeled a currency manipulator Repeal and Replace complete (I’m willing to give a pass, because that’s very much not a POTUS power). ISIS is defeated. Swamp (Washington DC) drained of lobbyists and careerists. Military Rebuilt (this was always vague so I guess one could label a rando computer toucher being hired as “rebuilding” the military). Domestic Infrastructure. I generally put the brakes on myself ITT, but for you to complain here that others are getting partisan and then spew non-cold war non-current events, non-air power, political propaganda about campaign promises, oh man.... you are bad at this.
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Jan 5, 2020 03:51
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Captain von Trapp posted:reality is what it is. Still, I'm trying to keep my posts on current-war-events topic. Lies like this are easy to detect because of the quote function. quote:It was an explicit campaign promise, followed through on in the face of strong pressure. Reasonable people disagree on whether the JCPOA was a good deal, of course. But Trump is surprisingly consistent. He bullshits like breathing, but he he rarely backs down from policy as expressed on the campaign trail. You are pretending, poorly, that you are only talking about the current crisis while defending political campaign talking points. Come on. Compared to other threads/forums, I stay away from political campaign talking points here. You can probably restrain yourself enough to do the same, but you have not done that thus far.
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Jan 5, 2020 04:32
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Hauldren Collider posted:Kinda like how full metal jacket bullets are okay to kill people with but killing them with a hollow point is a no-no. That’s not a real thing, but is oft related as truth.
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Jan 5, 2020 05:02
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It’s one of those things where simply having a chunk of the refined metal/product doesn’t mean you can divine how it got to the state it is and replicate the process simply by throwing money at it.
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Jan 5, 2020 20:40
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lmao that clip owns
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Jan 6, 2020 00:59
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The EA-18G exists. And compass call.
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Jan 7, 2020 01:42
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I once got a phone call from a well meaning guy in Syria asking how to “call for fire” from the Patriot forces two countries away.
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Jan 8, 2020 02:44
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https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1214895207021502464?s=21 Iranian missile tech is good enough to pretty accurately target a static base. And if the above assessment is accurate, would not be the first flashy event that was against US stuff and efforts vs US lives.
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Jan 8, 2020 14:08
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Joanna Piacenza (@jpiacenza) Tweeted: Respondents were first given a larger, global map. 23% were able to correctly identify Iran. https://t.co/XhP5OU9s2n https://t.co/HVsWpf9ujt https://twitter.com/jpiacenza/status/1214897511414013954?s=20
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Jan 8, 2020 14:47
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Iranian state TV video of ballistic missile warhead mating and checkout in underground facility as well as some live fires. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p14m2sua24
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Jan 10, 2020 16:20
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Warbadger posted:Let's hope Iran is at least going to grudgingly fess up to the accident and try to compensate the families as the US did rather than continuing to deny everything. So in about eight years after losing an international court case, using an ex gratia payment and the stipulation that they do not admit to any fault and refuse to apologize? Seems possible, yeah.
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Jan 10, 2020 16:26
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Warbadger posted:The US fessed up to shooting it down immediately and the President sent a "Sorry about that" letter a few days later. Payment was issued 8 years later after losing a court case, but it was issued. The president’s statement was not a formal apology, according to the US. Also we took a few years to admit the Vincennes was illegally in Iranian waters when it shot down the Iranian airliner.
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Jan 10, 2020 20:11
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SA arguments are not a need to know 
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Jan 11, 2020 04:12
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Warbadger posted:The first situation is way, way loving better than the second one. Only if your definition of "way, way loving better" is that more innocent people died in the 655 incident and that since the US negligently obliterated people from a foreign government while invading TTW, it was easier/better to staunchly refuse to admit fault despite it being an even more egregious screw-up than the current event, whereas since Iran killed many of its own citizens in their fuckup, they're facing severe domestic pressure for said fuckup. mlmp08 fucked around with this message at 15:55 on Jan 11, 2020 |
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Jan 11, 2020 15:53
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stealie72 posted:Are we still arguing across multiple threads about which fuckup shooting down an obvious civilian airliner was worse? The blindly rah rah pro-American version of 655 must die. Destruction of its whitewash story is the duty of all people who do any form of air defense, curmudgeonly US Naval officers be damned.
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Jan 11, 2020 16:09
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I just think it’s mega lame for Americans to come blustering into the room after a tragic civilian loss to point out how this tragic loss is worse than when America did the same thing, except the Americans did it to objectively worse effect and with a more brazenly stupid and arrogant chain of decisions. E: lol fitting for the 1988 page. mlmp08 fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Jan 11, 2020 |
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Jan 11, 2020 16:35
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Fortunately, we have engaging computer based training to make this all clear. Or at higher levels of classification, a training video fit for an after school special!
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Jan 11, 2020 20:43
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Raenir Salazar posted:At your job do they tell you/suggest something like, "Don't say where you work except to close family/friends, especially not to tinder dates or on social media." No, and anyone who’s like... an undercover field agent won’t answer that. There are guidelines about unwise things to wear/say when traveling or to rando strangers chatting you up on the DC metro.
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Jan 11, 2020 21:00
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They do look very clean and modern without going full wonky.
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Jan 12, 2020 15:25
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Nebakenezzer posted:So why do modern warship designs favor obelisks instead of sensor masts? For your mast reading pleasure: https://defencyclopedia.com/2015/08/28/integrated-masts-the-next-generation-design-for-naval-masts/
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Jan 12, 2020 16:30
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 19:01 |
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It's not great. Congress has ordered more LCS ships than the Navy asked for. Simultaneously, a mix of developmental issues and congressional cuts mean that there are serious cuts/delays and/or cancellation of the sensors/systems that could make the LCS more useful. So potentially, we could end up with more LCS craft than the Navy wants, but also with less capability than the Navy wants. The Navy is developing a frigate that would still be smaller than DDGs, but more lethal and useful than the LCS. That's the FFG(X) program.
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Jan 12, 2020 16:37
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