The taking of our embassy was the impetus for enlisting in the Army. Iran has been a pustule on the ass of humanity for 50 years. I generally wish to avoid war but, in Iran's case, I would make an exception.
"Religion of Peace" my ass! (On a lighter note, I ordered two of your "cake" posters for my husband and son. They both liked them a lot. It wasn't until a couple days ago that we realized you signed them, LOL. Gotta work on my observation skills.)
Keep in mind that that word for "Peace" also translates as "Submission". As in, it's not necessarily the "peace" that comes from two sides voluntarily agreeing to not fight; it's also the "peace" of a hostile takeover, one side dominating and subjugating the other.
Read like that, suddenly a lot of their actions over the decades and centuries make perfect sense.
Free thinking and good will cannot overcome several thousand years of ingrained hatred. “No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.” Gen. George Patton
Gads our politicians have been pussies (from pusillanimous) throughout. There was a political cartoon after the USMC compound bombing (23 Oct 1983) with a Russian character looking on the aftermath (the Russian embassy was drawn nearby) saying "We don't allow such things." Now, regardless of the truth or not of Russian relations, the point was the we did allow such things. Many times as you have listed.
I was at Al Khobar, so thank you for remembering an attack so many have forgotten. And I don’t mean to “Like much of the USAF o rotated through there once,” but rather “I was working on the flightline five miles away and felt the shockwave and later learned that four dudes in the suite I slept in had died and I was now effectively deployment-homeless.”
As you might guess, I too have a special place in my heart for Iran and the Mullahs. Lemme know if you find a way to summon that djinn. I’d be up for suggesting fun things to do.
All else aside for the moment, the behavior of Hezbollah between 1984 and 1989, specifically the kidnapping and horrific torture to death over a year and a half of American servicemen, should have been an open declaration of war and a wake up call to all observing that we were dealing with an adversary unbound by the laws of decency, morality and man, and that nary a stone should be allowed to reside upon another in the regions in which they were infested, and that all who flew their flag or paid them support or fealty deserved nothing better than a quick, hot death.
Unfortunately Reagan and GHW Bush had other priorities, and Hezbollah is still here, somehow.
Sometimes the most merciful thing is to shed blood now rather than later. Sometimes, mercy is the false path.
This is truly horrifying. Trumps response to Iran And Israel's is a triumph of understatetness, if that is a word. And sorry to rub it in Tucker Carlson please copy.(both parts very well done)
Israel has long mastered the art of understatement. They are under continuous attack on AT LEAST four fronts (Hezbollah in Syria, Hamas in Gaza, the PA in the West Bank, Iran and its proxies, and sometimes Lebanon and/or others), but their responses have historically -- until 10/7 -- been quiet, surgically-precise, and executed with clinical coldness. Even clearing Hamas from Gaza is only "loud" because of international media outrage, not because it's an actual genocide.
Trump is the first President in a LONG time who fluently speaks the only language that the Mullahs understand: strength and violence. When our leaders talk appeasement, the Mullahs get froggy. While Trump has been in office, it's been much quieter.
I watched the embassy invasion and the news for all 444 days as an AFROTC Cadet.
During that time there was an interview with then former Senator Barry Goldwater. In response to a question of what his response would be, he said Kharg Island would burn for months, and he would fly the first ship in
When Lt. Col Higgins was murdered, I was on active duty, pulled from a conference in St. Louis and ordered to CENTCOM HQ in Tampa to consult on a possible TLAM response that, unfortunately, was never authorized.
So yeah, I'm right there with you about an effective response being long over due.
Hi Ian. First, I like your substack (and finding out the origin story I realized I was following your old blog for quite a while, too).
On Iran (but you can insert here any other baddie nation), it reminds me of that joke about child abuse from David Chappelle: what was the child wearing at the time of the incident? Pijamas! Where did that happen? Michael's bedroom! What was the kid doing there? A sleepover with a single man with no kids!
I wonder if before they decided to raise the black flag and started slitting throats, "some people did some things" to them...
I'm a fan of the old adage: Peace requires two or more willing parties; war requires only one.
(I don't have a source for that one. If any of y'all do, I'd sure appreciate it. Even Google's AI doesn't find a single source for it, but does have some thought-provoking historical quotes along a similar track.)
We've been in an economic cold war with Russia and China and their proxies and a one-sided hot war with Iran and its proxies for decades, but most Americans don't realize it because even when these things are reported on, that's not HOW they're reported.
I endorse the idea of the djinn punishment, but take issue with the merciful swiftness of it. I would prefer something robuster, ideally having them screaming in agony for at least three days before they shuffle off to meet Shaitan.
The taking of our embassy was the impetus for enlisting in the Army. Iran has been a pustule on the ass of humanity for 50 years. I generally wish to avoid war but, in Iran's case, I would make an exception.
"Religion of Peace" my ass! (On a lighter note, I ordered two of your "cake" posters for my husband and son. They both liked them a lot. It wasn't until a couple days ago that we realized you signed them, LOL. Gotta work on my observation skills.)
Keep in mind that that word for "Peace" also translates as "Submission". As in, it's not necessarily the "peace" that comes from two sides voluntarily agreeing to not fight; it's also the "peace" of a hostile takeover, one side dominating and subjugating the other.
Read like that, suddenly a lot of their actions over the decades and centuries make perfect sense.
Ultimately, Islam is at war with the Kafirs. Iran is just one of the more serious players.
Free thinking and good will cannot overcome several thousand years of ingrained hatred. “No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.” Gen. George Patton
Let's not forget the several assassinations carried out by Iran right here on US soil. One of them quite recently.
Gads our politicians have been pussies (from pusillanimous) throughout. There was a political cartoon after the USMC compound bombing (23 Oct 1983) with a Russian character looking on the aftermath (the Russian embassy was drawn nearby) saying "We don't allow such things." Now, regardless of the truth or not of Russian relations, the point was the we did allow such things. Many times as you have listed.
I was at Al Khobar, so thank you for remembering an attack so many have forgotten. And I don’t mean to “Like much of the USAF o rotated through there once,” but rather “I was working on the flightline five miles away and felt the shockwave and later learned that four dudes in the suite I slept in had died and I was now effectively deployment-homeless.”
As you might guess, I too have a special place in my heart for Iran and the Mullahs. Lemme know if you find a way to summon that djinn. I’d be up for suggesting fun things to do.
All else aside for the moment, the behavior of Hezbollah between 1984 and 1989, specifically the kidnapping and horrific torture to death over a year and a half of American servicemen, should have been an open declaration of war and a wake up call to all observing that we were dealing with an adversary unbound by the laws of decency, morality and man, and that nary a stone should be allowed to reside upon another in the regions in which they were infested, and that all who flew their flag or paid them support or fealty deserved nothing better than a quick, hot death.
Unfortunately Reagan and GHW Bush had other priorities, and Hezbollah is still here, somehow.
Sometimes the most merciful thing is to shed blood now rather than later. Sometimes, mercy is the false path.
This is truly horrifying. Trumps response to Iran And Israel's is a triumph of understatetness, if that is a word. And sorry to rub it in Tucker Carlson please copy.(both parts very well done)
Israel has long mastered the art of understatement. They are under continuous attack on AT LEAST four fronts (Hezbollah in Syria, Hamas in Gaza, the PA in the West Bank, Iran and its proxies, and sometimes Lebanon and/or others), but their responses have historically -- until 10/7 -- been quiet, surgically-precise, and executed with clinical coldness. Even clearing Hamas from Gaza is only "loud" because of international media outrage, not because it's an actual genocide.
Trump is the first President in a LONG time who fluently speaks the only language that the Mullahs understand: strength and violence. When our leaders talk appeasement, the Mullahs get froggy. While Trump has been in office, it's been much quieter.
I watched the embassy invasion and the news for all 444 days as an AFROTC Cadet.
During that time there was an interview with then former Senator Barry Goldwater. In response to a question of what his response would be, he said Kharg Island would burn for months, and he would fly the first ship in
When Lt. Col Higgins was murdered, I was on active duty, pulled from a conference in St. Louis and ordered to CENTCOM HQ in Tampa to consult on a possible TLAM response that, unfortunately, was never authorized.
So yeah, I'm right there with you about an effective response being long over due.
Hi Ian. First, I like your substack (and finding out the origin story I realized I was following your old blog for quite a while, too).
On Iran (but you can insert here any other baddie nation), it reminds me of that joke about child abuse from David Chappelle: what was the child wearing at the time of the incident? Pijamas! Where did that happen? Michael's bedroom! What was the kid doing there? A sleepover with a single man with no kids!
I wonder if before they decided to raise the black flag and started slitting throats, "some people did some things" to them...
As I wrote in yesterday's article:
"First off — yes, Britain and the United States dinked around with Persia/Iran’s self-governance, and yes, we did them dirty.
And they have a case of the hips about that, but that’s not even close to the reason why the Iranian ruling class hates us."
I'm a fan of the old adage: Peace requires two or more willing parties; war requires only one.
(I don't have a source for that one. If any of y'all do, I'd sure appreciate it. Even Google's AI doesn't find a single source for it, but does have some thought-provoking historical quotes along a similar track.)
We've been in an economic cold war with Russia and China and their proxies and a one-sided hot war with Iran and its proxies for decades, but most Americans don't realize it because even when these things are reported on, that's not HOW they're reported.
I endorse the idea of the djinn punishment, but take issue with the merciful swiftness of it. I would prefer something robuster, ideally having them screaming in agony for at least three days before they shuffle off to meet Shaitan.