The ROI is not United Kingdom.

Austria is not Germany.

Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are separate countries;

as are Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka;

as are a number of Arab-speaking countries;

and ROC is not PRC.

The PRC is a Borg ship trying to assimilate the ROC, but the ROC has resisted assimilation for over 75 years.

Perhaps, insofar that France and UK has a smaller nuclear arsenal than either US or Russia; though 3¼ years into the invasion of Ukraine (not counting 2014 to 2022), I doubt Russia has 25% of the country.

Where did the boy get the knife: from a store or his parents' kitchen?

and those Russians who were injured, maimed, or died for invading Ukraine, and occupying parts of it, were injured, maimed, or died for nothing.

To be fair to Trump, he hasn't invaded Iran, like Dubya and Papa Bush invaded Iraq: he more like Clinton in that he lobs some missiles to get people minds off of how he's fouling things up otherwise in the US and world.

Hamas and Hezbollah are a product of Israeli invasion and occupation.

IIUC, Hezbollah are, while Hamas was useful to Israel in dividing Fatah/PLO, and on Putin's 71st birthday, giving Netanyahu the excuse he needed to do what he's been doing in Gaza.

​

The goals of Hamas are national goals, not religious goals.

Perhaps.

FWIW,

wp:Hamas

(my bold)

Hamas is an acronym of the Arabic phrase حركة المقاومة الإسلامية or Ḥarakah al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah, meaning "Islamic Resistance Movement". This acronym, HMS, was glossed in the 1988 Hamas Covenant[66] by the Arabic word ḥamās (حماس) which itself means "zeal", "strength", or "bravery".[67]

​

They have nothing to do with Al-Quaeda or ISIS. Ironically Israel has treated ISIS fighters in Syria and Israeli weapons made it into ISIS camps. Now Israeli is arming and protecting lowlife criminals in Gaza with links to ISIS to plunder UN aid convoys.

Divide and rule: yep, that sounds like something Israel would do.

​

Meanwhile Iran wasn’t seeking a nuke since 2003 as has been maintained by the US intelligence, in particular CIA well into this year

Perhaps.

I still don't trust them anymore than the US.

​

Instead Iran had negotiated the JCPOA with Obamas government and upheld it until Trump broke it, with the EU allies following suit to the US. Still Iran was seeking to get back to diplomacy even as Israel is now bombing Iran. But evidently neither Israel nor the US can ever be trusted with diplomacy. They will just turn around and bomb you whenever they feel like it.

Hasanabi rules:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Hasan_Piker/comments/t6ap1l/what_do_we_make_of_the_hasanabi_doctrine/#lightbox

Do you think this theocracy, this mullahchy, is better than the Shah?

As bad as he was—and he was bad—at least he didn't try to get nukes.

Had Saddam stayed out of Kuwait, he might still be around.

My sympathies for any of these regimes is limited.

(Modern) Israel exists because most of Europe was an antisemitic shithole, and that includes Russia and the UK; guys like Netanyahu are a product of this, and Hamas are a bunch of jihadi punks who have been used by both Iran and Israel.

Sorry, but I don't get it.

Those 4 apparently rich guys could be from any country, perhaps including the USSR.

FWIW,

wp:de:Christian Rieck

​

I agree that the tariffs aren't going away soon. The Republican caucus are too fearful of Trump, the Democrats, with their disunity, are unlikely to gain both houses in 2026, and unless they get a dark horse (such as Carter, Clinton, or Obama), we might have Vance or Trump Jr in 2028.

Trump unlikely has a plan.

The invasion of Ukraine might have constituted/might constitute a very large mal-investment of Russian capital with possible significant effects on the Russian banking system—it's just a thought.

I was going to write a big reply, but I think I get what you're saying.

IIUC, you aren't recognizing the legitimacy of the PRC as much as saying that whoever wins, PRC or RoC, there will be one China unless they agree to separate or if Taiwan declares independence. If this is your argument, I can accept it.

Still, we have 2 de facto countries in this area.

wp:Draft:List of songs whose title constitutes the entire lyrics 😁🙂

I'm not sure.

The anarchist part of me says leave Iran alone, let Israel deal with them, and if Israel doesn't, but instead gives up its land to Palestinians and tries to go back to Europe or the parts of the Middle East they left, that might be interesting.

To weaken Assad,

which would be good.

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to take over Syria, to isolate Lebanon,

Was Germany going to do that?

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to eliminate the threat of a retaliating all out Shiite uprising over the entire Middle East, to attack an isolated Iran.

huh?

(that we know of)

Nonetheless, kudos to Germany and Sweden, IMO she and whoever ran Sweden showed (relatively at least) good leadership on this issue.

The ROC lost the mainland, but not the island.

A nuclear-armed Iran would become an existential threat to Israel.

You claimed they were building nuclear bombs,

Where did wt:thon claim that?

Besides, IIUC, the actual nuclear bomb making is the relatively easy part: the technology is about 80 years old.

and I doubt it will happen.

IIUC, Iran would be harder to invade and occupy than Iraq: it's over 2x the size, has about 2x the population, it's more mountainous, and the regime now might be twice the age, and presumably twice as entrenched, than Saddam's was in 1991.

Granted, it's GDP is lower than Iraq's (now and perhaps before 1991) and IIUC, its arguably more heterogeneous, and Saddam before June 1990 was less antagonistic to the US than Khomeini or Khamenei, so maybe you have a point.