quote:

Trump has made every single effort to negotiate peace… he is likely getting weary… we will hear from him tonight.

WSJ first two paragraphs - my opinion above...

I shoud have put the WSJ in Quotation marks - mea culpa.

US Sends Dozens More Refueling Planes To Israel Amid Widening Iran War, Oil Climbs

Summary

Surge in more large US refueling planes headed to Mideast, signaling likely expansion of strikes on Iran.
US attacks hit Iranian energy and transport infrastructure.
Iran threatens stronger retaliation and claims strike on US base in Qatar - and deepens attacks to include US outposts in Jordan, Syria.
Iran urges power conservation; Hormuz shipping traffic declines further.
Oil prices rise to session highs on fears of broader regional conflict.

Trump Sends Dozens More Refueling Planes in Sign Of Widening War

Oil prices are climbing on fresh reports Friday that President Trump is ready to continue escalating and expanding strikes on the Islamic Republic, after a Situation Room briefing this week where the Commander-in-Chief was presented with various options. It bears repeating that the White House in the opening days of Operation Epic Fury promised the American public a fast and hasty, limited military engagement - but this is where we are four months later...

"The Trump administration notified Israel it is sending dozens more refueling planes to the country ahead of a potential expansion of military operations against Iran, three U.S. and Israeli officials said," reports Axios. "After he was presented with several new military plans in a Situation Room meeting Tuesday, President Trump is considering a massive offensive in Iran that would be wider in scope than the current strikes around the Strait of Hormuz." This is but the latest signal that the ceasefire and negotiations are fully dead, and the potential for runaway escalation is bigger than ever:

https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...tructure-irgc-claims

The US faces the same dilemma In Iran as Russia faces in Ukraine. They have the power to kill every person in that country but exercise restraint.

The only solutions for a win in Iran is an internal battle within the IRGC with the moderates taking control or a bloody hand to hand civil war between the Persians and the Islamists. Bombing the shit out of the country doesn't solve this.

Theocracy is a lot like communism - "You can Vote your way in, but you'll have to shoot your way out".

Iran issues warning

^^^

We’re bombing a countries roads and bridges so they will need to fix those rather than be like us bombing other countries roads and bridges while our own fall apart.

After hearing how decimated Iran's forces are over and over again, WTF?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/wor...&bt_ts=1784397910957

US military says 2 troops are dead and 1 is missing after Iran attacks a base in Jordan

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military on Saturday announced its first troop deaths due to direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war, saying two were killed and another was missing in an attack on a base in Jordan.

They were killed Friday as the U.S. and partner forces defended against ballistic missile and drone attacks, a statement said. Four other service members were medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals and later discharged. The dead were not identified.

Since the war began, 16 U.S. service members have been killed and over 430 wounded.

Minutes earlier, Iran's supreme leader warned of "unforgettable lessons" if the U.S. keeps attacking the Islamic Republic. The remarks read out on state TV and attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei, still unseen since the war began, also called President Donald Trump's signature "worthless and invalid."

The comments came hours after a negotiator said Tehran was suspending its commitments to the interim deal signed about a month ago and aimed at permanently ending the fighting.

Tehran's declarations snapped another fragile thread as the war shows no end in sight. Now Khamenei warns of "lessons" not only from Iran but its armed proxies in the region, calling them the "Axis of Resistance."

The battle over the Strait of Hormuz has intensified in a conflict increasingly focused on control of the essential waterway that previously carried a fifth of the world's crude oil. The strikes threaten civilians and infrastructure, including desalination plants for drinking water, while the global economy again is on alert.

The U.S. has violated its commitments under the deal that was signed about a month ago and now Iran is "no longer implementing them," Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, told state TV.

There was no new word on mediation efforts.

Kuwait sees the most striking damage

The most significant damage from Iranian strikes on Saturday occurred in Kuwait, where a water desalination plant and an oil facility were hit, according to the Kuwait authorities and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. Both declined to provide locations.

The strikes injured several people at the oil facility and caused a fire at the desalination plant, forcing several power generation units offline. It was the second attack against a desalination plant in two days in the tiny desert nation that depends on desalination for 90% of its drinking water.

Several firefighters and a worker were injured while battling two other blazes sparked by Iranian strikes, according to the Kuwait Fire Force. Kuwait briefly closed its airspace due to missile threats, and Kuwait Airways said it was rescheduling most flights to and from the capital.

Meanwhile, Iraq said it shot down attack drones over the city of Irbil. Jordan's state-run Petra news agency said the kingdom's air defense systems had downed Iranian missiles, while air sirens sounded multiple times in Bahrain throughout the day and in Saudi Arabia in the morning, according to their governments.

The secretary general of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, accused Iran of war crimes for strikes on infrastructure and civilian facilities.

US strikes hit infrastructure in Iran

The U.S. Central Command said early Saturday that its seventh straight night of strikes hit "surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities."

U.S. airstrikes hit an electricity and desalination plant in Iran's southern Hormozgan province, Iranian state TV reported. IRNA said the Bonji desalination plant was destroyed, cutting off water supplies to about 10,000 people, and that a desalination plant on strategic Qeshm Island inside the strait was damaged.

Overnight strikes damaged two tunnels and a bridge, disrupting one of the main highways toward Bandar Abbas, Iran's main port that sits near the narrowest part of the strait, according to Iran's state-run news agency. IRNA said three bridges were hit Saturday, including one on a route to Bandar Abbas.

Iran acknowledged "attacks on power infrastructure" during the U.S. airstrikes for the first time Friday when its Energy Ministry issued a call for people to use less power in southern provinces "experiencing extreme heat." It did not specify what was hit.

Iranian authorities said at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in U.S. strikes in the past three weeks, including eight killed in a strike on a bridge Friday.

Iran and US vie for Strait of Hormuz

Iran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic after the war started with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28. That sent the price of oil soaring and has given Tehran significant leverage in negotiations.

Iran has said the strait must be under its sole control and that vessels should pay fees to Tehran, even though the world for decades has considered it an international waterway. It fired on ships on recent days. Crossings through the strait fell to a three-week low, according to an international shipping tracker.

Trump has resumed threats to target power stations and bridges to try to compel Iran to loosen its hold. The U.S. in the past week reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil.

A growing amount of the region's energy is being shipped through pipelines, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in shipping.

Before the war began, the U.S. had been in talks with Iran over its nuclear program. Trump now faces political pressure to end the war and avoid the kind of prolonged Middle East conflict he had campaigned against.

VDH is saying that Trump has a few weeks to end this, and I do agree.

What is incredible is that we stopped bombing them in order to negotiate, and left them with enough capacity to launch these strikes. As VDH said, now we are targeting the production facilities, fuel, drone factories, AAA and other military targets.

This should have been done before any negotiating, and several US soldiers are now never coming home as a result.

I understand the geopolitics at play, that we want to keep the House, etc; but I thought that after Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, we had learned that confusing political and military objectives was disastrous. You eliminate the opponents ability to wage war completely, and exit.

Iran’s ability to extract oil and ship it must be eliminated, as must their military production. That should have been a day 1 objective.

quote:

Trump now faces political pressure to end the war and avoid the kind of prolonged Middle East conflict he had campaigned against.

Yep. We elected Trump who was the guy who said he would keep us out of wars. We are a war weary country.

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
After hearing how decimated Iran's forces are over and over again, WTF?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/wor...&bt_ts=1784397910957

US military says 2 troops are dead and 1 is missing after Iran attacks a base in Jordan

Unconfirmed reports that POTUS to CENTCOM to “open the gates of hell” on Iran, per C14


https://x.com/afshineemrani/st.../2078567479610401228

We need to finish this. WW2 tactics are a good model. Destroying everything is the only way.

Yep. We elected Trump who was the guy who said he would keep us out of wars. We are a war weary country.[/QUOTE]

I didn't and I am not weary either. Letting Iran sponsor terror for 47 years and getting closer to to being able to destroy or severely impact Israel and other allies in the region and killing Americans. He is not going to placate or give them the means to do that like all leaders before him. Good!

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
We need to finish this. WW2 tactics are a good model.

And that model didn't succeed by dropping bombs even though a lot more were dropped by a lot more bombers for a lot longer time.
What is it we want?

Unfortunately, what we really want is regime change.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
We need to finish this. WW2 tactics are a good model.

And that model didn't succeed by dropping bombs even though a lot more were dropped by a lot more bombers for a lot longer time.
What is it we want?

Precision guided munitions is not dropping bombs. Not even close.

Well, that didn’t take long.

Precision munitions do exactly the same thing as did the dumb bombs dropped by inaccurate bombardiers in WWII—no more. They fall on desired targets, explode, and cause damage.

All that the more precise weaponry of today can do differently is to reduce the number of bombs necessary for the desired effects. During this conflict how many times have 1000+ bombers been deployed in one mission against a single area target?

As I have asked before, what major conflict in history has been decided entirely by air power? I certainly hope this will be the first, but I am not betting the rent that it will be.
I would, however, bet a whole handful of nickels that no one of significance anticipated that the Iranians would be able to fight back as effectively as they have. Did anyone here?

Fight back effectively, you are not serious.
Munitions can currently be delivered and whole variety of ways today that were never dreamed of just a few years ago. Comparing what is going on today to dropping bombs in WWII is just plain dumb. Oh, I forgot you are the expert of war and peace and battlefield tactics and a weapons expert. Excuse me.

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
We need to finish this. WW2 tactics are a good model. Destroying everything is the only way.

I propose we use WW2 tactics on every Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz and every mainland port. MOABs, carpet bomb with B52s, etc. Total shock and awe to eliminate their bases for their swarm boats and where most of their drones are launched from.

I also think we need to use guided missile strikes to specifically target the law enforcement and paramilitary forces they use to control their population. It's time to change the playing field so the Iranian people can overthrow this regime.

Taking out their drone/swarm launch points and stacking the deck in favor of citizens would put Trump in a good position to end this in VDH's timeline.

Can't carpet bomb. They still have surface to air missles. MOABs likely a war crime

quote:

Originally posted by oldbill123:
Can't carpet bomb. They still have surface to air missles.

You can if you do it right. For instance, at the onset of this war we simultaneously jammed and conducted cyber warefare THEN we launched 200 jets to overwhelm and target their air defense system. You could carpet bomb in conjuction with a strike like that.

quote:

Originally posted by oldbill123:
MOABs likely a war crime

Wasn't a war crime in A-stan and zero bans on MOABs exist.

It's the target that determines the war crime. Dual use ports (i.e. both civilian and military) are legitimate targets. Additionally, the IRGC owns and operates Iran's major dual-use ports through a vast network of front companies, shell corporations, and military conglomerates.

IRGC's finanacial engine for funding it's assymetric war fare (e.g Hezbollah, Houthis, Hamas, etc.) is their ownership of oil & gas export facilities AND dual-use civilian/military ports.