Overnight Mirengoff complains that too many people are jumping to the conclusion that the Trump / Hegseth “war of idiocy” in Iran will fail to achieve any important objective.

Hmm.

Maybe not “any objective at all” — but it certainly looks as though they aren’t sure what they’re doing there. Other than destroying shit, of course. And changing the “what we want” day by day. And being told by NATO & Japan that this is the US mess to clean up — alone.

And as this retired general below points out quite cogently… That is the recipe for — that’s right — a quagmire:

…[Tangerine 2.0 has] gone to war against Iran with two assumptions: First, they assumed they could adjust their objectives as the war went on based on how much they thought they would accomplish; and second, they assumed that because the United States and Israel are, together, militarily superior to Iran, they would have complete control over the timing, intensity, domains, repercussions, and outcomes of the conflict, and they could determine the end of the conflict when they decided.

Those are dangerous assumptions. Just a few weeks into the war, they are being tested. While it’s common for war aims to shift over the course of a conflict, doing so is a complicated and delicate process that requires military leaders and politicians to balance political desires against military realities. This administration, which has repeatedly proven to be improvisatory in its approach to policy and rhetoric, has so far in this conflict not been able to manage that balance between political desires and military actions.

As for the second assumption—every soldier, sailor, marine, airman, and guardian knows and often repeats this truism: The enemy always gets a vote…

Paul never served in the military and Paul knows very little about war tactics and war strategy so he probably ought to sit down and listen to somebody who does.

What he will hear is sobering and in many ways depressing. Because “Whiskey Pete” Hegseth doesn’t know any of this — he’s just a testosterone monster. One who never made much out of his military career, other than being a talking head. On Fox. Out.

Gee, John — I thought the GOP only agreed to intervention where in-country freedoms were the main goal. No more, huh?

Hinderaker is lying (again) — trying to tell us that our atrocity in Iran is not a sh!t-show. Riiiiight.

What a deplorable putz.

Is any oil leaving the Strait, yet John?

Nope.

The phrase “stupid is as stupid does” comes to mind…

Except that this man is… malignant — as well as as stupid.

Trump just demanded the “unconditional surrender” of Iran, in order to stop the bombings.

Six days ago, he killed the entire leadership team that would have had that authority, on behalf of the Iranian people, to execute an unconditional surrender.

This is exactly why you don’t take out heads of state: because then you’re left with no one to negotiate / enforce the putative surrender.

Trump himself said that the people he was hoping would lead… are all dead.

That makes it a little tough to figure out who could possibly offer a surrender that would hold.

The man has less than a third grade understanding of world affairs.

Updated — Friday late: Trump now says “surrender” happens when all Iranian troops put down their arms, and walk away.

This would be comical if it wasn’t so tragic: so every single soldier and navy swabbie and air force tech or captain… must completely… desert their posts, in order for the bombing to end?

Idiot. How will he know — how will he and Bibi monitor?! This is… disgustingly stupid — and lethal to our troops.

And so, our troops will continue dying — for this willful ignorance — day by day.

Damn.