Department of State advises Americans worldwide to exercise increased caution

3/23/2026 at 1:32:59 AM

The U.S. government shutdown has halted pay to the TSA, but not ICE, so ICE is taking over from the TSA in airports[1]. If you fly to the U.S., starting Monday apparently, the first think you're likely to see is masked gunmen giving you the eye.

No thankyou.

[1]https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cede0qyvqz3o

by beloch

3/23/2026 at 1:47:48 AM

Would anyone argue that the TSA, Theatre Security Agency, shouldn’t be defunded?

by nandomrumber

3/23/2026 at 1:55:24 AM

Replacing it with nothing in an orderly fashion? Probably a good move.

Replacing them with ICE as a political gesture? Not so much

by Macha

3/23/2026 at 2:09:05 AM

The TSA is responsible for more than just airports. As someone with family who works (worked) on port security in the maritime division, I would argue that Chesterton's Fence [0] applies here just as much as anywhere else.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_...

by derf_

3/23/2026 at 1:23:54 PM

Many of us were alive when the TSA was created. It's not a mystery why it's there. (Mostly so politicians could say they did something to improve air travel security.)

by stvltvs

3/23/2026 at 3:49:29 PM

Well, and it did do something - make the experience more consistently mediocre. Which is indeed something.

Previously, some airports were even more of a nightmare, and others were actually pleasant.

by lazide

3/23/2026 at 8:01:54 AM

Ports had no security before 2001? What does TSA do there?

by rendaw

3/23/2026 at 9:51:22 AM

Ports did indeed have very little security before 2001 (compared to now). See ISPS code: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Ship_and_Port_Fa...

by LeChuck

3/23/2026 at 8:14:19 AM

The Coast Guard has long been responsible for port security. TSA does administer TWIC, the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program, which is a biometric identification system go access to secure port facilities.

by 5555624

3/24/2026 at 12:02:03 AM

Yeah, it was actually a lot of fun. I worked in a port-related area and often we would just cruise around the port and look at the ships. If it looked cool we would yell loudly and ask if we could come aboard. The seamen were usually thrilled to show us around their massive ships and would often invite us to a barbecue. With the introduction of the ISPS all of that was over in an instant.

by rawfan

3/23/2026 at 1:49:57 AM

There's an argument for that, though I think replacing it with Trump's basically-unregulated private military is pretty concerning.

by tombert

3/23/2026 at 1:49:47 AM

This isn’t that.

by hmmokidk

3/23/2026 at 5:16:30 PM

It shouldn't be defunded, because as stupid as it and the 2001 politics that spawned it were, anything MAGA will replace it with in 2026 would be way worse.

by vkou

3/23/2026 at 11:07:39 AM

Depends on what defunded means... if it means pay/control shifting from a Federal agency to local, then yes.

Maning, airports / municipalities should be funding this. If airports were in control the the user experience, I bet you would see a lot better outcomes.

by mlrtime

3/23/2026 at 9:47:04 PM

> If airports were in control the the user experience, I bet you would see a lot better outcomes.

Would you? It's not like I have a choice of which airport to fly out of.

Maybe New Yorkers have options, but for the rest of us, there is only one that is an option.

by vkou

3/23/2026 at 1:37:51 AM

I feel like "form your own private paramilitary organisation with minimal oversight, then expand their reach by having them take over the operations of other government departments" has been done before somewhere, as part of a larger plan.

by taneq

3/23/2026 at 1:41:39 AM

This is a historical pattern: Bringing border forces to bear against your own population, because those border forces are trained to deal with people who don't have the rights of the state.

by nclin_

3/23/2026 at 2:05:07 AM

They dont have all the skills to do anything super complex in a sustainable way. Already proved in the first term. What their existence demonstrates is winning election is not super complex if you can find enough groups to precisely target and pander/capture attention. Social media has been a force multiplier for such behavior and the people that have emerged dont have any other skill other than attention capture. But thats short term win like full focus on marketing while product and operations have no hope of catching up. Every "large plan" will fail. Large plans in complex ever changing environments always need massive cooperation of very different skills. Never happens sustainably with just one skill dominating all.

by gotwaz

3/23/2026 at 2:14:50 AM

They dont have all the skills to do anything super complex in a sustainable way.

And that's stopped them?

by mattoxic

3/23/2026 at 2:49:30 AM

We know the answer. Whats stopping ebola or a hurricane from over running everything?

by gotwaz

3/23/2026 at 1:44:16 AM

It has. (Unless you're being sarcastic, in which case I'm not surprised it went over my head. Lol.)

by encrypted_bird

3/23/2026 at 1:46:23 AM

of course they were

by ajkjk

3/23/2026 at 1:52:57 AM

Hey, tone doesn't translate well over text, they did not use anu tone tags, and I'm already terrible at reading tone in the best of times. Lol, can you really blame me for at least asking? Haha.

by encrypted_bird

3/23/2026 at 4:13:44 PM

I dunno, it is the most obvious nazi reference I've ever seen. Personally I feel like tone does translate well over text, although it's proportional to the speakers' familiarity in how to do it whereas for verbal communication it comes through without effort.

Nothing wrong with asking of course. But maybe it's useful data that it was, in fact, obvious.

by ajkjk

3/23/2026 at 4:04:15 AM

Yeah, I was aiming for irony but I should probably have added /s at the end there. It's definitely in the mid-late chapters in any "how to install a fascist regime" handbook.

by taneq

3/23/2026 at 2:06:31 AM

It will be so much fun to watch the World Cup from outside the US...

by diego_moita

3/23/2026 at 11:37:59 AM

Remember to use a pirate stream.

by SSLy

3/23/2026 at 12:36:41 PM

Yeah! That will be even better!

by diego_moita

3/23/2026 at 1:49:01 AM

> So ICE is taking over from the TSA in airports

It's even more disgusting than that:

"Tom Homan: ICE officers will not assist with airport security scanning amid TSA staffing shortage"

https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/5795316-homan-ice-...

by AceJohnny2

3/23/2026 at 2:01:41 AM

I can't tell what's supposed to be disgusting about this unless you stopped reading past the inflammatory headline.

by bananalychee

3/23/2026 at 2:06:25 AM

Enter the country and you interact with CBP and that hasn't changed. CBP agents are the ones who murdered the legal observers in Minneapolis so there's that.

TSA checks bags for commercial airlines which is a service that should never have been nationalized.

by fundad

3/23/2026 at 2:08:51 AM

It would really be amazing if the end result of all of this is the post-9/11 DHS finally gets reverted back to what we had before.

by jordanb

3/23/2026 at 1:32:25 PM

An amazing start.

by fundad

3/23/2026 at 8:22:49 PM

Some airports started allowing bottled water already. We'll be back to pre 9/11 levels in 40 or so years.

by dizhn

3/23/2026 at 1:34:22 AM

[flagged]

by bdangubic

3/23/2026 at 1:35:41 AM

TSA is mostly people who want a job and act pretty professionally in the hundreds or thousand times I’ve encountered them. ICE encourages people with anger issues who hate brown people to apply. These are not the same.

by ohyoutravel

3/23/2026 at 1:41:30 AM

it isn’t about people and which group is mostly this or that. Americans have long accepted to have their Constitutional Rights violated at the airports so it really doesn’t matter if it is TSA or ICE or whatever three-letter gang runs it

by bdangubic

3/23/2026 at 1:45:28 AM

This is binary thinking that has no place in predicting the real world. In practice, the specific person violating your constitutional rights makes a big difference in how badly your rights are violated.

by andrewflnr

3/23/2026 at 6:39:45 AM

oh I love this… so good! like OK to violate me a little but don’t but know where to draw the line. this is like an excuse of a chronic domestic abuser, “I slapped her/him around a little but did not slam/her against a wall”

by bdangubic

3/23/2026 at 3:17:55 PM

Still doing it.

No one said either level of abuse was ok.

by andrewflnr

3/23/2026 at 1:22:51 AM

Has there been any official WH note on the need for this war, yet? Or objectives?

by jazzpush2

3/23/2026 at 4:18:06 AM

They rebranded to the department of war but its not a war. We definitely don't want war, but we want all soldiers to be warriors. Still not warmongering.

by daheza

3/23/2026 at 5:21:22 PM

Excuse me, it's an "excursion", not a war.

by disqard

3/23/2026 at 1:30:37 AM

This war is not a war. Not a.war war. Just a "war". No war has been declared.

by mememememememo

3/23/2026 at 3:03:27 AM

It's a special operation

by refulgentis

3/23/2026 at 2:02:34 AM

We already won. Are you tired of winning yet?

by briantakita

3/23/2026 at 7:53:38 AM

I keep reading this, is it meant to be a joke? What is being won?

by briansm

3/23/2026 at 9:15:18 PM

It's the only thing he knows. Declare victory, never admit losing anything, ever.

"Dobias later said that young Trump “always had to be number one, in everything. He was a conniver, even then. A real pain in the ass. He would do anything to win” (D’Antonio, Never Enough, 43)."

by tencentshill

3/23/2026 at 1:06:19 PM

They're referencing Trump's constant insistence that we won or are currently winning. He never, ever admits defeat or concedes any ground, everything is a victory, nothing is a loss. Trump also famously said (paraphrasing) "We're gonna win so much, we'll be tired of winning".

by Moomoomoo309

3/23/2026 at 7:44:40 AM

It identifies as a special operation and people should just respect that.

by znpy

3/23/2026 at 1:23:45 AM

20 or so far, there is a new one each day

by bdangubic

3/23/2026 at 1:42:43 AM

Yes, they are flooding the zone with many alternative explanations so that they're both all deniable, and all accessible to anyone who finds just one of them convincing. This is a strategy.

by nclin_

3/23/2026 at 1:28:32 AM

And all of them different from the last and/or contradicting each other at times.

It's like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

by giwook

3/23/2026 at 1:55:23 AM

Probably spaghetti.

by nandomrumber

3/23/2026 at 1:42:23 AM

All I know is we are accomplishing them and we'll be done in 3 weeks to 3 years. Also, this isn't a woke war, which I was worried about.

by cogman10

3/23/2026 at 1:51:12 AM

[flagged]

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 2:41:23 AM

Why do they chant that? Is it due to acting against US interests in favor of another state, maybe one in the Levant?

by engcoach

3/23/2026 at 2:46:31 AM

What are you saying? Speak plainly so we don't have to guess.

by nozzlegear

3/23/2026 at 12:25:45 PM

Israel

by engcoach

3/24/2026 at 12:33:52 AM

The Iranians chant Death To Israel because Israel is a Middle Eastern ally of the United States, who propped up the Shah. This is why the US is the Big Satan, and Israel is the Little Satan. This was all spelled out clearly by Khomeini.

You have the cause and the effect backwards. I suggest reading more about Khomeini, you might like his viewpoints. He decreed that the unmarried female protesters must be raped before being executed, so that they would not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 3:51:33 AM

[flagged]

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 8:14:30 AM

It’s bold to get presumptuously snooty about people’s understanding of history, and even mention the closeness of the Shah with the US, without acknowledging how the Shah came to power…! To say nothing of the US’s more recent interventions in other Muslim-majority countries. Do you not think that might go further to explain the discontent, especially considering Khomeini’s comments that you refer to, than some nebulous idea of “values”?

by dwb

3/24/2026 at 12:37:09 AM

Fine, the US propped up the Shah. I didn't see it as relevant but there you go. Khomeini himself didn't see it as too relevant either, as he barely mentioned it after the revolution. He did state that the US was the source of all Muslims' problems, many times, but he did not mention the US support of the Shah as part of his regular rallies.

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 6:17:23 AM

> secular society based on Christian values

Oddly the Christian deity is mentioned exactly zero times in the Constitution.

by kashunstva

3/23/2026 at 2:24:08 PM

I stated that the United States is based on Christian values. Not that the United States is a Christian state.

Do you value separation of state and religious authority? Women's rights? Minority rights? Human dignity? Equality before the law? Sanctity of life? Individual moral responsibility? Monogamous marriage? The objective study of history? Fair trial? Witnesses at trial? Tolerance of alternative viewpoints?

Those are all Christian values. For what it's worth, I'm not Christian.

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 2:38:49 AM

"Bombings will continue until you stop hating us"

by MSM

3/23/2026 at 7:22:17 AM

They were trying to gain energy independence, not develop nuclear weapons. This has been confirmed by plenty of independent auditors. Drunk Hegseth is a literal white nationalist Christian with a crusades tattoo.

You really want to be on the side of a white nationalist who openly says all Muslims are the enemy and openly advocates for christian prophecies that require the US to submit to Israel? These aren't conspiracies. Hegseth openly believes all this stuff.

by chneu

3/23/2026 at 11:56:23 AM

"What is North Korea, Alex?"

"Ooooh, I'm sorry…"

by JKCalhoun

3/23/2026 at 1:58:00 AM

Would the current state of affairs qualify for cancelling the mid-terms? Is that overly cynical?

Not in the US, not a US citizen or voter. My suspicion is the answer is "no, but it is not a given that a competent supreme court which looks likely to overturn the WH exists, if they say they want to do this"

by ggm

3/23/2026 at 2:10:33 AM

AFAIUI, elections in the US are not run by the federal government but by the states.

Trying to cancel elections seems like it'd be a lot harder than in other countries.

by atq2119

3/23/2026 at 6:57:33 AM

Hopefully that is reassuring. Worryingly I would like some sense of confirmation but in any case I expect a declaration it's not a valid real result because that's what happened before, counts not withstanding.

by ggm

3/23/2026 at 1:28:44 PM

The US does not have a legal avenue for cancelling elections regardless of circumstances without a constitutional amendment. It cannot happen under any conditions or circumstances.

To do so would basically be an open announcement of dictatorship and - more than we have already - the end of rule of law and a likely civil war.

by Tadpole9181

3/23/2026 at 4:52:59 PM

You are more confident about this than I am. Let's revisit this comment in December.

I truly hope you are proved right by history, but I'm concerned.

by disqard

3/23/2026 at 10:58:53 PM

December's too soon. Let's revisit it in January, after the new Congress is seated... or not.

by AnimalMuppet

3/23/2026 at 7:43:32 PM

I didn't say they wouldn't actually try / do it. Just being clear that the US does not define any legal avenue whatsoever.

by Tadpole9181

3/23/2026 at 2:27:32 AM

[flagged]

by JPKab

3/23/2026 at 2:57:24 AM

seems from outside, that many things happen, that's never happened in the entire history of this country, as your prez says many times a day, that "you've never seen before".

otoh, i saw ice agents to murder a super aggresive protester, who was actually trying to help a super aggressive woman dumped to the earth by ice agents, from many angle. also, and i followed minnesotans aggressively filming everywhere what happens to them. and i saw, how aggressive they were to bovino and co.

so, i really understand your rant.

by incze

3/23/2026 at 4:30:57 AM

If you can't follow basic police orders, you probably shouldn't visit the US, that's for sure.

by throwawaytea

3/23/2026 at 2:45:46 AM

> Texas or Arizona or North Carolina or Florida

All Red states. So if you roll over and let the federal government trample your state's sovereignty, they won't murder people in your state? Somehow I don't think that's what federalism was supposed to mean.

Trump nearly passed out with glee when he was talking to the Ukrainian president and found out elections are canceled, by their law, due to martial law because of the war. I would not so casually assume he won't try it here.

by zzrrt

3/23/2026 at 3:08:56 AM

Seriously, it’s totally fair to think that there’s no way they’ll be cancelled. There are some checks and balances left. But if you voted for Trump, you should be DEEPLY concerned about how much he loves toying with the idea. It’s frankly more impeachable than nearly anything I’ve heard of, since it’d be fucking treasonous to cancel elections. Demand better from your representatives and officials, and stop voting MAGA so we can get out of this mess.

by anon7000

3/23/2026 at 1:16:38 AM

Is this an orange, purple, or magenta threat level?

by cogman10

3/23/2026 at 1:38:06 AM

Approaching ultraviolet, invisible to the naked eye but still very much a threat. “there is no war, only excursions.”

by SlightlyLeftPad

3/23/2026 at 1:40:44 AM

This is so non-specific to be meaningless.

Like actually tell us what you know so we can make useful decisions about our safety.

by softwaredoug

3/23/2026 at 1:46:18 AM

> Like actually tell us what you know so we can make useful decisions about our safety

"Americans abroad should follow the guidance in security alerts issued by the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate."

by alephnerd

3/23/2026 at 7:26:16 AM

This is just more victim fear being pushed so (mostly Christian) conservatives can claim to be the victims, once again, as they colonize another people/land.

by chneu

3/23/2026 at 1:18:49 AM

My first thought: You don't say?

by cmdrmac

3/23/2026 at 1:28:09 AM

Right? What kind of person does not follow the news but subscribes to the State Department notifications?

by agnishom

3/23/2026 at 2:05:45 AM

All the people who decided to stay in the Middle East even when the second carrier group was en route, and then thought they were news worth enough to get on camera and comment about there being no commercial flights out of there.

by nandomrumber

3/23/2026 at 8:27:57 AM

"Americans", do they own the entire American continent?

by nisiddharth

3/23/2026 at 9:48:38 PM

They certainly behave as if they do.

by padjo

3/23/2026 at 1:21:14 AM

Crazy how effective at making everything worse this admin has been.

by mrbombastic

3/23/2026 at 1:31:31 AM

That's the strategy of Project 2025, make all the nice things we have much worse and broken so there's no choice but to scrap and start over. While they're in charge, of course.

by arvid-lind

3/23/2026 at 1:36:45 AM

Showing that government doesn't work by making sure government doesn't work.

by MengerSponge

3/23/2026 at 2:07:58 AM

Project 2025 and the Trump administration is the most success ant-growth movements have ever had.

by fundad

3/23/2026 at 3:37:14 AM

Horseshoe theory

by xnx

3/23/2026 at 1:31:38 AM

Trump is but a symptom of an underlying sickness. Things won't magically go back to normal after he dies.

by stackghost

3/23/2026 at 1:49:02 AM

Very few other people have Trump's ability to channel frustration in a nonspecific-but-charismatic way that connects the various extreme factions of the American right.

None of those factions will be gone, but their battles will weaken their cause more than they have since 2016.

Some of this can be seen by how even his own popularity falls any time he actually has power, since there are no effective ideas there, only misplaced blame, and that doesn't sustain support for four years. Without him there at all in an out-of-power period, the "blame the Jews"/"blame the brown people"/"blame the women"/"blame the baby-killers"/"blame the anti-Semites"/"blame the sexual deviants" factions will likely fail to find another person they all rally around.

by majormajor

3/23/2026 at 2:46:42 AM

The extreme factions of the right are a very small portion of the electorate. They generally don't decide elections beyond the primaries and generally turn out in favor of the right regardless.

Dems lean more on moderates/independents. Trump won because he persuaded that group, particularly the young men.

https://www.thirdway.org/memo/why-republicans-can-win-with-t...

by goosejuice

3/23/2026 at 3:07:42 AM

25-33% of the electorate is no small fraction. There's a group of people who have been consistently supportive of this government's policies since 2016. Take any policy survey, and the fraction that supports the right-wing side of action always amounts to a consistent 25-33% of the votes.

by fakedang

3/23/2026 at 4:47:37 AM

You're going to have to define extreme right with those percentages. You think 25-33% of the electorate is extreme right?

by goosejuice

3/23/2026 at 6:24:13 PM

Definitely MAGA, even if not violently far right.

by fakedang

3/23/2026 at 5:50:37 AM

While being largely correct, looking at his popularity misses the forest for the tree.

Trump is very much a symptom, not a cause. He is simply the kind of personality most fit for the media environment.

The media environment on the right has essentially eschewed journalistic standards for political and economic velocity.

Fringe theories get introduced during podcasts, which then get brought up by guests on Fox. Members of the government point out that the news media is talking about fringe theory X, which then gets repeated by the news media. Eventually the government opens up an investigation or creates a task force to address the issue.

It is not that people don’t come up with objections or counter narratives on the right, it’s just that they don’t get platformed.

Verification is the expensive part of journalism. If you eschew verification. You can be more efficient. Today the right is simply the more “efficient” political consensus manufacturing machine.

This is foundation upon which the rest of the events occur. This is why there will always be space for another character to appear.

by intended

3/23/2026 at 3:05:16 AM

> Trump's ability to channel frustration in a nonspecific-but-charismatic way

If Trump is the most charismatic political personality America has to offer...

by fakedang

3/23/2026 at 1:32:46 AM

Did someone say they would?

by malfist

3/23/2026 at 2:02:16 AM

Many liberal people think he is an abberation, they would gladly return back to "normal". The point is, he is a symptom of a larger unaddressed sickness, there is no return to business as usual, it will only return far worse.

To prompt with something more specific: there is a possibility of a Gavin Newsom vs. Tucker Carlson in 2028, it's crucial to understand why Tucker might win and why he would be ten times worse than Trump.

by lyu07282

3/23/2026 at 1:38:47 AM

Most people think Trump is the lynchpin, when in fact, its his masters that decide what happens next.

by greenavocado

3/23/2026 at 1:42:47 AM

Even if he was, a lot of things have been destroyed that will take a lot longer to rebuild. Notably, trust.

by andrewflnr

3/23/2026 at 1:41:36 AM

It would delay things, he has a "charisma" that his followers look like.

But it's true he is a symptom.

by stuaxo

3/23/2026 at 4:05:15 AM

He is not a symptom he is an actor that is playing a part in a script. He is manipulated, bullied, and blackmailed into submission.

by greenavocado

3/23/2026 at 2:43:51 AM

Having somebody less incompetent, senile, and corrupt at the helm may not make things "magically go back to normal," but it's a step in the right direction. Necessary but not sufficient.

Perhaps you'll be explicit though, what is the "sickness" you perceive?

by JeremyNT

3/23/2026 at 2:57:04 AM

>Perhaps you'll be explicit though, what is the "sickness" you perceive?

It's that a significant number of Americans are mean, selfish, racist, arrogant, and delight in the victimization of those they perceive as belonging to an outgroup.

2/3 of your electorate either voted for him (meaning they liked what they saw) or were sufficiently unbothered by him to not vote (meaning they were more or less okay with Trump).

These crocodile tears about how "we were bamboozled" are just that. It was plainly obvious to the rest of us looking in from outside, even before his first term but certainly after, that he was exactly the person he is now, and fully two thirds of American voters accepted this.

by stackghost

3/23/2026 at 10:01:13 AM

Has been the case for decades:

http://exiledonline.com/we-the-spiteful/

>The left won’t accept this awful truth about the American soul, a beast that they believe they can fix “if only the people knew the Truth.”

>But what if the Truth is that Americans don’t want to know the Truth? What if Americans consciously choose lies over truth when given the chance–and not even very interesting lies, but rather the blandest, dumbest and meanest lies? What if Americans are not a likeable people? The left’s wires short-circuit when confronted with this terrible possibility; the right, on the other hand, warmly embraces Middle America’s rank soul and exploits it to their full advantage. The Republicans know Americans better than the left. They know that it’s not so much Goering’s famous “bigger lie” that works here, but the dumber and meaner the lie, the more the public wants to hear it repeated.

by LeChuck

3/23/2026 at 2:01:49 PM

Today is MAGA, yesterday it was the "Tea Party" faction, before that it was something else, and tomorrow there will be another.

Every time there's a cycle of fringe-right blowing up in popularity, pushing an agenda and flaming out, it's still the same people they're appealing to who are voting for them.

by morkalork

3/23/2026 at 4:33:04 AM

The main problem with your thinking is that you fail to realiZe that a lot of conservatives criticism of Trump is that he is too weak on the things he promised to be hard on. They want MORE ICE, more cuts to government programs, more police.

by throwawaytea

3/23/2026 at 1:45:25 AM

It will be a lot harder to convince voters when he's gone... if the US still has elections

by michaelhoney

3/23/2026 at 2:50:11 AM

Why wouldn't it?

by nozzlegear

3/23/2026 at 3:40:06 AM

Trump has assured us there will be no need for them. I believe him. He lies a lot, but not about his own ambitions.

by CamperBob2

3/23/2026 at 2:49:33 AM

Could you enlighten the class as to what you believe the underlying sickness is?

by nozzlegear

3/23/2026 at 2:03:04 AM

America has neglected working class people for decades. The economy has shifted from supporting earning income to make a decent living, to protecting assets (bail outs etc.) Trump tapped into this and tricked these people into electing him, bringing along right wing or whatever they are.. and they got hold of power. Don't think numbers are there for this culture war crowd to stay in power unless they hitch a ride with someone. (edited: typo)

by jb827

3/23/2026 at 1:48:54 AM

[flagged]

by JPKab

3/23/2026 at 2:01:37 AM

> A totalitarian theocratic regime with long range ballistic missiles and nukes.

Man, imagine that, how scary. I bet in theocratic regimes there's a bunch of stupid stuff going on, like a ~Secretary~ Minister of ~War~ Defense that justifies an attack on a foreign nation by calling it a holy war and prays every time he gives a speech to the troops.

Those theocrats probably do things like de-funding every science project they can when they get power. Or worse, maybe they think vaccines are against god's will and get a bunch of kids sick by opposing vaccines for preventable diseases. Hell they probably don't even teach their kids about evolution or gay people.

Can you imagine if a nation like that had nuclear weapons and long range missiles? Why, they might start a war for no reason.

by solid_fuel

3/23/2026 at 2:33:11 AM

47 years? What a convenient sounding number. Wonder where you got it from.

by archagon

3/23/2026 at 1:54:31 AM

I honestly thought you were talking about the US in your first paragraph.

by jghn

3/23/2026 at 2:05:31 AM

[flagged]

by JPKab

3/23/2026 at 3:38:06 PM

I did assume you were being hyperbolic when writing it, but yes. I would think that anyone looking at the state of the US right now may see "A totalitarian theocratic regime with long range ballistic missiles and nukes" as referring to it.

Totalitarian: hyperbolic, but the state of the executive branch over the last couple of decades is moving things in that direction. And clearly one could say this to make a point.

Theocratic: A slight stretch, but mostly yes.

Long range ballistic missiles: check

Nukes: check

by jghn

3/23/2026 at 2:18:01 AM

Israel has killed more civilians than Russia and Iran combined.

I don’t think your concern for civilian casualties is genuine.

by awnird

3/23/2026 at 5:17:43 PM

The kind of whacky religiousness that you find in the US matters because of foreign policy, among other things. (There are also domestic things like right to abortion.) The US ambassador to Israel is a Zionist that talks about the Bible with Tucker Carlson as if should have any policy weight, because he believes so. There are other (Republican) politicians that say something like the US having a Biblical responsibility to support Israel.

> The narcissism of small differences on full display here.

And what is your pose, here? The selfishness of implicitly dismissing the foreign policy implications of American religious n*jobs because you don’t live in the affected countries?

by keybored

3/23/2026 at 4:12:59 AM

was this copy/pasted from a post from 30 years ago or was it typed up from scratch?

by bdangubic

3/23/2026 at 1:54:51 AM

You certainly built a large strawman out of one sentence.

by mrbombastic

3/23/2026 at 1:59:13 AM

Hey, you forgot “they hate us for our freedoms” in your propaganda spiel.

by awnird

3/23/2026 at 2:01:03 AM

Yeah it's a good thing we dismantled that regime and totally didn't empower the most extreme and radical portion of it while removing the politicians who'd tempered that and turned the population against the US and Israel.

But hey, at least we've lifted sanctions and we are now sending them even more money because the oil market was completely destroyed so that's great right?

Obviously this is the best strategy because we can see how the Taliban was completely dismantled in Afghanistan after 20 years of occupation right?

Unless you are proposing genocide of Iran or an eternal occupation, what we've done is kicked a hornets nest.

by cogman10

3/23/2026 at 2:29:38 AM

[flagged]

by TacticalCoder

3/23/2026 at 6:24:05 AM

I wish we could throw in a giant arena every person believing in "inherent evil", be it "of islamism" or "of zionism" or "of America", give them knives and books, and let them fight until they figure t out.

by rixed

3/23/2026 at 2:21:06 AM

I agree THAT ethno nationalist country in the middle east, with long-range ballistic missiles, secret nukes and a secret nuclear doctrine that hasn't signed any Non-Proliferation treaty should make everybody worried. But that country isn't Iran.

It's the only country in the world with nuclear weapons that at this moment gets bombarded by missiles right now, if that doesn't make you worried you aren't paying attention.

by lyu07282

3/23/2026 at 1:38:24 AM

Agreed. But also why are you speaking like Yoda?

by elromulous

3/23/2026 at 1:42:04 AM

They're not; they're speaking colloquially: this is the word "It's" omitted from the beginning.

---

*EDIT*: Corrected word. Lol.

by encrypted_bird

3/23/2026 at 2:39:28 AM

That's not what made it sound like Yoda. It was sticking "has been" at the end, and I agree there was a better choice stylistically: "Crazy how effective this admin has been at making everything worse."

by rdiddly

3/23/2026 at 2:45:17 AM

Didn’t even strike me as weird phrasing. Or rather: strike me as weird phrasing it did not.

by mrbombastic

3/23/2026 at 1:43:47 AM

"It's," perhaps?

by daemonologist

3/23/2026 at 1:51:24 AM

Yeah, nope, you're right. Not sure why my brain thought "The". Haha. I blame on the roughlu 2½ hours of sleep I got last night. Yay insomnia!

by encrypted_bird

3/23/2026 at 9:53:14 AM

There is a worldwide consensus that the American State should exercise increased caution.

by metalman

3/23/2026 at 6:48:10 AM

On the flip side, I _think_ there's actually less and less about Epstein visible, so I think WH is winning that war. Or at least successfully postponing battles.

by flowerthoughts

3/23/2026 at 1:11:00 AM

I am tired of winning.

by ceejayoz

3/23/2026 at 1:35:59 AM

winning what?

by fouc

3/23/2026 at 1:47:45 AM

One of President Donald Trump’s lines during the 2016 presidential campaign was his promise that, “We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, ‘Please, please. It’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore, Mr. President, it’s too much.’ And I’ll say, ‘No it isn’t. We have to keep winning. We have to win more!’”

https://www.c-span.org/clip/campaign-2016/user-clip-too-much...

Trump says US is 'winning so much' in longest ever State of the Union - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhQUGjRtq-M - February 25th, 2026

Hence the joke, "I am tired of winning." as the situation continues to rapidly degrade through policy choices. So much winning, it's too much.

by toomuchtodo

3/23/2026 at 1:17:11 AM

[flagged]

by calvinmorrison

3/23/2026 at 1:22:01 AM

Would you qualify complaining about starting an unnecessary war as "whining"? Why? What about ICE agents killing American citizens? Adding unprecedented numbers to the federal deficit, etc.?

How nice it must be to be able to just dismiss these things.

by jazzpush2

3/23/2026 at 1:26:06 AM

> How nice it must be to be able to just dismiss these things.

I don't know anyone in the US in real life who is happy with the current situation, including people who voted for Trump. The cheer leaders are only visible online.

The people who voted for Harris are saying "we told you so," and the others are saying "he conned us."

by SanjayMehta

3/23/2026 at 1:47:40 AM

I'm not sure where you live, but try going to some of the super-small towns in the Midwest. I unfortunately still see people openly wearing MAGA hats and have MAGA flags on the flag poles in their yards.

Trust me, as sad as it is, those people still exist.

by encrypted_bird

3/24/2026 at 1:33:32 AM

Not in the US, just reporting what I'm seeing on signal/WA groups consisting of mostly former classmates and colleagues. A sample size in the low hundreds. These are CA, OR and WA centric with exactly one guy in TN.

by SanjayMehta

3/23/2026 at 1:32:51 AM

For the people I know, it's mostly just been quiet silence, they don't really want to talk about it (and I don't force it). I know this is uncomfortable for them.

Outside that, what I've noticed in my area is a whole lot less trucks driving around with cartoonishly large American flags and pro-trump bumper stickers. Even homes that proudly flew the "Trump 2024" flags and flew the 2020 flags for a long time have taken those down.

Republicans here (Idaho) have been gleefully touching every 3rd rail (Medicaid, public school funding, public lands). I don't really have hope that the electorate will do anything about it, but who knows. I've never really seen such bold actions against the citizenry.

by cogman10

3/23/2026 at 1:46:42 AM

There are petty peevish folks too, to quote myself lately

October 2025

"I believe Trumps gutting of institutions of learning, culture, democracy, law is punishment for the Branch Covidians. I believe this punishment must continue for some time until the lesson is learned about abuse of power"

Should we reconcile this great nation, not balkanize, not be in an antebellum period, not be a Weimar republic, and walk back the rubicon and cross into more quiet waters, we must turn our attention to what made this country great. What has made it unique? That our constitution is explicit about what freedoms and rights are reserved for the people and are not to be trampled, touched, or looked at by the government. State, Local, or Federal. Our founding fathers and great men who preceded us recognized government as a necessary evil, one that must be kept at bay, not used as a violent tool to achieve outcomes. All of these institutions must walk back their power, give the rights back to the people, to be truly afraid of the populace. Each tax collector must shiver when he goes to work, and each police officer be fully aware that a single parking ticket is an act of violence.

All said, I am afraid, we have lost that. And now we must face the future hoping that someday, another group of smart men can realize something so unique, so right, so innately just and moral was achieved by the signing of the constitution that it must be tried again.

Calvin - 2022

by calvinmorrison

3/24/2026 at 5:17:35 AM

"Branch Covidians" is just buying into more Trumpist reality-rejecting nonsense. A president is supposed to lead us all through a crisis, not turn it into a needlessly divisive issue as if he doesn't know how to do anything but campaign.

Less than half the states had stay at home orders with the force of law ("lockdowns"). The states with the most authoritarian overreactions were red states full of social-media-addled nutters rebelling against reality - when citizens actively work to help spread a pandemic, is it any wonder that the bureaucrats respond even stronger in the only way they know how?

What reconciliation actually requires is for the maggots to take some responsibility and realize this is exactly where reactionary media has been leading them by the nose for the past four decades - destruction of the Constitutionally-limited government in favor of rule by unaccountable corporations. Signed, a libertarian who actually believes in those lofty ideals you're fallaciously invoking.

by mindslight

3/23/2026 at 1:31:11 AM

I don't understand the "he conned us" stance. He was literally saying all these things before getting elected. He wasn't being coy about it, we all knew it would be terrible, and here we are. What was the con exactly?

If there's one thing you can't accuse Trump of, it's ever masking how utterly nonsensical he is.

by stavros

3/23/2026 at 1:39:01 AM

Saying “he conned us” is easier for people to accept than being introspective, taking responsibility and experiencing ego dissolution.

by beedeebeedee

3/24/2026 at 5:31:16 AM

Grump said all of these things before getting elected, but he also said their exact opposites as well. That he can say blatant lies while having a "charisma" such that people hear what they want to hear is exactly how a con man operates. Hence, they were conned.

However, the responsibility still arises as half of their fellow citizens were telling them that they were being conned. But rather than listening to the critics they actively remained ignorant while gloating about "liberal tears" and so on.

by mindslight

3/23/2026 at 1:38:26 AM

i thought he was more anti-war

by pasquinelli

3/24/2026 at 1:38:15 AM

He was never anti-war. There are videos of him ranting about Kharg Island dating back to the 1980s. (I wonder if he had friends/relatives in the hostage crisis.)

by SanjayMehta

3/24/2026 at 1:36:18 AM

Don't know why you're getting downvoted, but I believe the con was the "no wars" line. He was supposed to stop the Ukraine war in 24 hours, remember but he seemed to just lose interest in it.

by SanjayMehta

3/23/2026 at 1:27:21 AM

I got jumped in Italy couple of weeks ago. I was wearing a "volleyball dad" hoodie my kid bought for me but did not realize that the "volleyball dad" is etched in the middle of a large American flag covering my entire back. Luckily (for him, not me :) ) three police officers were 10 meters away walking the area dealing with apre ski drunks and restrained him. fun times

by bdangubic

3/23/2026 at 1:36:36 AM

Crazy does and crazy do. Be vigilant and try not to set these people off. There's no rhyme or reason, some people are just faulty in the head.

by razodactyl

3/23/2026 at 11:20:47 AM

Sorry that happened to you, Italy has not been a safe place for tourists long before this administration.

What did the attackers say to you that told their intention was to harm you for having an American flag?

by mlrtime

3/23/2026 at 1:49:38 AM

r/thathappened

by lyu07282

3/23/2026 at 1:35:05 AM

oof I would not wear an American flag outside the country. We've hurt too many feelings. Like any good American though, a Canadian flag works.

by kylehotchkiss

3/23/2026 at 5:24:23 PM

I find avoiding legible and most "graphic" clothing, period, works great.

Plus it usually looks better.

Not sure why you need any flag on you.

by genthree

3/23/2026 at 1:41:56 AM

>Like any good American though, a Canadian flag works.

Please don't do this.

by stackghost

3/23/2026 at 6:39:38 AM

didn’t even know I was wearing it (honestly never even noticed anything other that “volleyball dad”) but rest assured I wore it every day for the rest of the trip

by bdangubic

3/23/2026 at 1:44:34 AM

people*

by nclin_

3/23/2026 at 2:58:21 AM

Didn't happen

by terminalshort

3/23/2026 at 5:59:30 PM

yes, this is exactly the kind of story one would be dreaming up to share, I think if one was to make up a non-existent story one would come up with a lot more "interesting" one that this one :)

by bdangubic

3/23/2026 at 1:43:26 AM

A small price for demonstrating that our El-Douche is always right and a stable genius.

by drgo

3/23/2026 at 4:10:08 AM

So the presidents personal law enforcement that is tasked with racially profiling people who overwhelmingly do not pose a threat are going to now be conducting security directly from the source where millions of foreign travelers come through…hmmm…ridiculous

by marysminefnuf

3/23/2026 at 1:53:38 AM

What the fuck was even the intended purpose of starting this war in Iran? Like in their mind, what was the best case scenario?

by tombert

3/23/2026 at 5:19:56 PM

1. Distracting from domEstic ProblemS. StarTing a rEgIoNal war is an effective way to do that.

2. Kidnapping Maduro made the rest of Venezuela's government roll over and play fetch, they are stupid enough to believe it would have worked again.

3. Israel says jump, GOP asks 'how high'?

4. There are no negative consequences to them killing people, driving the country into ruinous debt, or blowing up the American economy through higher energy prices. The drawbacks simply don't exist.

It's all upshot, zero downshot.

by vkou

3/23/2026 at 7:29:36 AM

Hegseth is a white christian nationalist with a crusades tattoo. Whatcha think the intended purpose is here? People said this was going to happen when he was nominated.

There's a christian prophecy involving israel occupying certain lands, a cow, and some other nonsense. A weirdly high number of Americans, mostly christians, believe it. There are a ton of them in the Trump admin.

by chneu

3/23/2026 at 5:55:31 AM

Remove Epstein from the news cycle?

by intended

3/23/2026 at 2:06:38 AM

[flagged]

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 2:25:16 AM

Maybe ripping up the international plan to keep Iran from gaining nuclear weapons during his first term wasn’t the best idea.

by macintux

3/23/2026 at 3:40:00 AM

That plan would have expired ten years after January 2016. In other words, already excited two months ago.

It was a ten year plan, not a permanent plan.

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 3:32:02 PM

That's still ten years of collaboration that could have built greater trust, led to a new agreement, or worst case provided enough evidence to take a more precise military action instead of bombing girls schools.

by macintux

3/23/2026 at 10:41:22 PM

Build greater trust? The Iranian regime's identity is based on anti-American rhetoric. They fund Hamas and Hezbollah because Israel is an American ally. They say this in their marches and their speeches and their rallies.

You are suggesting that these people change their entire identity to suit your notion that the world should be peaceful. Would you suggest that a metalhead not wear leather because you don't like loud music? Would you suggest that a gay man "be normal" because "God doesn't like gays"? Identity is not something you change in other people. Unless you're some colonial conquerer forcing your culture on others.

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 5:24:45 PM

Should nuclear weapons be kept out of the hands of people who threaten neighbouring and allied countries with military force? Who threaten distant countries with destruction if they don't comply with their demands, which change every day? Who have a support base that makes up 30%+ of the country, and chants absolutely insane shit at their rallies?

By any rational, third-party standard, such a country should not have nuclear weapons.

by vkou

3/23/2026 at 2:53:47 AM

But Trump already obliterated their nuclear capacity last year! Were they lying then or now?

by zzrrt

3/23/2026 at 2:43:17 AM

That’s going to age as well as weapons of mass destruction in Iraq did. The reality is that only Israel was threatened by Iran and the US is caught up in it simply because we act as their vassal.

by engcoach

3/23/2026 at 3:42:55 AM

Then how do you explain the rockets taking on Saudi Arabia? Baharain? UAE? Even Diego Garcia - which is further from Iran than Israel is. Just as far as Europe is. So they were only developing weapons that could target Israel?

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 9:43:40 PM

France has an ICBM system with a range of 10000 km. How do you explain it? Were they developing weapons to target the USA?

by donkeybeer

3/23/2026 at 9:50:57 PM

Well, it was more to target Soviet satellites in Latin America which might, in a foreseeable scenario, host Soviet missiles (also, to hit the Soviet Far East, which would be even more likely to host Soviet missiles.)

But it also wasn't not to have the capacity to target the US; if France implicitly trusted the US they wouldn't have opted out of the NATO unified military command for 43 years as well as developing their own nuclear deterrent.

by dragonwriter

3/24/2026 at 6:45:27 AM

I gave the example to show dotancohens absolutely ridiculous insinuation. All militaries always want to expand their capabilities. To say it somehow means Iran wants to target Europe is absolutely ridiculous.

by donkeybeer

3/23/2026 at 2:57:02 AM

The fact that Iran has now launched missiles at civilian areas in a dozen or so countries unrelated to the war shows that this is clearly false.

by terminalshort

3/23/2026 at 1:34:47 AM

why are common people paying for the incompetence of a gvt.

to not be political this lies at the heart of principles, morals, meritocracy

values that the current gvt lacks & things that drove america forward.

by dzonga

3/23/2026 at 1:45:31 AM

That's because the common people voted for the incompetent. Not being political either, of course.

by tremon

3/23/2026 at 1:54:38 AM

In what part of the world does the populace not suffer for the incompetence of their leaders? St. Petersburg? Ramallah? Port Au Prince?

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 2:12:30 PM

The obvious and flippant answer to that would be "the parts of the world that do not have incompetent leaders". But that will only lead to the incredulous claiming that all governments are equally incompetent (yet some are more incompetent than others) and that's not a discussion I'm inclined to entertain.

by tremon

3/23/2026 at 6:30:34 PM

I happen to agree with you on that point.

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 1:45:53 AM

People vote for the current government. I’m not sure why you would expect others’ to pay for americas internal messes, we’re already busy dealing with the external ones.

by hsbauauvhabzb

3/23/2026 at 2:59:54 AM

Because it's the government they voted in. Typical American take. Wanting no responsibility for the adverse effects of your decision.

by terminalshort

3/23/2026 at 3:14:02 AM

I'm American, I didn't vote for Trump, so I don't feel like it's me dealing with adverse effects of my decisions.

I did vote for Eric Adams in NYC, and while Eric Adams didn't advertise blatant corruption as part of his campaign, insofar that I can be blamed for his idiocy and bribes I will accept responsibility. I didn't vote for him the second time around and I feel foolish for voting for him the first time.

by tombert

3/23/2026 at 5:54:03 AM

Democracy is a collective thing. Americans may strongly believe in individualism, but democracy is a collective responsibility. Its kind of a key design feature.

by intended

3/23/2026 at 4:01:53 PM

I guess? I mean I actively did not want this president. I actively voted for someone else. I tried to get people to not vote for him, though I doubt I was successful at that task. I suppose I do still pay my taxes and as such I'm still kind of funding this stupid unnecessary war, but I don't think it's entirely fair to judge me just because I live in a country where demagoguery appears to be in vogue.

Don't get me wrong, I know I'll deal with the consequences of other people's bad decisions here, that's just the price of democracy (or whatever the hell we have in the US), but I have a hard time accepting that it's my fault since I did what little I could to stop it.

by tombert

3/23/2026 at 8:48:42 PM

[flagged]

by terminalshort

3/23/2026 at 9:18:54 PM

That's literally the opposite of what I said if you read the second paragraph.

I understand that ultimately I have to deal with the consequences of the group's action, not just mine. If the group decided to elect a convicted fraudster and alleged sex pest, I don't like it but that's just what I'll have to deal with. If something bad happens because of it, I don't have to like it but I have to deal with it. If something good happens, I probably will like it but I have to deal with it.

But I don't take responsibility for either the good or bad things that happened from a president I didn't vote for. If it turns out that Trump is actually much smarter than I think he is and everything ends up going swimmingly because of his seemingly-incompetent decision making, that would be great but I would concede that I did nothing to enable that. If something bad happens, I will also say I did nothing to enable that. It really isn't hypocritical.

by tombert

3/23/2026 at 2:25:53 AM

The federal government hasn't passed a budget because the Democrats are blocking it. They feel it's worth the political gamble to cause Americans pain and that it'll turn on Trump.

There you go - mystery solved.

by refurb

3/23/2026 at 1:40:02 AM

Trump wrecks everything he touches.

by UltraSane

3/23/2026 at 1:46:08 AM

Bankrupting a casino is a literal thing he did and also a pretty decent metaphor for what he's doing now.

by bradleyankrom

3/23/2026 at 1:43:36 AM

[dead]

by cindyllm

3/23/2026 at 1:16:44 AM

lol.

The current situation has been giving me so many flashbacks. Here, my GWB-era teens had the terror threat level, and now we're lazily reimagining State Department traveling warnings as a dark slapstick version (be afraid everywhere, American!)

by refulgentis

3/23/2026 at 1:27:15 AM

https://theonion.com/this-war-will-destabilize-the-entire-mi...

https://theonion.com/no-blood-for-oil-vs-exactly-how-much-oi...

by morkalork

3/23/2026 at 1:15:54 AM

[flagged]

by cdrnsf

3/23/2026 at 1:24:18 AM

[flagged]

by 1over137

3/23/2026 at 1:32:01 AM

Indeed, particularly given that ICE agents are going to be deployed to airports. Their penchant for killing civilians and otherwise violating civil rights only to lie about their actions hardly seems like a good fit for airport security duties they haven’t been trained to perform.

by cdrnsf

3/23/2026 at 1:45:28 AM

> duties they haven't been trained to perform

Which implies they've been trained?

by encrypted_bird

3/23/2026 at 2:37:31 AM

Fair, they haven’t. I wonder how long it will take them to use tear gas when the line at a Starbucks kiosk gets a little too long.

by cdrnsf

3/23/2026 at 3:19:58 AM

I fear the day when that happens.

by encrypted_bird

3/23/2026 at 1:53:54 AM

[dead]

by nandomrumber

3/23/2026 at 4:28:52 AM

[flagged]

by throwawaytea

3/23/2026 at 1:19:38 AM

[flagged]

by Arubis

3/23/2026 at 1:37:13 AM

I travelled to the US some weeks ago and was anxious but everything turned out ok. I'm happy I don't have to go back any time soon.

by pier25

3/23/2026 at 1:56:51 AM

[flagged]

by JPKab

3/23/2026 at 2:24:25 AM

I won't share personal details but you couldn't be more wrong.

by pier25

3/23/2026 at 1:58:50 AM

Or maybe he just got lucky.

Impossible to prove otherwise. No reason to try his luck.

by surgical_fire

3/23/2026 at 2:03:53 AM

[flagged]

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 2:19:48 AM

I worked in the Pentagon for 10 years, and got my beak wet with neural nets there very early, back when we were using Playstation 3s for their GPUs.

I was staunchly against the Iraq war, but even when Bush was president I didn't let it compromise my patriotism.

The amount of people on here who ignore the fact that Iran was the primary enabler of Hamas' attack on 10/7/23, and therefore sowed the seeds of the destruction of Gaza, is insane. Basically, if Trump does a thing, they are against it, independent of the thing. There is no principle, just reactionary hatred. If Biden had launched this war, none of these people would have had a problem with it. I am 100% positive on that assumption.

by JPKab

3/23/2026 at 2:33:28 AM

It seems like about 20% of people judge the actions of a us administration independent of their partisan positions. I am recently joined and cannot claim it is from any virtue on my part. A backlash against an attempted autocratic takeover is a common starting point for successful ones by an opposing party. Leftist autocratic coups are only slightly rarer than rightist ones. We are in the middle of an attempted rightist one, but that doesn't mean we are safe if we remove them.

by galangalalgol

3/23/2026 at 2:41:12 AM

>If Biden had launched this war, none of these people would have had a problem with it. I am 100% positive on that assumption.

I think you're wrong here. As a Biden stan who's gone to the mat debating Biden's policies here on HN many times in the past, he lost pretty much all of the remaining good will he had by defending and supporting Israel for so long after it became clear what they were doing in Gaza. Biden wouldn't be getting a free pass in the Middle East if it were helping Israel's goals (ignoring the fact that Biden is much more of a dove than Trump).

by nozzlegear

3/23/2026 at 2:48:45 AM

> Basically, if Trump does a thing, they are against it, independent of the thing.

Because on top of doing terrible things, the non-terrible things he does, he does incredibly badly.

> There is no principle, just reactionary hatred.

No, we’re all good little Bayesians around here.

> If Biden had launched this war, none of these people would have had a problem with it.

You’re really missing what’s going on here. The reason that people liked Biden is that he would not have launched this war.

by mcphage

3/23/2026 at 3:26:11 AM

> The reason that people liked Biden is that he would not have launched this war.

No, they liked him because he wasn’t Trump. And then they liked Trump more after having him.

by what

3/23/2026 at 4:06:54 PM

I liked Biden because he's a genuinely good statesman, with decades of experience building bipartisan relationships (some admittedly bad, most good) both domestically and internationally. I didn't vote against Trump in 2020, I voted for Biden. And you can bet your sweet bippy that I'd do it again.

by nozzlegear

3/23/2026 at 11:56:12 AM

> And then they liked Trump more after having him.

And it only cost them their country. Not bad!

by mcphage

3/23/2026 at 3:04:29 AM

I highly disagree, one clear thing conservatives and liberals largely agree on is no more wars in the Middle East. It’s astonishing to me that Trump supporters who voted for an isolationist policy are happy with him intervening in the Middle East (not to mention South America) again.

Yes, I am “reactively” hating our president for starting wars without congressional approval and with very handwavy explanations. Besides, he has a track record for saying whatever the fuck he wants if he thinks people will like it, so you can’t trust the words from his mouth anyways. It’s pretty infuriating, actually.

I would be much happier if there was a clear justification and rational explanation for the president starting more wars in the Middle East. And yes, because Biden has a slightly better baseline of not telling bold-faced lies, I could see more people giving the benefit of the doubt at first. But overall, liberals did not like Biden very much. Trump, on the other hand, has a pretty hardcore base of people who don’t seem to care what he says or that he does/says the opposite of what he used to say. Pretty weird.

By the way, this opinion is not formed by reading or listening to any kind of mainstream media. It’s formed from listening to the words coming out of Trump’s mouth for the past fucking decade.

by anon7000

3/23/2026 at 3:47:59 AM

If "no more wars in the middle east" means that America can not protect herself from a nation that regularly chants Death To America, then it really means "I'd rather see America as a society fail than stand up and defend myself".

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 2:07:12 PM

Words are violence!!!

Chanting for death to any country or religion is not violence dude. Until and actually Iran launches an attack on the USA.

Iran didn't start this war, America and Israel did, while right in the middle of a pretend negotiation with them.

I believe this is a strong sign that any time Israel or America are asking to negotiate with any country, they should prepare a full scale military action ready for the real "negotiation".

edit: Are you a dual citizen? Everyone has a right to free speech of course and to support or not support any country or cause. But if you feel so strongly about a foreign country, why don't you be honest with yourself and pick a lane. I say this to everyone, not just Israeli, but Chinese, Dutch, any other dual citizens.

by donkeybeer

3/23/2026 at 4:38:48 PM

You are correct, words are not violence.

Arming the Huthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, and various Iraqi militias _is_ violence. When an aggressor with a history of violence says that they are coming for you next, it is prudent to believe them. Iran has been chanting Death To America and Death To Israel for decades. They have been attacking Israel and are developing technology to attack the United States. It is the United States' responsibility to ensure that the attack will not come.

Claiming that Iran is not violent is a lie. Promoting the idea that the US should wait to be attacked first is a nice way to allow Iran to arm properly and ensure US interests are sufficiently harmed.

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 4:56:00 PM

Most importantly, Iran has always complied with audits to its nuclear program. I would much more urgently worry about the only country in the middle east that lies about having nukes, refuses to get them audited and continually starts wars with anyone and everyone, and proclaims everything under the sun as "antisemitism" and then gins up military action against supposed "antisemites" whenever it can. Hundreds of illegal nukes in the hands of such a volatile entity are grounds for immense world wide existential concern.

by donkeybeer

3/23/2026 at 6:28:21 PM

I know who you are implying, so go ahead and mention a single war that they have started.

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 8:41:53 PM

This very war being one?

by donkeybeer

3/23/2026 at 10:45:17 PM

This very war that began with Iranian agents invading Israel, taking hostages, beheading people, raping women, murdering the elderly in their homes?

By what conceivable measure do you think Israel started it?

by dotancohen

3/24/2026 at 3:08:11 AM

You are extremely confused. Gaza is not Iran.

by donkeybeer

3/24/2026 at 3:55:50 AM

The Gazans are armed by Iran. Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for Palestine Liberation, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Popular Resistance Committee, the Mujahideen Brigades, and the Islamic Republic all claim this.

by dotancohen

3/24/2026 at 6:34:48 AM

Then likewise why shouldn't dozens of countries across the world launch invasions against the USA due to the USA sponsoring countless terroristic proxies around the world. If "Iran" did oct 7th then America did 9/11, America did the contras massacres, America did Saddam Hussein chemical attacks.

by donkeybeer

3/23/2026 at 4:54:22 PM

Iran is violent...to its own people yes. If we want to play the proxy game then there is an unending list of proxies used by the USA all over the world to commit terrorism and war. Then by that the USA and Israel should be nuked multiple times over in proportion with the extreme level of proxy violence they commit. Since you haven't said this about the USA, then I will have no choice but to say you are lying about Iran and applying a different standard.

by donkeybeer

3/23/2026 at 6:29:42 PM

I'll bite. Maybe I'm ignorant. Who are the US proxies committing terrorism and war?

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 8:37:28 PM

You really don't know about Contra? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contras

It was a really massive thing.

or the Mujahiddeen.

Oh look, the list is so long there's an entire article about it, fun:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_state-sponso...

So tell me, if Israel is justified in invading Iran due to alleged proxies of Iran attacking them, would you agree that all these countries should invade the United States?

by donkeybeer

3/24/2026 at 12:30:09 AM

Alright, help me out on this.

The Contras were anti-Marxist central American revolutionaries, yes? The Marxists overthrew the president of Nicaragua, and the US supported them, along with other nations. Israel is mentioned as being an ally, but is not mentioned in any other capacity in the article. The US was funding them with arms sold to Iran, in the hope that Iran would pressure Hezbollah to release American hostages. The Contras were found to be terrorists, that the CIA claimed were due to poor discipline, and then the Contra leader was executed.

Did I get that right? Seriously fill in the blanks for me, the Wikipedia page seems written for somebody who already knows the story. I also read part of the linked Iran-Contra page hoping it would shed some light.

by dotancohen

3/24/2026 at 3:11:11 AM

Yeah "poor discipline" /s. It was well known what the Contras were engaging in. And they are far from the only terrorist group the USA has actively sponsored. I do not think Israel is involved in this. These were examples of America funding and supporting terrorism all over the world. So if you say that Iran deserved to be invaded despite not having physically attacked anyone else but due to supposed proxy agents activities, then what should countries do to the USA who has funded much larger and worse terrorist networks?

by donkeybeer

3/24/2026 at 3:48:05 AM

Was the intention of the United States, when funding the Contras, specifically to murder people? Did the United States publicly support and legitimise murder, rape, and hostages as a political tactic?

Serious question. I don't see any evidence they did.

by dotancohen

3/24/2026 at 6:08:45 AM

Would you be asking about intent if the end result of some "well intentioned" program was the murder of thousands of jews and terrorism all over Israel? Do you ask about intent for example when speaking of the deaths caused by well intentioned Soviet communism?

And I have given a much longer list than just the contras, where you can't even hide behind "but the origins were noble", they supported already terroristic entities.

by donkeybeer

3/23/2026 at 2:35:39 AM

[flagged]

by surgical_fire

3/23/2026 at 3:45:20 AM

Yes, Hamas had been shooting rockets at Israel for almost two decades by that point.

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 8:23:10 AM

Probably for no reason whatsoever.

by surgical_fire

3/23/2026 at 2:11:12 PM

Probably because the destruction of the state of Israel is clearly stated in the Hamas charter. As is massacre of Jews.

If you don't know this, then you probably shouldn't have such strong opinions on the topic.

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 2:42:34 PM

Yes, nothing to do with the interference on Iran from the US since the coup in 1953.

Nothing to do with how aggressive and expansionist Israel has been since its inception, not to mention how it abuses and oppresses the Palestinian population.

If you don't know this, then you probably should cut your bullshit.

Who am I kidding? Of course you know this. You just choose to ignore it.

by surgical_fire

3/23/2026 at 6:27:09 PM

  > Nothing to do with how aggressive and expansionist Israel has been since its inception,

Israel has been expansionist only during active wars started by her neighbours. Arabs kill people, Jews counter by taking the land used to kill her citizens, and people like you decide that land is more important than life.

Then when Arabs invade Israel, and publish maps of areas they have considered, and Israel goes in to rescue her hostages, suddenly life is more valuable than land and Israel is at fault again.

  > not to mention how it abuses and oppresses the Palestinian population.

The only oppression the Palestinians have suffered at the hands of Israel are measures that Israel has taken to defend her citizens. The Palestinians themselves will tell you that they suffer far more from their own leaders and from the neighbouring Arab states, than from Israel.

by dotancohen

3/23/2026 at 2:23:57 AM

[flagged]

by nandomrumber

3/23/2026 at 2:30:23 AM

What is “white culture”?

I re-flagged OP.

by archagon

3/23/2026 at 3:38:00 AM

[flagged]

by TheSpiceIsLife

3/23/2026 at 3:58:41 AM

What do you mean by European? Because as someone with Slavic heritage, I'd rather you excluded my culture from your offensively aggregated "Western European" culture. You don't get to claim Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, and Solzhenitsyn just because the color of our skin has a similar shade. In terms of religion, the Orthodox Church only has surface-level overlap with Evangelical Protestantism. And much like the Irish, Polish, and other "less desirable" European ethnicities, we weren't even considered fully white until sometime in the 20th century.

Europe is a massive melting pot, not some single, monolithic "culture." In fact, I have much more in common with my Latino neighbors than the WASPs having conniptions over the purported decline of "white culture."

> the end of slavery

Lol, lmao. Well, it's pretty obvious what fetid corners of the web you lurk in.

by archagon

3/24/2026 at 1:43:19 AM

Please don't respond to an inflammatory comment with another inflammatory comment. Flamewars about the relative merits of racial/cultural groups is the kind of bottom-of-the-barrel internet dreck that we're most trying to avoid here. Please don't perpetuate it even if it's others who've started it.

by tomhow

3/23/2026 at 6:24:32 AM

[flagged]

by TheSpiceIsLife

3/24/2026 at 1:41:17 AM

You've been on HN long enough to know that this kind of discussion is not what HN is for. This comment breaks these guidelines:

Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.

Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

by tomhow

3/24/2026 at 1:53:46 AM

[flagged]

by TheSpiceIsLife

3/24/2026 at 1:58:36 AM

Yes, we uphold the guidelines no matter what “side” the commenter is on, and yes, we flag/kill comments and warn or ban users who engage in battle over race or religion, regardless of who they’re for or against. Stop poisoning HN with this kind of rhetoric and stop trying to deflect from your own disrespect of this site and its guidelines. The whole reason HN is something anyone thinks is worth defending is that we have guidelines and we uphold them consistently, regardless of topic or side. If you want to participate here, we need you, like everyone, to make the effort to raise the standards rather than drag them down.

by tomhow

3/23/2026 at 6:35:09 AM

On the one hand, I do know where you're coming from, on the other ...

  White European culture [..] including [..] Australia, Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe before they turned to shit.

  Freedom of expression, not executing gays or hunting them for sport; the end of slavery,

Congrats, you've named places that in my lifetime have had effective slavery (stolen generations, imposed domestic servitude) and the freedom to hunt and execute gays (illegal, but common and commonly overlooked).

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_gang_murders (in an about Sydney since the 1970s)

by defrost

3/24/2026 at 1:58:47 AM

I’m from Adelaide, so I’m well aware of the gay bashing and “suicides” that happened in Australia.

But as you put it: had

We’re not still doing those things, are we? And if they do happen we’re going we’re not turning a blind eye to them, are we?

by TheSpiceIsLife

3/24/2026 at 4:00:42 AM

Up thread you were metaphorically salivating over times past:

  White European culture, and including the USA, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe before they turned to shit.

and positively proud of

   I’m white, and I’m proud of what my ancestors have accomplished.

So, it's not about what we have come to _now_, it's the bald fact that you're seemingly onboard with times past:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Generations

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coniston_massacre

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinjarra_massacre

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid

etc.

by defrost

3/23/2026 at 1:57:53 PM

There was absolutely no reason to flag my comment, other than the fact that you disagree with it because it penetrates your Bay Area bubble of distorted reality.

I don't know what the comment you are replying to was talking about, and I agree that "white culture" is an absurd false construct, because "white" is a false construct. I understand flagging stuff like that, but nothing in my comment warranted it. I expressed a logical opinion. The percentage of people in the United States present on legal visas getting caught up by ICE is near-zero. It's an entirely propagandistic narrative to suggest otherwise, based entirely on motivated reasoning.

And before you label me a bigot or whatever to feed your sense of moral superiority, be aware that I'm the only "white" person in my household, and I'm also, by far, the most "liberal". Outside of the Bay Area, a lot of people of color like my wife and her family absolutely despise your politics, viewing them as luxury beliefs.

My politics are basically identical to Garry Tan's, but you've lost the plot so much that you felt a need to flag my comment.

by JPKab

3/23/2026 at 1:43:55 AM

[flagged]

by honeycrispy

3/23/2026 at 1:22:35 AM

[flagged]

by wileydragonfly

3/23/2026 at 1:20:42 AM

When do we expect Iranians to actually attack US military bases outside the middle east? I heard there were already drones flying over bases in the US: https://wjla.com/news/local/unidentified-drones-fly-over-for...

by readitalready

3/23/2026 at 1:26:18 AM

They technically have:

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/iran-fires-missiles-remot...

by cj

3/23/2026 at 2:15:52 AM

NATO says they can't confirm this Israeli claim: https://aje.news/ohi6b8?update=4425189

And Iran denies it as well: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2035477318055985648

Makes you wonder who really did launch those missiles?

by readitalready

3/23/2026 at 2:33:01 AM

Iran's source is the one who said they did it in the first place :facepalm: and it was confirmed by UK

As soon as they felt like denying it would be better for them they did and took down https://en.mehrnews.com/ where it was published. Unless you say mehr was defaced and the news were planted by Mossad

by throwaway290