alt.hn

8/20/2026 at 5:44:36 PM

Why does the U.S. military seem stymied in the war with Iran?

 https://www.npr.org/2026/08/19/nx-s1-5937516/why-does-the-u-s-military-seem-stymied-in-the-war-with-iran

by colinprince

8/20/2026 at 6:40:36 PM

Because there is no achievable win condition, and there never was. Starting this war was equivalent to losing it.

by hotdog1492

8/20/2026 at 7:51:40 PM

It really illustrates how a lot of historic decisions were essentially arbitrary. The powerful just do things all the time for no concrete reason. Almost nothing can truly affect them.

by tencentshill

8/21/2026 at 9:45:41 AM

Some say this war was started to distract from the Epstein files issue.

by cake-rusk

8/21/2026 at 12:56:41 AM

[dead]

by ksudb

8/20/2026 at 6:45:03 PM

The logistics required to win intercontinental wars against a reasonably large and well-defended country are simply beyond human organisational capabilities and it's only getting harder as defence gets better and easier, and the world becomes more interconnected.

Israel have Monkey's Pawed themselves. They wanted Trump to win because they knew he would be malleable to start a war in Iran. But he's also Trump, which means every decision he makes comes with a big asterisk.

by dreambuffer

8/20/2026 at 7:58:22 PM

The logistics required to win intercontinental wars against a reasonably large and well-defended country are simply beyond human organisational capabilities

But the Trump admin was using AI, which has no cognitive biases, no 5 +/-2 working memory limit, and a very large short term memory. They should have the ability to do this.

by bediger4000

8/20/2026 at 6:41:34 PM

there's a lot of debate and little evidence that airpower alone normally produces a durable political outcome

or even a military one.

by sorokod

8/20/2026 at 9:05:39 PM

Meanwhile whole warships of sailors are getting mentally wrecked. Heck of a job, Donnie.

If they had a cause to fight for, they'd probably have more resilience, but it's just a ship being swayed bu the back-and-forth of moronic decision-making.

by netsharc