Iran war tensions reach Paris with failed bombing attempt

This feels straight out of a BoJack Horseman episode.

I'm so happy for the few that are about to discover this gem here about Barbara's rubharb barbarian bar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG62zay3kck Look up Bodo Wartke's version too.

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Now look at it from AQs standpoint. They had a good run of major attacks against the US, and were rock stars in the jihad world. After 9/11, the bulk of them were killed, they lost funding and influence to ISIS (a rival). The Saudi govt is still in power (Bin Ladens main target), and the US massively expanded its footprint into the middle east. Israel is not only stronger today, but most of the region has somewhat normalized relations with them. You can absolutely argue the US spent trillions to gain little, and far too many people killed and hurt. But AQ lost badly. Their entire goal was to get the US out of the middle east so that they could overthrow the Saudi family and establish a caliphate (a la ISIS), and to jump from that to finally getting rid of Israel and America's support for it. They got nothing that they wanted.

That’s a fine outcome for terrorists who only care about weakening the West but it wasn’t a good outcome for the states involved and it won’t be for Iran. Especially the leaders who in this scenario are baiting the West into an involved invasion.

The US has the strongest grip over the Middle East that it has ever had. Iran is the last hold out, every other enemy has either fallen or been neutralized as a serious threat. After Iran falls, US dominance of the Middle East will be final. From this perspective, yeah the war on terror actually looks like a massive strategic win for the US. The US is wealthier and more dominant than ever before. If you think the national debt is a sign of failure, you don’t understand what capital actually is at the end of the day.

I think like with vaccines people just forget the severity of the original threat. They had escalated from bombing the USS Cole to 9/11 in a short period of time, demonstrating their global reach and coordination. They had an alliance with Jemaah Islamiah (a South East Asian terrorist group). They had anthrax labs in Afghanistan. The plot for massive bomb attack on Singapore was foiled in late 2001 immediately after 9/11, but the Bali Bombing attack was not, killing 202 people, mainly targeting Westeners. It was only by cooperation by all countries (Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand) that the Singapore bomb plot was foiled. Malaysia elected to incarcerate their 9/11 linked terrorist locally and the US were happy enough with that outcome (usually they get tortured in a CIA black site before ending up in Guantanamo Bay). Saudi Arabia provided a lot of the initial surveillance which led to tracing down all the 9/11 conspirators leading to them beig exposed in the AQ / JI summit in Malaysia. Afghanistan of all countries chose to shelter AQ so they made it their headquarters. If there was a huge anthrax attack on the London Underground or some other dense city center we would be angry that our leaders didn't act sooner.

That debt doesn’t matter to the county.. They’re positioned as the world police at this point.  That debt will never be called on, it’s the cost of the military giant they became.  It’s the big stick diplomacy in action.    Rosevelt started that push with us, and it’s been the backbone of what holds our economy up post WWs. We moved from the gold standard and the only real backing to the USD was military might and the promise of the county not failing.. due to a strong military.  POTUS is just a loud one right now.  He’s using the stick and yelling while doing it.   I mean, this Iran stuff has been what 40+ years on going now? I have Navy vets from the 80/90s telling me that Iran always ran fast ships across their paths and x y and z during their days serving and going to the Gulf. Pretty much what I’m saying is it isn’t about the “victories” it’s for the agenda.  It’s been brewing for a long time, and it’s the funnel for the war machine.  It gets the money flowing since we’re not backed by gold, we’re backed by our actions now..  Honestly, it’s terrible.  That’s the world we live in now though! 

Yeah, Osama bin laden achieved everything he was after.

I agree with this, but it's also ridiculous. Not your comment here but listnook arguing that Iran is playing a smart long game. Iran's official statements should be viewed with as much eye rolling as Trumps BS. Tough talking hardliners on TV where the reality on the ground is different. As of now nobody has opened the Straight so Iran still has a massive amount of influence. At the same time they are being openly bombed round the clock and can't stop that from happening. There's been no shortage of comments on here the past few weeks about Israel running g out of interceptor missiles, and that's very fair. I've seen very few mentioning Iran will also have logistic problems from shooting so many missiles, as well as having their stock and launch sites bombed for several weeks. Disclaimer that I'm not writing this "yelling at you". Just pointing out this place has come up with some ... interesting takes the past few weeks that don't make a lot of sense, and plenty have been convinced it's "obvious".

Paris. American