Originally Posted by
ORAC
Whew, for a moment, I was concerned there was no plan, not just no prospect of a plan that may have existed actually working as advertised.
Iran hasn't struck Botswana, Heard Island or Djibouti yet, but it is early in the day so, never say never.
I should prefer the plan where we line up the current crop of politicians and leaders, add a bit of negative buoyancy and get them to enter deep water to at least find application as fish food. That is only one suggestion, a 'gator farm would also suffice.
Seems to me that while ruminating over 2000 year old manuscripts that portray the same events and yet appear to arrive at conflicting conclusions anyway, is a really weird abrogation of responsibility to behave like an adult rather than a petulant child that throws their dummy out of the cot to garner some attention and to achieve their immediate aims. At least the child in the cot has an aim; plonking par avion rowdy stuff into Azerbaiyadayada seems to be obtuse.
Had thought that Vlad had already made the position clear that there was stuff all intelligent life in the universe, there being a distinct lack of it in the Kremlin, White House and sundry other halls of wisdom. When the responsible adult turned out to be Boris Johnson, you gotta wonder if we stepped into a parallel universe some time back.
The grand plan of Iran is to...
1. Repeat the glory of 80-88...?
2. Plink the back of young girls heads who take exception to wearing a Klingon Cloaking device as some male decided that was a brill idea, after all, the guys don't wear the same device...
3. Smoke your neighbours as that has always ended well...
4. Incentivise your population into reverting to the Stone Age...
5. Increase demand for prosthetics.
The argument that having defence leads to conflict, ergo no defence is the best defence seems to have run its course. Previously Gavvy Princip had shown that the law of unintended consequences probably should be considered before going out and enacting fantasies. Plinking the HOS of a nation not known for rational thought for the last 50 years just seems to be a bit.... silly, in hindsight. Seems to me that someone pulling levers is making a side bet that the demand for uranium from every country in the world from Monte Carlo, to the Maldives will increase as it becomes apparent that the only effective way to keep the peace is by having the means to mess in the rice bowl of the other team. If that was the learning point of messing with Irans efforts to set aside some buckets of sunshine for rainy days, then, well done! (being an existential threat does not obviate the need for the other player to defend against existential threats).
Personally, I find camomile tea helps understand the grand strategy that we observe in practice.