BREAKING: Israel Reportedly Believes Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Has Been Killed

[Pooky 4,062]

11 hours ago, Dashinka said:

I thought the Iranian regime already had some of those?

My understanding was that they had S-300s and may have had S-400s, the ones the U.S. fell with Turkey over, but the S-500s are new.

[TBoneTX 49,571]

This makes sense, and a good link to "Foreign Policy" is included.

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Trump Confounds Critics Again

 

President Donald Trump has once again confounded his many critics by agreeing to a two-week ceasefire in the war against Iran, after threatening to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age and end a civilization.

On the right, former Trump supporter and former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said that Trump had gone "insane."  Andrew Day in The American Conservative suggested that Trump might use nuclear weapons against Iran.  Bruce Fein characterized Trump's attacks on Iran as "unconstitutional" and "criminal."  Steven Simon in Responsible Statecraft accused Trump of threatening genocide in Iran.

On the left, Sen. Chuck Schumer said [...]

 

https://spectator.org/trump-confounds-critics-again/

[TBoneTX 49,571]

Fascinating insights, and see Iran's 10-point demand.

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How China helped seal Trump's 11th-hour Iran truce

 

[...] As the clock ticked, even Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said: "Only the president knows where things stand and what he will do."

 

Behind the scenes, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president's peace envoys, as well as JD Vance, the vice-president, were working furiously alongside some of Pakistan's top diplomats to find a solution.

Mr Witkoff is said to have a direct channel of communication with Iranian officials including Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister.

 

But on the other side, another superpower was talking to Iran.  China had been pushing for an end to the conflict for weeks, with Wang Yi, its foreign minister, engaging in dozens of conversations with his counterparts across the Middle East as well as in Russia.

According to China's foreign ministry, Mr Wang made a total of 26 phone calls with "parties including Iran, Israel, Russia and the Gulf states".

Ultimately, it was China that nudged Tehran over the line.  [...]

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/11th-hour-us-iran-ceasefire-031843370.html

[Pooky 4,062]

11 minutes ago, TBoneTX said:

On the left, Sen. Chuck Schumer said [...]

Flibble bibble bibblety blurp, dooble frumplety bortleskin. ☠️

[TBoneTX 49,571]

5 minutes ago, Pooky said:

Flibble bibble bibblety blurp, dooble frumplety bortleskin. ☠️

Mimicking NB-language!  Reported!!!!!

[TBoneTX 49,571]

This is truly insightful -- I was spellbound through the whole thing.

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It May Not Be a Ceasefire.  It Might Be a Strategic Pause.

 

I could spend a lot of this column musing about the absolute whiplash gripping the American and global commentariat surrounding the announcement of a ceasefire in the Iran War Tuesday evening.  Instead, I'm going to let Ace of Spades knock that out for us, because his treatment of the instant pivot from Trump The Barbarian Civilization Killer to Trump The Cowardly P____ Who Caved To Iran was as good as I've seen:

Remember, the "smart people" are also the "thoughtful" and "responsible" people.  They have all the answers, they'll tell you.  They definitely do not simply spam out random disingenuous claims completely incompatible with each other as the day's news cycle might require.

David Strom wrote about this.  I've seen it all over myself.

The "nuke" thing was absurd.  Trump threatened to use a top-secret conventional weapon the world had never seen before.  What was it?  I dunno.  Maybe some kind of non-nuclear EMP to take out the power plants without harming the child human shields Iran stuffed them with?  At no point did he threaten or imply a threat to use a nuke.

Now I might think "Trump is making up some secret uber-weapon," but then again, Delta Force does seem to have unleashed absolute top-secret Sci-Fi weaponry in the Venezuela Snatch-and-Stash operation.

But he never hinted at a nuke.

But the "reasonable," "responsible," "thoughtful" people — you know, the really "smart" people you can rely upon for their intelligence and probity and smooth emotional restraint — all just went on twitter and did what they usually do, shriek lies that no one including themselves believes.  [...]

 

https://spectator.org/it-may-not-be-a-ceasefire-it-might-be-a-strategic-pause/