Whether it was due to the early hour of the day or just to the blood-thirsty nature of the moment, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared particularly unhinged during the first official news ...

Whether it was due to the early hour of the day or just to the blood-thirsty nature of the moment, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared particularly unhinged during the first official news …

  • mcv@lemmy.zip
    78·
    4 days ago

    No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise, no politically correct wars.

    No democracy, no nation building. So what is the actual goal here? Just to shoot stuff for its own sake?

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
      641·
      4 days ago

      Now I’m hearing that the commanders all gave their troops a speech about doing this for God and Christianity, etc., so it seems like the primary motivation was to kick off the End Times for the religious freaks.

      So we’re in it until The Rapture. Our entire world has to burn down to satisfy the fantasies of delusional religious weirdos, so the Sociopathic Oligarchs can comb through the rubble for treasure.

      How about we just Rapture the entire MAGA leadership, and move on?

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
          23·
          4 days ago

          No god worth worshipping would condone their actions. I stand by the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius, that I will live a moral life and reject any god that has a problem with it. Killing to kill is the mandate of an evil god.

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
          9·
          4 days ago

          I understand. Whenever one of these psychopaths assume room temperature, I’m always slightly sad that I don’t believe in their mythology.

          When Dick Cheney croaked, I remember thinking that it would be really nice to be able to smile at the thought of him having his Welcome Orientation in Hell. Instead, I was just sad for the person who didn’t get a heart because Cheney took it.

    • aquovie@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      7·
      3 days ago

      “Democracy” and “nation building” is just “occupation” by another name. So I guess we can take some comfort in that not being their goal?

      • duncan_bayne@lemmy.worldEnglish
        41·
        3 days ago

        Sometimes. It can be done honorably and with good outcomes; Japan and Germany post-WW2 are good examples.

        • mcv@lemmy.zip
          2·
          3 days ago

          Those are the good examples, and they worked very well. But ever since, the US seems to think they can replicate the effect by going in, bombing the place, shooting some locals, and declaring mission accomplished.

        • aquovie@lemmy.cafeEnglish
          1·
          3 days ago

          There are very few absolutes in life. War is bad, until you need to kill some Nazis. Occupation is bad, until you tread that fine line between Treaty of Versailles (too heavy) and 1800’s Reconstruction (too light). Statistically, you’re almost certainly not doing the right thing.

    • masta_chief@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      I have a feeling it’s as simple as wanting to use all the toys they’ve spent trillions on over the years and just want to see big explosions and play war.

      Imagine if our society provided taxpayer funded paintball/airsoft/bomb ranges so all these warmongers can get their rocks off without hurting people.

      • mcv@lemmy.zip
        2·
        3 days ago

        So just shoot the place up, see what comes out, and then declare that that was the goal all along.

        • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
          1·
          3 days ago

          Yeah, pretty much. I think they’re really hoping for Syria, but I’m not sure they can achieve that, Iran is a much more unified country.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
      4·
      4 days ago

      Also, bold move to more or less openly defy the American ideals. The moral justification for a lot of what we’ve done is to further the cause of democracy. I don’t think starting a war to bring democracy is necessarily the right decision, but starting a war and not even trying to spread democracy with it is un-American (derogatory)

      • mcv@lemmy.zip
        1·
        4 days ago

        I thought the whole reason for this was the fact that Iran has killed and imprisoned record numbers of protesters. That sounds to me like regime change is the goal here, but perhaps I’m wrong.

        I certainly don’t think they’ll ever succeed in bringing democracy (US track record is atrocious there), but at least it’d be nice if they pretended to try.

    • Gates9@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      Balkanization I think, but I don’t think that will happen because Iran has been a pretty cohesive country for thousands of years. So I suspect Trump will back down, or there will be a multi decade regional war, or there will be a world war.