Quote:

(02-28-2026, 11:26 PM)putnam6 Wrote: r. Maalouf ‏It’s 1 AM in Iran right now and everyone is out in the streets celebrating.

Iranians deserve a life with freedom. 

(02-28-2026, 07:39 PM)Ninurta Wrote:

(02-28-2026, 06:34 PM)Kenzo1 Wrote: Wars can be fight with air strikes , but winning wars usually needs ground forces .

I dont see anyone even mention sending boots on the ground ,in any larger way.


Gun control is very restricted in Iran ,for obvious reasons. So the iran military has the guns and civilians dont.....IRGC can easely shoot 100k if needed to secure mullahs position . So if there will be only these precise strikes , but not help Iranian civilians get armed , we are in unpredictable zone .

If they're smart, they won't send in any foreign ground forces. Ground forces - "boots on the ground" - are only necessary when one intends to take and then hold ground. The US isn't interested in holding ground there, they are interested in decapitating the regime so that the Iranians can retake and then hold THEIR OWN country.

In other words, the Iranian People are "the boots n the ground" - it is THEIR country to retake and hold, not ours.

So what they probably need most is air-drops of crates of weapons to facilitate their battle against the IRGC. They don't need boots on the ground, they need air-dropped crates of weapons on the ground. The air strikes serve to thin out the IRGC herd, and throw it into disarray to make it ripe for the picking by the Iranian People.

What worries me the most is that the only attacks from "the people" that I've heard about so far are MEK attacks. MEK is a Marxist organization, and what we really don't need more of on Earth is Marxist countries.

BUT... that is for the Iranian People to decide. it's their country, not ours, so they can run it as they see fit. I just hope they look at history and choose widely. I'd hate to have to do this all over again in another 40 years.

Without those weapons supplied to the Iranians, they are then as much at the mercy of te Marxist MEK as they are at the mercy of the fanatical Islamist regime... and tht is not an enviable place to be, either way.

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(Yesterday, 06:49 AM)Kenzo1 Wrote: It`s not certain that Iranians can overthrow regime . So the risk here for Iranians opposing the regime are big.

It could happen and they get rid the regime. But there is some resilience on Iran’s Theocracy system .

Let`s not forget that this escalation means also that if the regime survives ,all  gloves are off and they will go to build the bomb for sure as an only option to survive from attacks in the future .  They may get weapons-grade HEU from North Korea " possibly", satellites cant detect HEU inside submarine underwater,  NK has submarines .

(02-28-2026, 06:09 PM)Freija Wrote: Waking up to this news makes me wonder WTAF we have become?

(Yesterday, 07:41 AM)F2d5thCav Wrote: @ Kenzo--

There may be some ground action to remove control centers of organized resistance -- IRGC cells etc.  But I think in the main you are correct that the "turf work" is mainly for the Iranian people themselves.

Any change of regime won't alter the societal strata that supports Islam as a way of life and government.  But it might tone their capacity for trouble-making in the Middle East.

Cheers

(Yesterday, 07:47 AM)Ninurta Wrote:

(Yesterday, 06:49 AM)Kenzo1 Wrote: It`s not certain that Iranians can overthrow regime . So the risk here for Iranians opposing the regime are big.

It could happen and they get rid the regime. But there is some resilience on Iran’s Theocracy system .

Let`s not forget that this escalation means also that if the regime survives ,all  gloves are off and they will go to build the bomb for sure as an only option to survive from attacks in the future .  They may get weapons-grade HEU from North Korea " possibly", satellites cant detect HEU inside submarine underwater,  NK has submarines .

I think it's a sure bet that, if they are armed, the Iranian people can take their country back.  Sure, the risk is big, but the risk of doing nothing is even bigger. The risk has been big for the protesters for a long time now. The regime has killed 30,000 of them just in this last round of protests. That's a pretty big risk. They did it anyhow. There would be no stopping them if weapons were air-dropped in for them to take their country back with.

Yes, resilience is built in to the Iranian regime system. However, they are currently at war with the entire Arab world (other than Lebanon, I think. I've not heard of any strikes in Lebanon or North Africa, so maybe they are at war with just the entire Middle East). The US and Israel are continuing to disassemble the Iranian command structure, and the means for the Iranian regime to fight back. With that pressure from the top down, the regime over-extending itself to try to fight everyone in the Middle East, and the Iranian people's pressure from the bottom up, out in the streets, the regime would have no choice but to collapse under it's own dwindling weight.

I'm not to worried about North Korea. I doubt they have enough HEU to just give it away to Iran. They've got their own bombs to build, you know? Besides, who are they going to give it to in Iran if enough pressure is kept on to collapse the Islamic regime in Iran?

And on top of that, trump has said Iran cannot have nukes. Period. Most of the world has said that... but we can see, I think, that whatever else he may be, Trump keeps his word. I really wouldn't want to be Iran OR North Korea if they tried to cut any kinds of HEU transfer deal.

So, really, it all hinges on whether we go ahead and arm the Iranian people, or just sit back and wait for MEK to take Iran over.

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(Yesterday, 11:40 AM)727Sky Wrote: The U.S. Consulate in Pakistan has been attacked...Pakistan the hider of Ben Laden; yep that country..Reports that the Marines in defense of the Consulate has killed 8 trying to get inside.

They must have been using select fire instead of full auto ?

(Yesterday, 01:39 AM)sailorsam Wrote:

(02-28-2026, 11:26 PM)putnam6 Wrote: r. Maalouf ‏It’s 1 AM in Iran right now and everyone is out in the streets celebrating.

Iranians deserve a life with freedom. 

what does it say about the Iranian regime
that its people celebrate a foreign attack on the leaders

Quote:By Gerry Doyle
(Bloomberg) — The ability of the US, Israel and Gulf Arab states to weather Iran’s retaliatory strikes will depend on how many missile interceptors they have — and stocks are most likely dangerously low after intense combat with the Islamic Republic last year.
Tehran’s main means of offensive operations is long-range attacks with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones, all of which it launched after Israeli strikes in June 2025.


This time around, Iran reacted to US and Israeli attacks by almost immediately firing on Israel and countries including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain.
The Persian Gulf Has Become a Frontline in the US-Iran Strikes
Defending against such weapons requires an even bigger number of interceptors — typical military doctrine calls for firing two or three at each incoming target to maximize the chances of hitting it. Stocks of missile interceptors could be in danger of running low within days if the intensity of current Iranian attacks persists, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“Missile interceptors are a big concern, particularly anti-ballistic interceptors,” said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center. “We are using these interceptors faster than we can make them.”
Dozens or more Iranian missiles were intercepted on Saturday around the region, but at least a few got through. The result of continued strikes is that if Iran has more missiles than its targets have interceptors, more attacks will start getting through.

“Magazine capacity was already low” for the US and its partner nations after last year, said William Alberque, a senior adjunct fellow at the Pacific Forum, a foreign policy research institute.
The US fired about 150 THAAD interceptors last June to defend Israel during the 12-day war against Iran, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Those weapons are the highest-end ground-based missile defense system in the American inventory, with each Lockheed Martin Corp. interceptor costing about $15 million. But only a few dozen were purchased last year.
Such weapons are designed to be able to take out ballistic missiles beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. The costs of firing hundreds of them — as well as other types of interceptors — is enormous. In April 2024, Bloomberg reported that it probably cost Israel — as well as the American, British, French and Jordanian air forces — around $1.1 billion to foil missile and drone attacks from Iran. That was for a few hours’ work.
The US and Israeli militaries will try to reduce the number of missiles and launchers Iran has available, and kill top commanders to prevent their use.
The question of which side can outlast the other is a sobering one, said Eyal Pinko, a former naval commander who does research at Bar Ilan University outside Tel Aviv.
“A lot more attacks are coming,” he said in a briefing to the Jerusalem Press Club. “They have thousands of missiles and drones, huge stocks. They will do everything to maintain the regime. This is now an all-out war for their survival.”
© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.