Wanna know something that should upset you re: Iran? Spoiler alert: it's a dropped ball on our part.
We likely could have "helped" an organic overthrow of the mullahs not too long ago with little to no American blood spilled had we not radically changed course.
Upfront: I write this as a guy who deployed near their border twice & spent the last several years writing a book that required alot of research to figure out a plausible way a small team could get in and dismantle the political power structure there.
While all that we hear about is "death to America," that all comes from the Old Timers there and youth that are forced to participate in the "2 minutes of hate."
In reality, there is a substantial number of youth who, like here in America, want a change.
Not very long ago, they loved Western culture. They wanted Coca-Cola & Holywood in their country. They wanted more personal freedoms and to be more like us.
They know they have oil & gas money spent on Hezzbolah & IRGC that could build up their own society.
But then the Day 1 Biden State Department's top issue was purging Christians & conservatives from their ranks.
No BS, it started before Trump was even out of office. I know a few who got 86'd from various departments.
Day 2 priority was exporting the rainbow flag & forcing anyone who wanted US funds to take LGBTQ programming and NGOs.
I don't know how much time you've spent in theocratic Islamic societies, but that's a bridge too far for them.
The youth in Qom & Tehran are not like those in Brooklyn & Embarcadero.
That's a bridge too far for their deeply engrained cultural sentiments.
So America stopped being a goal post and started looking like what their parents had always said - the great evil.
It would have still required some contractors, but not the type that can afford to spend $100mm on lobbyists who can convince Big Gub to spend $100s of billions on their services & products.
Small Footprint, highly specialized-types that could have used the underlying sentiment to our advantage without US fingerprints or significant Footprint (i.e. soldiers in harm's way).
But pushing woke and greasing DC palms seemed to be more important.
We likely could have "helped" an organic overthrow of the mullahs not too long ago with little to no American blood spilled had we not radically changed course.
Upfront: I write this as a guy who deployed near their border twice & spent the last several years writing a book that required alot of research to figure out a plausible way a small team could get in and dismantle the political power structure there.
While all that we hear about is "death to America," that all comes from the Old Timers there and youth that are forced to participate in the "2 minutes of hate."
In reality, there is a substantial number of youth who, like here in America, want a change.
Not very long ago, they loved Western culture. They wanted Coca-Cola & Holywood in their country. They wanted more personal freedoms and to be more like us.
They know they have oil & gas money spent on Hezzbolah & IRGC that could build up their own society.
But then the Day 1 Biden State Department's top issue was purging Christians & conservatives from their ranks.
No BS, it started before Trump was even out of office. I know a few who got 86'd from various departments.
Day 2 priority was exporting the rainbow flag & forcing anyone who wanted US funds to take LGBTQ programming and NGOs.
I don't know how much time you've spent in theocratic Islamic societies, but that's a bridge too far for them.
The youth in Qom & Tehran are not like those in Brooklyn & Embarcadero.
That's a bridge too far for their deeply engrained cultural sentiments.
So America stopped being a goal post and started looking like what their parents had always said - the great evil.
It would have still required some contractors, but not the type that can afford to spend $100mm on lobbyists who can convince Big Gub to spend $100s of billions on their services & products.
Small Footprint, highly specialized-types that could have used the underlying sentiment to our advantage without US fingerprints or significant Footprint (i.e. soldiers in harm's way).
But pushing woke and greasing DC palms seemed to be more important.
The funny thing is that they don't even know they're giving away the golden goose here.
The Roman Warming & Medievil Warming periods were hotter than now.
Long before cars & smokestacks & oil & coal.
The Roman Warming & Medievil Warming periods were hotter than now.
Long before cars & smokestacks & oil & coal.
Most importantly, you don't have to be Sun Tzu or Von Clauswitz to know it's unwise to run headfirst into a multi-front war when your MIL leadership, materiel, and personnel are all lacking.
That's not even going into the horror show that the security posture of the homeland has become.
It's terrible that we lost troops. My buddy Tully was cut in half by an Iranian-made EFP in Baghdad.
There aren't many that want to see the wholesale destruction of the Iranian regime more than me.
My new book opens with an extremely graphic scene of one of the IRGC planners & financiers meeting his end. I wrote it with a huge grin on my face - several years ago, before it was en vogue to be angry at Iran.
But thousands of dead US troops from allowing ourselves to be goaded into a trap is not the way.
Peace through strength is a thing. Building up the MIL & holding it as a big stick to strike fear into the hearts of anyone who dare mess with our people is a thing.
What we're doing right now is lunacy.
That's not even going into the horror show that the security posture of the homeland has become.
It's terrible that we lost troops. My buddy Tully was cut in half by an Iranian-made EFP in Baghdad.
There aren't many that want to see the wholesale destruction of the Iranian regime more than me.
My new book opens with an extremely graphic scene of one of the IRGC planners & financiers meeting his end. I wrote it with a huge grin on my face - several years ago, before it was en vogue to be angry at Iran.
But thousands of dead US troops from allowing ourselves to be goaded into a trap is not the way.
Peace through strength is a thing. Building up the MIL & holding it as a big stick to strike fear into the hearts of anyone who dare mess with our people is a thing.
What we're doing right now is lunacy.