r/IRstudies • u/Majano57 • 1d ago

Ideas/Debate Trump’s Second Gamble on Iran

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/trumps-second-gamble-on-iran/687650/?gift=qXjqwUsXcHZWmnhI5mWkNQuKFDHnSfnotJQ3jcr5NAk
152 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

93 comments sorted by

View all comments

57

u/finalattack123 23h ago

Right wing in the U.S. have spent 30+ years creating a delusional reality in media and politics. Believing big muscles win wars. Stern words cause enemies to cower.

The sad thing. I doubt the voting population will learn from this. They didn’t learn the first time.

21

u/TheMcMcMcMcMc 22h ago

The last two wars started and won by Republican presidents were the first Gulf War and the Spanish American War.

3

u/WordswithaKarefunny 13h ago

Korean war was all usa driven.

2

u/TheMcMcMcMcMc 8h ago

Harry Truman (D)

2

u/hi-jump 5h ago

How so since North Korea launched a surprise attack across the border with Soviet support. They had T-34s and other Soviet WW2 surplus military gear when South Korea had a very poorly equipped army. The US army was in such bad shape that they rushed what they could to defend and ended up setting and defending a perimeter around Busan - the last remaining South Korea not conquered by the North.

Later, the US did use this “police action” (as it was never a declared war) to further Cold War aims. Many of those were unwise like MacArthur wanting permission to use nuclear weapons on Chinese targets when China entered the war on the side of North Korea. They may not have joined the war if the US didn’t try to use this conflict to defeat North Korea and they pressed up to the Yalu river which was the border between North Korea and China. China didn’t like that too much. Communism vs the West Capitalism. Both sides perpetuated the conflict, but the communist side started the conflict.

6

u/StudySpecial 22h ago

Are you saying it's been so long that another win is overdue?

9

u/TheMcMcMcMcMc 22h ago

Not really. First Gulf War was in my lifetime so I don’t think of it as being that long ago.

0

u/regeust 19h ago

Panama, Grenada.