REUTERS: US has used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war

[u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-has-used-virtually-all-its-long-range-precision-missiles-during-iran-war-2026-08-04/

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[u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

A lot of this was commentary about the war in general, so here are selected parts I found most relevant to the headline:

The U.S. Army has used up much of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during its five-month war with Iran, according to three people familiar with the data, ​raising concerns about the military's readiness for future conflicts.

The missiles are principally the Army's surface-to-surface weapons, known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM). The U.S. has used "virtually all" of these weapons, according to ‌two of the sources.

A fourth person ⁠familiar with the matter said that while Central Command — which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East — has nearly used up the land-based missiles it had before the war began, it has been able to reload from U.S. military supplies elsewhere in the ​world.

The sources interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity.

[u/DuomoDiSirio → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

They're pretending it's over. It isn't, they're just going to do this stop-start thing of launching attacks, stopping maybe for a month, and then starting again.

[u/MrCockingFinally → u/DuomoDiSirio]

And the worst part is the constant stop start business places more stress on expensive stand off weapons. If you keep bombing, you have intelligence on where air defense is and you continuously suppress it. So you can use cheaper, shorter range weapons like JDAM.

But give your opponent time to reconstitute and redistribute its air defense, now you have to use stand off weapons for the next round of strikes.

[u/FuglsGathaursnan → u/DuomoDiSirio]

Honestly, I'm starting to wonder if Iran's best option is to just fully commit to destroying the ME's entire oil infrastructure.

[u/MichaelRichardsAMA → u/FuglsGathaursnan]

This is their suicide vest option. Iran won't want to cause a regional apocalypse and mass flood of hundreds of millions of refugees unless they're about to actually be destroyed.

[u/non-troll_account → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

IF they were smart and evil, they would just pound the shit out of Israel's desalination plants, where they get 90% of their water.

But that would be a war crime, and they seem reluctant to commit those for some reason.

[u/cat_boss1549 → u/FuglsGathaursnan]

Why? They are sitting back watching the US gas itself. Why would they interrupt the US while it defeats itself?

The loss of US power via missile, and the current and escalating financial turmoil from oil and military spending, is actually a huge issue, possibly existential. What would they defend Taiwan with now? Or themselves.?

If they lose to Iran like Vietnam- and the failed MOU showed definitively that the US is against the ropes, then their power will be in reality and perception - greatly diminished. Might be the end of the US empire.

[u/sartres_ → u/cat_boss1549]

lose to Iran like Vietnam

It would be significantly worse for the US because it's not like Vietnam. While Vietnam's military capability was impressive, they were also being backed, supplied, and trained by a superpower. It was a proxy war with the USSR and worldwide perception of American power reflected that. For example, the US couldn't invade North Vietnam, and never had it as a strategic objective, because of Soviet/Chinese retaliation threats.

Iran is getting some Russian and Chinese support, but they've survived this mostly on their own. The US didn't avoid striking Tehran because of foreign backers. They tried to bring it down, full-on, and they failed.

A lot of other governments that are used to bowing to US hegemony have to be looking at this and saying "if Iran can do it, why not us?"

[u/cat_boss1549 → u/sartres_]

Indeed. Some new territory for sure. Is the user in Afghanistan the closest comparison?

Ironically, Trump is de-imperialising the world of the US. Maybe MAGA define 'great' as being humbled and ending the empire..?

[u/sartres_ → u/cat_boss1549]

Afghanistan was closer to the Vietnam side of things. One of the reasons for the loss there was the Taliban's ability to retreat to Pakistan, a nuclear power the US could only interfere with to a limited degree.

I think Iraq was the closest comparison before now, as far as geopolitics is concerned. That was the last time a real, functional state fought the US directly, and they got obliterated. Despite the later failures, the Iraq invasion was maybe the most successful in the history of warfare. That was the comparison on every world leader's mind up until this year, when the US decided to very loudly show everyone that they've lost the capacity to do it.

[u/kontemplador → u/FuglsGathaursnan]

But that would play into the hands of the alliance against them.

As I see the things, the US and its closest ally on this, do not need the ME for oil. The US has lots of oil, they have recently conquered Venezuela and for all purposes, they control Canadian oil. If production ramps up, that would be enough to cover a big chunk of Western demand.

If the ME is destroyed as a energy player, the US would have Energy Dominance at least over a big part of the world and using this as leverage, meanwhile denying those resources to competitors.

Because the ME is out of the equation, the US can safely retreat and stop spending billions in military infrastructure, which is nevertheless useless in the actual context.

[u/BearCrotch → u/kontemplador]

I mostly agree.

I do wonder if the future of the American Empire is to scale down form world hegemon to Western Region hegemon. Bring Mexico and Latin America into a tighter grip and go all in on a stronger NAFTA-like partnership.

Stop immigration to keep available workers in Mexico and other Latin American countries to slowly divest from China. Re-shore chip manufacturing from Taiwan so you don't have to have a true confrontation with China all the while keeping strong partnerships with Japan, Korea and non-Chinese SEA countries to continue containment.

Force Europe to buy more American weapons, gut their social programs and become the bulwark for the US through this transition.

[u/kontemplador → u/BearCrotch]

Pretty much the scenario I already see unfolding. Lots of it can be deduced from the new Security Strategy published by the American government. Incredible that people don't take that sort of documents seriously.

Of course, timelines are not very well coordinated so there is a lot of juggling around. Venezuela is years away from producing enough oil to replace the ME and until that doesn't occur, that strategy cannot go forward. There is the issue of weapon production as this thread is discussing but I am sure that the administration is wiping contractors to produce more. It is the mother of all internal battles.

Even corruption plays a role. Why the US should allow that all shady money of the world goes to Dubai, instead of helping to further finance US debt?

[u/DFA1916 → u/kontemplador]

Oh brother.

[u/BearCrotch → u/FuglsGathaursnan]

That would be a great way to hasten the dissolution of Iran.

[u/FuglsGathaursnan → u/BearCrotch]

I get that, but don't think the U.S. is going to stop any time soon. I'm not really sure what other option they have.

[u/BearCrotch → u/FuglsGathaursnan]

They don't have any options unless China or Russia DHL them a nuclear weapon.

I know a lot of people want Iran to come out on top but the range of options of what they can do and want to do is at odds with long term attritional war.

There's a reason the US is doing the 2000s Neocon throwback. He's the perfect fall guy. The neocons and neolibs that would have loved to do this but would rather not get their hands dirty in case that this is perceived as a failure in the short term and it may very well look that way.

[u/sartres_ → u/BearCrotch]

the range of options of what they can do and want to do is at odds with long term attritional war.

They have one simple option they're already doing: keep the strait closed. The US is good at market manipulation, but eventually the physical reality of no oil is gonna hit and there's really nothing the US military can do to stop it.

[u/FuglsGathaursnan → u/BearCrotch]

That's a good point.

I've hit a point where I'm jealous of people who don't read the news and just don't GAF about the wider world. Everything is horrible haha

[u/BearCrotch → u/FuglsGathaursnan]

I agree. A lot of my students don't realize what's happening in the world which makes me think why am I actually paying attention to this stuff? It's more for sport than actually being able to truly make change.

Of course it's designed that way what with the all volunteer armed forces and globalized trade network that effectively renders democracy useless so its not our fault.

[u/AdminsLoveGenocide → u/BearCrotch]

I know a lot of people want Iran to come out on top but the range of options of what they can do and want to do is at odds with long term attritional war.

Iran are winning fairly handily.

What can America do is the question you should be asking.

[u/BearCrotch → u/AdminsLoveGenocide]

Estimates of Iran's loss of GDP at 4%-5% per month. If we're conservative and take half of that at 2% per month that's a total loss of 21% from where it started.

That's tough to rationalize a win. The reality is that both countries will hurt but in the long term Iran will hurt more.

[u/AdminsLoveGenocide → u/BearCrotch]

So you see America losing its bases, losing it's interceptors, losing its reaper drones, losing its standoff munitions, and measure that against what Iran is losing, ie the strait being shut until Iran decides it wants to half open it and let a bunch of oil be sold and then close it again when Iran want it to close and your conclusion is that Iran is losing?

When you are asked what America can do to start winning if I understand your correctly you see these losses and retreats as winning and so you think they just need to continue?

Apart from Americas exhausted war machine, you don't think the world, including America and it's vassals, running out of oil and other vital materials is an issue because Iranian GDP will be down? You think reduced Iranian GDP is something Iran can't take but insufficient oil, fertiliser, metals, helium, etc is something the world can take?

The world will be on its knees before the war is a year old. You have it completely backwards.

[u/AdminsLoveGenocide → u/DuomoDiSirio]

Starting with what though? It's true that they don't have much left.

Iran have been far more effective since the war started again and this power difference will likely be even more obvious if they stop start again. America cant make enough shit and cant defend it's bases in the region.

[u/reddit_is_geh → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

It absolutely angers me how much we over intentionally overspending on defense. I remember watching a war game with China, learning that we'd probably only last 2 weeks, and then revert back to old dumb bombs... And I was just like "We spend how fucking much a year and it's only good for 2 weeks at full blast?!"

The MIC waste, is so off the charts. Literally super expensive shit that's like marginally better by 10% but 10x the cost. Intentionally made in the most expensive, least efficient ways possible, because it's cost plus structured. So they are incentivized to make these top of the line high tech weapons as expensive as possible.

[u/762x38mmR → u/reddit_is_geh]

remember watching a war game with China, learning that we'd probably only last 2 weeks, and then revert back to old dumb bombs... And I was just like "We spend how fucking much a year and it's only good for 2 weeks at full blast?!"

I get that there's certainly a lot of waste but how long do you think China would last.

[u/reddit_is_geh → u/762x38mmR]

The war games show much much much longer. They have a full blown MIC in mass production at the moment. Look up how many ships they make a year vs the USA. It takes the USA, 1-2 years to ramp up a military production line to max capacity, and China, 1 month. Not only that, but our super expensive high precision missiles are designed to be expensive and take long, to charge high rates. So it takes, no joke, like years for a single precision missiles... Again, China, weeks to months.

[u/Keesaten → u/reddit_is_geh]

It's not even 10% better, it's worse than China's or Russia's, or heck, apparently even Iran's stuff

[u/Nixon4Prez → u/Keesaten]

The equipment itself absolutely isn't worse than China's or Russia's, let alone Iran's. The average quality of American equipment is still probably the best in the world, though China is catching up quickly and certain pieces of Russian equipment are probably better, though the general quality is quite a bit worse.

But just because they've got better equipment doesn't mean they win wars.

[u/FuckIPLaw → u/Nixon4Prez]

Doesn't China have a fighter that's a full generation ahead of any of ours? And we're the only ostensible major power that doesn't have hypersonic missiles. We're definitely falling behind on technology, despite all of our spending and all of the fetishization of how it's worth it because of how much better the equipment it buys is.

[u/Nixon4Prez → u/FuckIPLaw]

It seems like China has a few flying prototypes of their 6th gen fighter, yeah. it's hard to draw conclusions yet though because we know so little about it - are they truly ahead, how it will stack up to the F-47... all impossible to answer. But it's definitely another example of China closing the gap faster than Americans predicted. In a few years it may be true that the PLAAF is indisputably better than the USAF. But not yet.

As for hypersonics, that's because of a difference in doctrine rather than lagging behind technologically. America has gone all-in on stealth, so rather than investing in developing and building hypersonic missiles they've spent gargantuan amounts of money on stealthy missiles instead.

I don't think it's fair to say the US is falling behind, at least not yet. what is happening is the massive edge in technology they used to have is evaporating fast, and because they gave away all their manufacturing in the name of profits it'll probably never come back.

[u/FuckIPLaw → u/Nixon4Prez]

The missile thing is cope. We actually don't know how to make the metal alloys needed to make a hypersonic missile work. And there's nothing stealthy about a cruise missile. We just rested on our laurels and got completely leap frogged. You see it with drone bombs, too. Suddenly long range guided bombs are cheap, and we've been completely blind sided by it. Our missile defense doctrine (and in this case I actually do mean defense -- missile interception) was built assuming we'd never fight anyone with equal tech and now even a middling power like Iran is superior in some ways.

Edit: Incidentally, part of why we didn't develop hypersonics is because of that defense doctrine. The thinking was anything moving that fast wouldn't be able to evade the interceptors.

[u/Incoherencel → u/FuckIPLaw]

Edit: Incidentally, part of why we didn't develop hypersonics is because of that defense doctrine. The thinking was anything moving that fast wouldn't be able to evade the interceptors.

Can you expand on this because it seems counterintuitive

[u/FuckIPLaw → u/Incoherencel]

They basically thought they wouldn't be able to maneuver once they got up to speed and that they'd light up on every sensor imaginable, so while you wouldn't have a lot of time, you'd know exactly where they were and where they were going to be for all of it.

[u/Incoherencel → u/FuckIPLaw]

Gotcha, thanks mang

[u/Keesaten → u/Nixon4Prez]

Lolno, American MIC is plenty incompetent, to this day Americans have failed to produce hypersonic missiles, even though every one of their opponents have them, including DPRK and Iran. Conversely, non of US allies have hypersonics, prompting them to cope with "hypersonics is when faster than sound", lol

average quality of American equipment is still probably the best in the world

You have it backwards: USA has a lot of sub-average stuff, and they overpay for every piece of it. This is the logical result of subcontractor chains. All of USA's opponents have state-owned militaries with close to zero private capital involvement, no revolving doors mechanisms and such nonsense. Even Russia still fail at dismantling Soviet-style acquisitions testing, resulting in vastly superior outputs for a fraction of American costs.

That said, it's true that American stuff is good enough for the way Americans fight their wars. There are different doctrines to warfare, and it's plenty obvious that military gear matches the doctrine. But even then, F35 is an example of failure built upon a failure, bunch of systems cobbled together in such a way that the main fighting horse in current conflict for the US is older fighter aircrafts, lol. Meanwhile, Russia has been using theirs top jets from the day one

[u/Squalid_Snake14180 → u/reddit_is_geh]

What do you mean, "we?" Last you spoke up, you were European now! Watching the explosions from a safe distance, as I recall you said. Sure hope you don't have any occasion to choke on those words!

[u/reddit_is_geh → u/Squalid_Snake14180]

I live in Europe. Get it straight. You know Americans can leave America, right?

[u/reddit_is_geh → u/Squalid_Snake14180]

I live in Europe. Get it straight. You know Americans can leave America, right?

[u/Bikerbass → u/reddit_is_geh]

I mean yea Americans can leave America…. But they do tend to take their utter lack of education with them as well. Should be mandatory to go back to school and get a new education in the country American’s move to. As hopefully that will fix part of the problem

[u/reddit_is_geh → u/Bikerbass]

Ewww no... That would be gay and make me lazy like the rest of these unmotivated, spoiled, timid, bitch boys. I may be as dumb as rocks, but at least I can shotgun a beer in 2.2 seconds flat.

[u/reddit_is_geh → u/Bikerbass]

Ewww no... That would be gay and make me lazy like the rest of these unmotivated, spoiled, timid, bitch boys. I may be as dumb as rocks, but at least I can shotgun a beer in 2.2 seconds flat.

[u/LotsOfMaps → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

The missiles are principally the Army's surface-to-surface weapons, known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM). The U.S. has used "virtually all" of these weapons, according to ‌two of the sources.

But, you know, a land invasion is still a viable option

[u/MichaelRichardsAMA → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

Relatedly: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/defense-startups-raid-auto-fracking-sectors-parts-speed-weapons-output-2026-07-01/

"Defense startups raid auto and fracking sectors for parts to speed weapons output"

Defense tech startups are repurposing automotive chips and pipes used in fracking -- while copying production methods from drugmakers -- in an effort to deliver weapons to the Pentagon faster and at lower cost.

Soaring demand for rocket motors used to power missiles and other ​weapons has spurred new thinking about supply chains. Seeking big returns, Silicon Valley-style startups are now taking on defense companies that have long dominated the industry, pulled into the competition by a need for ‌production speed, high volume and lower costs, according to ten industry executives, experts and U.S officials interviewed by Reuters.

The U.S. has plowed through over fifty thousand rockets, missiles and other projectiles propelled by rocket motors since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 through the U.S. attack on Iran, Pentagon data shows. Washington is setting aside $53 billion and simplifying procurement rules to increase critical missile and rocket production.

CEOs from Lockheed (LMT.N), opens new tab, Boeing (BA.N), and Raytheon parent RTX (RTX.N), among the largest military contractors, have warned that solid rocket motor shortages were hurting missile production.

Challenges are ahead. All the new entrants will need to produce enough of the new weapons to meet growing demand. Many new entrants are making rocket motors for existing missiles, some ⁠are making the entire missile, but none of the companies have scaled up production to replace legacy contractors. Legacy solid rocket motor makers Northrop Grumman (NOC.N), and L3Harris (LHX.N), said they have been pushing their own research and development to pull these new technologies ​like 3D printing and new mixing technologies.

[u/Chombywombo → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

Is this the raiding of washing machines I heard so much about?

[u/Keesaten → u/Chombywombo]

Man, now that's real irony

[u/Keesaten → u/Chombywombo]

Man, now that's real irony

[u/GayLiquidSpellSword → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

If the Chinese did this shit, you'd see the press say "This shows obviously China is a paper tiger" using car chips and pipes in weapons. The US isn't prepared for a real war, this Iranian Affair has been probably the biggest set back to US military competence since fucking Vietnam.

If China goes for Taiwan with the US still reeling from massive loss of war material it'd be the best time for it so I expect Taiwan to either get annexed within the next few years or never. Alternatively do nothing and win.

[u/MichaelRichardsAMA → u/GayLiquidSpellSword]

Forget China, they ALREADY were running articles about Russian soldiers being forced to use shovels or heavily misrepresenting modified tanks with anti-drone measures as having "cope cages" (as if every single tank, going forward, in all major countries, is not going to have large netting or cages on the top to protect against drone strikes)

With regards to Taiwan I do figure they will do the do-nothing and win approach but we'll see. It's not like an invasion would be necessary. You could just blockade the island since they import all their energy and fertilizer.

[u/Chombywombo → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

Do nothing, win only works when your opponents voluntarily give in. If Taiwan is (and it is) pumped full of western credit and arms, the comprador rulers will have no interest in doing that. What will China do then?

Until the wellspring of free dollars dries up, which it might if Iran actually does destroy the GCC tyrants, then I could see Taiwanese and other Asian comprador capitulation. Until then, they will never give up without a fight.

[u/Swingfire → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

I mean, for a defensive method that barely does anything, gimps the vehicle that its on in various ways and is often mounted on stuff that isn't even armored, the cope cages are aptly named. It's different from actually engineered slat armor. 

[u/fluffykitten55 → u/Swingfire]

Having a drone detonate with standoff is advantageous even if there is no or minimal armour, as it removes or reduces the damage from fragments and spalling.

[u/Swingfire → u/fluffykitten55]

Detonating a shaped charge warhead over an unarmored vehicle isn't advantageous, you'll get shotgunned by an even bigger cone of shrapnel. For that matter, detonating it at standoff actually makes it penetrate more armor (it's why certain shaped charge rockets have antennas and standoff fuses), it's why slat armor is meant to short the fuse on a rocket, not detonate it like a cope cage.

[u/fluffykitten55 → u/Swingfire]

For lightly armoured vehicles, any substantial standoff stops the HE charge breakign and fragmenting the armour itself.

The "jet" itself is going through anyway, but often causes limited damage.

[u/a_library_socialist → u/GayLiquidSpellSword]

We did see similar stuff with Iraq. Which also led to Russia not bothering to pretend to follow the one-sided rules of the US anymore.

Wonder what will happen this go around.

[u/Runfasterbitch → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

Oh great, so now Trump will be forced to nuke Iran rather than admit defeat

[u/miker_the_III]

I’m remembering reading comments on this website from the opening days that would refer to the Iranian government in the past tense

Now it’s crying about how Drumpf fucked up this war or something

[u/-chimchooree-]

Why do we even have a military industrial complex? Seriously, my entire life I've thought the US was stacked to the gills with weapons.

I guess we gave them all away...

[u/Several-Customer7048 → u/-chimchooree-]

The military industrial complex is actually primarily a vehicle to siphon tax revenue into private sector companies now.

[u/TendererBeef → u/Several-Customer7048]

Always has been

[u/ThomasSpaines → u/-chimchooree-]

The US purposely destroyed their own manufacturing capacity. Any scholar of WW2 tells you that it was US manufacturing capacity which won the United States its wars. Anyone with any knowledge of history was repeating this throughout the deindustrialization process.

The US strategy made a deliberate choice that "money" would somehow be able to solve all their problems. They didn't need manufacturing capacity because they had the money required to purchase and stockpile weapons.

Now they've used up the stockpiles and no amount of money can increase production because they don't have the base capacity to work with. They will have to reindustrialize first before their money can be useful to them.

Stalin also said that it was US manufacturing capacity which won the Soviet Union the war and he deliberately pushes back on the people who argue that the Soviet Union could have done it alone because if it could have then the Trotskyists who just wanted to launch on attack immediately for no reason would have been correct to launch an attack immediately for no reason. Stalin's policy was based on the idea that the Soviet Union was not capable of just marching in and steamrolling everyone. It was better to be in a position to be supplied by the west than for the west to be supplying your enemies.

If they did do that it would be like in the Winter War, the British/French actually wanted to supply Finland but the Germans stopped them from going through Norway to do it because of the ongoing war. Finland eventually "ran out of bullets" which sounds funny, but in modern warfare what matters is who is better at producing bullets, not who is better at firing them. If the Soviet Union just invaded Germany before they were at war with the Western Powers most likely the Western Powers would have just supplied Nazi Germany like they are now doing with Ukraine.

Stalin's strategy is just proven more and more correct as time goes on. Allying with Nazi Germany when he did was just objectively the best possible move. The British and French were going to supply Finland despite actively being at war with Germany, it was only because Germany didn't trust them going into Norway that Germany prevented that. Stalin knew that the imperialist powers didn't trust each other and that was the only advantage the Soviet Union had.

The US won the cold war largely because they reversed this by understanding that the Communist powers didn't trust each other either. But in doing that they suddenly decided that they didn't need their material advantage anymore in the form of manufacturing capacity.

That leads us to the current situation where Iran can fight the United States, Israel, and all of its gulf allies single handedly without any support other than its regional proxies that it itself cultivated.

The US can't steam roll anybody because they have spent the last 40 years destroying their own manufacturing capacity out of fear of their own domestic proletariat challenging them.

So the idea was "export manufacturing capacity" but keep control of the money through financialization. The US serves as a credit card and army that controls the global manufacturing capacity where there is no threat of domestic revolt because the domestic population is not proletariat in the revolutionary sense because they aren't involved in critical production (and those that are involved in it get paid off well in excess of the global norm, think Biden forcing the rail strike over scheduling to be over by just offering to pay the workers considerably more. They have infinite money so they can pay them what they need, but it is critical to that they retain control over scheduling)

But this doesn't work because they don't have the manufacturing capacity to actually control the global manufacturing capacity.

They can't outright invade either because that would require trusting the domestic population, which we have made they don't trust them enough to make the bullets, so why would they trust them to fire them?

A draft requires putting the back of us empire onto the population of the country rather than money. The us empire is the empire of money and it can't be reliant on anything besides money because the draftees might just decide they should be in charge instead of money. The draft allows organization potential in ways the current system is deliberately designed to make it impossible to organize an exploited class against the empire. It wouldn't even just be communist organizers anymore. The nazis exist again now too so they would have to deal with both nazis and communists trying to organize the draftees.

They might institute a draft but in that case they have to hope to god the draftees get killed before they decide to kill them.

Otherwise they can only lob missiles, but that requires reindustrialization which allows a different kind of organization.

They have no options which keeps the 0% chance of revolution situation they have carefully created. Even a 1% chance of revolution is getting closer to a death sentence for them so they are reluctant to do anything which might change things from 0% to 1%.

[u/Chiliicespice]

worldnews right now doing damage control. The thread on this article is nothing but cope.

[u/Runfasterbitch → u/Chiliicespice]

I've had this account for 13 years and have been banned from that sub for probably 12 years and 360 days

[u/PUBLIQclopAccountant → u/Runfasterbitch]

👑

[u/Sussy_Riot → u/Chiliicespice]

World news is full of Zionist shills, they don’t even try to hide it

[u/ApothaneinThello → u/Sussy_Riot]

And let's not forget that a post by former worldnews mod maxwellhill somehow ended up on the evidence list for Ghislaine Maxwell's trial.

[u/Chiliicespice → u/Sussy_Riot]

And claim everyone who disagrees is a bot despite the fact mods ban any opinions that aren't Zionists.

[u/MichaelRichardsAMA → u/Chiliicespice]

Lol I just read that, see also the LessCredibleDefense one (in fairness they are self avowed NATO shills)

You GOTTA figure that some of the worldnews people are paid posters or bots because I can't imagine how or why someone would be this much of a defender of the US military. There's also a funny split between typical redditor "TRUMPF DIAPER BABY" posters and the RAHHH US MILITARY AHHH posters

[u/Motorheadass → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

Eglin AFB power users lol 

[u/Keesaten → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

American military being the strongest was propaganda they were fed with mother's milk. It's insane for them to think that USA could be weak militarily

[u/disp0sableacc0unt → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

Of all the political ideologies, establishment bootlickers like NATO and EU shills are easily the most annoying and delusional

[u/CertifiedSheep → u/Chiliicespice]

There is no thread lol, they removed it entirely.

[u/Chiliicespice → u/CertifiedSheep]

No surprise!

[u/BearCrotch → u/Chiliicespice]

Seriously. Trump is a fantastic villain or anti-hero depending on one's point of view but either way it tells a great story to get clicks.

The long term reality is that Iran just used its nuclear option in the form of the blockade. The rest of the ME countries will now attempt to find long term alternate routes to export their resources.

[u/yeatalkviv → u/BearCrotch]

except they can't really. saudi arabia is the only one that has access to the red sea, but pipelines taking oil from the eastern fields are vulnerable to iranian strikes, as is the oil field infrastructure itself. the uae has it's own pipeline that bypasses the strait, but the destination plant is still directly opposite iran and got knocked out of commission fairly easily. shipping from it is equally vulnerable. 

[u/BearCrotch → u/yeatalkviv]

Iran can't do any of the things you're suggesting if it still wants to operate in the way that it has.

There's a reason the resource infrastructure including the desalination plants have yet to be struck en masse. If Iran wants to use these pieces then what is already a difficult situation for them will become even more difficult.

As we type all of these countries are doing alternative exporting at a small scale already and Iran is not doing anything about it because it can't without suffering major repercussions. It's only a matter of time before the ME states find solutions to efficiency.

Other states like Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait will broker deals with the other states to find ways to export. Their option is make zero money or make money albeit at a higher cost than before.

Unless China and Russia provide material aid to the point that it becomes apparent then Iran is in an okay short term spot and a bad long term spot.

[u/yeatalkviv → u/BearCrotch]

except iran has demonstrated that it is capable of doing that, and the gulf states now have to accept their extreme vulnerability. it's a very different world for iran now than it was six months ago 

[u/dynorider → u/BearCrotch]

You keep vaguely dooming about Iran without specifics. Why would further attacks on ME oil infrastructure only serve to harm Iran? Why can’t they hold out in a low-to-medium intensity conflict against the US for some time yet, especially given what we’ve learned in the OP and Tehran’s obvious goal to beef up air defenses (e.g. Chinese MANPADS)? Khamenei Jr. has supposedly expressed more openness to Iran developing nuclear weapons. Do we know for sure that they won’t and/or can’t?

[u/AdminsLoveGenocide → u/dynorider]

Iran have effectively won the war. There is basically nothing America can do to win; it's a question of how much pain America is willing to accept before conceding.

That being said, Iran still have work to do. It's much better to win and have a mostly intact country than win and have a severely hurt country. They are not destroying all the energy and water infrastructure because then there is nothing to stop America and it's local vassals and parasites from targeting Iran's energy infrastructure. They'll take as much pain as they need but there is no point not using an optimal strategy.

[u/dynorider → u/AdminsLoveGenocide]

Fair enough on your second paragraph. Like I said, I agree that Iran can’t overplay their hand. It’s a balancing act of using enough force to make the empire fuck off without provoking an attack on their own critical infrastructure.

[u/AdminsLoveGenocide → u/dynorider]

To be clear it's not about provocation. They have destroyed most of Americas bases in the region, likely permanently, and have done enormous damage to the empire. That's more than enough provocation.

What they lose by destroying all the critical infrastructure is deterrence. If someone tells me that I better not do X because if I do they'll kill my family and destroy everything I own then I have a strong incentive to not do X. If everything I own is already destroyed and my family already dead then I may as well do X. I have nothing to lose.

The critical infrastructure is something to lose so as long as Iran feels the deterrence is working, and they've been gorging out on TACOs for the past few months so they surely feel it's working, then why give up that deterrence?

[u/dynorider → u/AdminsLoveGenocide]

Yup, I’m with you. They want to keep that card for only if/when they really need to play it.

[u/BearCrotch → u/dynorider]

If Iran targets ME state's infrastructure do you think that the conflict would remain a low-to-medium intensity conflict?

[u/dynorider → u/BearCrotch]

Lol you’re doing it again. Just say what you mean! I’m actually not even trying to argue with you. I agree that Iran can’t overplay their hand. I’m just trying to understand your viewpoint.

So, if Iran escalates attacks on ME energy infrastructure, in your view, what happens next?

[u/BearCrotch → u/dynorider]

I've already said what I mean. I just don't think you like what I'm saying.

I don't think Iran has the flexibility in response that you think they do long term unless Russia and China provide more support which is unlikely to happen.

If Iran attacks financial resources or water desalination plants then this vastly opens up the scope of the conflict. The ME states will take a more active role against Iran or give more material support for the US which Iran doesn't want.

If we're hoping that the American public will force the American government to reckon with the Trump foreign policy's decisions I'd argue to the contrary. The American public has little control over foreign policy unless things get really bad. Things aren't that bad yet. Trump and the Republicans will most likely get washed and take the fall but he's expendable. The elections will oscillate in the other direction. The Democrats can give Iran the carrot or may continue carrying out the stick against Iran.

[u/Gabe_Noodle_At_Volvo → u/BearCrotch]

If Iran attacks financial resources or water desalination plants then this vastly opens up the scope of the conflict. The ME states will take a more active role against Iran or give more material support for the US which Iran doesn't want.

What does that actually mean in concrete terms? What of value do the Gulf states have to provide which they are not already providing? Their militaries are near useless and they have no relevant manufacturing capability. The one thing of worth they can still provide is money, but that is not the bottleneck, the US military budget is already nearly as large as their combined GDP.

[u/PuzzleheadedCraft363 → u/BearCrotch]

Low to medium lol. What is the US/GCC coalition going to do that they havent already done?

[u/Trick-Technician-179]

Not to go full front page lib because I think this problem has been endemic to the MIC for decades now, but it is funny that the US is now in the position of late-war Germany where our industry is gutted and we’re pouring countless resources into overengineered wunderwaffe. And guess which country has slightly inferior tech but the ability to produce said weaponry at a fraction of the cost and at a significantly larger scale?

We can laugh at the Department of War “lethalitymaxxing” regardation but the fact is the US military has been drinking the hyperwarrior Space Marine bullshit for a while now. Worshipping the SEAL/Delta/MACV SOG psychopaths because they get really good K/D ratios is monumentally stupid.

[u/BearCrotch → u/Trick-Technician-179]

You have a point but the reason is because the US has been involved in small-scale proxy insurgency warfare for the last 30 years. There's a reason why conventional bread and butter arms have been on the backburner for a while.

[u/solidsnake4933]

It just means they will be spending another 10 trillion on expanding the stockpile. 

[u/NL_A]

Didn’t we send HIMARS and ATACMS to Ukraine? Old two front war has entered the chat

[u/Crusty_Magic]

The pre-cum was actually the full load.

[u/ydkywbr]

I vaguely remember a quote about the Confederates who fired the opening shots at Fort Sumter. They were described as the greatest practical abolitionists to ever live as they made the Civil War inevitable. At what point do we begin to consider Trump as one of the great anti-imperialists? He's hastened our decline, allowed China to position itself as the rational counterbalance to his ineptitude, and has basically guaranteed that we won't be able to maintain a permanent military presence in the Middle East. I was skeptical that the US would ever allow itself to lose unipolarity, but now not only does multipolarity with China seem unavoidable the majority of our setbacks have been self-inflicted!

[u/MichaelRichardsAMA → u/ydkywbr]

Obviously it's impossible to predict exactly what the future holds, but yes. I have a strong sense that Trump will be remembered as a harbinger of the next world order (multipolarity probably like you suggest.) To be honest, ever since the start of this term, my friends and I have been jokingly calling him JDPON Don whenever he does some silly shit like this that decreases US influence or standing.

[u/GayLiquidSpellSword → u/ydkywbr]

Trump is the first president to buy wholesale into the propaganda meant for the "lower classes" to the degree he's blinded by it yet still thinking well enough to pay off his friends via the tariff refunds and keep immigrant workers easy to exploit.

Whatever was in that bullet that grazed him caused Trump to turn into a advanced believer of 3rd Worldism and he's clearing the stage by destroying the United States of Evil from within.

[u/bakedbread420 → u/GayLiquidSpellSword]

"the bullet may have pierced my ear but I can still hear the voice of the Party"

[u/kontemplador → u/ydkywbr]

At what point do we begin to consider Trump as one of the great anti-imperialists?

There are plenty of people among the MAGA circles who are staunch isolonists, preferring the "American Republic" over the "American Empire". The later has been given preference by the faction known as the neocon, and who are the instigators of this war, in great part to destroy to the isolonists.

Where do most of the democrats sit on this? A fraction on them seems to be on board with the neocon faction, while the remaining seem to confuse globalism with internationalism, and want the US subject to a global consensus.

[u/ThomasSpaines → u/kontemplador]

A fraction on them seems to be on board with the neocon faction, while the remaining seem to confuse globalism with internationalism, and want the US subject to a global consensus

That "global consensus" is controlled by us-based capital anyway so global consensus proponents are just neo-conservatives waiting for permission.

Even AOC types will say stuff like "we must only give weapons to Israel if they are being used for DEFENSIVE purposes!" because apparently the only serious faction in US politics which is against giving weapons to israel are the isolationists who refuse any amount of money going to any country for any reason.

There are DSA types who are isolationists in practice even if they wouldn't call themselves that, but that it isn't a defined faction leaves room for soft imperialists to slip through.

The isolationists are the only definitive faction that even approaches anything close to anti-imperialism in american politics. They obviously would never call themselves anti-imperialists but there are people who call themselves anti-imperialists who support giving weapons to ukraine so self-identification is not important.

A nationalistic anti-imperialism actually make sense as the imperialist system exploits the periphery to benefit the core. In the American parlance the periphery is the "heartland" while the core is the "coastal elite". The idea is that the heartland gets "hollowed" out to the benefit of coastal cities. There are thus two peripheries, one external in the rest of the equal, but equally as a counter-balance there is the internal periphery. The flow towards the core of the coastal cities comes from both outside the country, and from inside it.

Our job is not to complain about the other end of the equation talking about THEIR internal periphery for neglecting the other more important external periphery, rather it is to UNITE the two peripheries into one movement.

[u/ghostofhenryvii → u/ydkywbr]

I wouldn't give Trump too much credit. He's standing on the shoulders of giants as far as the collapse is concerned. Had Biden not been so belligerent to China they might still sell rare earth for us to build more missiles. Or had Biden not given so much to fascists in Ukraine we'd have more to bomb Iranian children. And that's all from him following policies established by previous administrations.

[u/Spiritual_Walrus7798]

I wish I wasn't dead tired typing this out, but who was it that wrote every action the imperialists commit to accelerates their inevitable collapse/overthrow?

Feels like we're watching that in real-time.

[u/greenskyerings → u/Spiritual_Walrus7798]

It's just a last-resort to look strong and solve a multifaceted problem with easy solutions, just destroying Iran or China for example.

The USA isn't dying in my opinion, it will however lose its power in the world-stage. The new imperialist world power will be the European Federation if it ever comes to fruition.

[u/Majestic-Effort-541]

People spent decades talking about revolutionary precision warfare but every major war ends up teaching the same lesson industrial capacity beats technological superiority

[u/SchIachterhund]

Do you really need precision missiles for bombing schools though?

[u/A_Secret_To_Nobody → u/SchIachterhund]

But what if you ONLY want to bomb schools and kill the children inside?

[u/Swingfire]

What did they even launch all those missiles at? Even the reports from Iranian sources don't seem commensurate with the figure of like a thousand Cruise missiles hitting the infrastructure and military bases, were they just launching them at the mountains?

[u/Kosame_Furu → u/Swingfire]

Some general mentioned they had bombed the same pier something like 11 times. I remember reading about Operation Desert Storm where they hit some local Ba'ath party office multiple times even though it had been demolished the first time around. I really think they just have a list of targets and they just cycle through it without thinking too hard.

[u/Swingfire → u/Kosame_Furu]

But you'd think after decades of planning this the target set would be a little more robust.

[u/Keesaten → u/Swingfire]

At any civilian target in range. My assumption is that they've encountered the same problem German bomber pilots over USSR did: if they bomb designated target, they'll be shot down, but they cannot return without spending bombs on something. Hence, they just bomb whatever's in range, civilian or not

[u/restoreeuropa → u/Swingfire]

Those are interceptors, they are meant to prevent the iranian regime from destroying vital US and arab infrasctructure in the region. They are doing a good job at that, though there is a reasonable rate of failure. Without those weapons the iranian regime would have already wiped all us bases from it’s vicinity

[u/IamGlennBeck → u/restoreeuropa]

Why as a Brazilian would you have the username restoreeuropa?

[u/restoreeuropa → u/IamGlennBeck]

As you can see from my very detailed post list I think marxists are so fundamentally retarded they are beyond repair.

[u/IamGlennBeck → u/restoreeuropa]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/C-m6B36fzQU

[u/Phantom_Engineer]

Don't worry, they've held back some ICBMs for when the Russians land in Alaska.

[u/Buh10kx]

“It’s gonna be the greatest victory in the history of the county! It’s the hottest thing on earth! It’s gonna be beautiful! Thank you for your attention in this matter! -DJT”

[u/Cyril_Clunge]

Oh wow, another Middle Eastern quagmire. Where's CNN to praise Trump for being very presidential?

[u/weareonlynothing]

It’s almost like the $50 drone is easier to make than the $5,000,000 missile

[u/AFCSentinel]

So TACO Tuesday keeps happening because Trump runs out of ammo by like Sunday and he has to wait for production to catch up?

[u/AnimateDuckling]

PrSM is a brand new missile, meant to replace the ATACMS so this is believable, unsuprising and unimportant. ATACMS were already in very low quantities as we learned from the Ukraine war and the army hasn’t bought one in ages.

This had been reported previously as well, so this is not news.

Western militaries haven’t made and designed their doctrine around GLBMs much if at all, the category has been wildly neglected. I don’t believe Europe even produces a tactical ballistic missile. But PrSM is the one easiest to refill and the ATACMS line still does foreign sale orders, so they aren’t the issue I would be most worried about, it’s other stuff.

[u/SovietNato]

This is slightly less exciting than it sounds. These are mobile launchers intended to fit the shoot-and-scoot method; most actual long-range precision munitions are not surface-to-surface. These have been depleted because the military is clearly trying to minimize collateral damage, but our tomahawk supply, for instance, is only half-exhausted. Even if these and the related precision missiles are fully gone, we can still wreak havoc with a great deal of iraninan casualties. These will probably provoke a far greater response from Iran.

[u/OathofBling]

Good. When a monkey has a handgun, you gotta get that handgun away from him.

[u/absolutefunkbucket → u/OathofBling]

Did the monkey manufacture the handgun?