Over the next few weeks, keep your eyes on the Middle East

kidmike41

All-Conference
Dec 29, 2005
2,529
4,887
113
It’s not a stretch to suspect a regime that killed 7k to 30k (depending on where you get your figures) of its own people last month might have bombed one of their own schools to garner sympathy.

Not saying that’s what happened, but I need to see proof that it didn’t happen.

It is a horrible situation.
Can I get some proof that Iran was actually pursuing a nuke? If I was 1-2 weeks away from having a nuke and then got attacked I would probably go ahead and finish it.
 

GDead_Tiger

Heisman
Dec 7, 2021
13,060
34,474
113
Most of @Braindead_Tiger ‘s posts are horseshit. He posted about the school bombing initially as if it were intentional. He said it was the “M.O.” of the Israelis to bomb schools.
I mean yes, it is the MO if Israelis to bomb schools. They didn't do it this time but it doesn't change all the stuff they've done in Gaza. They do it to hospitals and churches too and then constantly lie about it. Doctors Without Borders and other medical nonprofits have reported an abnormally high number of Palestinian children with gunshot wounds to the head and, in the case of boys, gunshot wounds to the testicles.
 

GDead_Tiger

Heisman
Dec 7, 2021
13,060
34,474
113
46 Americans were killed and 12 Americans were taken hostage. Iran helped plan and fund it. They have plans to target the US. Even Gavin Newsom is worried about sleeper cells and drone attacks in CA. We have arrested Iranian agents for planned terror attacks in recent years. They tried to assassinate our president. They are closely allied with Russia and china.
This is cartoonishly wrong. The drone attacks thing was a load of malarkey. Iran has 0 ability to launch drone attacks in California. They are not that closely allied with China. Any relationship there is one of convenience on China's end and not any sort of deep alliance. And even if that were true, why are we asking China for help to reopen the SOH? Why are we allowing Russia to sell more oil?
 

GDead_Tiger

Heisman
Dec 7, 2021
13,060
34,474
113
-Tell Britain thanks but no thanks on sending aircraft carriers
-Claim Iran's military is destroyed and the SOH is open
-Ask a bunch of European and Asian allies to send their Navy to the SOH to escort tankers
-They all say no, Germany asks why we don't just use the USN
-We ask China for aid in escorting tankers in the SOH even though we claim the SOH is open and China is Iran's ally
 

MisterWorst

All-Conference
Jun 6, 2023
767
2,370
93
-Tell Britain thanks but no thanks on sending aircraft carriers
-Claim Iran's military is destroyed and the SOH is open
-Ask a bunch of European and Asian allies to send their Navy to the SOH to escort tankers
-They all say no, Germany asks why we don't just use the USN
-We ask China for aid in escorting tankers in the SOH even though we claim the SOH is open and China is Iran's ally
Guys I'm starting to think there wasn't a plan or even concepts of a plan.
 

Dungeon09

Heisman
Dec 1, 2021
6,907
24,645
113
-Tell Britain thanks but no thanks on sending aircraft carriers
-Claim Iran's military is destroyed and the SOH is open
-Ask a bunch of European and Asian allies to send their Navy to the SOH to escort tankers
-They all say no, Germany asks why we don't just use the USN
-We ask China for aid in escorting tankers in the SOH even though we claim the SOH is open and China is Iran's ally
Masterful gambit, sir.
 

Dungeon09

Heisman
Dec 1, 2021
6,907
24,645
113
China loves to do stuff like this, nothing to see
Yeah this was like a 25-30 plane sortie and a number of civilian fishing vessels right? It’s a psychological thing, threat projection. Not a sign of anything imminent on its own. China might wind up with the geopolitical juice to accomplish its goals with much less actual violence if we keep stepping on rakes here anyways. Their MO has always been patience and letting their adversaries make mistakes.
 

GDead_Tiger

Heisman
Dec 7, 2021
13,060
34,474
113
Yeah this was like a 25-30 plane sortie and a number of civilian fishing vessels right? It’s a psychological thing, threat projection. Not a sign of anything imminent on its own. China might wind up with the geopolitical juice to accomplish its goals with much less actual violence if we keep stepping on rakes here anyways. Their MO has always been patience and letting their adversaries make mistakes.
Well good thing for us is Xi keeps on purging PLA leadership
 

alex24

All-Conference
Mar 3, 2006
2,962
2,843
83
Can I get some proof that Iran was actually pursuing a nuke? If I was 1-2 weeks away from having a nuke and then got attacked I would probably go ahead and finish it.
I listen to Mike Baker almost everyday. He is former CIA and still active in the private sector. For several years Iran has been storing uranium at 60% enrichment. 90% is weapons grade. From what he says getting to 60% is the hard part. It would only take them about 2 weeks to further enrich it to weapons grade. I believe at 60% enrichment they could create "dirty bombs". And for civilian purposes you only need 3-5% enrichment. So there is no purpose other than weapons that you would enrich beyond 5%. They were no doubt aiming for nuclear weapons and you cannot have radical religious nuts that believe they are supposed to kill every non muslim
 

ChuckChuck

Junior
Jul 7, 2025
117
247
43
I listen to Mike Baker almost everyday. He is former CIA and still active in the private sector. For several years Iran has been storing uranium at 60% enrichment. 90% is weapons grade. From what he says getting to 60% is the hard part. It would only take them about 2 weeks to further enrich it to weapons grade. I believe at 60% enrichment they could create "dirty bombs". And for civilian purposes you only need 3-5% enrichment. So there is no purpose other than weapons that you would enrich beyond 5%. They were no doubt aiming for nuclear weapons and you cannot have radical religious nuts that believe they are supposed to kill every non muslim
If only we had skilled diplomats that could negotiate a deal with Iran to restrict uranium enrichment. Oh wait, Obama did this then Trump tore it up in his first term.
 

Dungeon09

Heisman
Dec 1, 2021
6,907
24,645
113
I listen to Mike Baker almost everyday. He is former CIA and still active in the private sector. For several years Iran has been storing uranium at 60% enrichment. 90% is weapons grade. From what he says getting to 60% is the hard part. It would only take them about 2 weeks to further enrich it to weapons grade. I believe at 60% enrichment they could create "dirty bombs". And for civilian purposes you only need 3-5% enrichment. So there is no purpose other than weapons that you would enrich beyond 5%. They were no doubt aiming for nuclear weapons and you cannot have radical religious nuts that believe they are supposed to kill every non muslim
That’s an extremely simplified version that doesn’t really jive with nonproliferation assessments.


Getting from 60% to 90% can be a quick process if the enrichment complex possesses enough operational centrifuges, which if the admin’s assessments of the damages last summer are to be believed, they don’t.

Once uranium is enriched to 90%, it’s not like they just stick it into a delivery system and blast away. It’s still in the uranium hexaflouride gas form and requires fairly advanced infrastructure to precipitate it back at scale into a form that’s suitable for metallurgy.
 

kidmike41

All-Conference
Dec 29, 2005
2,529
4,887
113
I listen to Mike Baker almost everyday. He is former CIA and still active in the private sector. For several years Iran has been storing uranium at 60% enrichment. 90% is weapons grade. From what he says getting to 60% is the hard part. It would only take them about 2 weeks to further enrich it to weapons grade. I believe at 60% enrichment they could create "dirty bombs". And for civilian purposes you only need 3-5% enrichment. So there is no purpose other than weapons that you would enrich beyond 5%. They were no doubt aiming for nuclear weapons and you cannot have radical religious nuts that believe they are supposed to kill every non muslim
So two things:

1. What have they been waiting on to complete the enrichment to 90%?
2. They are religious nuts, we agree. The Ayatollah had a fatwah against making nukes. Religious nuts usually follow their own religious edicts. Right? We killed the head nut who didn’t want a nuke.
 

Dungeon09

Heisman
Dec 1, 2021
6,907
24,645
113
Rumors now on the OSINT streams that Mojtaba Khamenei suffered injuries and was flown to Russia for treatment.
 

kidmike41

All-Conference
Dec 29, 2005
2,529
4,887
113
Haven’t learned anything of substance on this thread in days. Just a bunch of bickering. Would love to hear from those that are connected. Don’t need any postings from CNN or Fox as we can all find those ourselves.
Not much news. We continue to expand our target list to less functional military applications so that we can keep the pressure on. Iran continues to launch missiles and drones at neighboring countries to cause pain and try increase pressure on the US to stop. We have no plan to open the straights. Thats pretty much where this thing is at.
 

GDead_Tiger

Heisman
Dec 7, 2021
13,060
34,474
113
Guys I'm starting to think there wasn't a plan or even concepts of a plan.

Masterful gambit, sir.
Lest I be accused of not supporting the troops, the military does have plans with this, but most of them are "don't be an aggressor in a war with Iran" lol. All of CENTCOM and JCOS wargaming and planning involved Iran launching a war of aggression or doing something to piss off enough nations for a big coalition to form.

Mat Dog Mattis's plan involved a massive coalition naval force heading to the straits as quickly as possible to remove the mines that were already there and stop Iran from placing more mines. This plan assumed that the naval force would be under constant attack and take a ton of punishment from Iran.

Right now, we aren't doing any of that. Iran was not the aggressor. There is no massive coalition. Even Australia told us no for sending the Navy to escort tankers. Our naval and air assets in the region are geared towards a bombing campaign and our naval assets are on the weak side. We don't have any ARGs or LHDs in the area and it looks like most of NAVYCENT's actual minesweeping ship are in Singapore/Malaysia at the moment.

There is no real military solution for this problem that doesn't involve political costs we are unwilling to accept and even then those military solutions might have military costs which are too high. This is why the most likely outcome to reopening the SOH is a ceasefire which leaves the Iranian regime intact.
 

grazhoppa

Heisman
Apr 30, 2008
5,715
14,085
93
What’s more likely

Iran bombed their own school?

or

Iran took a military facility and converted it to a school, right next to a military target hoping it would prevent direct action?

I’m leaning towards the latter.
I think it’s been shown that the Iranians have no problem harming their own people and have no problem publicizing false flag operations (see their Twitter ops). It’s possible that the school bombing could have been a false flag, but less likely given what US officials have admitted.
I mean yes, it is the MO if Israelis to bomb schools. They didn't do it this time but it doesn't change all the stuff they've done in Gaza. They do it to hospitals and churches too and then constantly lie about it. Doctors Without Borders and other medical nonprofits have reported an abnormally high number of Palestinian children with gunshot wounds to the head and, in the case of boys, gunshot wounds to the testicles.
There are plenty of videos of Palestinians killing their own people…
 
  • Like
Reactions: ChicagoTiger85

grazhoppa

Heisman
Apr 30, 2008
5,715
14,085
93
This is cartoonishly wrong. The drone attacks thing was a load of malarkey. Iran has 0 ability to launch drone attacks in California. They are not that closely allied with China. Any relationship there is one of convenience on China's end and not any sort of deep alliance. And even if that were true, why are we asking China for help to reopen the SOH? Why are we allowing Russia to sell more oil?
Gavin Newsom was scared of drone attacks, not me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ChicagoTiger85

BigPapaWhit

All-American
Jun 15, 2014
3,286
5,164
113
Well good thing for us is Xi keeps on purging PLA leadership
Hmmmmm is it? Is he purging proven leaders and military minds? Or is he just cleansing the Army of corrupt generals?

It has been proposed by some he is centralizing power to speed up his military and political amibitions. Of course, if so,, China still has to be able to execute. I would not be surprised to see Xi start testing our resolve along the island belts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: UrHuckleberry

P. Marlowe

Heisman
Dec 7, 2009
13,992
25,719
101
Rumors now on the OSINT streams that Mojtaba Khamenei suffered injuries and was flown to Russia for treatment.

This was known days ago. I posted it in here IIRC. We aren’t sure whether it happened in the same attack that killed his father or if he was in the bunkers the following day when those were struck. Either way, fairly certain he lost at least one lower extremity an suffered some ancillary injuries. I don’t think the Russia piece is accurate though.
 

BigPapaWhit

All-American
Jun 15, 2014
3,286
5,164
113
Hmmmmm is it? Is he purging proven leaders and military minds? Or is he just cleansing the Army of corrupt generals?

It has been proposed by some he is centralizing power to speed up his military and political amibitions. Of course, if so,, China still has to be able to execute. I would not be surprised to see Xi start testing our resolve along the island belts.
FYI for all surprising and predicting are very different words.
 

BigPapaWhit

All-American
Jun 15, 2014
3,286
5,164
113
This was known days ago. I posted it in here IIRC. We aren’t sure whether it happened in the same attack that killed his father or if he was in the bunkers the following day when those were struck. Either way, fairly certain he lost at least one lower extremity an suffered some ancillary injuries. I don’t think the Russia piece is accurate though.
Easy to miss with all the other stuff flying around in here.
 

GDead_Tiger

Heisman
Dec 7, 2021
13,060
34,474
113
Hmmmmm is it? Is he purging proven leaders and military minds? Or is he just cleansing the Army of corrupt generals?

It has been proposed by some he is centralizing power to speed up his military and political amibitions. Of course, if so,, China still has to be able to execute. I would not be surprised to see Xi start testing our resolve along the island belts.
My understanding is that with the comically low pay for Chinese generals pretty much all of them are corrupt and Xi used that corruption as a pretext for clearing house when it turned out the PLA wasn't on track to be ready for their big 2027 plans.
 

BigPapaWhit

All-American
Jun 15, 2014
3,286
5,164
113
My understanding is that with the comically low pay for Chinese generals pretty much all of them are corrupt and Xi used that corruption as a pretext for clearing house when it turned out the PLA wasn't on track to be ready for their big 2027 plans.
Hopefully, he learned from Putin's mistake with Ukraine. Or should I say hopefully not... Feels like a lose lose sitch
 

P. Marlowe

Heisman
Dec 7, 2009
13,992
25,719
101
My understanding is that with the comically low pay for Chinese generals pretty much all of them are corrupt and Xi used that corruption as a pretext for clearing house when it turned out the PLA wasn't on track to be ready for their big 2027 plans.

It’s basically always been understood that corruption existed and was expected/allowed. The low pay is viewed as basically acknowledgement of that fact. The thing about dictatorships is enforcement of rules is inherently inconsistent and almost always a function of utility/expedience.
 

Dungeon09

Heisman
Dec 1, 2021
6,907
24,645
113
This was known days ago. I posted it in here IIRC. We aren’t sure whether it happened in the same attack that killed his father or if he was in the bunkers the following day when those were struck. Either way, fairly certain he lost at least one lower extremity a suffered some ancillary injuries. I don’t think the Russia piece is accurate though.
I deleted my old x account and have yet to get through fully filtering out the shills and obvious frauds from my OSINT feed. I had it pretty well tuned in the first year of the Ukraine war but I don’t have a good grasp on who’s credible now in 2026.
 

GDead_Tiger

Heisman
Dec 7, 2021
13,060
34,474
113

Dungeon09

Heisman
Dec 1, 2021
6,907
24,645
113
Notably left wing outlet Bloomberg.

My farmer friends were really sweating things a week or two ago when I checked in with them about the fertilizer crunch. Prices were already getting spooky then.
 

alex24

All-Conference
Mar 3, 2006
2,962
2,843
83
China loves to do stuff like this, nothing to see

If only we had skilled diplomats that could negotiate a deal with Iran to restrict uranium enrichment. Oh wait, Obama did this then Trump tore it up in his first term.
Iran broke that weak *** treaty from the moment it started. They would not allow nuclear inspectors in certain facilities and were enriching uranium beyond the 5% agreed upon amount. Obama also gave them over $10 billion that allowed them to further their enrichment program and fund terrorist organizations. Which is why Trump backed out of the old agreement in his first term. It was a terrible deal that wasn’t even being followed by Iran
 

P. Marlowe

Heisman
Dec 7, 2009
13,992
25,719
101
Notably left wing outlet Bloomberg.

My farmer friends were really sweating things a week or two ago when I checked in with them about the fertilizer crunch. Prices were already getting spooky then.

They are notably left of center. That doesn’t mean every piece has that slant. Nor does it mean that they aren’t incredibly high quality journalism by and large. They are. When I took multiple AP history courses, I had the same teacher multiple years. One of the biggest flower child, hippy leftists I ever had. Also one of the best teachers I ever had. She spent the first month of every course basically teaching a mini-rhetoric course about how to read/research. Basically drilled into us to use high quality sources (primary where possible) and to understand that every source is biased. It is a matter of finding high quality sources and then understanding the biases that may exist and adjusting your lens - as the reader - to account for that. That is something that seems to be a lost art in education these days.
 

GDead_Tiger

Heisman
Dec 7, 2021
13,060
34,474
113
Iran broke that weak *** treaty from the moment it started. They would not allow nuclear inspectors in certain facilities and were enriching uranium beyond the 5% agreed upon amount. Obama also gave them over $10 billion that allowed them to further their enrichment program and fund terrorist organizations. Which is why Trump backed out of the old agreement in his first term. It was a terrible deal that wasn’t even being followed by Iran
No proof for any of that and the money was Iran's
 

ChuckChuck

Junior
Jul 7, 2025
117
247
43
Iran broke that weak *** treaty from the moment it started. They would not allow nuclear inspectors in certain facilities and were enriching uranium beyond the 5% agreed upon amount. Obama also gave them over $10 billion that allowed them to further their enrichment program and fund terrorist organizations. Which is why Trump backed out of the old agreement in his first term. It was a terrible deal that wasn’t even being followed by Iran
Funny. The exact opposite has been documented by every single agency that had oversight under JCPOA. Two people claim teh deal was not working: Trump and Bibi.

The $10B was Iran's money that we froze.