Trump’s Iran Fiasco Takes Humiliating Turn as Leaks Grow More Damning

https://newrepublic.com/article/215526/trump-iran-fiasco-takes-humiliating-turn-leaks-grow-damning

Donald Trump has once again stepped up his threats to entirely wipe out Iran, but it somehow isn’t forcing Iran to make the deal he wants. The emptiness of the threats is embarrassing enough. But now, CBS News has published a series of extraordinary photographs of American bases and equipment abroad badly damaged by Iranian attacks. These pictures were leaked by anonymous U.S. service-members who did this because the truth about Trump’s war is being suppressed. As one put it: “This is major damage to our ba...

447 points · 86 comments · view on lemmy.world

86 Comments

Z745812939054@lemmy.zip · 132 pts · 2d (20 replies)

imagine raising a kid for 18 years only to have him/her go overseas and get blown up in the most pointless bullshit war in history. for the purpose of making a whiny weak loser con man reality tv failure look like he's tough

Zombiepirate@lemmy.world · 78 pts · 2d (4 replies)

Also to distract from the discussion about how he molested children.

AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2d (3 replies)

Didn't that discussion happen already and nobody cared?

Z745812939054@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 1d

the notion that "nobody cared" is definitely the message that mainstream media is pushing (successfully, it seems in your case), because the people who own the media also don't want anyone getting paying attention to the epstein files

lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d

Not sure about the minors part, but 79 million americans voted for an adjudicated rapist. It would be weird to assume those people would suddenly have qualms just because some of his victims were minors.

nonfuinoncuro@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 1d

when you're rich they just let you do it or something like that

CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 2d (4 replies)

To me, donnie was always just a washed-up never-was with a big mouth. A rapey and racist failson. And that's before he was given that reality TV show.

He's only devolved since.

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 1d (3 replies)

Trump was washed up in the 80s and the butt of jokes. Bloom County roasted him for a year, transplanting his brain into a cocaine addicted cat.

anarchy79@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d (2 replies)

Oh shit that was supposed to be Trump? I was a kid when I read those comics and didn't get much of it at all, I thought that the psycho cat was just supposed to be like a Sid Vicious/Dr Gonzo crossover.

mattyroses@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 1d (1 reply)

He was at first, then there was a whole long thing where Trump got put into Bill The Cat's body

anarchy79@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d

Hahaha holy shit I need to revisit that comic, I'll be on Internet Archive all night. Cheers! ACK!

protist@retrofed.com · 24 pts · 2d (2 replies)

Even worse, Trump's doing the bidding of a genocidal foreign leader who had been trying to get the US to do this for decades. Trump was the only president ignorant and gullible enough to fall for it

FlyingCircus@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2d (1 reply)

Believe it or not, Israel is the puppet of Amerika’s ruling class, not the other way around. And this isn’t just on Trump. One person, even the president, cannot mobilize the war machine without substantial approval from the capitalists. These wars have all been long-term goals of the ruling class, they just now have a deranged idiot to take the fall for the high costs.

zbyte64@awful.systems · 6 pts · 2d

As Biden said, if Isreal did not exist, we would make it exist

grte@lemmy.ca · 12 pts · 2d (1 reply)

And then failing to realize that purpose.

2piradians@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2d

Before finally giving fully into the sunken cost by continuing to support the grifter who sent your child to death.

Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2d (3 replies)

As pointless bullshit wars go, this one's pretty mid.

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 2d (2 replies)

" choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are hard, but because we thought it would be easy"

daychilde@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d (1 reply)

"We choose to invade Iran in this decade and do the other fascist things, not because they are hard, but LEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRROYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY mmmmmmmmmmJJJJJJJEEEENNNNNKKKKKKIIIIIINNNNNNNSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't intend that as a correction, just more my take of how this shitty administration does shit.

anarchy79@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d

It's important to remember the mmmmmnn before Jenkins. You did well here.

kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 1d

Sounds like they raised a stupid kid

Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de · 48 pts · 2d (2 replies)

With this headline, you could replace "Iran" with "pants"

dontgogettingtooclever@piefed.social · 10 pts · 2d (1 reply)

I clicked to see which leaks we were talking about here

thunder@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 2d

It's hard to keep track.

BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 32 pts · 2d

These are the kind of idiots who think they can win a fight by just wildly swinging their arms in every direction. Meanwhile, the opponent just keeps his distance, takes a few easy swings when there's an opportunity, and waits for the Idiot to wear himself out. Then the opponent steps in a finishes the job. Or maybe the Idiot just falls down out of sheer exhaustion.

Either way, we're the Idiot.

My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 2d (1 reply)

When I close my eyes and fantasize, I see punishments with extreme prejudice ruining the life of every piece of shit Senator who voted yes to confirm Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.

socsa@piefed.social · 1 pts · 1d

I just want him to shit himself as he succumbs to cholesterol poisoning on live TV.

Nonprophet@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 2d

The only response we are going to get from the administration is to go after the soldiers who leaked the photos... all the while calling the pics 'fake news'

hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip · 22 pts · 2d (10 replies)

It was never supposed to be successful in the first place. Trump and his merry band of criminals already got exactly what they wanted out of this.

He’s on record stating he doesn’t give a shit about what people are going through because of the war, the tarriffs, or any of his schemes designed to line his pockets.

BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2d (3 replies)

The price of Russian oil is all that really matters. It doesn't look like it's going to even help them though. That and getting the Abraham Lincoln away from the Baltic.

The extremely non strategic retreat from the Middle East is kind of wild though. I'd have thought Trump was the very definition of blood for oil.

It does seem like they've gotten away with six months more than they expected to.

BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 1d (1 reply)

A mostly complacent media not willing to ask tough questions is part of the problem of why we don't hear about this stuff as much as we should be.

lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d

The media isn’t complacent, it is cowed / controlled by Trump supporting billionaires. To call them merely complacent is flattery.

mattyroses@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 1d

he just won't pay American blood for oil. Iranian kids, no problem.

melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 1d

And avoid his degeneracy being truly known. That is his biggest motivator. The "trump/epstein" brand is here to stay. We just need to put out all of his deflecting fires beforehand.

Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d (4 replies)

The war just needs to last until the midterms

mattyroses@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 1d (2 replies)

This war isn't going away for years. The empire won't admit they lost, they won't double down, and they can't destroy Iran as is.

Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d (1 reply)

I suspect the plan is for the war to disappear after the midterms. Whether Iran will agree to this is something completely different.

mattyroses@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 1d

I mean, what little plan there was seemed to honestly think they'd get Venezuela pt 2.

Instead, they've now lost the Middle East, and all the data I'm seeing seems to suggest Iran is as strong militarily as when they started, while the US has destroyed years of production and shown the world it's a paper tiger with gold plated betamax machines.

Considering how much the US makes selling arms overseas, that's a business problem as well as a military one now.

Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
iamthetot@piefed.ca · 20 pts · 2d (3 replies)
daychilde@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 2d (1 reply)

"These are not 'squirters' getting through," the service member added,

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d

That was supposed to be off the record!

WhoIsTheDrizzle@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 1d

All of the photos are undated. I'm wondering if someone has been sitting on them for a while.

not_IO@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 18 pts · 1d (6 replies)

this goes hard!

idk why they put a blury picture of an old loser as the articles picture instead of the actual news

bonesawmcl@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d (4 replies)

How many AWACS do the US forces have?

BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 1d (3 replies)

One less now.

anarchy79@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d (2 replies)

We'll just buy more, what can they cost, like 10 dollars?

mattyroses@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 1d (1 reply)

How many health cares is this plane?

bonesawmcl@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d

Yes

drmoose@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d

Undated photo of plane damaged by Iranian strikes at Prince Sultan AFB, Saudi Arabia

Damaged lol

Eternal192@anarchist.nexus · 16 pts · 2d

"more damning"? He's already gone through all nine circles so this is just dessert for him.

SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.social · 16 pts · 2d (4 replies)

Iran has one percent of the US’s military budget and they are kicking the state’s ass with it.

Kushan@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 2d

Wasn't Iran's military complete destroyed like a year ago as well? According to the white house of course.

turtlesareneat@piefed.ca · 11 pts · 2d (2 replies)

They want to win a lot more than we do. War is just business to us, no one is hyped up about this. For them tho, this is an opportunity decades in the making.

rumimevlevi@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 2d

For the USA it is to steal other countries ressources, for Iran it is a matter of the survival of the state and their civilization

Smokeless7048@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2d

And the USA has a lot more toy to lose than Iran.

starik@lemmy.today · 15 pts · 1d (1 reply)

What happened, did a bomb hit them mid sentence?

As one put it: “This is major damage to our ba... BOOOM!!

notabot@piefed.social · 4 pts · 1d

That made me chuckle too. A fine example of unintentional humour.

kestrel7_7@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 1d

It's wild, man. For like twenty years I was arguing with anyone who would listen that going to war with Iran would be a really shitty idea. And yet I'm not very satisfied to have been proven right.

Bla@lemmy.cafe · 9 pts · 1d

The cost of all that - is not soaked up by staff of military, or private firms or by politicians. The costs are passed on to citizens. Every plane down, or fuel burnt is paid for by public money..

UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1d

Ha! The stroke picture!

melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 1d

Even without the leaks, and because it's trump, everyone already assumes heinous shit is occurring.

blastosist@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 1d (1 reply)

Does anyone support this guy anymore? All the maga dupes in my life have gone silent or are suddenly “ not interested in politics “.

forkDestroyer@infosec.pub · 3 pts · 1d

They still support. They just don't have any quips to say when the economy has so obviously gone bad.

Gammelfisch@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d

Krasnov's conception of strength follows Project 2025 and whatever the damn Muscovites want him to do.

taiyang@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d (5 replies)

Y'know, I'm all for electing someone who puts this guy in jail but with all this forced demilitarization... I think I'd run on that momentum and downside the US military presence. It's literally required if we want to reduce the deficit, but "rebuild the bases" is absolutely not something the next leader can afford.

Aqivex@fedinsfw.app · 6 pts · 2d

Demilitarization is just a (admittedly big on account of how counter to the long running paradigm it would be) single step.

The next 5 presidents will have a lot of work to do over the next 20 years...in the as of now extreme hypothetical thought exercise where the country is steered towards actually being an honest member of the global community.

This hypothetical can't even happen as long as the fascism is on active display mind you, so that means it would have to be thrown back into the shadows (most likely imo) or finally fully eradicated (I fucking wish).

But after all that, the next 20 years of US history would need to be a lot of demilitarization, a lot less meddling in the affairs of other countries with the sole goal of "How does the US come ahead of absolutely everyone?" and a hitherto unknown for practically the entire country's history period of "What do we negotiate to make a better world in which the US thrives because the world was made better?".

In addition to a lot of work and money spent to recoup any semblance of soft power back, and a lot of loss in easy political wins.

The soft power can't even begin to pretend to be restored without a lot of spending on public education and I don't just mean schooling for children.

Extensive outreach to deprogram the 'might is right' and other assorted fascist/racist bullshit out of the population would be required, because it's easy as shit for other countries to see when there's no political will in the American people to force its leaders to carry through with something.

Fuck, I could stay here all day, but it's also kind of depressing. It's not impossible, none of it.

But the hurdles to fix this fuckery? Hella.

Maybe with some dragon gold hoards in the people's Treasury, and some nice and fancy dragon scale armor, it would be easier. Grinding boss fights for XP tends to make the journey easier 🗡️.

That probably should be one of the earlier steps and sure would show the world some commitment.

hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 1d

We only need $100 billion a year at most to maintain a small standing military for homeland defense.

At this point we need to end all overseas BS and let the rest of the world sort it out. We have a $40 trillion deficit. We don’t need space lasers.

daychilde@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2d

I’m all for electing someone who puts this guy in jail

Just a reminder that you can't. Or rather, you cannot elect someone who puts him in jail. That requires ⅔ of Congress, specifically the Senate. So you're not talking about one race for one office, you are talking about 538 races. Or, well, more like 100 I suppose. But all 538 because you need both chambers.

tortina_original@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2d

Considering that next leader might have tk ask for permission, there is no guarantees US can rebuild the bases.

Might have already been rented out by Chinese.

I keep repeating that I assumed American empire will fall but that it will fall during my lifetime and in this manner... Not in my wildest dreams.

rumimevlevi@sh.itjust.works · -1 pts · 2d

The pride of an empire will not let a president get jailed. It would also open a Pandora box where none of the previous war criminal American politicians will be safe from jail

tiny_hedgehog@piefed.social · 4 pts · 2d (6 replies)

Just here to say I love this photo of him.

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 2d (5 replies)

here, for your wallet:

ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 2d

He never fully recovered from that 4th of July stroke, did he?

tiny_hedgehog@piefed.social · 2 pts · 1d (2 replies)

Lovely. ❤️

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 1d (1 reply)

Definite facial nerve weakness on the right side of his face. Let's hope he has more and bigger strokes.

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 1d

daychilde@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2d

If I didn't know he was Sleepy Don, I might suspect he was veerrryyyy skeptical of something.

humanspiral@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 1d

The AI safety talk this week is meant from distracting from both the failure in Iran, and inaction in resolving (just leave in great victory mission accomplished speech). Simultaneously lowers Bond villain AI as a divisive midterm issue, even when GOP calls them "the same woke left who warned against global warming and covid" is not necessarily a winning mid term strategy for GOP, but may be less bleeding than talking about Iran failure. I still expect "mission accomplished withdrawal" after mid terms. You need collapsing energy and bond prices now to avoid debating Trump/Iran failure.

AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.social · 3 pts · 2d (4 replies)

In the end, this is gonna turn into the pedofuhrer Vietnam. Keep going Donnie!

hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 2d (2 replies)

It’s already more unpopular than Vietnam.

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 1d (1 reply)

The Vietnam war had majorty support until the fall of Saigon

Source: was out protesting, getting threatened, and going againt a barrage of pro-war media.

anarchy79@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d

I heard that protesting does nothing, is a waste of time, and that it is better to do absolutely nothing and stay silent.

rumimevlevi@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 2d

If the USA invade it will definitely be at least twice worseesrow a year than Vietnam

mattyroses@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 1d (1 reply)

Akasazh@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d

Is that Kash Patel's son?