sherpa

A priest, a rabbi and a Protestant minister are at a multi-faith conference in a rural wooded area. On Monday, after a meeting they are conversing about which faith is the best. Priest says Catholicism is, Pastor says Protestant faith is, Rabbi says Judaism is. They decide to compete by seeing who can be the most successful and converting to their faith throughout the week and meeint Friday night to decide. Friday comes and Priest spots Pastor and they start talking. Priest says: "I was quite successful. I met a bear in the woods and have him a Catholic Catechism, told him a bout Mary and the Pope and all that, and he had his first communion today." Pastor says: "I had great fortune too. I also met a bear in the woods and told him about salvation by grace through faith, and I baptized him this morning." Neither can find the Rabbi, but after about ten minutes he comes in being carried on a stretcher with bandages all over him and claw marks on his face. Pastor and Priest both say in unison: "What happened to you?" Rabbi says: " I ran into a bear in the woods. I knew I shouldn't have started with circumcision."

A hydrogen atom walks into a police station and says: "Somebody stole my electron." Policeman says: "Are you sure?" Hydrogen atom says: "I'm positive." A neutron orders a beer at a bar. Finishing it, he asks the bartender: "How much?" Bartender says: "For you, no charge." A photon checks in at the ticket counter for his flight. "Agent says: "Any bags to check?" Photon says: "No, I'm travelling light."

Any time Jackie Chiles can be integrated, tis a good thing, and combining it with Loyd Bentsen's famous quote was an opportunity. Just don't use the balm.

I served with Jackie Chiles. I knew Jackie Chiles. Jackie Chiles was a freind of mine, and you Mr. Chef Jim are no Jackie Chiles.

Ridiculous. Absurd.

Uh-oh. The Islamic Republic is fixing up its toy another round. Given recent events, maybe they should convert it to a cruise liner. "Iran is repairing its imitation aircraft carrier, likely preparing it for a new round of exercises during which it will probably get blown up. The “carrier,” a mockup built up from a floating barge, was first built in the early 2010s and then used for target practice. The barge is being rebuilt, presumably for more punishment, in an exercise with decidedly more sinister undertones than the first time around." Islamic Nimitz

Given the tension level, I would be absolutely shocked if the US wasn't listening using any of many options.

The TOR M1 surface to air missile has a high explosive frag warhead detonated by a proximity fuse. If it operates properly it will cause lots of holes.

The US should have strong signal evidence of this. Surface to air missile systems can be pretty noisy, and depending on what mode is used, the switch from search to tracking and guidance is very apparent.

Dumb, but not "sinking" Guam dumb.

What you say is OK with me. What you did is post a suggestion of involvement in an illegal activity by people I know and also know were not involved, and your suggestion was clear. That was not, and should not, be taken lightly. That causes me to be suspicious. Shouldn't matter to you. The facts always prevail.

I know what he posted, and I stand by what I said. That isn't important. But.....When you claim some sort of credibility based on honest consideration of facts, your skeletons get exposed.

You didn't go where the evidence lead when you posted that nonsense about Seventh Fleet corruption, and specifically, Adm Pat Walsh's involvement, which you suggested. Once you do that, no matter how honorable your intentions, people who know these folks doubt your ability or sincerity to: "go where the evidence leads" No disrespect intended. Just things remembered, and not admitted.

I honestly want to believe you, but the names of people who have either refused to serve his presidency, along with those who have resigned underpin the doubt I have in him that is made more evident by gross business failures.

Not sure what you mean. I haven't proposed any alternative. I'm in favor of any election, whatever the result. I'm not in favor of this silly impeachment or any other extra-constitutional removal.

I think you are right. The system our forefathers set up was incredibly prescient. There is a difference though, in seeking his removal or pointing out gross incompetence, and a stupid course that could lead to really serious problems. I'm just pointing out the incompetence. Removal is best done via elections.

A step back. Only on social media would an individual like me be asked to defend John Kerry, Robert McNamara or LBJ because I think Trump's nonsense about cultural sites was a stupid, unforced error objectionable to the entire military. In the "only happens here" dept, and this site is more reasonable than most.

I am assuming that there is absolutely no need to deal with this guy's incompetence, whether as a businessman or a leader of a nation in possession of the greatest military and financial capability the world has ever known. I did a bit of financial work, formally and paid, on his "business" a few decades ago when he tried to launch a hostile bid on a company. Thank God he failed. I've watched him "fail" in many other endeavors that ended up in court, and those of a more personal nature that we all know about. I hoped he would work out, because I sure as hell wasn't going to vote for his competitor. He is in over his head, and everything suggests that, at it always has. All that aside, no matter the suggestion of his advanced skilled nuance, never visible in his track record heretofore, he has suggested that the US military will do something it doesn't, and won't do. If this is because he is brilliant, I'll admit it when I see it. What I see is stupid unnecessary nonsense.

He hasn't survived anything yet, and I honestly hope he does. The secret to good leadership though, is being leader enough to not having to "survive an attack from within." A good leader is convincing to the point that the attack never comes. This man is not a good leader at all.

Reagan won. This guy aint.

Please. There is no justifying what he said based on his background as a New York real estate guy, nor his habit of speaking the way he speaks. He now speaks as the president of the United States, and what he said was grossly foolish, ignorant and uncalled for. He clearly doesn't understand this, and there is no excuse, and no defending it.

I'm not going to quote the entire post, but what you are doing is expanding the thing beyond the Iranian borders. Everybody knows the use of human shields, cultural centers, hospitals and other sensitive areas that various groups use, knowing that such areas are almost always off limits to offensive response. My comments are strictly directed to Iranian soil, and they typically haven't done that. If the discussion expands to the entire world, this "trend" is certainly up for discussion, but I'm not going to comment on that.

I hope that we could address a cyber threat without altering real estate.

I have no idea, but I am not aware of them using Iranian locations for those activities. They export that kind of stuff to other places, or at least they have. You can't simply relocate command and control centers, and I doubt they would use such places as storage for any munitions that the world would care about. Their nuc stuff is deeply underground. Anyway, I've never been aware of any military value that would justify any strike on a cultural site there, but who knows. Either way, it was stupid thing for the president to say. Nothing gained, but a ton of speculation that puts us on the defense. The man is a massive unforced error source, and he hasn't figure it out. Such statements make military people cringe. Related, I think the US deployed six B-52's to Diego Garcia yesterday, which argues for a more strategic response, but that would just be a start.

I did answer the question, though it isn't what Trump said. I said "if there is no military benefit to doing so." It's silly to get into hypotheticals, so I won't. Gaming this think before anything happens is a really bad idea, but......... Iranian "ammunition" is not a threat. The US' strategic interest in anything Iranian related would be twofold. One is to protect shipping, which would involve eliminating the threat to the Strait of Hormuz, Persian gulf and Northern Arabian Sea. The other is to disrupt and delay their nuclear weapons program, which is almost entirely deeply underground and probably, (I'm guessing here), location known. Tactically, in order to do that, you have to do what the US always does at the onset, which is to take out command and control and air defense capability related to those two objectives. None of that relates to cultural sites, and using such places to train terrorists or store ammunition, per your hypothetical, probably isn't important enough to worry about. Nonetheless, going after a cultural site is anathema to a professional military, which the US is.