this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
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Whether it was due to the early hour of the day or just to the blood-thirsty nature of the moment, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared particularly unhinged during the first official news ...

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[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 77 points 1 day ago (11 children)

No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise, no politically correct wars.

No democracy, no nation building. So what is the actual goal here? Just to shoot stuff for its own sake?

[–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

The goal is not to make Bush's mistake of setting a goal that they can later be held accountable to.

[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

So just shoot the place up, see what comes out, and then declare that that was the goal all along.

[–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 1 points 15 hours ago

Yeah, pretty much. I think they're really hoping for Syria, but I'm not sure they can achieve that, Iran is a much more unified country.

[–] masta_chief@sh.itjust.works 3 points 16 hours ago

I have a feeling it's as simple as wanting to use all the toys they've spent trillions on over the years and just want to see big explosions and play war.

Imagine if our society provided taxpayer funded paintball/airsoft/bomb ranges so all these warmongers can get their rocks off without hurting people.

[–] aquovie@lemmy.cafe 7 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

"Democracy" and "nation building" is just "occupation" by another name. So I guess we can take some comfort in that not being their goal?

[–] duncan_bayne@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Sometimes. It can be done honorably and with good outcomes; Japan and Germany post-WW2 are good examples.

[–] aquovie@lemmy.cafe 1 points 12 hours ago

There are very few absolutes in life. War is bad, until you need to kill some Nazis. Occupation is bad, until you tread that fine line between Treaty of Versailles (too heavy) and 1800's Reconstruction (too light). Statistically, you're almost certainly not doing the right thing.

[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 2 points 15 hours ago

Those are the good examples, and they worked very well. But ever since, the US seems to think they can replicate the effect by going in, bombing the place, shooting some locals, and declaring mission accomplished.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 63 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Now I'm hearing that the commanders all gave their troops a speech about doing this for God and Christianity, etc., so it seems like the primary motivation was to kick off the End Times for the religious freaks.

So we're in it until The Rapture. Our entire world has to burn down to satisfy the fantasies of delusional religious weirdos, so the Sociopathic Oligarchs can comb through the rubble for treasure.

How about we just Rapture the entire MAGA leadership, and move on?

[–] GutterRat42@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I am an atheist, but if heaven and hell exist, they should know, there is enough space in hell for them.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago

No god worth worshipping would condone their actions. I stand by the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius, that I will live a moral life and reject any god that has a problem with it. Killing to kill is the mandate of an evil god.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 9 points 1 day ago

I understand. Whenever one of these psychopaths assume room temperature, I'm always slightly sad that I don't believe in their mythology.

When Dick Cheney croaked, I remember thinking that it would be really nice to be able to smile at the thought of him having his Welcome Orientation in Hell. Instead, I was just sad for the person who didn't get a heart because Cheney took it.

[–] Didntdoit71@feddit.online 5 points 1 day ago

Call it whatever you want...just...make them stop...

[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

He just wasn’t getting that same high exploding South American fishermen anymore.

Tolerance is a hell of a drug.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Also, bold move to more or less openly defy the American ideals. The moral justification for a lot of what we've done is to further the cause of democracy. I don't think starting a war to bring democracy is necessarily the right decision, but starting a war and not even trying to spread democracy with it is un-American (derogatory)

[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

I thought the whole reason for this was the fact that Iran has killed and imprisoned record numbers of protesters. That sounds to me like regime change is the goal here, but perhaps I'm wrong.

I certainly don't think they'll ever succeed in bringing democracy (US track record is atrocious there), but at least it'd be nice if they pretended to try.

"real man" cosplay.

[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Balkanization I think, but I don’t think that will happen because Iran has been a pretty cohesive country for thousands of years. So I suspect Trump will back down, or there will be a multi decade regional war, or there will be a world war.

[–] GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I dunno, the author of this article is Iranian-American. I think he has plenty of information and insight on the situation, I'm inclined to trust his assessment.

[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 3 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

What assessment it’s nine sentences making fun of Pete Hegseth

[–] GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

I just realized I commented on the wrong article, I'm sorry.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 day ago

Blow shit up so Iran can't attack back for the next generation.