sherpa

Evidently, 12,000 yesterday alone. Just an absolute disaster.

Too early to tell, But if the US Carney was attacked, as has been reported, the Iranian led Houthi group and Yemen may suffer a response for attacking international shipping operations.

That was destruction. Go Hoos.

Ya. I do. I wonder where any Arab leadership is regarding this, survival mode or not. Blaming Israel for the Palestinian problem is not credible. Real estate can be worked out with honest parties. Real estate with one party launching rockets at point blank cannot. No political entity, no matter how motivated for peace, is going to tolerate the actions coming out of the Gaza from Hamas.

I get what you're saying. But.....What you have never said or commented on when i have brought this up, is where is Arab leadership seeking a solution? The world never hears that. Where are the proposals? All they ever do is equip, arm, train and fund aggressors, indoctrinate their youth in hate, and prolong this issue. The rest of the world, including the Israelis are ready. Their is a vacuum in the Arab world, except for the gross aggressiveness of Iran.

First, I really appreciate and respect your participation and heart felt viewpoints. You seem sincere, and most important to me, apolitical. You express yourself with sincerity and honesty. The 1948 war was the result of a stupid solution from a war tired world feeling guilty from an exposure of the genocide they had caused, (Germany), or didn't notice or acknowledge. Smart solutions almost never result from these situations, and didn't in this situation. What I've noticed over the years of this horrible issue is the complete lack of any interest in a solution that is reasonable from the Arab world, who has killed and ejected Palestinians from their borders over and over. Reasonable proposals have been suggested. Always rejected. So.... Cold as it may seem, my view is formed by hearing what was done on Oct. 7, actions that I have never imagined, and I fully support Israel's goal of completely eliminating Hamas, and going from there.

The Six Day War was not started by Israel, though they were the first offensive action. Nobody, anywhere, ever has denied that the joint Arab forces were within hours of attacking. I don't know of "UN rules," but countries can certainly gain land from winning wars, and they can and should ensure their survivability by buffering from known attackers. Israel, nor any other country, has the ability to defend against modern weaponry on it's border, and with those belligerents being funded, trained and supplied by others, (Iran), using their country as a launching point for their own war, they have no option other than to do what they do. I feel a great deal of sympathy for the Palestinians. What I despise, is Iran using them as surrogates, and the rest of the Arab world expelling and killing Palestinians in the hundreds of thousands, and blaming the Palestinian problem on Israel, all the while refusing to provide or support a negotiated settlement.

You are suggesting a hypothetical that I don't think directly applies. Israel defeated multi Arab nation attacks, and in doing so, acquired the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, Sinai and parts of Southern Lebanon. It gave up Southern Lebanon and the Sinai. They could have taken Damascus and Cairo were it not for forced ceasefires. When you start a war you suffer the consequences. To answer your hypothetical, if the US was "invaded" as Israel was, I would expect the same response. The US would react the way Israel did. Beat back the invasion and do what we could to ensure it didn't happen again, all the while pursuing an agreeable end of the issue, which they have and has always been rejected.

No. If I understand what you are suggesting, it is inaccurate. Netanyahu and others may well be held accountable for the Shin Bet failure to see this coming, but not for the hideous, subhuman actions of Hamas. He certainly isn't "responsible," to use your wor, for that. The only people who are are Hamas, and others who funded and helped train and plan that disgusting action. Not the Israeli gov. Not the settlers. Not the innocent murder victims.

The Israelis take their time, but his gov will be blamed and gone. Same thing happened with Golda Meir after Yom Kippur in 73. The best course is to allow Netanyahu and the in place gov and military to handle this. They are capable. Internal politics can be dealt with later.

Judging and critiquing a nation's response to a report of an intel object is a fool's errand. Same happened after 9-11. People who read this stuff have no idea what is reported every day. No idea of the credibility of the sources, and no idea of plans or processes to deal with it. I'm certain the hammer will fall on the Israeli folks who misjudged this, but this is not the time. The lesson is that those who commit these atrocities are responsible. Not the ones who guessed wrong. Really goofy for a US citizen to ever think that he could possibly know what Israel deals with every day on many fronts, but that what message boards provide.

Sure. A military deployment is supposed to last until a certain time. If extended, it disrupts the personal and family plans of those involved. This group is typically mid level enlisted who are still highly employable in the economy, and mid level officers who are always recruited by US industry at greater salary. Babies are born with a missing parent. People make serious, family plans based on presumed deployments, and count on those plans. A month is not a big deal. Three months is, and retention rates among those two critical groups suffer immensely, as history has proven. The Navy needs to get the Ford group home, or do something they have never done, which is to embark on a rapid replacement of those folks while still underway, which would not work that well re operational capability. It is a big issue.

Just a thought. I found out today that Eisenhower is in the Persian Gulf. Putting a carrier task force in the Persian Gulf is a lot different than operating east of the Strait of Hormuz, in the northern Indian Ocean. For a carrier, it's like fighting in a phone booth, when the other option gives you just as much offensive capability. Very limited response times and constant alert status requirements. This is a very dangerous operating area vis a vis Iran, and tells me one of two things: The US is challenging Iran to make a first move, fully confident that it will lead to a repeated destruction of the Iranian Navy, as happened in Operation Preying Mantis, or: The US believes that Iran will never support a Hamas/Hezbollah operation that would trigger US direct involvement against Iran. I think Iran will continue to use pin-prick surrogate operations, but is de facto, backing down. As an aside, Ford needs to be relieved and get those folks home, or there will be a very undesirable price paid.

Ya? Ask the military people assigned as White House staff or his Secret Service Det. Ask the people who he made stay in a trailer outside Plains, with the nuc codes because he didn't want them in Plains. They have different views, as published.

He did, at least he started to, but his name was Reagan. You simply don't get what an arrogant prick this guy was. This Plains Georgia, avuncular, nice guy, carry my own bags was a myth. He thought he was smarter than everyone else and he was grossly wrong. I could go on and on about readiness etc., but you are not worth the effort, and I can't stand people who call me a liar.

What he said that was incredibly ignorant of the situation was as follows: Inflation was really bad and mortgage rates were really high, around 10% at the time, as I recall. There was a groundswell of complaint as military salaries were not nearly adjusting, and housing, especially in California where I was based, was unaffordable for junior officers, let alone enlisted. He was asked to address some of these complaints, and he stated that the housing issue didn't matter because the military provided housing. This was total nonsense. There is not near enough military housing for officers and he was completely ignorant of this, as well as a few other financial stresses cause by inflation. When the DCNO Air Warfare and the Administration rep showed up for this discussion, a junior officer pointed out that per the application process, he was eligible for food stamps. This was an officer. Someone who get out and double his salary in a second. Anyway, it didn't go well. Carter was despised, and I won't even go into the tragedy he managed trying to rescue the hostages. Bad as that was, it probably would have been much worse if continued. We had been relieved a month prior and had just gotten home, but I have good friends who were up and ready on the two carriers ready to fly fighter and attack missions in support.

Calling me a liar again? For the rational people here..... I had just joined my fleet squadron and there was a huge exodus of Naval Aviators. Carter had just made some incredibly stupid comment indicating he had no idea of the reality. Anyway, the Administration teamed with the Navy and sent the DCNO Air Warfare, (under the Chief of Naval Operations are the three combatant commanders, Deputy Chief of Naval Ops Air, Sub and Surface), on a dog and pony show to the the three west coast tacair Naval Air Stations. Accompanying DCNO Air was some guy from the Carter Admin. Q and A followed, and the guy knew nothing of the issues. Nothing. As a super junior new guy, I knew nothing, but I watched my fellow, more senior officers walk out of that shaking their heads. When the report of this "visit" was published it completely avoided any of the substantive points and claimed guys were getting out because their wasn't enough flying at sea. Total BS. Anyway, you suggesting I am lying is a bridge you have burned, and I couldn't care less. Carter was a horrible president, an atrocious Commander in Chief and an ass to White House and Secret Service staff. No way to know, but the claim that without the hostage crisis he would have been reelected is nonsense. His own party mounted a primary challenge, and he was crushed in the regular election. Off topic, but for Canadian viewers, your Air Force is undergoing similar problems that the US did under Carter. This youtube is only three days ago. Not good for Canada or NATO.

I have zero interest in arguing these with you. I am extremely aware of the status of the military during the Carter term, and I could relate a number of anecdotal examples. They sent some Washington bureaucrat to meet with the entire non carrier deployed officers where I was stationed, and the guy had no idea. We walked out of there shaking our heads. He was unaware of even basic circumstances and that resulted in a great deal of extremely talented people leaving. His handling of the Iran hostage thing was terrible, as was his moronic rescue attempt, and make no mistake, he ran that disaster. His term was noteworthy in the national malaise that resulted in his landslide loss. I'm not sure Volker or Carter when you are referring to when you say "he solved the inflation problem." Volker was an inflation hawk who kept rates high for an extended period and was a very successful Fed Chair. To say that anyone "cured" inflation is is a remarkably simplistic view. Inflation results when too much money chases too few goods and services. Keep interest rates high and the economy will eventually slow down to moderated the problem. I liked Volker a lot. I can't stand Carter as president, though I have no issue with his post presidency legacy.

Cater was a disaster in every sense. To claim it was an "oasis" is insanity. Inflation was becoming a problem during the Ford years, but nothing like what happened during the Carter term. His solution to an unnecessary energy crisis was to turn down thermostats. Absolutely no leadership. Left the military in shambles, leading to massive retention problems and very dangerous readiness issues. He was despised by the officer corps. He was also a rude, arrogant phony, who put the US at risk by not allowing the "football," the nuc codes to be brought into Plains when he was there. The reason he got demolished in his reelection campaign was certainly not because he was "an oasis of good government." Even the Dems despised him, resulting in a challenge from Kennedy. By the way, the Federal Reserve is an independent entity.

I asked you to back up your claim. This comes nowhere close. Another wasted thirty seconds.

Totally inherited from the Carter disaster. Remember the "misery index?" Depending on severity, it takes a bit of time to get inflation under control unless there is a shock to the economy.

Of course he did, and we have discussed this before. OPEC and the Saudis in particular, were interested in allowing the price to fall so far that US producers would be unable to sustain operations. The result of that would have been a dramatic supply crunch when things returned to some level of normal economic activity, and a huge increase in OPEC market share with the US out of the picture. It was a sensible thing to do. Keep in mind that Saudi production costs per barrel are around $10. US production costs per barrel is a bit over $50. Trump, sensibly, did not want to see the US energy production capacity crushed.

So are you going to back this claim up?

Nope.

Are you in some alternate state of reality, or simply enjoy inventing claims? I have never done what you have stated. These claims are from your imagination. You should be avoided.