DC Tom

One of the big differences in perception is Obama came out and said "This falls under the existing AUMF," whereas Trump is simply saying "I can do whatever the ***** I want." If Trump said "This falls under the existing AUMF," he'd still be getting massive ***** for it. But it would also be a completely different argument. Again, the fact that Iran hasn't brought up the Vincennes is the biggest indicator that they shot down the 737 themselves.

"This may well have been unintentional." My God, Trudeau's an idiot.

I am NOT clicking on that bull####.

"My TV needs to be color balanced! IMPEACH!!!!"

Why? Was a fan mean to him in Atlanta?

Not necessarily. It was a couple hundred miles away from anything outside a satellite. And as a general principle, SAMs are made to not be seen (on the idea that if it can't be seen it's harder to dodge.)

I'm rather surprised Iran hasn't brought up the USS Vincennes.

No, I'm of the opinion they accidentally shot it down. But we wouldn't necessarily see the launch, in any spectrum (visual, IR, microwave). Mostly, was disagreeing with the implication of "It must have been gunfire, because perforations." Yeah...anything told to the Gang of Eight is in John Kerry's hands before the day is out, and in Iranian hands the next day.

Missiles cause perforations too. So do catastrophically failing turbofan engines, for that matter.

Meghan Markle's wearing a burkha? Clearly, they're "stepping back from their roles" to establish themselves as the #Resistance to Boris Johnson's government, and are planning on staging a coup and turning England into an Islamic state. WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!!!

It was a pretty awful joke, though, no matter who was the subject of it.

It's flu season, so he must be coked up.

Yeah...but he's probably not wrong. They're both very sick, with incurable diseases.

If you drink at "asshat," you're really bad at this.

I only drink on "You're really bad at this."

It's not.

You know what they have in common? Neither one killed themself.

Probably not. Asymmetrical warfare still takes time for planning and staff work, particularly when it's as well-organized as the IRGC is. And the nature of asymmetrical warfare is that it doesn't really degrade. As long as you maintain any sort of threat, you have a viable capability. And Quds force is still a very viable threat - they demonstrated that last week, and killing Soleimani didn't degrade that at all. "Not to attack US targets." Or "Not to attack US targets yet?" And does that mean targets IN the US? Or international targets representing the US? Does that include Doha? Destroyers docked in Aden? It's a rather ambiguous statement by Pence.

One thing that's missed in all this: missiles are an arms-length response that is not typical of Iranian methods in general, nor Quds operations in particular. Quds is roughly equivalent to JSOC, which isn't a "bomb them from miles away" force. They're a "get in to knife-fighting range and kill the target" force. This isn't over. The missile attack was just a quick face-saving response so Iran didn't look weak in the short-term.

Michael's bodyguard from Godfather 2 hasn't lost it... ******************************************************************

Quickest cloning ever.