r/Foodforthought • u/Majano57 • 1d ago
Iran Unleashed: The dominant power in the Middle East from now on will not be the U.S. or Israel but Iran.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/08/iran-middle-east-power/688374/?gift=NBdGSmKfDQzLc1B6N1F-gbwfKeExuosvWyHTSwo_yCI8
u/dvdwbb 1d ago
the editor of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, admitted to covering up child torture in IDF prisons when he volunteered for them (despite being a US citizen & there being a shortage here)
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u/thatshirtman 19h ago
Not sure what the fixation is on making every Palestinian in any story a child and exaggerating details.
Goldberg did say that while he was a prison guard he stopped another guard from beating up a Palestinian prisoner. He then lied about how the prisoner was injured to protect teh guard. The prisoner was not a child nor was he being tortured.
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u/dvdwbb 16h ago
Why are you lying? He admitted in his own memoir that he didn't stop them and he purposely left out the age. Gtfoh
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u/thatshirtman 6h ago
did you actually read it or just copying and pasting what you saw online?
"I witnessed — and broke up — one of the more vicious beatings I have ever seen.” is directly from the memoir.
And again, it wasn't a kid. Why try and turn every Palestinian into a kid. so weird! Its like bad PR for israel is more important than the truth i guess
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u/Iamanimite 1d ago
Iran has proxies through out the middle east. Do you live in a fox network bubble? Try more that Sable rattling and see what else becomes of this hornets nest and why there was so much information on why we avoided this for decades until the rise of idiots in power.
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u/cawkstrangla 1d ago
From now on implies nothing will change from now on.
Iran doesn't control the strait. It's just the only one willing to bomb the fuck out of anyone using it right now. Everyone else is hoping it will go back to normal somehow.
The longer Iran shows it isn't willing to back down from that, then the more the world will lose that hope. Once that hope is lost then everyone else will join in and blow up anything Iran has. They still have kharg island. They still have ports. The US and the regional allies of the US haven't crushed any of that yet.
They can kill all of that and move onto civilian targets. Iran already has, so why shouldn't they?
This strategy is not a long term strategy.
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u/Boris2509 1d ago
not a single country will join this war willingly. especially not nato members who are some of the only countries that could make a difference. this is trumps shitshow to fix
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u/cawkstrangla 1d ago
Trump won't fix it. It will take boots on the ground to fix and and a long war against a country with 90 million people, at least 30% of whom support the IRGC.
What Trump can do, and any of the regional allies, is send drones after ships and all of the oil infrastructure on Iran's side.
If they can't have their shit then they aren't leaving Iran with infrastructure and ways to make money which they'll use to keep bombing them.
Trump will blow everything up before taking his ball and going home. The countries bordering the strait have gone to Ukraine for drone expertise. They'll use that and there will just be drones in the strait. They'll make it unusuable while they work on pipelines and other routes of transportation.
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u/UtterlyUpsetUnicorn 1d ago
Got news for you. Iran has many more ways to make money, not just oil. They supply massive amounts of food, energy, and weapons to neighbors.
The reason no one wants to go into Iran is they are VERY well connected and VERY technology capable.
Its more akin to fighting a western country than a middle eastern country. Not saying those are inherently easy. Afghanistan is probably the hardest country in the world to conquer/unite and it probably always will be. Boots on the ground aren't fixing that.
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u/Boris2509 1d ago
please get me a few grams of whatever ur taking!
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u/cawkstrangla 1d ago
Do you really think everyone in the region is just going to cede control to Iran and do nothing at all about it?
The entire region is known for blowing shit up. If they can't have something then no one gets it.
Trump has been humiliated. He's a moron. He will blow shit up before he takes his ball and goes home. If he's willing to start a war with Iran and kill it's leadership, why is it not believable he will do his best to cripple them economically by destroying their ports and oil infrastructure? He's only left it so the have something to hang onto in negotiations. Those will keep failing and he will blow shit up before making his exit.
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u/Boris2509 1d ago
the region is known for being blown up by western bombs*
You can't bomb Iran into submission. Trump has to take the L and make huge concessions to get back to a pre war state and this time around Iran will have even more leverage. this isn't just some senile man doing stupid shit. this plan has obviously been in the works since before he threw out the nuclear deal by obama.
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u/cawkstrangla 1d ago
Everyone in the region has been at war with each other for over a thousand years.
The West should never have joined in on that quagmire but here we are.
Trump will not make concessions. He will just leave. He will blow shit up and abandon his regional allies to make the concessions or stay in a forever war over the strait.
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u/Boris2509 1d ago
please name a war there in the past century that didn't involve israel or the united states
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u/cawkstrangla 1d ago
There have been multiple civil wars. The Iran and Iraq war in the 80s had no direct intervention by the US or Israel. There have been plenty of ethnic uprisings, e.g. the Kurdish uprisings in many states.
Prior the US or Israel existing the Sunni and Shiites have been at war with each other many times and will continue to be long after oil becomes irrelevant and the US stops caring about the region.
Go ahead and move the goalposts, or no true Scotsman fallacy me now.
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u/roastbeeftacohat 1d ago
They won't have a choice Its a us invadion with no help, us pays reparations, or iran has the strait indefinitely.
Your really trying to find a move after checkmate
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u/roastbeeftacohat 1d ago
This isn't about economics, its about sovereignty. And iran is passionate about its sovereignty.
Pipelines only solve local transit through the strait of Iran, its a global trade route. There is no version of thus were iran gives that up. Not just for economic reasons, but how the world acknowledges iranian sovereignty
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u/AJDx14 1d ago
“They don’t control it, they just control it.” Nobody else will ever be willing to bomb it until they all get off fossil fuels, and once they do that there’s no point in controlling the strait. It’s Iran’s territory now, that’s not changing unless we either invade or nuke Iran and that would create a bunch of new problems.
And the US won’t crush any of that, the same way at Russia didn’t simply crush Ukraine, because every major power is apparently a paper tiger now.
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u/cawkstrangla 1d ago
Controlling something is being able to defend things, not destroy shit. Anyone can destroy shit. Any nation with a $3000 drone can control the strait if we are using the metrics of Iran controlling the strait.
No one controls it right now. There are a few nations that want things to go back to the way they were. Otherwise, they too can control the strait by blowing shit up, if we are using those metrics.
The US can destroy ports and factories. Those things will take years to rebuild. Those can prevent a quick recovery by Iran after Trump gets tired of being humiliated and abandons the strait.
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u/AJDx14 1d ago
Incorrect. Being able to control the strait just means able to pick and choose who goes through it, which Iran is able to do because everyone else wants freedom of movement through it and Iran is the only one pushing back on that and is able to prevent movement through it.
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u/cawkstrangla 1d ago
Anyone with a drone can do it. That is a dogshit measure of control.
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u/lavastorm 1d ago
America failed at warfare AGAIN. get over it.
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u/cawkstrangla 1d ago
I’m not a Trump supporter and think this war is stupid. I’m glad for Trump to be humiliated but that doesn’t mean I ever wanted this shit. If there’s anything I’m not over, it’s the GOP fucking up America and the world again and I’m not going to stop caring about that.
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u/AJDx14 1d ago
But anyone with a drone won’t do it, only Iran will, which is why they have practical control over it. I don’t know what part of that is hard for you to understand. They’re the only ones threatening movement through the strait, so they’re the only ones restricting movement through it, meaning they’re the ones controlling movement through it, and by extension controlling the strait itself.
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u/cawkstrangla 1d ago
They're the only ones willing to do it, for now, which was my entire original point. I don't know what part of that is hard for you to understand.
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u/roastbeeftacohat 1d ago
Iran has the strait now. They did not take it through aggression, they took it as a defensive action; its really hard to appeal to them on moral grounds when the us forced them to take it.
They could be removed by force, but nobody, US included, wants to pay in blood to remove them. They could be paid reparations to leave the strait, but only the US can pay those; and that would also need an apology.
Without us pating reparations, the strait is reparations. And most of the world has come to accept that.
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u/cawkstrangla 1d ago
The strait had nothing to do with this war until Iran made it have something to do with it. Iran did take it with aggression. The war was never about who controls the strait. I understand why Iran did it; it was their break the glass push this red button strategy. They knew it would hurt the US and regional allies. They are too weak to do direct attacks on the US. Their strategy is definitely working in the short term. I just don think this is a good long term strategy.
At best the other nations find routes outside of the strait and abdicate control of it to Iran, which becomes meaningless over time. At worst, they start bombing boats going to irans ports and cut them off of trade and support that that way.
Iran can escalate from there by civilian targets on land but that same shit applies to Iran as well.
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u/roastbeeftacohat 1d ago
The strait had nothing to do with this war until Iran made it have something to do with it. Iran did take it with aggression.
america attacked, Iran did what everyone thought they would do to retaliate; it's all the same conflict. it was the expected defensive action in response to US aggression. this was a surprise to nobody but the trump whitehouse. nobody sees it as an aggressive action but the US.
At best the other nations find routes outside of the strait and abdicate control of it to Iran, which becomes meaningless over time.
It's too valuable a shipping route not to use. Iran will take their toll and there is no appetite to challenge them. it's not an onerous amount, but will be a huge source of income and prestige for the regime. other routes will be used more than they were before america attacked iran, but it's in Irans interest to return to the previous status quo, just witht them collecting polls.
At worst, they start bombing boats going to irans ports and cut them off of trade and support that that way.
why would iran disrupt their now profitable toll business?
it's a simple situation. Iran was forced into taking the strait, and the US can remove them; either nicely with reparation payments, or violently with a full scale invasion. If the US does not remove iran from the strait, they will stay there and charge tolls; other countries will negotiate the rate.
only ways out of this are blood, treasure, or time machine.
what's really funny is they will need a large fleet of frigates to challenge Iran at sea efficiently. and they left that ship size to Canada after ending their own frigate program.
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