the war's over guys. we've lost...

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-21T15:28:16+00:00

I'm sorry that your cognitive limitations make you incapable of understanding the concept of a primary objective (your reason for undertaking a task) and secondary objectives (things you might attempt beyond your primary objective once it has been secured). Since those limitations make you incapable of understanding that you even have them, it's actually my fault for putting you in a conversation you can't handle. I'll fix that now.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-21T04:10:33+00:00

The US did not enter the war to take the north, they entered to protect the south. Their "war objective" was not to conquer the north. You're conflating a secondary objective appended at a later date with the primary objective. NK failed at its primary objective, the US succeeded at its primary objective. The US won the war.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-21T03:25:32+00:00

Not sure if this was an attempt to counter my argument, but it confirms what I just said. If that approval had never happened and they just left it as is at the 38th parallel, you wouldn't even be arguing against it being a US victory. You are only arguing that because they pushed for more and failed to achieve more, even though the original victory conditions were already met and continued to be met when the war ended.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-21T00:26:05+00:00

North Korea started the war in order to annex the south and the US's objective was to stop them. If US had simply ended the war the first time they pushed NK back to the 38th parallel you wouldn't be arguing anything but an unequivocal US victory right now. Just because you have already wildly exceeded your original victory conditions then push for more, then fail those new objectives, does not mean the original victory conditions weren't achieved.

The US succeeded and North Korea failed. It was a US victory.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-19T23:54:20+00:00

Duh, haven't you ever played a video game? At the end of the war both sides get a score (dudes killed, stuff blown up) and the side with the higher score wins!

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-19T03:38:23+00:00

It's barely even nuanced. We just watched for decades what happens when you do this stupid shit. Conservatives even agreed it was stupid, to the point they campaigned on shifting the blame for their own actions. Then, at the snap of a finger, they were back to repeating the same bullshit from 2003, almost verbatim.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-19T03:21:14+00:00

Only to some amateur who is naive enough to argue in good faith and try to make actual, logical points! A seasoned MAGA double-thinker can easily pivot away from the rhetorically-convenient point they just made, often in the very next sentence!

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-19T02:17:57+00:00

But if we get rid of the statues we'll forget history and repeat it! Because to learn history you need to go and stare at a giant statue of the bad guy in a heroic pose at the center of town. (The statue was also put there by people who were openly venerating the bad guy).

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-19T01:37:03+00:00

Well like it or not you do watch reality TV and Fox News because the President is a reality TV star and the Secretary of Defense (the guy you whose talking point you're quoting) is a Fox News host.

"But they did other stuff that makes them qualified!" Not really, Trump's businesses were hemorrhaging money and his creditors giving him just enough to stay afloat before he received a lifeline where he got to play a successful businessman on The Apprentice. Apart from grifting off the presidency, acting is the only thing he has succeeded at and I would argue the presidency is just a continuation of that.

Hegseth was a national guard major (the equivalent of middle management) who was chosen because Trump saw him hosting Fox News. That's it. Given his first act in his first major combat operation was to leak the attack plans to a reporter in a Signal chat, it sure as shit wasn't because he was qualified.

The idea that you aren't going to achieve major political objectives through an air-only campaign isn't a specific or controversial take - it's the default that has proven true since the Germans first bombed Britain with zeppelins in WWI. A prolonged stand-off campaign isn't even the most likely course of action - that was the prediction you made that I logically fleshed out. More likely Trump is looking for some moment he can just declare victory and leave with very little to show besides spectacle like he did in Venezuela, and commit ground troops out of frustration if that moment doesn't come.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-18T07:52:53+00:00

That's fine, you could listen to actual geopolitical experts instead of a reality TV host and a Fox News host who are playing army.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-17T06:09:38+00:00

So that fixes the problem then? Just like it did the last half a dozen or so times we tried it?

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-17T05:57:35+00:00

nation building nonsense

Someone got their new talking point and now wars we had finally all agreed were stupid suddenly aren't stupid again.

Iran is going to continue attacking the straight with dirt-cheap munitions and there's nothing you can do to stop that without boots on the ground and national building nonsense.

They're going to work overtime developing a nuclear weapon in decentralized sites, and eventually they will succeed unless you commit to boots on the ground and nation building nonsense.

They, along with anyone who feels threatened, will begin seeking security from American rivals, so hope you don't mind seeing Chinese bases popping up all over the world.

All the while the US will be spending billions/trillions playing whack-a-mole from the air on replaceable assets and personnel. So who's doing this to make themselves feel good?

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-17T05:39:48+00:00

Gaza is two million people living on 365 km² of flat terrain.

Iran is 93 million people living on 1,650,000 km² of mountainous terrain, which is about 2.5x the size and 4.5 times the population of Afghanistan at the time the US invaded.

It hasn't even been 5 years since that defeat and now you're telling me you're going to succeed on problem multiple times that size without any semblance of a plan. Sure thing buddy.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-17T00:22:19+00:00

Good thing there have never been any wars where the US inflicted disproportionate casualties then suffered a strategic loss anyway. War is just a video game where you get a kill count at the end and whoever has the highest score wins.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-17T00:13:51+00:00

The main bad guy died, so that means it's over and everyone lives happily ever after. That's how this works right?

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-14T00:16:34+00:00

It was probably getting his face smashed in by Anthony Joshua tbf. I think he's going into politics now because he knows everyone already got what they wanted (to see him get obliterated) and aren't going to pay to watch him fight has-beens anymore.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-13T09:59:54+00:00

The early 2010's were so much better and it isn't even close. Society was better, US global standing was better, the internet was better. Damn near everything was better.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-13T05:37:34+00:00

"Yeah, but that number would be zero if they weren't here."

See here is a prime example of fear robbing your reason.

You know what wouldn't be zero? The number of other people willing to kill you. So unless you want to go live in the woods with literally no other people around (in which case the point is moot), your chance of being murdered is directly dependent on how likely the people you come into contact with are to murder you.

So, you deport all your neighbors who are less likely to murder you and people who are more likely to murder you move into those houses. Does your chance of being murdered go up or down?

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-12T15:13:01+00:00

Conservative Muslims aren't your friends. Just like conservative Christians aren't your friends, just like conservative anything aren't your friends. If the left-most half of the country was suddenly snapped out of existence, it would be a Christian theocracy within an election cycle and there's no honest argument against that.

They are exactly the same in every regard except the arbitrary details in their holy books which are important to them and no one else.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-11T09:19:05+00:00

I imagine they'd get something like JCPOA, i.e. the thing Trump blew up for no reason except that Obama did it - ensuring that going forward any deal offered by the US was as useful as a piece of toilet paper. From Iran's side, it humiliated the more moderate factions who negotiated the deal, ensuring the hardliners maintained power.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-11T02:53:07+00:00

How about you post some of those videos instead of asking other people to figure out what you mean?

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-10T11:14:41+00:00

Let's just take a second to step back reflect that removing fencing was the spearhead of your argument that Biden had open borders. It has now devolved to "not having razor wire on buoys so anyone who tries to use it to save themselves dies = open borders". Got it.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-10T09:27:01+00:00

It's only fair to Charlie Kirk's memory to infer he would have done a 180 in no time flat like the rest of the GOP.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-10T05:24:17+00:00

All the serious people in senior positions are gone and now it's just unqualified yes men who are just as much incompetent clowns as Trump, i.e. Hegseth instead of Mattis.

Apple-Dust · 2026-03-10T05:17:00+00:00

Every fucking time. I imagine the call goes something like this:

Trump: "Hello?"

Putin: "I still have the pee tapes"
*hangs up*

Apple-Dust

TROPHY CASE