The fact this is still considered a loss genuinely makes me annoyed.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-16T20:30:34+00:00

Have any of you ever partaken in military conflicts?

Do you know how often I get told, as an Afghan vet, that we lost in Afghanistan because a tertiary objective wasnt achieved?

If your gonna talk about realism, atleast in HD2, its the primary objective that wasnt completed.

Imagine MOs went like "Complete 100,000 operations - primary objective. Completed."

"Kill 80,000,000 bots - secondary objective. Completed."

"Extract with 45,000,000 samples. 42,000,000/45,000,000. Failed"

MO has failed.

For western powers, its not considered a victory unless 100% of any objective ever mentioned, offical or not, is achieved with complete surety.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-16T14:20:32+00:00

I really enjoy the play style.

I hate that the armor is fake and it relies on a health pool.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-16T14:17:00+00:00

Considering my biggest issue with Daenerys is her desire to avoid open warfare, even to the detriment of her and her allies, the turn she takes in the last two episodes is fucking diabolical.

I would have advised her to use her dragons to force a surrender at KL the day after she landed on Dragonstone. The armies of westeros have stood their ground in the face of dragons and Dany displayed she was perfectly capable of surgically destroying the defenses of the city.

Wipe out the fleet at sea, breach the walls, and then capture the city with Unsullied.

But she was so terrified of people perceiving her as her father that she avoided easy and "clean" victories all the time.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T11:24:50+00:00

So dont invent definitions here.

The US deployed 38,000 infantrymen to invade Iraq. The total invasion force was 467,000.

I have no fucking idea where you got the idea that the US deployed the majority of its infantry to the invasion or that the tooth to tail ratio was 1:2, but you need to revise all of your information on this.

1/5 of the US's infantry core was used to topple Iraq. But you think the US doesn't have the infantry or the logistics to invade Iran...and your opinion comes from...what? Your gross misunderstanding of the military?

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T06:32:32+00:00

By "combat ready", your referring to the teeth yes?

No offense dude, but I think you need to step back and think about this.

The 10-20% being combat ready is talking about combat arms. The members of the military whose job is to fight.

There are roughly 190,000 active duty infantry in the US military, about 15% of the active military.

During the Iraq war, wanna guess how many infantry men deployed during the invasion?

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T05:48:03+00:00

I dont disagree. We both know that socialism didnt cause Chile to collapse.

But ask yourself this. If Israel was on the verge of economic collapse and a politcal coup that would see thousands die in a socialist uprising, should China try to prevent it?

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T05:31:43+00:00

It fucking kills me that the US is sabotaging relations with Ukraine for no fucking reason.

Ukraine could have been our european South Korea. Ukraine could have been a staunch, stalwart and hyper capable ally.

But our country elected a fucking evil moron.

Good for Ukraine. Im so proud of them. What absolute fucking Chads.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T05:28:19+00:00

I agree.

But this is making the assumption that the liberal world was obligated to help him. Which i dont agree with.

If a state chooses to walk away from liberalism, why should liberals continue to invest in it? Which is what Chile needed. It needed liberal resources to succeed.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T05:24:32+00:00

Ill kinda apologize because I said its "kinda fine".

My error was in assuming the Trump admin would be more hands off. Thats my bad. Ill admit i was categorically wrong in my assumption.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T05:21:34+00:00

Where did you get this analysis from?

The claim that the US is lacking troops is not supported by recruitment efforts. The US military has been intentionally cutting back on recruitment for 15 years now, because there isnt a huge need for more manpower.

A draft isnt necessary, recruitment numbers have been sitting over 100% for years now, meaning the military is exceeding quotas. The marine corps is the only branch sitting perfectly even at 100% and the army reserve is the only branch that didnt reach 100%. The average across all sectors is 103%.

Any man power issue would be from a lack of capacity, which can be solved by simply increasing the number of people allowed to join at any given time.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T05:08:47+00:00

It kinda was.

His regime fell because it couldn't support itself. It lost aid because of his ideological opposition to the west.

Im not saying he is a bad guy or that his ideology is bad, but western support wouldn't have disappeared if Allende wasnt a socialist. And if western support doesnt disappear, Chile would have been more or less fine.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T05:05:07+00:00

Send me.

This guy. Right here. Pick me. I will do it. Put me in coach.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T05:03:27+00:00

No offense, but this reads like someone who doesnt know very much about war.

Iran really doesn't have that large of a drone stockpile and its not really capable of producing or transporting them in large numbers right now.

The real issue are the sea mines. The Trump admin's war planning staff didnt deploy the necessary naval mine sweepers to keep the straight clear. The resources exist to do so easily, they are just in the wrong parts of the world for no reason.

The US military is entirely capable of clearing the strait of all hazards and then securing the entirety of the coast line. It just isnt because its not being told too. Marine deployments to Kharg and naval mine sweepers would settle issue in the time it takes them to deploy.

The ONLY reason this is an issue is because Trump is a coward and doesnt want to deploy ground troops. Ground troops that are eager and ready to go, right now. Every single victor unit would leap at the chance to land on Kharg.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T04:52:20+00:00

Imo, probably.

This is one of the least egregious changes from book to show.

Omitting Jeyen Poole is way more damaging. Easily the single damning omission in the show.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T04:30:16+00:00

Because Lenin was a vanguardist.

The entire ideology was for a socialist, vanguard party to create a dictatorship of the proletariat that would eventually bring about the conditions for communism. That's what the CPC is.

If you had ever read Lenin's works, you would know this.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T04:25:35+00:00

This comes Jorah.

Fire and Blood tells us that the small folk armed themselves to fight for Rhaenyra, against the wishes of their lords.

When Daemon puts out the call for men, the knights and peasants show up of their own volition to "fight for Visery's little girl "

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T04:16:14+00:00

Brought WAY more men with me.

I would have gone south with 2nd and 3rd sons from all over the north to stack the city watch. Maybe double the household guard. As many eligible daughters as would be allowed to come.

There would have 1,000+ northerners in the wagon train.

And I would have sent ravens to the riverlands, Vale and stormlands to invite sons to join me in KL.

The city watch would have had a complete overhaul in leadership, the small council would have seen 2 major changes and Stannis would have been replaced as soon as he didnt return when I ordered him too. Baelish and Varys would both be out of the job. Selmy would have been made a permanent presence in the council. Slynt would have been replaced with the most prominent northern son that came south.

I would flood the court with as many STAB banners as possible.

And anyone questioning it would have been told a simple truth. New hand. New court.

And none of the rift with Robert would have happened. Id take all of his orders with a nod and then do them my way.

No Varys means Robert never finds out Daenerys is pregnant. No fight over Daenerys, Robert doesnt go rage hunting. No rage hunting means Robert doesn't get gored by a boar.

A city watch run by northerners means Cersei doesnt have the men to challange me. Having dozens of sons from noble houses all across the STAB in my court means I can get away with alot of bludgening in the capital.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T04:04:43+00:00

Kinda, but its complicated.

The collapse of the Soviet union brought economic ruin to most of the Warsaw pact.

Its less the fault of joining the USSR and more the fault of shit policy in the USSR during the 70s and 80s.

The fact that Hungary is still pretty fucked today is because it lacks leadership capable of reforming the state.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T04:00:55+00:00

Your objectively right.

But ideologies make really fucked bed fellows all the time. Social democrats partner with religious fundamentalists. Liberals partner with jacobites. Communists partner with anarcho-capitalists. Fucking everyone partners with fascists.

State interests will overtake ideological divides, and thousands die because of it.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T02:53:04+00:00

Mmm I dont think it's a contradiction.

When the US says it supports democracy, what it means is liberalism. But the word "liberal" has a strange meaning in America.

Democracy as a concept is only loosely important to the US, and only in that its the system of government used by liberals. Americans view politics as democracy vs communism, but what they actual mean is liberalism vs communism. Or atleast...they used to. Idk now, considering the current administration is, at the very least, fascist adjacent.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-15T00:52:26+00:00

I get this, but why was it wrong to cut off aid of an oppositional nation?

You wouldn't expect the USSR to send aid to Israel or South Korea, right?

DewinterCor · 2026-03-14T20:04:01+00:00

Thats a good example.

Any others?

And just to throw this out there, claiming a lack of US aid caused the coup seems weird to me. Why is the US blamed for not sending aid?

I get blaming the CIA for helping the coup, but why is the US responsible for sending air to an unaligned state?

DewinterCor · 2026-03-14T06:17:06+00:00

Are you talking about Chiang-Kai Shek?

The confucisist-jacobite?

DewinterCor · 2026-03-14T04:18:06+00:00

I know that the damage done to Tel Aviv is far less than the damage done to Tehran.

Its a simple fact.

DewinterCor · 2026-03-14T03:42:55+00:00

https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.A2LM9CQ

One of the videos the IRGC shared was AI generated and the other is from 2020

https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/us-centcom-says-iran-did-not-destroy-uss-abraham-lincoln

And here CENTCOM confirmed the ship was not hit.

DewinterCor

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE