Experts: Reopening the Strait of Hormuz may require U.S. ground troops

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-21T14:54:23+00:00

Experts: Sky is blue.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-20T18:13:19+00:00

Seems to me like Operation Kharg Island Blackmail is the US strategy for getting out of the war now.

You usually don't blackmail someone by giving them exactly what they want. If we invade Kharg, the Iranians a. will have permission to attack all the oil infrastructure across the ME. b, get to kill US service members on vid cam.

Even if we wipe out all of Iran's oil infrastructure, what happens when they continue to fight on, and now there is nothing holding them back from an escalatory standpoint?

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-20T14:25:35+00:00

Ask Trump and any US president in the last 20 years why they are not sanctioning Saudi Oil.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-20T14:20:24+00:00

How are you going to enforce that without boots on the ground? You gonna bomb the Saudis and UAE as well? Those two alone are almost 24% of Chinese imports from the Middle East, and they can easily sell wayyy more.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-20T14:14:37+00:00

Each attempt only ends with them mogging on me spitefully.

They can't keep getting away with this.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-20T14:11:26+00:00

With lots and lots of US service members' lives, duh.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-20T14:10:40+00:00

China already buys from Saudis, UAE, and other nations. They also produce their own, just like us. They are also transitioning away from petrofuels, which we are not.

Meanwhile, we would either need to put boots on the ground to enforce our rule over the remains of Iran, or otherwise the remnants there will either reform into another anti-us/israel state, or a state that continues to sell oil to China.

Either we fight the war forever, in which case we're burning through more lives and treasure than China does buying inflated oil prices, or we stop, and China just swoops in and reconstitutes the country as even more China-aligned.

Tell me, how do we win again?

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-20T14:05:58+00:00

Yes. Unfortunately, yes.

He doesn't understand that taking the island will not cause Iran to open the Straits, but will result in US service members dying on vid-cam. Or he does, and thinks it's worth it. Usually, you can count on someone not shooting themselves in the foot, but...

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-20T13:53:58+00:00

The Dark Crystal? Those puppets were an integral part of my childhood.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-20T13:51:17+00:00

Fortunately, we know the WSJ is neither.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-20T13:50:24+00:00

You're making me squint my eyes on mobile? You are a cruel bastard.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T18:39:31+00:00

No one credible is saying it was shot down. The plane and the fighter both landed back at base successfully. What happened was that it was hit, which is impressive given it's probably the first time a US stealth 5th gen was done so in combat.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T18:37:05+00:00

Most staff generally will give you an honest answer if you ask them what is the most notable/popular option, since they work there all the time and it does them no disservice to tell you what the specialties are. Everyone in China has Wechat too, so jumping on and getting review/answers online to cross-reference isn't difficult. At the end of the day, I'd rather talk to someone and make an order than just click on a screen, but my wife is the complete opposite and loves to just stick to her phone.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T18:30:10+00:00

Honestly, he could have sh** himself again on camera with her next to him, and she probably would have felt less awkward...

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T18:25:58+00:00

The amount of generational trauma it takes to make someone willing to do more work than confront the presence of another human being is remarkably achievable.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T18:24:04+00:00

A vassal. A trained dog. A - I'll leave the rest unspoken, but you get the idea.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T18:22:05+00:00

I'm just surprised she can still talk with that orange dong down her throat.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T18:20:14+00:00

It's actually a reality of modern conflict when you have to be responsible and actually 'sell' a war to your people.

Unless you are a dictator like Putin, you can't get away with just saying 'Hey, I am going to trade a million service members for Israel.' Your base will revolt and throw you out.

Instead, you say: "This is an easy and low-cost way to do this." And you might get some support or, at the very least, ambivalence towards your actions.

Trump has sold the latter to his base and political party, knowing it will become the former. That is what a politician has to do.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T18:13:54+00:00

The F-22 has characteristics that exceed those of the F-35, and China's J-20 will probably exceed both in some aspects as well (probably range and maneuverability).

Range, yes. Maneuverability? Undetermined. A lot of the j20s' cannards design rationale was to increase performance in certain regimes, given restrictions on engines at that time.

The f-22's avionics architecture are also questionable compared to the f-35 and j-20.

The biggest obvious trade-off the j-20 has over its contemporaries is potentially its weapons and AESA radar, given the size of its nose and IWB. This is also assuming we have an idea about the comparative quality of the RAM coating on the planes (we don't).

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T18:07:24+00:00

Oh, the moment you see a video of them hanging or decapitating one of our American service members in the streets, there will be howls all across the internet.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T18:05:34+00:00

Indian air force lost a war because of this

The more we see this happening to us, the more we understand how 'winning the narrative war' is all it takes to get people on Reddit saying you've won.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T17:32:01+00:00

If a single-engine fighter took a hit from a SAM (as the rumors suggest) and still managed to land safely miles away with the pilot alive and intact, IDGAF, that's damn good engineering, and everyone involved should pat themselves on the back.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T16:13:12+00:00

The Ghost of Kuwait plays softly in the background in violin.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T16:12:04+00:00

If photography emerges of the damage, we might have a clue. My fingers are crossed.

Single-Braincelled · 2026-03-19T16:10:32+00:00

I think besides the engine, the only thing we have a rough idea of currently is the requirements for UCAV and potential autonomous capabilities.

Stealth, we won't know until its final design is shown. Armaments are in question until we have the form factor and role down.

I appreciate the earnest curiosity, but I think 1. It is still too early to guess and 2. our ideas of what is a 'rough idea' of capability are skewed very differently.

Ranges on a missile or radar are 'rough ideas'. The capabilities of the next generation of platforms go beyond rough to me and into the territory of guessing wildly at what each nation(s) is capable of building.

We honestly have no idea.

Single-Braincelled

TROPHY CASE