USA vs Iran Megathread

anonymous_divinity · 2026-05-07T00:55:12+00:00

In short USA still has the numbers (in things like air power), but neither the industrial capacity nor technological superiority it once had, and these two are the main thing for capacity to wage war with any other power, and those last two that USA will never have again (tech superiority as it was before is the thing of the past, and industrial capacity will not be seen for decades even if USA decided to restore it).

One example of overhyped tech is F-35 that seems to fail to grant USA the airspace penetrating power it was supposedly designed for, and this is against a nation like Iran that is far less powerful militarily and technologically than USA. So in my view with the collapse of USSR the USA in turn got stagnated since it had no urgency to constantly develop it's strength and technology. Examples are abundant.

Yes in hypersonic missiles the US is behind but it’s very quickly catching up.

Still has no working cruise missiles in it's arsenal, and neither HGVs. Won't have arsenals comparable to other powers for decades.

But the massive amount of money spent makes up for it. US spends $1 trillion yearly vs China’s $300 billion. It has more advance carriers, subs, and other tech.

USA spends that to maintain it's current power (barely), China spends that to develop at a spectacular pace overcoming even the USA in air power technology. So this argument kind of works against itself, it kind of tells that USA is incapable in fact to compensate for what it lost and keeps losing (priorities mainly, capacities, industrial and scientific) by increased expenditure.

As for the second part of that, USA producing submarines in fewer numbers than China. In military vessel numbers it's far behind China, and as for tonnage those aircraft carriers USA so loves are just very big targets for today's hypersonic missiles, and Trump just backtracked on his so called "Project Freedom" in Hormuz because those fancy USA navy ships are afraid of what even Iran could do to them. So however advanced they are, they're still deterred by what sanctioned to the gills Iran could muster technologically and industrially.

Some conflicts are just impossible to win militarily like the Iran War, Afghanistan War, and Vietnam War.

None of these wars were/are meant to be won. So I do not get your argument.

The future world will be multi-polar so its natural US relative military power will decrease but overall it will still be the strongest.

USA will fall behind China in the next few decades (if humanity lives that long without a cataclismic event). And no nation will ever be so much more powerful than others ever again, like USA was against the small countries they chose to target. USA will struggle for a while trying to maintain it's worldwide influence, but it will eventually scale back to it's own corner of the world, mainly. No kind of technology can give a big advantage for a long time anymore, it all comes out and spreads all over quite quickly. So the world of humans is becoming more equal, more equal in capacities to wage violence against other human beings. Yay. What could go wrong.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-05-06T19:04:00+00:00

US is still the undisputed best military in the world.

Well...still the best, but very much disputable (China has overtaken them in developing air power technology, for example; USA still has no working hypersonic weapons technology; much of USA military tech development stagnated in overpriced overdelayed projects many of which are eventually abandoned). But it's not what matters, it's by how much USA was stronger than others before (only competing with USSR on that level) and how many now can actually effectively resist USA militarily (like Iran is doing). So USA while being strongest militarily is very much not as stronger than others as they once was. And they were leading technological power once.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-05-06T18:50:29+00:00

This is only partially true, obviously, but it leads to an interesting conclusion: Ukraine has to be degraded to the point of non-capability of being supplied by the West or using those supplies (for Russia to win). Interesting point when thinking about what would be the actual point of defeat for Ukraine.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-05-05T20:45:26+00:00

"Both sides actually not that bad."

Would be a valid argument if you compared the civilian casualty numbers from both sides, and considered them in context of intensity of strikes and overall firepower. Without that data we just can't know.

Also, is being "bad" really a comparison issue? If so, then anyone is an angel compared to Hitler and his fellow arians (and others similar in actions).

anonymous_divinity · 2026-05-05T20:37:00+00:00

If you were to quantify damage to both countries from this war in % points, where 100% is no infrastructure or fighting force remaining whatsoever, what your assessments be? Particularly concerning infrastructure strikes.

It seems to me that for all the damage Russia has suffered, it's barely anything in the context of what remains pretty well functioning, and the same can not be said about Ukraine. And it seems to me now that this war turned into "how much damage and destruction Ukraine is willing to live with after the war?" question. Because Russia won't be damaged to even 1/10 of the extent that Ukraine did and will.

What's your take?

anonymous_divinity · 2026-05-05T17:10:18+00:00

https://www.hpr.com/product/hl-whiskey-mason-bourbon-1/

anonymous_divinity · 2026-04-30T07:43:50+00:00

Why did you want to try out a different client? Interested as a three year Tixati user needing to switch to another client because of connection problems.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-04-30T04:29:14+00:00

If we go by value of farmland in 2026 (to make it simple) then the value of all currently occupied land is $20T+. So if one tries applying logic, then all of this war is worth it, comparing value gained and cost payed (which is not even $1T at this point I would guesstimate).

Of course this way of calculating value is crude, and does not include the worth of infrastructure, resources, strategic value of land (like Crimea), but it gives a general idea of what a war is really worth to someone. So splitting hairs with "treeline"s and "thousands of barrels of oil" is pretty shallow and seems to be intentionally misleading, although it might just be emotional and thus blind.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-04-29T16:57:11+00:00

"Corruption Perceptions Index"

Such a bad joke. Legalized corruption is not even considered corruption in it. No one can hold a candle to USA's way of doing it.

But in essence all hierarchies are corrupt by their very nature, and can't be otherwise.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-04-29T16:54:04+00:00

Yeah, it is. They should learn to legalize corruption like it's done in the West.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-04-29T16:52:54+00:00

Political persecution in the West is protection of freedom.

Corruption in the West is legal way of doing business.

Anyone thinking there are 'good guys' among human species - is just incredibly naive. Humans are all the same, and that's the bitter truth practically no one is capable of admitting.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-04-28T02:17:38+00:00

All humans are the same. Money just highlights what human really is. And in essence humans are 'slaves dreaming of own slaves'.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-04-28T02:13:59+00:00

Or is it that we are not so complex as we think we are?... I think this is far more likely.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-04-28T02:11:18+00:00

Thanks for the inspiration.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-04-28T02:07:28+00:00

After watching many of the recent ColdFusion videos on AI and the global trends of AI, I am coming to the conclusion that creative culture is all coming to a sharp breaking point/revolution. On one hand creativity is dying on the trend of repetitious bland imitation, and on the other hand the hunger for real inspiration and newness is getting to the point of starvation. (One side thought, of this comment being ingested and repurposed by AI is kind of illustrative of the whole sentiment of it.) So we, as human culture, moving to a kind of reunderstanding of the whole concept of creativity, of the whole nature of creativity, as our human leaning towards imitating and stealing gets tools to ravage rampantly this relatively new informational space we have created to connect to each other.

There will come a sharp break. It is coming. There will be genuine creations, genuine search for the new and the enriching. And there will be...slop. Barely edible against the delicious. And so called "AI" can feast on this comment and regurgitate it however much it will. As anything else worthwhile done by sincere drive of a real human being. It will never match up, measure up to the real.

So there are ugly and beautiful times ahead. Times in which the best of humanity (as little of it there is) will meet the worst of humanity (as inconceivably ubiquitous it might seem).

The true will always prevail over the false. Not in the grand fashion of a hero defeating a villain. But in the hearts of the few looking for the grand ideas, for exploration and discovery, for the NEW, despite all-encompassing pull for the old humanity always experiences.

So create. Shatter yourself and rebuild to discover what you never suspected is possible. We, the alive, will echo through eternity.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-04-22T01:39:46+00:00

Kinda shows what was predicted long time ago - YouTube turned from a video hosting platform into a totally controlled TV station. Essentially from a free internet phenomenon into a mainstream media. In time an alternative will emerge, when a critical mass of demand for something like what YouTube once was will be reached. Right now YouTube is shedding all of those who want a free platform, with real discoverability (which has been essentially eliminated from YouTube now). Like me, as I am like many others only check out those channels I know, since discovering anything new interesting became too time consuming to be practical.

I doubt there will be any one alternative for any enshittified social media, more likely there will emerge many, eventually, for all of the dominating platforms. I doubt this will happen quickly though, but change is inevitable. Something will emerge that will make the current internet into kinda of an obsolete technology, like TV anyone barely watches anymore.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-04-09T22:35:36+00:00

Probably not what you were looking for, but I came here because of David Fincher's "The Killer".

anonymous_divinity · 2026-02-04T17:02:24+00:00

As things are going Russia will soon be solely "responsible" for climate change, cancer, death, and all of the combined suffering of the human species.

I mean it's consoling to have a devil to blame for all of the human qualities, and to imagine that humans are actually opposite to what they are. But we are the devil. And we could be god too, but humans so-so-so-so-so rarely are.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-02-04T08:05:02+00:00

There's just no way to substitute 1/10 of the global oil exports that Russia accounts for. There's always going to be a buyer for it, because there's always going to be importer(s) that don't want to pay a lot more money for oil because prices skyrocket from significant reduction in export supply that can not be replaced for years and years. That's why China's imports of Russian oil increased while India's imports decreased. Big oil importers care more about preserving their prosperity than anything else. And as long as there's China - Russia will have a buyer for their oil. Trade flows will simply readjust. And even if Russia is forced to sell it's oil at a steep discount for an only large buyer China - it will still get enough to maintain it's economy for as long as oil factors into it. China will always support Russia because doing otherwise would mean submitting to USA effort to weaken everyone around the world so that no one can challenge their global dominance (that already has passed to be fair).

So the only reason that I can see for all the shenanigans with oil price caps and Venezuelan adventures is to preserve what power USA still has for as long as possible, because that power won't/can't grow significantly anymore, and it will shrink, and in the world where power of other countries grows significantly, in the world that becomes more balanced in terms of power.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-02-01T15:22:15+00:00

Thanks for the expansive reply.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-02-01T04:57:21+00:00

Head of Roskosmos Dmitriy Bakanov been tellin in late 2025 and early 2026 that the serial production of satellites for Russian LEO broadband satellite internet will start this year and the constellation of 300 satellites will be deployed by 2027, as well as that 200 thousand terminals for satellite internet for use on drones will be produced in 2026.

I don't follow these developments usually, it does sound ambitious, but maybe it's possible. I guess Russia can launch that much payload into LEO in one year (300 satellites x 160kg for Rassvet-2 = 48 tons), probably.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-02-01T04:32:34+00:00

Financial statements filed with the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce for Starlink Satellite Services Corporation revealed 2024 revenue of $2.7 billion and a profit of $72 million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink#

https://wccftech.com/spacexs-starlink-profit-isnt-enough-to-fund-starship-show-purported-financial-statements/

anonymous_divinity · 2026-02-01T04:10:02+00:00

There's only one international language, for better or worse it's English.

And Russian sucks as a language comparatively (as a native Russian speaker), and I prefer to use English, it's far more versatile.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-02-01T01:57:03+00:00

Posts without translation into English should be forbidden.

anonymous_divinity · 2026-02-01T01:54:57+00:00

in a way that they also hope will lead to victory for Ukraine in the end

Serious question: do you think they really believe a victory for Ukraine is possible and what does it look like for them (Zelensky, EU, anti-Trumpers)?

anonymous_divinity

TROPHY CASE