The scale of the damage done to Iran so far, put into perspective.

[Votto]

Iran's GDP before this war was approximately 367 billion and their economy was already fragile.

In ten days this is what they’ve lost:

Their navy is essentially gone. 17+ ships sunk including their primary frigate and most operational submarine. Their air force has been systematically eliminated. Their missile arsenal is down 86%. Drone capacity down 73%. Nuclear facilities struck. Oil refineries burning. IRGC command centers destroyed. Parliament targeted. The Assembly of Experts was bombed while they were mid-session trying to elect a new supreme leader. State broadcaster gone. The Grand Bazaar damaged. Oil exports at zero with Hormuz mined. Banks restricting cash withdrawals. Internet blocked. 13 health infrastructure sites hit.

Conservative damage estimate: $100-150 billion. Aggressive estimate including reconstruction: $150-250 billion. As a percentage of Iranian GDP that's 27% to 68% of their entire economy. Gone in ten days.

Now scale that to America.

27% of US GDP is $7.6 trillion.

68% of US GDP is $19 trillion.

For context the entire Iraq war cost the US approximately $2 trillion over 20 years, roughly 9% of current GDP spread across two decades. Iran absorbed the equivalent of three to seven Iraq wars worth of economic damage relative to their economy in under 2 weeks. They’re fucked.

The jihadists in Iran only care about one thing, and that is creating WMD's to destroy Israel and the US, and/or draining the wealth of the US and Israel for their own economic destruction if they try to stop them from making such WMD's. The Left in the US has the same mission of destroying the US economically and probably would be happy if jihadists used a WMD on the US, as the Left would all be saying that the US had it coming. In fact, Mamdani is also trying to destroy the US economically as well with his Marxist policies.

The Iranian regime cares nothing about the people of Iran as they are all just pawns in their little jihad.

In fact, had the US not gone in when they did the Iranian regime probably would have murdered another thirty thousand protesters or so.

 

[luiza]

Democrats top to bottom and their beloved TDS news wishing for the failure of the United States Military and their Commander and Chief seems alot like traitorous behavior to me.

No
No strategy ,or the one he is assumed to have had , has already failed .
Cannot open Hormuz
Cannot bring in ground troops
Has lost US bases
Is bellowing like a mad cow

Classic Grade A mess .

 

[Lumpy 1]

I hope you're right this time and don't end up calling this a stupid war years from

How do you feel about the Democrat failures in Afghanistan, Ukraine and the Middle East including Iran and Israel?

 

[Lumpy 1]

No
No strategy ,or the one he is assumed to have had , has already failed .
Cannot open Hormuz
Cannot bring in ground troops
Has lost US bases
Is bellowing like a mad cow

Classic Grade A mess .

In a word .. Bullshit..

but .. therapeutic..

 

[luiza]

In a word .. Bullshit..

You Americans are so clueless
You bring on the ridicule that is heaped on you .

 

[Lumpy 1]

You Americans are so clueless
You bring on the ridicule that is heaped on you .

Not usualy.. and .. baseless ridicule is easy to come by on a message board..

I'm guessing your Canadian east or west coast.

 

[Anomalism]

The Iranian regime was the driving force behind countless terrorist acts against Israel, the U.S., and many others, including against their own people.

The roots will not die easily. Nobody knows when or if they will try to regroup again.

The non-extremists in that region now have a chance to keep that from happening. A chance that they have never had before in their lifetime.

In my view, the people of Iran are being shown more mercy than the Islamo fascists regime would ever have shown the people of Israel or especially the people of the U.S. if their reach were ever allowed to extend that far.

I think they would probably vaporize all of us if they could. They're not chanting "Death to America." for fun.

 

[Lumpy 1]

I think they would probably vaporize all of us if they could. They're not chanting "Death to America." for fun.

Seems like Democrats prefer a far more dangerous world and lawlessness without consequences.
.

 

[theHawk]

The "experts" predicted they were weeks away from nuclear missiles for over 30 years

Maybe. But we know they funded terrorism for the last 47 years and weren’t going to stop.

 

[Anomalism]

You Americans are so clueless
You bring on the ridicule that is heaped on you .

What's your general opinion on the Iranian theocracy that massacres its own people and funds terrorism?

 

[HikerGuy83]

The collapse of their government will come with economic hardship for Iranians and a power vacuum that’s hard to predict. We will have made our point and ensured the destruction of any nuclear capability they were working on, as well as virtually all of their military hardware in general. How much will we invest from there to make sure that power vacuum is filled by something we approve of?

That’s the question I’m most interested in. That’s where we risk getting dragged into another years long conflict with boots on the ground. I say if we’re going to tear shit up, we should be content with the destruction of the immediate potential threat and move on. Keep an eye on it after that and let them figure out the vacuum themselves.

I would agree with your interest.

I am certainly no expert in this area, but I would think that you do have M.E. countries where things are pretty good.

What is the difference between those countries and Iran?

 

[HikerGuy83]

What's your general opinion on the Iranian theocracy that massacres its own people and funds terrorism?

Don't hold your breath.

 

[Anomalism]

Don't hold your breath.

Most posters don't actually care about reality. Lol

 

[HikerGuy83]

Most posters don't actually care about reality. Lol

It's a challenging balance:

Take Trump for instance.

I am not a fan of his behavior and some of the antics he's pulled.
At the same time, I am willing to bend (not dissonance) as he was a better choice IME. That is both ideological and pragmatic.

No leader is going to be acceptable to most people. They never are.

So those who are disaffected will go after the myriad of things they don't like and somehow expect that others will surely see it their way.

That seems to be the case up to a point.

If Trump were to try something funny with the 2026 mid-terms, I'd be out in the street.
If Trump were to try to do something to combat a court case he didn't like (much like FDR did), I'd be out in the street.
If Trump were to improperly use the military (and I make that determination), I'd be out in the street.

So far, I have not been out in the street. This does not mean I like him or his behavior. He just hasn't tested the limits of my tolerance.

But when you see a regime slaughtering it's citizens like the Iranian whackos have I don't know how you turn a blind eye.

 

[Hafar1014]

Iran's GDP before this war was approximately 367 billion and their economy was already fragile.

In ten days this is what they’ve lost:

Their navy is essentially gone. 17+ ships sunk including their primary frigate and most operational submarine. Their air force has been systematically eliminated. Their missile arsenal is down 86%. Drone capacity down 73%. Nuclear facilities struck. Oil refineries burning. IRGC command centers destroyed. Parliament targeted. The Assembly of Experts was bombed while they were mid-session trying to elect a new supreme leader. State broadcaster gone. The Grand Bazaar damaged. Oil exports at zero with Hormuz mined. Banks restricting cash withdrawals. Internet blocked. 13 health infrastructure sites hit.

Conservative damage estimate: $100-150 billion. Aggressive estimate including reconstruction: $150-250 billion. As a percentage of Iranian GDP that's 27% to 68% of their entire economy. Gone in ten days.

Now scale that to America.

27% of US GDP is $7.6 trillion.

68% of US GDP is $19 trillion.

For context the entire Iraq war cost the US approximately $2 trillion over 20 years, roughly 9% of current GDP spread across two decades. Iran absorbed the equivalent of three to seven Iraq wars worth of economic damage relative to their economy in under 2 weeks. They’re fucked.

How many lives will be saved since Iran wont be able to set off nukes in American cities. Give us the dollar value of that.
A nuclear bomb the size of watermelon weighs 50 pounds and can be smuggled in a back pack. That cant be stopped.

 

[Deadstick]

No
No strategy ,or the one he is assumed to have had , has already failed .
Cannot open Hormuz
Cannot bring in ground troops
Has lost US bases
Is bellowing like a mad cow

Classic Grade A mess .

Don't forget the damage to the Global economies, the Orange fool is like a an Ape with a machine gun.

 

[HikerGuy83]

Don't forget the damage to the Global economies, the Orange fool is like a an Ape with a machine gun.

Since you probably don't own anything, I am not sure why it matters to you.

 

[marvin martian]

Seems like they weren't actually much of a threat

The hundreds of Americans killed in Iranian funded terrorist attacks over the years disagree.

But we all know you don't give a sh!t about them.

 

[Deadstick]

Since you probably don't own anything, I am not sure why it matters to you.

How do you know what i own clown?

 

[Deadstick]

The hundreds of Americans killed in Iranian funded terrorist attacks over the years disagree.

But we all know you don't give a sh!t about them.

Most Americans killed by terrorists were victims of extremist Sunnis like ISIS and Al Qaeda, the ones you supported against Syria, the ones Bill Clinton supported in the Balkans.