Curious about your thoughts on the following. How does the decision to bomb their nuclear sites affect things with China and Russia? I’m of the belief that they no longer have any doubts on T’s determination to get the deals he wants by using the stick when the offered carrot is repeatedly rejected. The flawless execution teaches them that the stick will hurt, bad, if they force the issue.
There are other half formed questions I have but gotta go for now.
I'm not sure about Winnie the Flu, though it should give him some pause for thought since if B2s can hit Fordow they can also, clearly, take out just about anything that the PRC has too.
Putin I suspect is looking very carefully through previous Trump statements to see whether he missed a deadline that is about to expire. In Putin's shoes, I'd be very nervous right now because while Trump has somewhat supportive of Putin's position, he has also said he wants to see the war stop and Putin is not making any attempt to stop or to negotiate seriously
Great point about Putin. With all the recent excitement, and naturally more focused on Poohsan, I plum forgot that he had irked T. I bet he his going through everything looking for deadlines just as you say.
This all makes me really really wish the full 100 B2s that were planned had been built. That would enable a lot more widespread all at once strike than the 18 that are left.
Of course, it only takes one to hit the bunker a decision maker is in.
On sleepers, there is a school of dark humor that notes Iranians in academia, and academics who support environmentalism and/or Harris, and makes the unfair argument that maybe these people cannot actually accomplish anything worse.
On capabilities, I think any Iranian academics that I know slightly from US academia might possibly have come to the US so that they are not forced to work on Iranian regime priority defense projects. THe Israelies obviously haven't finished what Tamerlane started, so there should still be some technical minds available in Iran. The question is what can they do that they are not doing? Also, how does this impact the supply of Iranian weapons technologies and manufacturing to Russia?
YEah, I have no clue what happens.
I'm not sure that more B-2s on hand are all that important. We should have a window before the B-21 becomes available, if it does. What happens in that window?
Planes need maintenance to be operational, and there are a ton of trades there. More planes are good if you have the parts and workforce to keep them going at acceptable opportunity cost. Federal spending has impact on bureaucratic capabilities when it comes to maintenance, and while I cannot blame every federal dysfunction on congress, it surely has had a large destructive impact on some things.
I looked forward to, and feared, the prospect of Musk helping to accomplish permanent changes with the DoD civilian service.
I am overly cautious. I would prefer a lot more planes and ships, in the abstract. I'm not sure about procurement, nor about maintenance costs. The forces we have now are product of imperfect compromises, and while not the best trade, may be enough.
Well written, as expected. Thanks.
Curious about your thoughts on the following. How does the decision to bomb their nuclear sites affect things with China and Russia? I’m of the belief that they no longer have any doubts on T’s determination to get the deals he wants by using the stick when the offered carrot is repeatedly rejected. The flawless execution teaches them that the stick will hurt, bad, if they force the issue.
There are other half formed questions I have but gotta go for now.
I'm not sure about Winnie the Flu, though it should give him some pause for thought since if B2s can hit Fordow they can also, clearly, take out just about anything that the PRC has too.
Putin I suspect is looking very carefully through previous Trump statements to see whether he missed a deadline that is about to expire. In Putin's shoes, I'd be very nervous right now because while Trump has somewhat supportive of Putin's position, he has also said he wants to see the war stop and Putin is not making any attempt to stop or to negotiate seriously
Great point about Putin. With all the recent excitement, and naturally more focused on Poohsan, I plum forgot that he had irked T. I bet he his going through everything looking for deadlines just as you say.
This all makes me really really wish the full 100 B2s that were planned had been built. That would enable a lot more widespread all at once strike than the 18 that are left.
Of course, it only takes one to hit the bunker a decision maker is in.
On sleepers, there is a school of dark humor that notes Iranians in academia, and academics who support environmentalism and/or Harris, and makes the unfair argument that maybe these people cannot actually accomplish anything worse.
On capabilities, I think any Iranian academics that I know slightly from US academia might possibly have come to the US so that they are not forced to work on Iranian regime priority defense projects. THe Israelies obviously haven't finished what Tamerlane started, so there should still be some technical minds available in Iran. The question is what can they do that they are not doing? Also, how does this impact the supply of Iranian weapons technologies and manufacturing to Russia?
YEah, I have no clue what happens.
I'm not sure that more B-2s on hand are all that important. We should have a window before the B-21 becomes available, if it does. What happens in that window?
Planes need maintenance to be operational, and there are a ton of trades there. More planes are good if you have the parts and workforce to keep them going at acceptable opportunity cost. Federal spending has impact on bureaucratic capabilities when it comes to maintenance, and while I cannot blame every federal dysfunction on congress, it surely has had a large destructive impact on some things.
I looked forward to, and feared, the prospect of Musk helping to accomplish permanent changes with the DoD civilian service.
I am overly cautious. I would prefer a lot more planes and ships, in the abstract. I'm not sure about procurement, nor about maintenance costs. The forces we have now are product of imperfect compromises, and while not the best trade, may be enough.