Conspiracy theorys, where do you stand?

[Telemark]

Yeah, Tucker has really gone off in a bizarre direction. His whole stance on the Russia-Ukraine war is completely nonsensical and possibly sociopathic. I can't tell if he's truly anti-war or just another Russian agent.

I won't even bother listening to his opinions on Iran.

 

[SD51555]

On what is he in whackadoo land? I’ve found him to be very factual and his most offensive thoughts are simple questions most don’t have the courage to ask.


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[Brian662]

His most bizarre stuff for me has been his blatant fluff pieces about Russia. Can't comprehend his angle on that stuff.

I agree he asks a lot of compelling questions and doesn't mind making his guests squirm a little which is pretty rare nowadays.

 

[H20fwler]

OK, I am not cool with Israel going off and bombing other countries while they are side by side with USA putting a beat down on Iran.
Hitting Lebanon has nothing to do with USA and Trump should hold them off until we are out of the current conflict. Israel shouldn't be using this opportunity to settle old scores or hunt down enemies just because big brother USA is standing beside them.

And to be clear, I am 100% pro-Israel and think the Hebrew nation has been treated terribly for thousands of years. I completely get their anger and wanting to fight to survive…but we don’t need to be involved so closely in whatever side vendetta they are working on.

 

[Barndog56]

Israel isn't just randomly attacking Lebanon, they are attacking Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, who are funded by Iran.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Hezbollah started firing at Israel. Should they just roll over let them have at it. That’s ridiculous. Turn that place into rubble

 

[H20fwler]

Israel isn't just randomly attacking Lebanon, they are attacking Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, who are funded by Iran.

I realize all of that, but where does it stop? Is this really the time for Israel to do this? What if Israel just goes on and bombs Hezbollah in Yemen/Qatar/Turkey/Egypt/Somalia/Jordan right now too? Are they going to go after Taliban and Isis terrorists also while they are at it?

I'm saying fight one battle at a time, Israel has the USA behind them right now strong..if they want to root out the cancer they could have been doing it before the USA had all this muscle in the area.
Timing is bad and randomly bombing enemies in other ME countries is not going to make those countries and populations happy even though it’s killing bad guys. Israel has always been on thin ice in the region anyway, with our joint involvement with them right now it looks bad and could burn bridges.

I get their enemies are our enemies also, I am no fan of any of the Muslim zealot groups...Iran is one thing, going all Comanche all over the ME is another.

The world is watching the USA very closely right now, weeding out the terrorist cells could no doubt be done more discreetly. Iran definitely had it coming, IMO they should have been dealt with decades ago.

 

[Telemark]

I realize all of that, but where does it stop? Is this really the time for Israel to do this? What if Israel just goes on and bombs Hezbollah in Yemen/Qatar/Turkey/Egypt/Somalia/Jordan right now too? Are they going to go after Taliban and Isis terrorists also while they are at it?

I'm saying fight one battle at a time, Israel has the USA behind them right now strong..if they want to root out the cancer they could have been doing it before the USA had all this muscle in the area.
Timing is bad and randomly bombing enemies in other ME countries is not going to make those countries and populations happy even though it’s killing bad guys. Israel has always been on thin ice in the region anyway, with our joint involvement with them right now it looks bad and could burn bridges.

I get their enemies are our enemies also, I am no fan of any of the Muslim zealot groups...Iran is one thing, going all Comanche all over the ME is another.

The world is watching the USA very closely right now, weeding out the terrorist cells could no doubt be done more discreetly. Iran definitely had it coming, IMO they should have been dealt with decades ago.

It's all part of the same conflict. The Sunni Arabs are happy to see Israel bombing Hezbollah. Hezbollah is a Shia militia and an Iranian proxy. Sunnis hate Shias. I'm sure the Sunni Arabs would be fine with Israel bombing the Houthis in Yemen, too. The Houthis are another Shia proxy of Iran. It would probably be a catastrophic mistake to bomb any assets owned or controlled by Arabs or any other Sunni Muslims, so let's hope we don't do that.

The Sunni Arabs were traditionally enemies of the Israelis and Jews at large. That's not really the case anymore. The leaders of some of the Sunni Arab states are more forward-thinking than their predecessors. They realize the Israelis will leave them alone, but the Iranians won't, and with the US disengagement from the region, the Sunni Arabs are looking for security guarantors against Iran. Saudi Arabia feels especially vulnerable, and they have been begging the US to stay and courting the Chinese. They were also working on a peace deal with the Israelis before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Israel has had a deal with Jordan for decades, and Trump brokered an agreement between Israel, and Bahrain and UAE, in 2020.

This is actually the best time for Israel to strike Iran and their proxies. The Arabs and Israelis are a more cohesive unit now than they ever have been. Iran attacked the Arabs, and the Arabs want the Iranian regime demolished. Netanyahu is unpopular, but his approval rating has been increasing since the Oct. 7 attack. He has this once chance while Trump is in office to do as much as possible before he and Trump are out of office. With tacit approval from the Arab states, Israel is going to do whatever they can to damage Iran's regime, military, and proxies as much as possible while the window is open. There is a good chance they won't be able to topple the Iranian regime, but they can certainly defang them and set their military power back 20 years or more. The world could be a very different place after US midterm and general elections.

The Iran war also gives the US strategic power over China. Without Middle East oil, China doesn't have the energy to run their country. The Arabs can easily cut off oil to China if the Chinese try to sell weapons to Iran. The Russians can't afford to send weapons to Iran, and the North Koreans don't really have anything we're afraid of, and they would have to fly it all in anyway, because the US and Middle East allies can blockade Iran. The Arabs might even be able to get their Sunni brothers in Indonesia and Malaysia to help blockade anything going between the Middle East and China as well. Let's not forget what the Chinese are doing to the Sunni Muslims in China. China's trade with Africa is also at the whim of Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as the US in Singapore.

A weakened and militarily occupied Iran also means fewer drones going to Russia for the Ukraine war. I've been criticizing Trump's position on Ukraine from the beginning. The Ukrainians have the most cutting-edge drone and anti-drone technology in the world. Trump is even bringing in Ukrainian drone warfare experts to the Middle East to help with the conflict against Iran. This is a chance for the US to get a glimpse of that technology, which is essential to US defense as drone warfare becomes the new norm.

This is potentially the beginning of a major global power shift. That's why everyone keeps throwing around the WW3 comments. With the Arabs on board with the US and Israel against Iran, we could seriously weaken the Russians, the Chinese, and the North Koreans all at the same time, while increasing the power and influence of the United States. Unfortunately that means we can't really handle one conflict at a time. The situation is complex, dynamic, and global. Globalization has caused the world to become more interwoven than ever, and deglobalization is causing the status quo to unravel fast.

What we are currently seeing is a loose relationship between Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea, but no unified opposition to their power and influence. Right now we are in an excellent position to weaken them all at the same time. Again, that means a broader, more intricate play than just handling Iran and then moving on. We need the Arabs and Israelis united as much as possible against Iran, which will have knock-on effects against China and Russia. So far, I think Trump is handling this conflict very well. I just hope he reconsiders his position on Ukraine and includes them in his consideration of his global strategy.

 

[Telemark]

On what is he in whackadoo land? I’ve found him to be very factual and his most offensive thoughts are simple questions most don’t have the courage to ask.

For starters:

AI Overview

Tucker Carlson has frequently expressed a lack of concern for the conflict in Ukraine, stating in 2022, "I don't really care what happens in Ukraine" and arguing that the U.S. should not be involved.

He has often criticized U.S. aid to Ukraine, suggesting it damages American interests and aligns with a pro-Russian perspective.

Key points regarding Tucker Carlson's stance on Ukraine include:

• Rooting for Russia: In 2019, Carlson remarked, "Why should I root for Russia, which I am?" during a discussion on the impeachment inquiry.
• Opposition to U.S. Intervention: He has consistently argued that the war is not in America's interest, characterizing U.S. policy as provocative.

 

[Westwind]

Really good posts @Telemark

I thought it was interesting that Trump was talking about escorting ships through the strait, since that mostly benefits China.

Answering myself- maybe because it benefits our allies on the left side of the graph…. And maybe because “It’s complicated”.

 

[Telemark]

OK, I am not cool with Israel going off and bombing other countries while they are side by side with USA putting a beat down on Iran.
Hitting Lebanon has nothing to do with USA and Trump should hold them off until we are out of the current conflict.

It appears the US probably isn't really calling the shots on this one. We seem to be there in a support role, with Israel having strategic oversight. That's how it was when we bombed the nuclear facilities with bunker busters. Israel called in the US because they don't have the planes to deliver those kinds of munitions. Only the US Air Force has GBU-57 bombs and the B2 bombers that can carry it.

 

[Telemark]

I thought it was interesting that Trump was talking about escorting ships through the strait, since that mostly benefits China.

It shows them they need us to keep the lights on. If they misbehave, we can have a boot on their neck in no time, so they better start playing nice.

 

[Telemark]

Every bomb we drop adds to OUR national debt. Be nice if we were the ones calling the shots. Israel's piggy bank yet again.......

Two things:

1. Our last two forays into the Middle East cost us 2500 American lives and 5 trillion taxpayer dollars, and it got us nothing. If we keep ground troops out and limit our role to support, we can minimize costs, while actually benefiting from the effort this time. Even if we spend 10% of what our last Middle East war cost us, it's still 500 billion dollars, and it mostly goes to the companies who produce the munitions, and you can buy stock in those companies. Add to that the power and influence the US can potentially reclaim if this conflict goes well. I explained why it's in our interests in that long post above.

2. Who cares who is calling the shots if it gets done properly? Would you rather be CEO of a failing company, or Vice President of a successful company? The Israelis know and understand the region, and specifically the Iranians, far better than we do, so why not let them call the shots on this one? Again, I will refer you to how our last Middle East war went when the US was calling all the shots: 2500 American lives, 5 trillion dollars, no benefit to the US.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I feel like people who act like we shouldn’t have done this are just whistling past the graveyard or would rather see Muslim domination. I know the tired joke is Iran is weeks away from having a nuclear weapon being said for years because that just gets caught in the echo chamber and somehow it becomes reality. But obviously they were aggressively trying. You don’t have multiple underground nuclear sites so a third world radical Islam country can just be on the leading edge of power generation. Get real. And as I said earlier, when Iran gets a weapon, the entire narrative changes. Now you’re pussyfooting around with a radical religious organization whose entire ethos is destruction of non believers. We should have done this years ago. This isn’t about protecting Israel, there is not some great conspiracy that they control us, that’s literally laughable, it’s about protecting us and they also benefit and have skin in the game.

 

[Westwind]

I have seen this reported in exactly one place- the Presidents Daily Brief podcast. We offered Iran free enriched uranium suitable for their power generation needs if they would shut down the centerfuges. They declined because that’s not what its really about.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I have seen this reported in exactly one place- the Presidents Daily Brief podcast. We offered Iran free enriched uranium suitable for their power generation needs if they would shut down the centerfuges. They declined because that’s not what its really about.

Just like inner city representatives who claim their constituents can’t afford IDs and the state says we will offer them free and then their narrative on why ID voting is racist shifts. A blind man can see the truth in both of these scenarios. It takes mental gymnastics to come up with the alternative.

 

[Westwind]

What the last war cost us is not really relevant to this war unless we are using absolute failure as our gauge for success. I'm just saying it might be nice if Israel was paying for their own war. The administration has said they forced our hand on this one. Pay up.

We have made a lot of mistakes in the Middle East. It is fiction based on real events but the end of Charlie Wilson’s War really illustrates the kind of mistake we make.

I can’t believe the Kurds can trust us as many times as we have handed them weapons and abandoned them. (And yes, those weapons don’t always stay with the group we hand them to.) Same with how we are treating the Afghan interpreters etc. which was necessary due to how poorly we abandoned that country to the Taliban. Both Biden and Trump shit the bed on that one.

I really hope this turns out better. It may not. No one knows.

 

[Brian662]

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

View attachment 90157

Yeah the one place I find fault with this is acting like a third world Muslim hell hole will all the sudden be a free society. If that happens it will be the first one in history. But eliminating their military and nukes, the ends justify the means for me

 

[Westwind]

Just like inner city representatives who claim their constituents can’t afford IDs and the state says we will offer them free and then their narrative on why ID voting is racist shifts. A blind man can see the truth in both of these scenarios. It takes mental gymnastics to come up with the alternative.

I take all that talk very cautiously. I’m in favor of showing id to vote. I don’t even have to show my voter card but maybe thats because my voting judges live right up the road in the middle of nowhere.

I think we should be very, very cautious about where all that election fraud talk is headed. We had the head of defense intelligence agency on the ground during a search warrant in Georgia. That is very tough to justify. (She is a conspiracy theorist and was raised in a cult. Yes, a “for real” cult.) Then you have renewed talk of voting machine fraud, and we have the leader of Venezuela sitting in the can in NYC. Couple themes coming together there. Probably wouldn’t be hard to convince Maduro to say annything the G wants him to say. Are we headed for seizing voting machines in swing states? Maybe martial law preventing elections? (We are a long way from that, I think that’s bs.) BUT- all of a sudden there is a renewed narrative about election fraud and there are some themes about foreign interference coming from the crazier parts of the Republican Party. I don’t like all that, even if nothing comes of it. Feel like there are some real creeps at least thinking about trying to pull some sneaky stuff.

Anyway thats a conspiratorial as I can get. All that to say I think we should be careful of this stuff. Distrust of our institutions and procedures and agencies is one goal of Russian disinformation campaigns. They aren’t doing that to strengthen democracy, they are doing it to sow chaos. Of course we can improve our government but let’s be really careful.