Yet another war, this time with Iran

[barbos]

Antisemitism in the Russian Empire

How is that different from Antisemitism in Spain, France, Italy....?
Why did you choose to put Russia along with Germany?
And also, be more specific, where in Russian Empire it took place, cause that place is no longer (not yet anyway) Russia but Ukraine.
Moreover, nobody in Russian Empire was kicking jews out. In fact USSR even created autonomous region for jews which they could (if they wanted) to escape from ukrainians and germans. The place was conveniently selected as far from Ukraine/Germany as possible.

 

[DrZoidberg]

The whole story is bullshit. North/Lower Egypt was always part Caananite. We've found very old Caananite temples side by side with Pharaonic temples. Caananites cheerfully lived in Egypt and many had slaves of their own. Apart of being implausible The exodus story doesn't fit the context. Caananites could and did travel freely back and forth unhindered.

The best explanation I have heard is that the Moses story is purely a mythic etiology. It might be as easy as that the Jews didn't like that they decended from local basic bitch goat herders and just wanted to sex up their backstory

I would assume any old religious backstory was at best heavily edited. Too easy to keep tweaking it back in the days where literacy was uncommon and books were copied by scribes. How could it be passed down faithfully??

It's not a question of editing. It's a question of chinese whispers. A religious myth is always a narrative about how one's own ingroup is special. What a tremendous surprise these narratives over time becomes increasingly self serving and ego inflating for the group. This is a largely illiterate world. Scribes were rare and of varying skill. A lot of mistakes. Even if they make an effort to maintain quality, the result is predictable. The earliest books are also overtly political propaganda. Ie, nothing but lies as well as slander of enemies.

I think making themselves the slaves of the pharao is a humble brag. Ancient Egypt was a super power at the time of such a disproportional power, reach and fanciness that any association with them, even as slaves, would be a status boost. The Torah claims Moses was a slave of the pharao's household. That's an extremely prestigious position and puts him in the academic elite of the ancient world, as well as of noble rank. Again... a humble brag. I don't think it's true. At all. I think the whole exodus story is nonsense. I don't think there's a sliver of truth to any of it. I rest my beliefs on the works of Tom Holland. And also Bart Ehrman. Slaves escaping from Egypt and running away to Caanan would have been so regular and normal it would be nothing to write home about. There would have been a constant continual stream across Sinai.

Also in the opposite direction. Many Caananites would willingly and consensually sign up as slaves and go to Egypt. Because as a slave to someone rich your life (and survival rate) would be easier than as free when times are rough in Caanan.

The ancient world was very different compared to today. Just basic survival was hard, and all the best land would be owned and jealously protected by the nobles. Life as a free peasant was so hard that life as a slave was sometimes easier.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Why should Iran have any say about ships not going through Iranian waters??

Not being a signatory to the treaty means they can deny passage through Iranian waters if they want, it doesn't mean they can deny it through somebody else's waters.

Indeed. By denying passage through the strait, they committed an act of war against Oman.

Had the Omanis requested US military assistance, the US would, perhaps, have been justified in bombing Iran. Had the Omanis requested assistance from the UN in defending her soverignty against Iran's illegal actions, the US would have been justified in joining, even in leading, a UN force to attack Iran with the goal of forcing them to re-open the TSS lanes, which lie entirely in Omani waters.

But the Omanis did not make any such requests; And the US didn't even attempt to get such a request out of them, to put a fig-leaf on their illegal military action.

To be clear, by bombing Iran the USA broke international law, and the Trump administration probably broke US law in not even notifying, much less obtaining permission from, Congress. Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, Trump must obtain such Congressional approval by May 1st - this Friday - or he must withdraw US forces.

Regardless, the only nation states that have any say in who uses the strait according to international law are Iran, and Oman. These nations can, if they feel their sovereignty has been infringed, request assistance from allies and/or the UN. To date I am unaware of any such request on the part of either country.

Sure, Iran broke international law, just because they had the military capability to do so. So did the USA. Goose sauce is gander sauce, two wrongs don't make a right.

If America can flout international law and bomb Iran, then in so doing they lose any moral justification in complaining when Iran flouts international law and mines Omani territorial waters.

Iran closed the strait in the Iran-Iraq war as well. They did exactly this. They did it so that the other gulf states would put pressure on Iraq. If I recall it didn't work that time either.

International law is always ignored by players who are powerful enough to ignore it. Like USA. They only comply to International law when they're able to use it as a weapon.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Iran shot first. Period.

What are you smoking? Iran did not attack the US first.

Nice evasion.

Shooting at an ally constitutes shooting first.

At the ally, yes. At us, no. We don’t have a mutual defense treaty.

Irrelevant.

You attack someone, you risk their allies attacking you even if there isn't a defense treaty.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

You sound like Hamas leadership.

More like Churchill or Roosevelt. My point is that we should not capitulate to the islamofascists just because oil prices went up some.

Capitulation would only be on the cards if they had attacked you. It was the other way around. America attacked, and Iran refused to capitulate. America then realised that she had no plan for that entirely predictable eventuality.

Iran is a cancer to which the left is playing don't look up. They have unquestionably killed millions through the various groups they support, it would not surprise me if the total was in the tens of millions. And the idiot did not understand why the world keeps kicking the can about it and went in totally stupid. That doesn't make Iran not a cancer.

The question is how to treat the cancer with the best chance of survival and good health of the host. No one here is arguing Iran is in the right, so there is no basis for these rants of yours.

The thing is capitulation amounts to declaring the cancer to be terminal.

Why are you babbling about capitulation?

A solution of status quo ante in effect says the world will not do anything about the increasing level of Iranian genocide.

And in the long run probably means Israel will take the confirm or deny option.

No one is advocating for a status quo solution. You are responding to straw men.

Quit changing my words.

I said status quo ante, not merely status quo.

How is your "solution" anything but status quo ante?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

No fundamentally you are being asked to actually read current news events. I absolutely believe in the right of Israel to exist. But what Israel has been doing re: Gaza can only be called genocide.

Bibi convinced Trump to attack Iran. WE are the aggressors towards Iran! It is the US who is entirely in the wrong in the current conflict.

I read current news events. I understand what happened in Gaza and it is not remotely a genocide. And most of the bad stuff was engineered by Hamas. They put awful stuff on camera, you respond by bashing Israel to make it go away--but you are actually rewarding them for doing horrific things and thus there will be more of it.

It wasn't "Genocide". However, after a while, it wasn't "moral" either.

You keep defending the defense, but ignoring the offense. Every bomb was justified according to you. Had Israel kept bombing, it'd been fine. The Western World looked the other way after October 7th, so Israel could respond. They sent Hamas back a while, but years from now, will any of the bombs have helped? And people like you and Derec will say 'Only if Israel dropped two more bombs...'

The western world "looked the other way" because they understood they couldn't expect Israel to abandon the hostages.

And it is completely normal for a city to be basically leveled if a war is fought there. Hamas knew this, yet chose to create the situation. What we see in Gaza is actually less than typical for urban war despite the massive amount of military infrastructure buried beneath.

Hamas engineered the whole thing to get horrors to parade before the camera and you fell for it.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

No fundamentally you are being asked to actually read current news events. I absolutely believe in the right of Israel to exist. But what Israel has been doing re: Gaza can only be called genocide.

Bibi convinced Trump to attack Iran. WE are the aggressors towards Iran! It is the US who is entirely in the wrong in the current conflict.

I read current news events. I understand what happened in Gaza and it is not remotely a genocide. And most of the bad stuff was engineered by Hamas. They put awful stuff on camera, you respond by bashing Israel to make it go away--but you are actually rewarding them for doing horrific things and thus there will be more of it.

It wasn't "Genocide". However, after a while, it wasn't "moral" either.

You keep defending the defense, but ignoring the offense. Every bomb was justified according to you. Had Israel kept bombing, it'd been fine. The Western World looked the other way after October 7th, so Israel could respond. They sent Hamas back a while, but years from now, will any of the bombs have helped? And people like you and Derec will say 'Only if Israel dropped two more bombs...'

The western world "looked the other way" because they understood they couldn't expect Israel to abandon the hostages.

And it is completely normal for a city to be basically leveled if a war is fought there. Hamas knew this, yet chose to create the situation. What we see in Gaza is actually less than typical for urban war despite the massive amount of military infrastructure buried beneath.

Hamas engineered the whole thing to get horrors to parade before the camera and you fell for it.

Please back up that claim I fell for Hamas propaganda or recant your bullshit.

 

[laughing dog]

Iran shot first. Period.

What are you smoking? Iran did not attack the US first.

Nice evasion.

Shooting at an ally constitutes shooting first.

At the ally, yes. At us, no. We don’t have a mutual defense treaty.

Irrelevant.

You attack someone, you risk their allies attacking you even if there isn't a defense treaty.

You’re shifting the goalposts. Whether attacking an ally is not necessarily the same as shooting first or requiring retaliation. Your use of “risk” tacitly acknowledges that reality.

 

[laughing dog]

You sound like Hamas leadership.

More like Churchill or Roosevelt. My point is that we should not capitulate to the islamofascists just because oil prices went up some.

Capitulation would only be on the cards if they had attacked you. It was the other way around. America attacked, and Iran refused to capitulate. America then realised that she had no plan for that entirely predictable eventuality.

Iran is a cancer to which the left is playing don't look up. They have unquestionably killed millions through the various groups they support, it would not surprise me if the total was in the tens of millions. And the idiot did not understand why the world keeps kicking the can about it and went in totally stupid. That doesn't make Iran not a cancer.

The question is how to treat the cancer with the best chance of survival and good health of the host. No one here is arguing Iran is in the right, so there is no basis for these rants of yours.

The thing is capitulation amounts to declaring the cancer to be terminal.

Why are you babbling about capitulation?

A solution of status quo ante in effect says the world will not do anything about the increasing level of Iranian genocide.

And in the long run probably means Israel will take the confirm or deny option.

No one is advocating for a status quo solution. You are responding to straw men.

Quit changing my words.

I said status quo ante, not merely status quo.

How is your "solution" anything but status quo ante?

Stop misrepresenting posts. I didn’t change your words, I forgot one. I apologise,

So now you are on about “Iranian genocide”. Are you referring to Trump’s threats or Israel’s attacks or your fear that sometime Iran will make nuclear weapons and use them?

Israel has been claiming for over 20 years that Iran is close to making a nuclear weapon. And Israel and the US claimed to gave destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

So I really have no idea what you mean.

 

[TV and credit cards]

The UAE will leave OPEC effective May 1st.
The UAE is the third largest producer of oil.
Expect Trump to push harder now for opening back up the Strait of Hormuz.
The UAE has a lot of spare capacity and can flood the oil market putting downward pressure on oil prices.
Should suck for Russia.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The UAE will leave OPEC effective May 1st.
The UAE is the third largest producer of oil.
Expect Trump to push harder now for opening back up the Strait of Hormuz.
The UAE has a lot of spare capacity and can flood the oil market putting downward pressure on oil prices.
Should suck for Russia.

They might have more capacity, but that much more? I would doubt it. Also, Trump wants Iran to cave on every position and until that happens, the Geographic reality of UAE's location makes it susceptible to Iran's control on Hormuz.

 

[Arctish]

Jordan was the only country to welcome the Palestinians after 1948. And we saw the result in September 1970. Other country's were more aware than Jordan and did not provide an open welcome.

You really have no idea how utterly racist ^this^ is, do you?

Let's try this: no other country wanted to accept Jews when the Russians and the Germans were kicking them out. The British let a lot of them enter Palestine, and look how that turned out. Things sure would have been a lot more peaceful if the Jews were kept out. Those guys are nothing but trouble. No wonder the Europeans didn't want them around.

Do you see the problem now, or should I continue?

I can certainly see a problem But it is most probably not the problem you see.

You don't see that you were counting on other people having racist beliefs about the inherent characteristics of Palestinians to make your argument sound reasonable?

The problem is the way we (humanity in general) treat the Jews. For far too much of their long history the Jews have suffer discrimination, attacks, persecutions, exiles, attempted genocide etc. They have suffered far more that any other group of people.

I don't think Jews have suffered more than enslaved blacks and their descendants. I don't think they have suffered more than the Dalit. If things don't change for the Rohingya, they might surpass Jews in the long history of persecution category if they haven't already.

But let's suppose Jews have suffered more. That doesn't mean they are now allowed to inflict suffering on others. Doing to others all the terrible things that were done to you and yours isn't fairness, it's generational trauma being passed along to the detriment of everyone.

All they wish to have a place to be able to live in peace with their neighbours, raise their children, make a life for themselves. Incidentally that is exactly what you and I wish for too.
Yet that is not afforded to them. Constantly living on edge, forced or exiled from too many places. Attacked, harassed. Non-Jews (including myself) would have no idea what living as a Jew is like.
If we were to treat the Jews properly then a lot of trouble would disappear. The Jews did not ask for all of this. It was given to them.

Everyone wants to have peaceful, prosperous lives. What we do to achieve it matters. It matters if we are willing to buy, to beg, to borrow, to steal, to murder, to oppress, to become just like the assholes we are trying to escape, or to build a system where oppression is the enemy, not the go-to tactic for getting what we want.

No one asks to be oppressed. But how we respond to oppression, both the kind we experience and the oppression of others, matters.

How much of that is due to the Palestinians and how much it is due to having a convenient mutual eneamy in Israel.

Yes to both. By not really looking after the refugees they had a convenient stick to use again Israel.
Lebanon allowed in some and we can still see the results today.

Why shouldn't the Palestinian refugees have been allowed to return to their former places of residence in Palestine?

Can you think of any reason other than racism or religious bigotry?

Fear of the past events reappearing?

Past events in Europe, or past events in Palestine?

The past events in Palestine were centuries of peaceful relations, interfaith marriages, and a dull, boring, quiet march to modernity. What's so bad about that?

The Arab Proposal called for preserving everything that had been working for Palestinians of different faiths and ethnicities, ensuring continued religious freedom, peace and stability in civil administration, accepting the legal immigration that had already happened, and ensuing the people of Palestine were on-board with accepting more immigrants before allowing them entry. What's so bad about that?

Loren likes to talk about the 100,000 Offer. He is completely wrong about the details so don't take his word on the provisions but let's suppose it was as he describes it. As I recall, you were in favor of that plan. So let's suppose it was the Palestinians who offered to allow 100,000 refugees from Europe to settle in the State of Palestine. Does that sound good to you? If not, why not?

I wish there will an easy solution but there is not. There is so much fear and hatred in the ME that is unlikely to ever end.

Even if there is no solution that is perfectly good, it's still possible to sort potential solutions into "better" and "worse".

It is better to respect and protect human rights.

It is worse to make racism, bigotry, and religious bias a founding principle for a system of governance.

It is better to always seek peaceful resolutions to conflicts even if/when you have to fight to protect and defend your friends and family and "They started it!".

It is worse to brutalize and terrorize others into doing what you want.

Back in 2024 I posted a link to a Cinema Therapy video titled See With Eyes Unclouded By Hate. I don't know if you ever watched it. It's all about conflict resolution when people are fighting for their lives and livelihoods. I'm offering it again as an example of what I'm talking about and why the approach it illustrates via the character Ashitaka is better than throwing up your hands and letting the most selfish and brutal elements in a society be in charge of it.

 

[bilby]

Back in 1989/90, US General Colin Powell developed a methodology to determine whether the USA should engage in military action.

This became known as "The Powell Doctrine", and consists of eight questions all of which have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States:

1. Is a vital national security interest threatened?
2. Do we have a clear attainable objective?
3. Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
4. Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
5. Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
6. Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
7. Is the action supported by the American people?
8. Do we have genuine broad international support?

(Wikipedia)

Brilliantly, Trump has embarked on military action where EVERY SINGLE ONE of these questions has the answer "No".

 

[DrZoidberg]

No fundamentally you are being asked to actually read current news events. I absolutely believe in the right of Israel to exist. But what Israel has been doing re: Gaza can only be called genocide.

Bibi convinced Trump to attack Iran. WE are the aggressors towards Iran! It is the US who is entirely in the wrong in the current conflict.

I read current news events. I understand what happened in Gaza and it is not remotely a genocide. And most of the bad stuff was engineered by Hamas. They put awful stuff on camera, you respond by bashing Israel to make it go away--but you are actually rewarding them for doing horrific things and thus there will be more of it.

It wasn't "Genocide". However, after a while, it wasn't "moral" either.

You keep defending the defense, but ignoring the offense. Every bomb was justified according to you. Had Israel kept bombing, it'd been fine. The Western World looked the other way after October 7th, so Israel could respond. They sent Hamas back a while, but years from now, will any of the bombs have helped? And people like you and Derec will say 'Only if Israel dropped two more bombs...'

The western world "looked the other way" because they understood they couldn't expect Israel to abandon the hostages.

And it is completely normal for a city to be basically leveled if a war is fought there. Hamas knew this, yet chose to create the situation. What we see in Gaza is actually less than typical for urban war despite the massive amount of military infrastructure buried beneath.

Hamas engineered the whole thing to get horrors to parade before the camera and you fell for it.

Not to be that guy. But we already have another thread (or threads) about the Israel/Palestine conflict. While Iran is involved, I think it's a bit of a side quest

 

[DrZoidberg]

The UAE will leave OPEC effective May 1st.
The UAE is the third largest producer of oil.
Expect Trump to push harder now for opening back up the Strait of Hormuz.
The UAE has a lot of spare capacity and can flood the oil market putting downward pressure on oil prices.
Should suck for Russia.

It's a huge win for Trump btw. Even a retarded buffoon can get it right sometimes through dumb luck.

I think the rest of the Middle-East is incredibly grateful to USA for finally kicking Iran in the nuts. Iran is the equivalent of a an uncle that keeps being invited for Christmas but can't stop himself from molesting the children. Yes, I still think Trump is an idiot

 

[TV and credit cards]

.

The UAE will leave OPEC effective May 1st.
The UAE is the third largest producer of oil.
Expect Trump to push harder now for opening back up the Strait of Hormuz.
The UAE has a lot of spare capacity and can flood the oil market putting downward pressure on oil prices.
Should suck for Russia.

It's a huge win for Trump btw. Even a retarded buffoon can get it right sometimes through dumb luck.

I think the rest of the Middle-East is incredibly grateful to USA for finally kicking Iran in the nuts. Iran is the equivalent of a an uncle that keeps being invited for Christmas but can't stop himself from molesting the children. Yes, I still think Trump is an idiot

It can be a win for Republicans in November if and only if Trump can get the strait reopened and UAE increased pumping lowers the price at the pump. And Iran knows it. If I’m right, watch negotiations closely in the coming days. Let’s see who actually wins this ill-conceived war.
The buffoon got nothing right. The UAE is simply looking after its own interest. Their timing has been questioned and rightfully so. They claim there is no timing of the announcement which I cry bullshit on. Whatever.
If there is unmolested passage thru the strait and the UAE does pump at will, it is expected they will go from 3 to 5 million barrels per day, how might Saudi Arabia respond? I don’t think other OPEC members have the capacity to pump more and they will suffer if the price per barrel is driven down. Could we then see a breakdown of OPEC?

 

[DrZoidberg]

.

The UAE will leave OPEC effective May 1st.
The UAE is the third largest producer of oil.
Expect Trump to push harder now for opening back up the Strait of Hormuz.
The UAE has a lot of spare capacity and can flood the oil market putting downward pressure on oil prices.
Should suck for Russia.

It's a huge win for Trump btw. Even a retarded buffoon can get it right sometimes through dumb luck.

I think the rest of the Middle-East is incredibly grateful to USA for finally kicking Iran in the nuts. Iran is the equivalent of a an uncle that keeps being invited for Christmas but can't stop himself from molesting the children. Yes, I still think Trump is an idiot

It can be a win for Republicans in November if and only if Trump can get the strait reopened and UAE increased pumping lowers the price at the pump. And Iran knows it. If I’m right, watch negotiations closely in the coming days. Let’s see who actually wins this ill-conceived war.
The buffoon got nothing right. The UAE is simply looking after its own interest. Their timing has been questioned and rightfully so. They claim there is no timing of the announcement which I cry bullshit on. Whatever.
If there is unmolested passage thru the strait and the UAE does pump at will, it is expected they will go from 3 to 5 million barrels per day, how might Saudi Arabia respond? I don’t think other OPEC members have the capacity to pump more and they will suffer if the price per barrel is driven down. Could we then see a breakdown of OPEC?

Here's my little speculation. Iraq's, Kuwaits, Bahrains, Qatars and a lot of Saudi oil is locked up in the Persian gulf. But not UAE's. Right now limiting themselves to their OPEC quota makes no sense.

I think its more a question of geography than diplomacy.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

.

The UAE will leave OPEC effective May 1st.
The UAE is the third largest producer of oil.
Expect Trump to push harder now for opening back up the Strait of Hormuz.
The UAE has a lot of spare capacity and can flood the oil market putting downward pressure on oil prices.
Should suck for Russia.

It's a huge win for Trump btw. Even a retarded buffoon can get it right sometimes through dumb luck.

I think the rest of the Middle-East is incredibly grateful to USA for finally kicking Iran in the nuts. Iran is the equivalent of a an uncle that keeps being invited for Christmas but can't stop himself from molesting the children. Yes, I still think Trump is an idiot

It can be a win for Republicans in November if and only if Trump can get the strait reopened and UAE increased pumping lowers the price at the pump. And Iran knows it. If I’m right, watch negotiations closely in the coming days. Let’s see who actually wins this ill-conceived war.
The buffoon got nothing right. The UAE is simply looking after its own interest. Their timing has been questioned and rightfully so. They claim there is no timing of the announcement which I cry bullshit on. Whatever.
If there is unmolested passage thru the strait and the UAE does pump at will, it is expected they will go from 3 to 5 million barrels per day, how might Saudi Arabia respond? I don’t think other OPEC members have the capacity to pump more and they will suffer if the price per barrel is driven down. Could we then see a breakdown of OPEC?

Here's my little speculation. Iraq's, Kuwaits, Bahrains, Qatars and a lot of Saudi oil is locked up in the Persian gulf. But not UAE's. Right now limiting themselves to their OPEC quota makes no sense.

In what sense? Doesn't the UAE only have the capacity to get 1.5 million barrels per day to the far side of the Hormuz Strait?

I think its more a question of geography than diplomacy.

Well, that and pump stations, and pipeline cross sections. And remembering that this isn't only about oil, but urea, CO2, plastics, etc... We are running out of time.

Mr. Indefinite Ceasefire/Imminent Doom is rattling the sabres again with more AI images of him as a tough guy. He wants to make a deal, he has a set, but Iran is drawing for a nut flush on the river. Trump has no idea how to negotiate, nor does his cabinet. They want everything and can't accept that Iran can say no and illegally inflict catastrophic damage to the global economy as shortages of oil, jet fuel, plastics, urea become more apparent globally in the next two months.

Iran has no moral high ground, but that doesn't matter. And Trump is too ignorant to understand that. Despots don't survive by playing nice. And if you can't wipe them out, you have to deal with them.

Trump "kicked Iran in the nuts" and the world is worse off for it, as it led to Iran weaponizing the Strait, somewhat permanently it seems.

 

[DrZoidberg]

.

The UAE will leave OPEC effective May 1st.
The UAE is the third largest producer of oil.
Expect Trump to push harder now for opening back up the Strait of Hormuz.
The UAE has a lot of spare capacity and can flood the oil market putting downward pressure on oil prices.
Should suck for Russia.

It's a huge win for Trump btw. Even a retarded buffoon can get it right sometimes through dumb luck.

I think the rest of the Middle-East is incredibly grateful to USA for finally kicking Iran in the nuts. Iran is the equivalent of a an uncle that keeps being invited for Christmas but can't stop himself from molesting the children. Yes, I still think Trump is an idiot

It can be a win for Republicans in November if and only if Trump can get the strait reopened and UAE increased pumping lowers the price at the pump. And Iran knows it. If I’m right, watch negotiations closely in the coming days. Let’s see who actually wins this ill-conceived war.
The buffoon got nothing right. The UAE is simply looking after its own interest. Their timing has been questioned and rightfully so. They claim there is no timing of the announcement which I cry bullshit on. Whatever.
If there is unmolested passage thru the strait and the UAE does pump at will, it is expected they will go from 3 to 5 million barrels per day, how might Saudi Arabia respond? I don’t think other OPEC members have the capacity to pump more and they will suffer if the price per barrel is driven down. Could we then see a breakdown of OPEC?

Here's my little speculation. Iraq's, Kuwaits, Bahrains, Qatars and a lot of Saudi oil is locked up in the Persian gulf. But not UAE's. Right now limiting themselves to their OPEC quota makes no sense.

In what sense? Doesn't the UAE only have the capacity to get 1.5 million barrels per day to the far side of the Hormuz Strait?

I think its more a question of geography than diplomacy.

Well, that and pump stations, and pipeline cross sections. And remembering that this isn't only about oil, but urea, CO2, plastics, etc... We are running out of time.

Mr. Indefinite Ceasefire/Imminent Doom is rattling the sabres again with more AI images of him as a tough guy. He wants to make a deal, he has a set, but Iran is drawing for a nut flush on the river. Trump has no idea how to negotiate, nor does his cabinet. They want everything and can't accept that Iran can say no and illegally inflict catastrophic damage to the global economy as shortages of oil, jet fuel, plastics, urea become more apparent globally in the next two months.

Iran has no moral high ground, but that doesn't matter. And Trump is too ignorant to understand that. Despots don't survive by playing nice. And if you can't wipe them out, you have to deal with them.

Trump "kicked Iran in the nuts" and the world is worse off for it, as it led to Iran weaponizing the Strait, somewhat permanently it seems.

What a surprise that you are an apologist for despots. At least its on brand

 

[scombrid]

I am not cherry-picking.

Yes, you are.

Repression is the rule in Islamic societies.

Repression is the rule in any fundamentalist religious society.

Right wing societies in general. The right wing atheists have their own religions that involve rationalizing their bigotry and desire to repress “others” to suit themselves. Don’t have to have superstition to have a repressive religion. Market fundamentalism and a desire to prop up your position in class or gender based stratification is sufficient for monstrous natural human behavior.