re: “Comic” Dave Smith: “US is arguably the worst terrorist organization in the world”

I'm surprised that Ben Ferguson is still on the air. Even as MAGA goes, he's "C" list.

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I’m not for endless wars.

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Your policy proposal ITT is to continue killing people who take a leadership role until they elect a puppet government

In your words

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whoever takes over will comply with the US or die.

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How long do you think that will take to work?

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fantasy utopian 

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This is hilariously ironic coming from someone spouting an ideology whose ideas are rooted in the political philosophy of Leon Trotsky.

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Being the world's police is not a conservative position.

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You and SlowFloPro are like talking to a wall. I didn’t say I want to be the world’s police. I said I want to act in our own interests. If you think Taft or early Republicans didn’t make decisions to bolster our own interests, I can’t help you. You’re wrong.

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The want the Iranian people to take back their country.

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What does this even mean?

Take it back into another religious authoritarian state? Because a huge chunk of the population wants that.

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if we can’t even agree on the admins stated objective.

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There is no concrete stated objective

That's one of the biggest problems with this op, and why people like you will claim victory post hoc no matter what. Since the goal isn't stated, you can create whatever that goal is, down the line, to conform to how this unfolds.

Remember the bombing last year? People preemptively spiked the football on that operation, and this week it was proven to be a failure.

A failure?

SlowAyatollahPro the sudden military expert.

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Take it back into another religious authoritarian state? Because a huge chunk of the population wants that.

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yes that’s clearly fine with the admin and I’ve stated that like 3 times now. We’re clearly fine with another Muslim regime. Just one that isn’t trying to attack us.

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Remember the bombing last year? People preemptively spiked the football on that operation, and this week it was proven to be a failure.

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the goal was to cripple their nuclear capabilities, which we did. That makes it a complete success. The goal of this was to take out the current regime, which we did. You saying there are millions of people to take over is an incredibly stupid argument. The entire country doesn’t share the view of the Ayatollah. The next person to take over will be someone who knows we can take them out easily if they continue the same route of last Ayatollah.

These people don’t want to argue in good faith. They see the world through a lens of everything Trump does must be bad. Trump and the admin have said they aren’t interested in a drawn-out regime change war but theses guys keep going to that because it would be bad if that happened. But arguing Trump wants to do that when his actions and words say otherwise is just a non-starter.

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Rubio and Hegseth and Trump have all stated our objectives, multiple times

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What are they?

LINK

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President Donald Trump says combat will continue in Iran until U.S. “objectives” are complete. Those objectives and the justification for the war have remained fluid more than 48 hours into the conflict.

Trump and his proxies have not been aligned on their narrative, leading to confusion about how Trump and his advisors are defining the endgame for the escalating conflict.

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Trump said in a video message when the invasion began on Saturday that his objective was to “defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.”

The president said the U.S. military would raze the country’s missile silos, prevent it from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon, destroy its terrorist proxy network and sink its navy. He also urged the Iranian people to topple the leadership that has ruled the country since 1979 — an explicit call for regime change that raised eyebrows even among some of his allies.

After the killing of Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was confirmed, unnamed U.S. officials briefed the media on the operation Saturday after Trump’s Truth Social video. They said something different: That the U.S. launched a preemptive strike to stave off the imminent threat of an Iranian offensive.

Then on Sunday, Trump spoke with myriad media outlets, including CNBC. He told The Atlantic that Iran waited too long in negotiations over its nuclear program and could have struck a deal and told CNBC that the U.S. attacks were “ahead of schedule” without saying what schedule. He later told the Daily Mail the war could grind on for more than four weeks.

Later Sunday, Trump said in a second video address that combat would continue “until all of our objectives are achieved, and we have very strong objectives.” He said he was doing it to ensure security “for our children and their children,” while reiterating his call for regime change. He warned more U.S. casualties were likely.

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And Rubio focused only on the missiles, while dodging any goals related to the regime that was taken out (per the supporters ITT).

So what is it, exactly?

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They see the world through a lens of everything Trump does must be bad.

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I don't think anybody has made that argument.

The policy Trump is engaging with is opposed to one he previously promoted, which I did support. So that knife cuts both ways and makes your argument above quite absurd.

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Trump and the admin have said they aren’t interested in a drawn-out regime change war

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Sure, but they have already 180'd on this policy and are creating a scenario where not doing that creates its own issues. Hence the term "quagmire" being used.

Leaving Iran as a state without institutions or government is going to lead to sectarian violence.

Enforcing an American-Israeli puppet government over the people isn't likely to lead to much better results long-term.

Or another regime that's basically the same thing emerges and we get back to square one-ish (they still have to rebuild infrastructure, so square -3 on their way to square one)