@Robusto Umm no? Of course not. I meant it's strange that it took a fascist like Trump not to take the bidding of the military industrial complex in our region. In this case, at least.

To be clear, the US is at war with Iran: it's an economic war and it's devastating the country. But an offensive military confrontation would be a whole nother level of destruction.

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Misleading link (16): "Web design" vs. "webdesign" by a deleted user on english.SE

@Færd OK, point taken. But you'll agree that Trump, through his ineptitude and his narcissism, has cancelled the nuclear agreement and yet now expects Iran to abide by it?

@RegDwight: When Tantacrul says, at the end of that video, that Shostakovich sounds like nobody else, I have to say I do sometimes hear over tones (or undertones) of Prokofiev in him. And, of course, Bernstein, that great plagiarist synthesizer (and genius conductor) helped himself to a bunch of DSCH's goodies. Maybe you can hear the opening of DSCH's 9th in Bernstein's Candide overture?

@Færd haha no. I said I saw it on mute with captions which is crazy because how can you get the nuance of an accent through captions? Also lipreading I've heard is terribly difficult.

haha "I've heard"

haha I'm entertaining myself

haha haha

sigh

@Robusto I do, except I don't think that was wholly a Trump peculiarity. I think lots of other US politicians—esp in the Republican camp, but not just them—would treat Iran more or less to the same effect. They wouldn't be so brazen about tearing up a multilateral international deal (that part was indeed a Trump peculiarity), but they wouldn't live up to the give-and-take spirit of the deal either. Obama was kind of an exception, that is, compared to US's tradition of foreign policy.

Going back to the original point of a military confrontation, lemme add that I think chances of a war breaking out in the near future is exceedingly high. (See this, for example), despite Trump's purported disinclination to start a war far away from home. There are others who are others in his admin who are dying for it to happen.

@Mitch Okay so at some point the auto caption reads Edomite. But maybe she actually says "add a mite" there? Or "atom might" (= nuclear power. You can guess at my preoccupations at the moment.)

Incidentally, isn't it cheating to turn on the captions on a video that says "try to figure out what I'm saying"?

@Færd washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/21/…

@Robusto Thanks.

> How did Trump square his campaign vow to pull out of the nuclear deal with his promise to avoid Mideast quagmires?

He didn't. He's not a consistent human being.

Ie, I don't think he was even wholeheartedly lying.

That makes for no reassurance tho.

(Wow it's not good for my mental health ever to look back at what I write. I'm still making so many mistakes.)

@Færd I do hope not.

The army is against it; Trump has won the elections campaigning that he would not start another war; but hawks Bolton and Pompeo have gained influence.

I do have a question: if hostilities should break out, what would they entail, exactly?

The Americans could bomb a military complex in Iran?

Or attack a few ships?

@Færd: Another interesting article: vox.com/2019/6/21/18700732/…

I do wish Europe were to speak out against it more firmly.

@Cerberus I wouldn't want to hang from a rope until that happens.

And I do hope Iran won't strike back too vehemently if the Americans should attack them.

@Robusto No, indeed; to be honest, I'm not current on which European countries have declared what, so far.

The English say they agree with the American analysis.

Most of the other European countries have advised caution and peace, I believe.

As have Russia and China, probably.

Arabia is the war-monger trying to stir America into action.

Yeah, because they hate the Shi'ites.

Indeed.

And because they are dependent on a crazy régime.

Well, yes. But that seems to be the norm these days, doesn't it?

I used to think the US and UK were immune from that, but no longer.

Few are as bad as the Saudi one.