The totally unnecessary Iran War!

Cargo ship on fire in strait of hormuz after being hit by unknown projectile crew have been evacuated

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who serves on The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, on twitter:

I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can't defend this war in public.

I obviously can't disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are.

Here's what I can share:

Maybe the lead is that the war goals DO NOT involve destroying Iran's nuclear weapons program. This is, uh...surprising...since Trump says over and over this is a key goal.

But then of course we already know air strikes can't wipe out their nuclear material.

Second, they confirmed "regime change" is also NOT on the list. So, they are going to spend hundreds of billions of your taxpayer dollars, get a whole bunch of Americans killed, and a hardline regime - probably a MORE anti-American hardline regime - will still be in charge.

Ok, so what ARE the goals? It seems, primarily, destroying lots of missiles and boats and drone factories.

But the question that stumped them: what happens when you stop bombing and they restart production?

They hinted at more bombing. Which is, of course, endless war.

And on the Strait of Hormuz, they had NO PLAN. I can't go into more detail about how Iran gums up the Strait, but suffice it say, right now, they don't know how to get it safely back open.

Which is unforgiveable, because this part of the disaster was 100% foreseeable.

I can totally buy all this because it all corresponds to what the average person can perceive through the narrow, fractured lens of the media. I.e. it all rings true.

But the messenger is a problem. His other accusation is that people in the administration are profiting from this war by betting on military strikes in prediction markets. That seems a little far-fetched to me.

This is part of the problem with tribal, performative politics-as-bloodsport. When you say something important and credible, it is easily dismissed as the raving hyperbole of a partisan hack with a Cassandra complex.

I don't know about betting on military strikes in prediction markets but Eric & Don Jr's golf club company has just merged with a drone manufacturer, in addition to an investment they have in an Israeli drone manufacturer, at a time when drone procurement is a major priority for the department of special military excursions.

I've seen reporting of the betting in prediction markets. One seemingly was placed in the hours before the first military strike when the prediction market was I recall showing a 17% chance of a strike. Yet someone bet a substantial amount of money on a strike and made thousands of dollars within a few hours.

Operation Epic Fuck Up continues. A USAF KC-135 Tanker has cashed in Western Iraq and "Rescue Operations" are underway. A second Aircraft involved in the incident landed safely.

Sounds like a refuelling collision.

US set to ease sanctions on Russian oil to deal with the current self inflicted crisis. Surely nothing bad can come of this masterstroke of an idea.

4 service members have been killed and two others were missing in the refueling incident.

Christ they still have over 300 in service with us military

it was designed and built in the 50s and some of the ones are from the 60s

you would thought with the money the US miltary have they would have updated the fleet

even the poor RAF in comparison got rid of the victor and VC10s for refueling in the 90s and 2013 respectivily