Link for the global poor: https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/trump-iran-war-confusion/686259/
It's ok to not be an expert on the war in Iran!
From real life to twitter to even arr NL, I see confident people using incomplete information to make pronouncements about the war. None of us outside of top Pentagon/IDF/maybe IRGC officers know what's happening now and probably won't for at least a few months.
Posted by MarkRobinsonsBurner
5 Comments
Submission statement: argues that we don’t know what’s going on in the US-Israel-Iran war right now and we don’t need to make confident statements either way using incomplete (or nonexistent) reporting. Criticisms like “Trump has no plan” have a lot of support (obviously). But we just don’t know anything at the tactical or even strategic level right now.
speak for yourself. I’ve been monitoring the situation
It is kinda interesting how the extreme confidence of the Russians and the scrambled general mobilization of the Ukrainians led to pretty much the entire early war being filmed and public. I remember very clearly how predictions on how that was going to be the future of war, if TV brought war into the living room the internet was going to bring it everywhere 24/7. That just didn’t happen with Iran though, and the bevy of OSINT accounts that have popped up over the years ever since Syria are totally flailing for information and creating wildly different info enviorments.
I think this is partially because of the narratives over the years that Iran would have the capacity to destroy half the middle east and permantly shut the Hormuz straight, neither of those happened but the lack of reliable info is keeping those narratives alive.
> In the absence of hard data, the kind that become available years or decades after a war
What’s the point of this kind of argument, or this whole article in general? “Oh you don’t know shit, we don’t either. So the conclusion is hey let us go smash it and see what happens.” Is that it?
Sorry democracy inconveniences you so much, I guess? The public debating national issues in real time is proper and healthy. You’re a loser if you tell people to not do it instead of countering them with arguments.
Also not lost on me at all that this guy has praised Trump multiple times since last year, neocons have no right to lecture a kindergartener about respecting uncertainties lol. They have historically been the ones who jump at everything out of ideological motivations and maybe (likely?) even thrill for violence, thinking shit would go their way.
Whoopsies, I guess we’re just going to have to keep carpet bombing Tehran and killing children until we really know what’s going on /s
What fucking ghoul makes that argument? These people are brain dead