US kills Iran's General Soleimani

Jono8 · 9 Jan 2020 at 20:49

Blimey a lot of people need to educate themselves on flight 655

StriderX · 9 Jan 2020 at 20:49

Nasher said:
That was equipment failure rather than people cutting corners and doing something dumb. Plus it wasn't a full meltdown and they didn't try to cover it up, while knowingly sending workers to their deaths, like the USSR did with Chernobyl.

Well covering it up was part & parcel with authoritarian regimes, that's not a measure of incompetence (even if it's to hide it). Just doesn't seem wise to think we're nigh infallible and the enemy is filled with idiots, that's really my only criticism.

The real answer for who should have Nuclear weapons is no one, there is no single country that is filled with only sensible humanitarians.

chaparral · 9 Jan 2020 at 20:54

Boris Johnson has said 'a body of information' suggests the Tehran airliner tragedy was caused by an Iranian surface to air missile and 'may well have been unintentional'. More follows ...

Anyone have more news on this ?

Minusorange · 9 Jan 2020 at 20:55

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1215371059530272778

StriderX · 9 Jan 2020 at 20:58

'Why not use those bodies as leverage against sanctions?', i'm sure someone high up in Iran is thinking.

kissenger · 9 Jan 2020 at 20:59

The timing of the plane going down does seem highly suspicious, but then again many of the people on the plane were Iranians or other nationalities, but of Iranian descent. In which case why do it?

Either way this whole episode seems like a success for Trump: reestablished deterrence against Iran and others; moved EU countries away from JCPOA; shifted news agenda off impeachment; given the Pres a big foreign policy victory; no US casualties. Can’t hurt re-election.

jpaul · 9 Jan 2020 at 21:00

Jono8 said:
Blimey a lot of people need to educate themselves on flight 655

indeed its been wall to wall reminder on social medias nemesis.

StriderX · 9 Jan 2020 at 21:00

kissenger said:
The timing of the plane going down does seem highly suspicious, but then again many of the people on the plane were Iranians or other nationalities, but of Iranian descent. In which case why do it?

Either way this whole episode seems like a success for Trump: reestablished deterrence against Iran and others; moved EU countries away from JCPOA; shifted news agenda off impeachment; given the Pres a big foreign policy victory; no US casualties. Can’t hurt re-election.

Deterrence from what? Iran has still largely successfully infiltrated Iraq. It might calm militias down for a set period, but it's really minor compared to wasting 17+ years and trillions of dollars on countries that have largely remained out of the US's reach.

sideways14a · 9 Jan 2020 at 21:02

If Trump knows whats good for him he will keep his twitter zipped and not make try and score any more points with Iran over this, at least for now.
They clearly shot it down by mistake and Irans people might not be so easily led by the lies from there idiots in charge, could end up causing them quite the internal problem.

Lord-Jaffa · 9 Jan 2020 at 21:03

Iran 2020, putting the Derp in Herp Derp.

Rroff · 9 Jan 2020 at 21:11

There is another possibility here - there are factions within Iran who want to draw the regime into war with the US - some religious zealots who believe in the whole final battle in which the US is defeated, etc. and some who want regime change and have probably been being some previous provocative actions (including potentially some of the mines on shipping) in an effort to try and incriminate the regime and might have shot this plane down for their agenda.

Minusorange · 9 Jan 2020 at 21:13

We're only 9 days into the year/new decade and we've had a General assassinated, almost had a new front open in the war in the Middle East and the first Passenger jet disaster :eek:

jpaul · 9 Jan 2020 at 21:14

Not sure Trudeau wouldn't hold the usa partially responsible, for setting up the scenario, and boris for that matter.
we don't know usa wasn't inside Iranian airspace too, and why did the transponder mechanism, the iranians say, should have protected the aircraft, fail ?

sideways14a · 9 Jan 2020 at 21:14

Cant really see what they would get out of shooting that plane down, yeah one filled with yanks fine... but this one?
Dodgy plan shooting it down to promote regime change as well, so many things could go wrong with that and if they do then they are really up a creak without a paddle.

Rroff · 9 Jan 2020 at 21:18

sideways14a said:
Cant really see what they would get out of shooting that plane down, yeah one filled with yanks fine... but this one?
Dodgy plan shooting it down to promote regime change as well, so many things could go wrong with that and if they do then they are really up a creak without a paddle.

Some connected to the "restart" movement have encouraged or carried out similar kind of acts - they are encouraged to do anything to make the regime look incompetent or in conflict with other countries, etc. etc. (though mostly they seem to just rant on twitter probably from the safety of their homes in New Jersey, etc.).

Skillmister · 9 Jan 2020 at 21:19

sideways14a said:
Cant really see what they would get out of shooting that plane down, yeah one filled with yanks fine... but this one?
Dodgy plan shooting it down to promote regime change as well, so many things could go wrong with that and if they do then they are really up a creak without a paddle.

Perhaps they didn't have time to go through the passenger manifest?

Minusorange · 9 Jan 2020 at 21:27

Rroff said:
they are encouraged to do anything to make the regime look incompetent or in conflict with other countries, etc. etc. (though mostly they seem to just rant on twitter probably from the safety of their homes in New Jersey, etc.).

I hope these groups aren't the preferred choice for who the West wants to hold power in Iran

CaptainRAVE · 9 Jan 2020 at 21:27

Considering Iran cited engine failure almost before the plane hit the ground this doesn’t surprise me. Big win for trump in the end. Terrible waste of life. Why on earth did Iran think it was anything other than a civilian jet? Their military is completely inept.

So the big retaliation for the US killing their military leader is blowing up sand in Iraq and killing their own citizens. Certainly not a good showing for the Iranian military.

Jono8 · 9 Jan 2020 at 21:41

CaptainRAVE said:
Big win for trump in the end.

How is a load of innocent people getting mistakenly shot down, a big win for him? :confused:

Trump doesn't seem to understand hypocrisy so he will probably try and use it against Iran, even though the USA did it themselves back in 1988.

CaptainRAVE said:
Why on earth did Iran think it was anything other than a civilian jet? Their military is completely inept.

Do you think the American military are completely inept as well? They have also shot down an Iranian ariliner by mistake.

I agree it is a terrible thing, but i don't know why you and others are making out how stupid Iran are for this, when other countries, including the USA have done it in the past. They are all as bad/as inept as each other!

sideways14a · 9 Jan 2020 at 22:00

Yes the US have done this before however nowadays with technology being so much more advanced you really dont have much excuse.
Hell if kids in there basements on the other side of the world can look up flightradar24 and see the exact details of the plane before the bits of it have even cooled down then the Iranian military have zero excuse.

And as someone pointed out... this is a country that wants nukes. Hell just look at how many **** ups were made by the nuclear powers over the last 60 years and they seemed significantly more responsible than Iran is now.