this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2026
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Nah, US did the same thing with Iraq and Afhanistan. Declared they won, and spent an extra 200 billion a day to keep losing. ‘I’m not owned I’m not owned’ is this country’s middle name
I think the distinction is Iraq and Afghanistan turned into boring occupations that were easy to ignore. This Iran war is just US L after L. We can't even ineffectively occupy them.
i think the other distinction is that the decades of boring occupation of afpak and iraq didn't fuck with the treat machine and were able to be regarded as conceptual by most americans: a hobby for infotainment consumers to track and join teams. the US hasn't faced a true, long term and biting breach of this magnitude since the 70s which was before even my ancient ass' time.
there was a lot more meat on the bone for the neoliberals to cannibalize back then with those shocks, frankly putting us into uncharted territory. especially since I don't even see how the western powers could draw down if they had the will, the competence, or even the control over the necessary institutions.
this shit is an electrical fire in a chemical plant and the entire fire department is two towns over, fighting each other about who gets to hump a doorknob with their radios off.