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yodsanklaiyesterday at 12:02 PM9 repliesview on HN

Nothing like a war to boost your popularity just before the elections


Replies

JumpCrisscrossyesterday at 12:28 PM

> Nothing like a war to boost your popularity just before the elections

If he pulls off a regime change, even a Delcy-style swaparoo, he'll get it, and arguably not undeservedly. It will ultimately come down to Iran's capacity to inflict casualties on American forces.

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AbstractH24yesterday at 12:11 PM

Only I’m not exactly sure what constituency will support this war.

He wasn’t even smart enough to leave America open to attack, manufacture a pretext, and rally people around the flag like 9/11

Heck, there was even a better case in Korea & Vietnam. Even Venezuela. What’s the case this is America’s problem?

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Benderyesterday at 2:08 PM

Nothing like a war to boost your popularity just before the elections

Congress will not let him have a third term regardless of what he says or thinks.

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ekianjoyesterday at 12:31 PM

You sure? Seems like a war for no reason is hardly going to get popular support.

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squidbeakyesterday at 2:19 PM

Nothing like a war to push Epstein out of the headlines.

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ActorNightlyyesterday at 6:38 PM

The popularity aspect is irrelevant.

Trump can literally do all the things that the epstein files accuse him of doing, right on camera in front of everyone, and Americans will still vote for him all because he isn't a "woke" black woman.

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jmyeetyesterday at 1:54 PM

Military action in Iran is deeply unpopular, being supported by just 27% of US adult citizens [1]. As an aside, Congress literally doesn't care what voters think [2]. The pearl-clutching about this from Congressional Democrats isn't about policy but process, with the likes of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries saying Congress should authorize this action, not that it shouldn't happen.

I'm interested in what makes empires tick, what their basis of power is.

Spain in the colonial era was propped up by looting silver from Central and South America, for example.

The British Empire is what many (including me) like to call the "drug dealer empire". First tobacco then later opium. Any claims that we didn't know about the health risks of tobacco are complete BS (eg [3]).

Circling back to your point, the US is what I like to call the "arms dealer empire". WW1 and WW2 massively enriched the United States. NATO is essentially a protection racket for Europe and the price is, you guessed it, buying arms from the United States.

And the next Budget has proposed increasing "defense" spending from an already eye-popping $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion [4]. Where does that money go? Arms, weapons programs, defense contractors, the ultra-wealthy.

War is good for business even though it's unpopular.

[1]: https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/54158-few-americans-suppor...

[2]: https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba/

[3]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15198996/

[4]: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-proposes-massive...

malsheyesterday at 3:29 PM

You really think the elections will happen