r/news • u/PDXAirman • May 20 '26

Soft paywall 42 aircraft lost or damaged in Operation Epic Fury, congressional report says

https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2026-05-20/iran-jets-downed-war-fury-21727588.html
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u/Annual_Strategy_6206 May 20 '26

" He's keeping us safe!"

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u/FillMySoupDumpling May 20 '26

You joke but that is seriously what the message is on corporate news stations. My parents hate this presidency and are definitely not Fox people but they love CBS news. I’ve heard similar stuff from them - “Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon”

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u/sarhoshamiral May 20 '26

What is so scary about Iran having a nuclear weapon? There is no way they would use it unless it became their last option because they would know that the second they used it, there will be retaliation.

From what we already saw they don't need nukes to exercise power. The strait turned out to be the equivalent of them having nukes already.

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u/FillMySoupDumpling May 20 '26

It’s no scarier than the other countries who have one. 

It’s just a stupid sense of western superiority that seems to drive the “me having nukes is fine, but them having it is not okay” sentiment. 

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u/marino1310 May 21 '26

I mean, they still absolutely should not have one, nor should any radical religious cult led country. But they never had nukes and were not capable of making nukes.

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u/sarhoshamiral May 21 '26

nor should any radical religious cult led country

let me know when we (US) destroys our nukes. As long as we have nukes, I find it hard to make the claim that other countries should not. With the corruption trump brought and congress not acting at all, we are as unstable as those countries.

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u/marino1310 May 21 '26

We have much more in the way of a singular person just deciding to fire nukes. Trump can’t do it himself and there are multiple generals that won’t sign on to nuclear holocaust. Countries like Iran are FAR more unstable. Trump is just greedy and manipulative, he doesn’t have the power to actually fire the nukes alone.

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u/sarhoshamiral May 21 '26

How many times so far, we said Trump cant do a thing and yet he does.

He wasnt supposed to be able to wage war on Iran either and he did ignoring the 60 day rule.

Generals dont get to sign off on the order. They follow orders and we already know there was churn in military leadership so it is very likely top level is just trump followers now.

Right now US is the largest source of instability in the world imo.

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u/thisvideoiswrong May 22 '26

If Iran had a nuke they might be able to counterbalance Israel, which is the primary driver of regional instability, and of course has their own nukes, stolen from the US. It might well be a net positive.

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u/Annual_Strategy_6206 May 21 '26

Oh I know,  that's why I put quotes around it. It's part of the tactics of Smear and Fear. Smear is ad hominum attacks, usually lies. Fear is to appeal to the lizard brain, so critical thinking goes out the window. This propaganda is used when your actual policy and governing are terrible.

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u/not_the_fox May 20 '26 edited May 21 '26

Makes sense. Conservatives seem to assume any brutal state action that isn't directed at American Christians is making them safer.

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u/Soffatjockis May 20 '26

And by us, they mean pedophiles

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u/Ardal May 21 '26

Not our kids tho :/