Tehran believes fresh attacks will come over next two days. Feeling emboldened, leaders there are ready with new targets for retaliation.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47584733

Trita Parsi May 18, 2026

We should first recognize that restarting the war amounts to an admission that Trump’s previous escalatory gambit — the blockade of the blockade — has failed. That, in turn, was itself an admission that the war had failed. Which was an admission that the threats of war in January had failed. As I have argued before on my Substack, this relentless search for an escalatory silver bullet capable of bringing Iran to its knees is not unique to Trump; it has become a defining pathology of American Iran policy for decades.

Although negotiators have made meaningful progress on several fronts, talks have thus far failed to produce an agreement, largely because of irreconcilable differences over Tehran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile. And as Washington has come to realize that the blockade is backfiring, a new and dangerous dynamic has emerged: both sides now believe another round of fighting will strengthen their hand in the negotiations that follow.

  • OpenStars@piefed.socialEnglish
    2·
    3 hours ago

    I think you wildly overestimate “leftist infighting” as a reason people wouldn’t join

    I showed you direct evidence of many people stating exactly this. It now sounds like you agree with me, but have nothing to point to as to why besides the notion that reality isn’t real. Believe it or not, I know what you mean and tend to agree, though nonetheless… (the reason being that those who enjoy leftist in-fighting are here, while those who do not are elsewhere - although in this case that isn’t a contaminating bias but rather the whole point underlying what we are talking about!)

    I was arguing against naive optimism, not wanting to swing over to naive pessimism but rather realism, to open our eyes and see what is truly there. You seem to be arguing for a different method of finding truthiness, which however valid I would definitely find it difficult to discuss in the terms that I am most familiar with.

    In any case, people definitely aren’t joining here, whatever their underlying reasoning. In fact our numbers are going down, not up. As is also true of Reddit, and most social media, which is probably the healthier alternative, though it would still be nice for it to exist to look at occasionally, especially for such things as hobby enthusiast forums that are much harder to bring people together irl.