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A Political Thread pt. 2

I think you need to work in complex project planning....

The main issues are
a) Not accepting the real cost of a program
b) Not having clear set requirements at the start and changing them
c) Not accepting the level a complexity of modern systems

The idea people are feckless

Ah don't fkin start me!

People *are* feckless. It's just not the people most think of when assigning blame.
 
I'm sorry, but I disagree. This just feels like a wide generalisation. Yes there are some people out of their depth on projects, yes there are some bums on seats that aren't good enough for the role, but this isn't the majority. Major projects encounter so many unknown variables.

I won't go into detail as it will be an essay.
No, they're not all useless of course, but it doesn't take many to derail an entire project - I've seen this myself. But I'm not surprised at all it didn't work here. We honestly laughed at work when it got the go ahead.
 
No, they're not all useless of course, but it doesn't take many to derail an entire project - I've seen this myself. But I'm not surprised at all it didn't work here. We honestly laughed at work when it got the go ahead.
I always find the huge political projects fail from the start. Huge political pressure to give unrealistic completion dates and budgets from people who aren't engineers or contracts managers. Then the media sit licking their lips to jump on issues, and MPs love to be slopey shouldered.

Large local projects generally work to programme / budget as they aren't as politicised.
 
From Facebook. This doesn't mean Iran are innocent victims, but Israel are certainly not the 'good guys'.

I feel an obligation to explain briefly what's going on with Israel-Iran-US. I know this is going to be controversial, but ... there's no point in having this expertise if I'm not going to comment on these things:
The Israeli government is claiming Iran was on the precipice of obtaining a nuclear weapon. This is despite constant oversight of Iran's nuclear production by the United Nations, and despite U.S. intelligence reports that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapon and is a minimum of 3 years from being able to produce one. I have a photo of a magazine cover from 2010 (that I recently unpacked alongside other belongings) saying that Iran was just 3 years from being able to produce one. In fact, members of the Israeli government has been saying Iran is 3 years from a nuclear weapon since 1992.
In other words: Netanyahu is lying. Iran was not on the precipice of a nuclear weapon. That is not a real threat.
So why is Israel launching the attack now? I suspect there are a few motivating factors, but they all come back to Israel's brutal use of force in Palestine. First, a bunch of European states were under pressure to cut off military support to Israel. The International Court of Justice has (despite Germany's ... unusual ... interpretation to the contrary) effectively told states to stop supplying aggressive weapons to Israel because of credible allegations that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
But, if now Israel is in a "legitimate" conflict with Iran, then those states can again supply Israel with weapons by claiming they reasonably believed the weapons were being used for Israel's lawful self-defense against Iran's aggression. (That, of course, presumes one can reasonably believe Israel is engaged in a lawful act of self-defense, which given the facts about nuclear weapons, one cannot. But, facts have rarely stopped a good narrative when it's in the military-industrial complex's interests.)
Second, a bunch of European states and Canada were about to recognize Palestine as a state. France and Saudi Arabia were helping to convene a conference on Palestinian statehood, with many states finding it necessary to recognize Palestinian statehood because of Israel's unlawful use of force in Palestine. The International Court of Justice has found not only credible allegations of genocide in Gaza but also that the entire occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem was a breach of international law. The Court has called upon all states to cease any support to Israel that would legitimize its presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. How do you stop the international community from focusing on Palestinian statehood? You create a bigger threat by starting a conflict that everyone knows poses a serious threat to international and regional peace and security.
You think this is a conspiracy theory? It's happened before. In 2000, the international community was pressuring Israel to live up to its promises in the Oslo accords by turning over control of the West Bank to a Palestinian state. Israel was refusing to do so. Ariel Sharon went to the Islamic holy place, the Temple Mount, and marched on it, declaring that it belonged to the Jews. Unsurprisingly, this was met with protests and those protests turned to violence and that violence was met with greater violence, and 25 years later Israel is still not abiding by the Oslo Accords.
So why is the U.S. getting involved? This is where Trump's ... "tiny hands" energy ... comes into play. The U.S. was caught unawares by Israel's attack on Iran. But Trump doesn't like to be left out of anything this important. And when it became clear that Israel had rendered Iran effectively defenseless (Iran has aggressive capacities now but no defensive capacities), suddenly the U.S. is looking to get involved despite it being categorically against our national interests. Getting involved puts our troops and non-military personnel in the Middle East at great risk. It compromises our ongoing normalization of relationships with Syria, and it compromises our ongoing relationships with other Middle Eastern states. It is dumb. And that is why Marco Rubio disavowed U.S. involvement immediately after Israel launched the attacks. Rubio, one of the few grown-ups in Trump's administration (despite being largely spineless) knows that not only were we caught unaware (people in the U.S. government likely would have tipped Iran off to prevent the escalation we're seeing, or they would have threated Israel to get the state to back off an attack) but that being involved poses a serious risk to U.S. interests in the region.
But... how can Trump show how important he is if we don't get involved? Great question. IDK... he could try being a leader that puts the U.S. first, but that somehow doesn't seem to be his MO. So, instead, his fragile ego is likely to get us into a conflict we don't need to be a part of (do you think Israel is struggling to win here? Clearly not... So why do we need to be involved?).
ETA: I should note that Israel is not unique in these kinds of machinations. Hamas's attack Israel on 7 October 2023 was likely timed to disrupt normalization talks between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
 
From Facebook. This doesn't mean Iran are innocent victims, but Israel are certainly not the 'good guys'.

I feel an obligation to explain briefly what's going on with Israel-Iran-US. I know this is going to be controversial, but ... there's no point in having this expertise if I'm not going to comment on these things:
The Israeli government is claiming Iran was on the precipice of obtaining a nuclear weapon. This is despite constant oversight of Iran's nuclear production by the United Nations, and despite U.S. intelligence reports that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapon and is a minimum of 3 years from being able to produce one. I have a photo of a magazine cover from 2010 (that I recently unpacked alongside other belongings) saying that Iran was just 3 years from being able to produce one. In fact, members of the Israeli government has been saying Iran is 3 years from a nuclear weapon since 1992.
In other words: Netanyahu is lying. Iran was not on the precipice of a nuclear weapon. That is not a real threat.
So why is Israel launching the attack now? I suspect there are a few motivating factors, but they all come back to Israel's brutal use of force in Palestine. First, a bunch of European states were under pressure to cut off military support to Israel. The International Court of Justice has (despite Germany's ... unusual ... interpretation to the contrary) effectively told states to stop supplying aggressive weapons to Israel because of credible allegations that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
But, if now Israel is in a "legitimate" conflict with Iran, then those states can again supply Israel with weapons by claiming they reasonably believed the weapons were being used for Israel's lawful self-defense against Iran's aggression. (That, of course, presumes one can reasonably believe Israel is engaged in a lawful act of self-defense, which given the facts about nuclear weapons, one cannot. But, facts have rarely stopped a good narrative when it's in the military-industrial complex's interests.)
Second, a bunch of European states and Canada were about to recognize Palestine as a state. France and Saudi Arabia were helping to convene a conference on Palestinian statehood, with many states finding it necessary to recognize Palestinian statehood because of Israel's unlawful use of force in Palestine. The International Court of Justice has found not only credible allegations of genocide in Gaza but also that the entire occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem was a breach of international law. The Court has called upon all states to cease any support to Israel that would legitimize its presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. How do you stop the international community from focusing on Palestinian statehood? You create a bigger threat by starting a conflict that everyone knows poses a serious threat to international and regional peace and security.
You think this is a conspiracy theory? It's happened before. In 2000, the international community was pressuring Israel to live up to its promises in the Oslo accords by turning over control of the West Bank to a Palestinian state. Israel was refusing to do so. Ariel Sharon went to the Islamic holy place, the Temple Mount, and marched on it, declaring that it belonged to the Jews. Unsurprisingly, this was met with protests and those protests turned to violence and that violence was met with greater violence, and 25 years later Israel is still not abiding by the Oslo Accords.
So why is the U.S. getting involved? This is where Trump's ... "tiny hands" energy ... comes into play. The U.S. was caught unawares by Israel's attack on Iran. But Trump doesn't like to be left out of anything this important. And when it became clear that Israel had rendered Iran effectively defenseless (Iran has aggressive capacities now but no defensive capacities), suddenly the U.S. is looking to get involved despite it being categorically against our national interests. Getting involved puts our troops and non-military personnel in the Middle East at great risk. It compromises our ongoing normalization of relationships with Syria, and it compromises our ongoing relationships with other Middle Eastern states. It is dumb. And that is why Marco Rubio disavowed U.S. involvement immediately after Israel launched the attacks. Rubio, one of the few grown-ups in Trump's administration (despite being largely spineless) knows that not only were we caught unaware (people in the U.S. government likely would have tipped Iran off to prevent the escalation we're seeing, or they would have threated Israel to get the state to back off an attack) but that being involved poses a serious risk to U.S. interests in the region.
But... how can Trump show how important he is if we don't get involved? Great question. IDK... he could try being a leader that puts the U.S. first, but that somehow doesn't seem to be his MO. So, instead, his fragile ego is likely to get us into a conflict we don't need to be a part of (do you think Israel is struggling to win here? Clearly not... So why do we need to be involved?).
ETA: I should note that Israel is not unique in these kinds of machinations. Hamas's attack Israel on 7 October 2023 was likely timed to disrupt normalization talks between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The IAEA says they're enriching uranium at 60% now. It's not a good look however you dress it up. There could be some politics/self motivation involved but it's also a good excuse for Isreal to make a move.
 
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The IAEA says they're enriching uranium at 60% now. It's not a good look however you dress it up. There could be some politics/self motivation involved but it's also a good excuse for Isreal to make a move.

If true that situation would be largely of Netanyahu's own making for leaning on Trump to cancel the Obama deal which in retrospect was working just fine.

I heard a guest on CNN this morning say that if Trump refuses to drop his 30k pound bomb on Fordo or it doesn't work then Israel's next move would be a special forces raid or dropping a tactical nuke. The latter option is mental and has to be a huge red line.

Regime change in both Iran and Israel is what is needed but how that comes about and what it looks like is anyone's guess.
 
If true that situation would be largely of Netanyahu's own making for leaning on Trump to cancel the Obama deal which in retrospect was working just fine.

I heard a guest on CNN this morning say that if Trump refuses to drop his 30k pound bomb on Fordo or it doesn't work then Israel's next move would be a special forces raid or dropping a tactical nuke. The latter option is mental and has to be a huge red line.

Regime change in both Iran and Israel is what is needed but how that comes about and what it looks like is anyone's guess.
It will happen eventually in Isreal but what Netenyahu will be replaced with I have no idea. Apparently Isreal has never had a majority government, not once. I guess not shocking given it's a PR system but I fear attitudes will drift more right and it'll be more ******.
 
It will happen eventually in Isreal but what Netenyahu will be replaced with I have no idea. Apparently Isreal has never had a majority government, not once. I guess not shocking given it's a PR system but I fear attitudes will drift more right and it'll be more ******.
Maybe Israel needs regime change
 
I know the whole situation is ridiculous anyway, but can someone explain wtf is up with royals releasing a photo on their birthday? I don't give a **** about them as a whole, but it's just a really weird way to celebrate your birthday.
 

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