According https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmilitaryspend.org%2Firan... there are between 9,044 and 18,371 civilian casualties in Iran due to US air strikes. So yes, preventing collateral damage of civilians is not a priority at Pete Hegseth's "Department of War".

My violence premise is based on the fact that Trump has ordered military strikes on seven different countries during his second term so far. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffactually.co%2Ffact-chec...

Every authoritarian regime needs some form of multi-generational conflict to justify their power over the people. Trumpism is a form of anti-democratic, authoritarian-oligarchy that exists only within the context of an eternal conflict. The conflicts only exist to distract the people from Trump and his oligarch's corruption, abuse of power, and outright theft from the American people.

In May 2025, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth disbanded the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence in the Pentagon, because in his own words, he wanted a military "focused on lethality". I think that is the real story. Pete Hegseth only cares about civilian casualties if they could potentially become a liability to himself or the President. That is also why the President ordered Marco Rubio to "dismantle" the ICC "brick by brick".

To better understand the Maven system, I highly recommend reading the book, "Project Maven" by Katrina Manson. In it she does a deep dive into the history of Maven, what it can and cannot do, and how it can be misused in the wrong hands. Maven was never intended to be a stand-alone targeting system, and the people who created it were very aware of the deficiencies of relying solely on an AI system to make military decisions. It is a great read for any military nerd who wants to understand the history of AI in military planning, and why these systems were created.

I think the blame can be correctly applied to Pete Hegseth, and Donald Trump for ordering this war, and for ordering the military to stop considering "collateral damage" when making targeting decisions. Pete Hegseth bragged about the military striking 13,000 targets in the first month of the Iran war. This is only possible if you forgo the traditional target development process, and strike targets based on thin or no current intelligence, no collateral damage analysis, and no weaponering (selecting appropriate ordnance for the target) considerations. It appears the military just took a long list of potential military targets and ordered strikes on all of them without any verification or thought of how those destroying those targets ties into a greater military strategy. This retired military officer believes that violence was the military strategy.

In my opinion, Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth and their many acolytes believe that violence is how you win human conflict, and the side that is more violent will win. Military officers who do not share his world view are suspect, possibly woke, and have to be purged. In his word view all targets are good military targets, even civilians, if their deaths result in the desired outcome, regime change in Iran. It is the same world view that has taken over policing of minority communities in America, ICE enforcement to include shooting down protesters, or Israel's military operations in Gaza and Lebanon. What military history teaches us is that unmitigated violence doesn't win wars, but only prolongs them and turns them into multi-generational wars.

If you lose a tactical jet in a MOA, Restricted Area, or Warning Area, there usually is not much chance of hurting anyone on the ground. Also special use airspace is NOTAM'd when in use to keep other aircraft not participating in the training exercise out of the area. Doing tactical training over populated areas just puts the public at risk for no good reason, other than to massage the Secretary of War's ego. As the situation in Iran continues to deteriorate for the US military, the Secretary of War will be needing more and more massaging.

Without European bases, the US will lose its ability to project force beyond North America. I'm done arguing Greenland with Trumpists. You can't reason with a fool.

As a veteran of the last Regime Change/ Nation Building exercise that ended in failure, I can only think that capturing (kidnapping) Maduro was the easy part. Trump has publicly declared we're going to run Venezuela now. But removing Maduro doesn't remove his government. Marudo was just the top of the pyramid. All the other layers are still in place. So I don't know how Trump is supposed to run Venezuela, unless he proceeds with some sort of invasion. I highly doubt the rest of the Venezuelan government will simply surrender to American occupation. If anything, I think removing Maduro was a symbolic exercise for an ego-driven and insecure President, who disparately craves attention and demands respect and fear. Imho. Maduro was a marginal leader, and if anything his replacement will be far more competent and more resilient than Maduro was.

Sounds like just about every '80s action TV series. Get captured, guards leave, lock the door, turn around and have Murdock bite through the ropes until B.A. Baracus can just break free. Then free the other hostages, use tools and scrap materials that the kidnappers conveniently left behind, build some kind of armored vehicle with flame throwers, propane tanks for rockets, and use that to defeat the bad guys. Maybe if you get kidnapped for your crypto, if your hot 20-something daughter can find them, maybe you could hire the A-Team...

It was about tax breaks for billionaires. They needed to offset those tax breaks to make them revenue neutral. The GOP could have offset tax breaks against military spending and probably gotten some bipartisan support, but they chose to offset them against medical insurance for the poor, disabled, children, and the elderly. Then the GOP/Trump expected at least 7 Democrats in the Senate to be corrupt enough to go along with this, so they could call spending reductions on the poor bipartisan. When that didn't work, they lied, falsely claiming the Democrats want "healthcare for illegals". That is untrue, as illegal immigrants are not eligible for healthcare subsidies under the ACA. The GOP created this mess, and they put the Democrats in a no-win hostage situation.

Trump has been batting 1000 at the Supreme Court when it comes to executive power, or executive immunity. Either our Constitution was designed to have an elected King, and we only discovered that fact 230 years later, or our Supreme Court is supremely corrupt. I tend to believe the latter, as it seems there are only two rules at the Supreme Court: (1) There are no rules, and (2) Trump always wins.

Growing up in Reagan's '80s America, I remember of being warned about central planning, and that economies are far too complex for any central committee or one person to plan. But that's exactly where we are 40 years later, with an elected dictator dictating what tariffs we pay on which goods and services, how we should invest our retirement savings, and how the Federal Reserve should conduct monetary policy.

According to the 1942-1946 pay chart, a general officer with over 30 years of service made an annual salary of $8000. This would include all the famous American Generals in WW2 who led major operations such as the D-Day landing. The lowest private in WW2 made $50 per month, or $600 per year, and he was often the one taking the greatest risk. This is only base pay, so they probably made slightly more on top for hazardous duty, flight pay, etc. But WW2 salaries were low across the board, because we had just exited The Great Depression, and the military was on a war-time footing.

Pardon and a steak dinner at the White House. And I thought Hunter Biden was profiting off of the White House, and Democrats would all be exposed as child sex traffickers, just as soon as Trump releases all the Epstein files.

This is just yet another example of why we (USA) really do need a public, non-profit, health insurance system. Too many people cannot access proper medical treatment for life-threatening conditions, and in their desperation fall victim to quacks and other grifters and con-artists. But unfortunately our for-profit healthcare industry has brainwashed the American people into thinking that considering any alternatives to our corporate healthcare system is borderline treasonous, even though we only need to look north of the border to see a better alternative.

The middle class is getting squeezed out of existence. The GOP's greatest achievement is convincing the middle class to blame somebody else, other than those actually doing the squeezing.

I don't know. Do you like modern medicine?