So they claim. I suspect the number is exaggerated by about 20% in terms of fudged birth numbers, and that doesn’t even take into account all those who became apostate in Iran and elsewhere, whether as secret converts to Christianity or just silently and cynically lost faith as either agnostics or atheists. Early in the millennium the claim was six million a year in converts to Christianity in Africa alone.
10,000 of them died yesterday in Iran. Operation Meetinghouse has lessons for today. Since we don't have fleets of hundreds of bombers any more, nuclear weapons do the same thing but far more accurately and cheaply. Not long after this we did use nuclear weapons on two different cities, so the precedent is already there. I like the detail that the B-29 pilots stopped smelling smoke from paper and wood and started smelling grease from burning bodies.
Externally human but internally rats.
#2
Nothing wrong with people who like WINNING.
The same was done to Hamburg. The same was done to Dresden. The same was done to Nagasaki. The same was done to Hiroshima.
Ever noticed all of those have stopped giving us problems?
Gaza too, but that was done far more pensively and tediously with old-fashioned demolition bombs.
Operation Meetinghouse took a single night.
#3
You smell that? Do you smell that?... Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory.
-- Col. Kilgore, Apocalypse now.
We must kill them. We must incinerate them. Pig after pig... cow after cow... village after village... army after army...
-- COl. Kurtz, Apocalypse Now
#4
We don’t need to waste ordinance on civilian targets when we can take out militarily useful objectives, including military and government people, because our targetting ability is just that good.
We firebombed Dresden and Hamburg to break the spirit of the German people, who strongly supported the Nazi government until the personal cost got too high. But the vast majority of the Iranian people oppose their rulers, so their spirit does not need to be broken. And in fact, going after them would just lead them toside with the Mullahcracy, so it would be counterproductive.
You want the smell burning bodies? Recall when the IDF destroyed the Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut when the top tier was meeting there, along with some billions of dollars of gold and an awful lot of ordinance that cooked off in glorious secondaries. Local civilians were seen poking through the rubble after it cooled, collecting gold nuggets and rivulets.
Ditto recently, when the IDF sent missiles through the roof of the building where almost the entirety of Iran’s Mullahcracy was meeting, including the Grand Ayotollah Khamanei himself.
But about a third of Israelis have ancestors who died in the Nazi concentration camps, and then their bodies were incinerated. So the country has an aversion to smelling burning flesh — I’m sure you understand.
#5
But the imaginations of post-Viet Nam film script writers with no experience on the subject who were eager to portray our soldiers as vicious, conscienceless beasts is not a useful guide to how to think about the subject.
#6
The targeting of civilians in Germany and in England was ineffective. The burning of Tokyo didn’t break the will of the people. Japan had no military strike capability left and was totally blockaded. The atomic bombings kicked off an internal insurrection. Had the military not lost that struggle, an invasion would have been required. The bombing of civilians failed to break the will of North Vietnam as well.
In the case of Iran, the civilians revolted against their brutal government and asked for us to take out their military that was slaughtering them. Targeting the civilian population of Iran is akin to firebombing Paris. What a dumb idea.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/16/2026 6:27 Comments ||
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#7
Both Japan and Germany had centuries of militaristic heritage. After 1945, that nearly all vanished. It was a profound social change. Those are facts.
As for Japan, its production relied heavily on home industry, small shops that operated through out urban areas that delivered parts and components to the larger factories. When those were burned out, war production dropped unlike Germany.
There are a series of articles by the historian Alvin Coxx who specialized in the Pacific War, in Purnell's History of the Second World War, that well documents the effectiveness of that bombing campaign. It worked.
#8
Bombing military industrial sites makes a lot of sense. Blockading, bombing logistics and preventing military manufacture also has been proven to work. Bombing a civilian population to demoralize them didn’t seem to work in England, Japan, Germany or North Vietnam. The Iranian people and French people for that matter don’t need to be carpet bombed. Precision strikes are possible with today’s technology. There will be some civilian casualties. No need to torch all of Tehran.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/16/2026 9:20 Comments ||
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#9
@OP Might be wise for you to increase your meds or see the shrink more often.
#11
You think the fact that we killed millions of them with nuclear weapons and firebombing had something to do with the fact that they went from a nation of samurai that behead you for looking at them wrong to the world's most famous pacifists?
It could work with muslims. Not saying it will work, just saying it could be worth a try.
For a small-scale experiment let's wait a few years and see if Gaza starts attacking Israel again.
#15
Neierh were indicted by any court. Both went on to stallar post-war careers. LeMay founded SAC and stood ready to turn the communists into glowing ash the moment the balloon went up. NATO's defense in Europe was built on first use of nuclear weapons. Stop pretending these ideas are new. When civilization is under threat, civilized men do what's necessary to save civilization.
Col. Jessup: YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
[pauses]
Col. Jessup: Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know; that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, *saves lives*. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a *damn* what you think you are entitled to!
-- A Few Good Men
[Federalist] The SAVE America Act includes several safeguards that would address many of the aforementioned vulnerabilities with mass mail-in voting.
Sen. John Fetterman says he no longer would support the SAVE America Act in its "current state," and that President Donald Trump is "constantly critical on mail-in voting," which, according to Fetterman, is "safe."
But mass mail-in voting is highly insecure — and the SAVE America Act would help solve several critical issues with voting by mail.
MAIL-IN VOTING ENABLES BALLOT-BOX STUFFING
In 2023 a judge overturned a mayoral race in Bridgeport, Connecticut, after incumbent Democrat Joe Ganim won a primary race by 251 votes despite having trailed his opponent, John Gomes, by hundreds of votes. The race was nullified after footage "appeared to show Ganim’s affiliates ’stuffing ballot boxes.’" The redo was also plagued by allegations of voter fraud.
In another prominent example of ballot-box stuffing, three members of the Milbourne Borough Council were sentenced to prison in 2025 for preparing fraudulent ballots and stuffing ballot drop boxes in a 2021 election.
#5
Trust in the election system is absolutely critical for peaceful transition of power. We are seeing that trust destroyed by both sides (it is only secondarily important whether the fraud claims are true or not.) Political leaders before 1963 understood that, but it is being forgotten, and at an accellerating pace.
#6
Paper ballots and a pencils worked fine for 250 years or so.
I'm so old I remember when our vote counting technology was so primitive that we had the election results on the 11pm news. Sure, there were always a couple precincts in Detroit where a box of ballots would be discovered in a church basement or trunk of a car, but generally you knew the results by the time you went to bed.
I remember a lot of come from behind winners after the midnight vote counting was over.
I also remember the US Corp of Engineers doing some Savannah River work in the early 90's, and find 11 Voter Ballot boxes. Funny the Board Of Elections for Augusta Ga never reported any missing... I guess they had extras.;-)
[FoxNews] Gov Greg Abbott expands prohibited technology list to include 26 more China-linked companies
Millions of Americans depend on medical devices — pacemakers, infusion pumps and patient monitors — to stay alive. But some of that equipment is made in China, and it may be spying on us – or worse.
In January 2025, the Food and Drug Administration and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a stark joint warning: patient monitors made by Contec Medical Systems, a Chinese company based in Qinhuangdao, contain a hidden backdoor. These devices, used in hospitals across the United States, can transmit sensitive patient data to a hard-coded IP address in China. Even more troubling, the backdoor allows remote code execution, potentially letting an adversary manipulate displayed vital signs and trigger dangerous clinical decisions.
There is no patch to fix it. For China, it’s a feature, not a bug.
China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law requires every Chinese company to assist state intelligence operations on demand. When Beijing says open the door, the company complies. The implications for any Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked device in America’s healthcare system are clear and unacceptable.
President Donald Trump recognized the danger early. In September 2025, his administration launched a Section 232 national security investigation into medical equipment imports, citing the risk that foreign powers could weaponize supply chains. Investigators discovered CCP-linked devices even in U.S. government-funded research labs.
Dependence on an adversarial foreign supplier using state subsidies to dominate American competitors is bad enough. But add to that, the threat of sudden export cutoffs in a crisis as we saw during COVID-19 and the peril is heightened. If hospitals rely on compromised supply chains, patients could be left without lifesaving technology when it matters most.
Thankfully, Texas is not waiting on Washington for further needed action. While congressional gridlock has stalled federal progress, the Lone Star State acted.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott banned CCP-affiliated technologies from state government systems and, in June 2025, signed legislation creating the Texas Cyber Command to hunt down and eliminate threats from hostile foreign nations. Late last year, the governor expanded the state’s prohibited technology list to include 26 more China-linked companies — hardware makers and AI platforms with direct CCP ties. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed multiple lawsuits against these firms operating inside our borders.
The public supports this stand. Texans understand that national security doesn’t stop at the border or the battlefield — it extends to the devices monitoring our loved ones in the hospital.
Statutory tools already exist. What’s needed now is to extend those protections directly into state healthcare procurement. That’s exactly where Texas Republicans are stepping up.
In recent days, the Texas Public Policy Foundation — where we work — sent a letter to state leaders urging further action. The letter, cosigned by 53 members of the legislature, calls for commonsense measures: direct state health agencies to adopt procurement standards barring medical devices from CCP-linked companies; establish a review process for existing contracts and equipment to root out vulnerabilities; and partner with lawmakers to offer grants and preferences that incentivize American-made medical devices.
In our Army careers, one of us was an intelligence officer and the other, a doctor. We spent years studying national security threats and this fight is personal. Critical infrastructure — including healthcare — must never become the soft underbelly of America’s defenses. No Texas patient should have their medical data transmitted to a server in China, or potentially their medical care disrupted or held hostage by the CCP. No Texas hospital should remain one firmware update away from undetected interference. And no state that has already confronted CCP aggression should leave its medical infrastructure as the last open door.
[FacebookReel] Iran spent forty years and billions of dollars building an air defense wall designed to deny American aircraft access to its airspace. Bavar-373, S-300, layered interceptors — the system was supposed to take weeks to dismantle. It lasted hours.
*Snicker*
Here's the engineering that explains why.
This is not a timeline — the exact minute-by-minute sequence is classified. But the physics behind each weapon's firing order is not classified. It is how machines work. Four phases, each creating the conditions for the next. Reverse any two steps, and the wall holds. Skip one, and the whole chain fails.
Timestamps:
0:00 Iran built a wall that should have lasted weeks — it didn't
1:53 The wall America spent 40 years studying
3:22 Four phases, one sequence — why order beats firepower
14:30 Stack the numbers: what it cost vs. what it destroyed
16:30 The sequence Iran never saw coming
Posted by: badanov ||
03/16/2026 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[1766 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
This victory was analogous to what Schwarzkopf did.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/16/2026 6:32 Comments ||
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#2
I had never heard of the "Bavar-373". But according to this expert writing in June 2025, it's the cat's meow. Or not.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/16/2026 10:43 Comments ||
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#3
Vince from Sham-Wow could get very excited about the Bavar 373.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/16/2026 12:36 Comments ||
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[NYP] For some 46 years, until 2025, Iran enjoyed a North Korea-like reputation in the heart of the Middle East: unpredictable, reckless, dangerous, self-destructive, nihilistic and inevitably, one day, nuclear.
But was it really ever all that formidable?
The mullahs came into power after the removal of the Shah and subsequently the interim secular socialists.
They did so by taking American hostages, murdering opponents, executing former supporters and transforming the most secular and modern of the Middle East Muslim nations into the most medieval — one that routinely hanged homosexuals, adulterers and almost anyone who questioned the authority of the ayatollahs.
In other words, these were gruesome people, but they didn’t necessarily have a competent military.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 ||
03/16/2026 04:27 ||
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Link ||
[1814 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
