Better start saving for next winters fuel bills

The Kurds, as a repressed people in Iran are an obvious choice for Trump, but he is going to have difficulty getting all the factions on his side. Some commentators think there will be a long war with little prospect of peace, while others think the war will be short but peace in the region will not be attainable for decades. Neither sound like a realistic plan for those with a care for limiting the number of people being killed. Meanwhile, Gaza has almost been forgotten. Food aid is not getting through smoothly, partly because aid workers and their resources are depleted but the border crossing was closed again a few weeks ago. Israel is continuing to demolish Palestinian homes in the West Bank and take over Palestinian land. 

I would think that Trump’s advisers are aware of where many of Iran’s bases are, if not all. Trump may not care and is probably happy to target as many as he can, withdraw, sit back in comfort and observe the chaos he has helped create. It seems that lives don’t matter.

I agree with you ArchaeC, it's all about self glorification and for Netanyahu about staying in power and out of jail.

Now they seem to be encouraging the Kurdish people to fight the regime, which is all well and good, except I don't know why the Kurds would trust the Americans afte being left high and dry so many times before? The Kurds can't take over the whole of Iran without starting a massive civil war, they may not be able to take over a bit of it without starting a civil war, there are various different players, some want a return of the Shah, others want the current regime to stay, there are quite deep divisions that seem likely to erupt now with more death and destruction.

I wonder if the Americans and Israelis have been surprised by the resiliance of the Iranian regime? They dont' seem to have thought that the regime has bases everywhere as it acts in a similar way to law enforcement and that knocking out the main bases isn't going to stop everyone.

I titally agree with LucyLandRover as to any sort of thought out plan. But I am mindful of what ArchaeC says about the theocratic government in Iran that seems absolutely intolerant of anything other than fundamentalist shia islam. In particular I am mindful that the Iranian government has incited the murder of a named British citizen. That is absolutely against all forms if international law. 

TheCatWoman said:

Why on earth start a war if you don;t know what you want out of it?

I think it is possible that Trump has a plan with no purpose other than to glorify himself and Netanyahu. He has no regard for the loss of life in Iran and the rest of the world. It is disgusting that some US politicians are so cavalier about the loss of life and are making sneering statements that are intended to humiliate. 

I was using the Catholic Church as a comparisson for modelling how a religious regime embeds itself into a countries structures rather than making any moral comparisson, I'm sorry if this comparisson offended anyone.

Why on earth start a war if you don;t know what you want out of it? It's not like there aren't enough examples of what happens when countries are bombed by outside forces and then left to rot, become failed states and rrouble the world for decades after.

If there's no reason that the rest of the world would accept, then it's corruption at the highest and worst level, as far as I can see. Do they think we'll accept it after the fact and things will go back to normal? I don't think so.

I agree with you how frightening the situation is and also the lack of a credible plan. Todays press conference was scary in its arrogance.  Seems like the lessons of Vietnam, The Gulf Wars have not been learned? It was an illegal attack and I do worry what Starmer is saying in private to Trump, please can we not follow the US in to this mess? I am glad we have warmer weather so I can lower the heating. Due to health issues, I have to run the heat pump all day and my bills are high but I have no choice. I also filled my fuel tank so have time to save up as it is affecting the pump price already.     

The Islamic theocracy of Iran which is characterised by the fusion of state and religion, restriction of political dissent and enforcement of religious conformity cannot be compared to the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church which emphasises moral and spiritual guidance without political control. There is a defined separation of church and state in most places (Vatican City excluded) and the church engages in reform and dialogue, advocating for human rights and religious freedom. If harm were to come to St Peter’s and the Pope, they would be replaced. The system of structure of the Catholic Church may influence politics through offering moral guidance, but it does not allow despotism.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, expressed concern that “a multipolarism marked by the primacy of power and self-referentiality is dangerously taking hold.”

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2026-03/cardinal-parolin-interview-middle-east-iran-us-israel-war.html

The chaos of missiles hitting numerous countries was created by the US and Israel choosing to attack. 

TheCatWoman said:

they don't even know why they went to war in the first place and as ever theres no plan for what ahppens when the war ends

They haven’t said. Trump et.al. are offering varying reasons. This may because they don’t have a valid reason that would be acceptable to the world or they haven’t thought about what they want to achieve. 

TheCatWoman said:

Of course a war is a nice distraction from all those distressing Epstein files and what Trump really knew and/or did

This ^

Is this really just a health forum?

Isn't it a fora where autistic people can talk without all the nonsense that comes from being in an NT world?

Just because were ND dosen't mean we live in a bubble with world affairs not effecting us. It would be good if this thread didn't get polarised, but that is largely up to us who post on this thread.

I don't believe I'm the only person who feels the need to talk about things like this, it scare's me and I'm interested in politics, with the autistic tendency to rumminate about things, we need to be open and talk about what we feel and this should mean everything not just things that can be put in a box lable AUTISM. We're intelligent adults, (well most of us) and should be allowed to speak about things that concern us all.

There seems to be a worrying amount of End Times rhetoric being encouraged in the US military, many in the military are uncomfortable with this.

The energy price cap only lasts until July after that prices could jump just like they did after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It seem every time we here anything from Trump or any of his team the reasons for going to war change, I think the real reason is because he wanted to and anyting else is just an excuse. To turn around that massive floatilla he'd sent there without a shot being fired, could have been seen as some sort of defeat or weakness.

Now they're talking of boots on the ground, so much for no more forever wars, I'm not surprised many of Trumps MAGA base are unhappy. Of course a war is a nice distraction from all those distressing Epstein files and what Trump really knew and/or did

My first observation is we need to be very careful. What is happening is the most important event affecting all of us. But it is politically charged. And we need to be thoughtful when discussing political matters on a health forum. Certainly, there is already a huge and very worrying polarisation developing. We must not follow the mob and start baying for blood or blindly defending any side. If we do the Mods will have to pull the thread.

Our Country is the Pits.

An entire generation of Young Men tied to the Mammy's Apron-Strings; for the sake of Benefits.

We could no longer fight our way out of a Paper Bag. And America smells blood. They can tap into the disaffected Young Men, who draw influence from Ancient History and Medieval Culture, in order to shape their destiny here. While the likes of myself had to go to Uni.

As Steven Wright said, "The early bird may get the worm, but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese!"

Thanks for the reminder. I need to negotiate an improved deal for the, forthcoming, contract renewal.

I‘ve heard that there are people over here that are upset, even in the MAGA camp, because this deviates from Trump’s promises to keep America out of the Mideast. BUT there are of course plenty of people still saying that we should trust Trump’s judgement on this.

There is a lot of people who shouldn't be running countries who are. 

But electric is falling in price from April