FaceDeer

You are trying really really really hard to find every possible little way to interpret this situation as "Fuck Carney" fodder. Accusing me of "deliberately trying to misinterpret the situation" is rich.

I didn't pull that quote because it's unclear how it makes any difference. As long as the troops aren't deployed in the Middle East how are they going to help the war against Iran?

I'm not talking about America's goals, I'm talking about Iran's goals. The issue is what a "win" is for Iran.

It's unclear what a "win" is for America since they don't see to have much of a long-term plan or goal here. If it's simply "bomb the shit out of everything" I guess they could claim a win. But that's just the proverbial pigeon knocking over all the chess pieces and shitting on the board.

Canada’s defence chief Gen. Jennie Carignan said allies are in talks

Emphasis added.

I just said to pay less attention to what's being said and more to what's being done. Talk is cheap, and it's going to result in a recommendation. ie, talk that results in something being said.

Pay less attention to what politicians say and more to what they do.

Canadian troops to be relocated from Middle East operations. Canada is withdrawing troops that were already stationed in the region when the Americans attacked. A few are remaining in place specifically to provide assistance with further evacuations if needed.

Not only do some conspiracy theorists not believe in the Moon, there are so many of them that there's a variety of these beliefs.

• Lunar Hologram Theory: The most popular term. It suggests the Moon is a projection onto the "firmament" or a cloaking device used by advanced civilizations or governments.
• The Hollow Moon / Spaceship Moon: While these versions allow for a physical object, they argue the Moon is an artificial structure (essentially a giant satellite or base) rather than a natural celestial body.
• Plasma Moon: A subset of the Flat Earth community often argues the Moon is a localized "cold light" or a plasma phenomenon, rather than a solid mass reflecting the Sun.

So yeah. Poe's Law, there's nothing so dumb that you won't find someone actually believing it.

To be fair (basically the only time I'll say that in reference to Moon landing deniers) there are also retroreflectors like those mounted on some of the unmanned landers and rovers that have been sent to the Moon as well. So this alone isn't going to "convince" him. It does indicate that the Americans were able to launch something to the Moon and land it at the same time that the Apollo missions were underway, so if you were dealing with a rational person who could be convinced by reason this would still count for something.

Unfortunately, I doubt that's what's going on here.

The Americans had better say "thank you."

For the current regime in Iran, a "win" will be simply surviving. It's quite possible for them to do that, IMO. They've already taken the harshest hit that an autocracy can take, the leaders were killed. If they put new leaders in place then that will prove that this isn't just a strong-man organization held together by personality and personal power - it consists of a whole sub-population who want it to continue existing.

At that point the only way you're going to get rid of it is a very thorough boots-on-the-ground conquest. You can possibly do that through civil war instead of your own soldiers, but that depends on there being an opposition that's at least somewhat organized and motivated by long-term intent. The US evidently hasn't set one of those up, and I think Israel would have a hard time too. So yeah, this doesn't look so great for the US.

You'll note that I was asked.

This is going to be one of those "Torment Nexus" things, I take it?

Quite true.

Well, I guess the most games-oriented thing is that at the moment I'm generating some cover art for some music I generated earlier to use as part of a tabletop roleplaying campaign I'm in. Custom art, custom music, stuff that a few years ago would have cost me thousands of dollars to commission (and therefore that I would never have dreamed of commissioning - it's just for me and a couple of friends). That's pretty awesome, IMO.