u/sludge_dragon

Archive link: https://archive.ph/Xy3gc

This article is from 2017, but I thought the sub might be interested. I didn’t see it previously posted here. It’s a great read.

This is a Saudi site and Saudi perspective, and the writing is cringily AI-tinged, but I think it’s useful information.

> DHAHRAN — Saudi Arabia cannot ship crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz for at least forty days after the Islamabad Declaration is signed on June 19, and possibly not for six months. At least twenty mines remain in the strait’s main traffic zone, including the Maham-7, a seabed weapon Iran designed to evade the sonar systems of the very navies now tasked with finding it.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/7WOL0

> President Donald Trump on Tuesday night appeared to defend his latest military strikes on Iran by posting a short clip from “The West Wing,” the popular NBC television drama about a fictional U.S. president, in which the show’s characters debate their own military action.

> In real life, the U.S. military earlier Tuesday launched a new round of strikes after Iranian forces downed a U.S. Army helicopter. Trump said retaliation was “necessary,” and military officials characterized the strikes as “a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.”

> The clip that Trump shared comes from a Season 1 episode of “The West Wing” titled “A Proportional Response.” The episode, which originally aired in October 1999, centers on what action the U.S. president should take after the Syrian government downs a U.S. military plane, with his aides recommending the U.S. strike military targets of equivalent value in Syria.

Etc.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/v2Rd3

Thoughtful article by Bret Devereaux, historian, classicist, and author of the wonderful blog A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, https://acoup.blog/.

Argues that the Greco-Roman “statue accounts” prominent on Twitter deeply misunderstand historical texts and are unusually hostile to expertise, scholarship, and nuance. He contrasts this with areas such as historical European martial arts, which benefit from a rich interchange between scholars and practitioners.

> The counter-proposal transmitted May 10 reiterates terms Iran first submitted on May 2 as a 14-point framework. The demands, as reported through Tasnim, IRNA, and Al Jazeera, include: a permanent end to hostilities on all fronts including Lebanon; full Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz under what Tehran calls “a new mechanism”; war reparations from the United States; lifting of all OFAC sanctions on Iranian oil sales; removal of the US naval blockade on Iranian ports; unfreezing of frozen Iranian assets; and US troop withdrawal from Iran’s periphery.

> Iran’s framework demands all issues resolved within 30 days. The US proposal envisions a two-month ceasefire as a first phase before permanent deal negotiations begin. The enrichment moratorium — 12 to 15 years in the US version, with one source reporting a 20-year ask — is countered by Iran’s offer of five years. On HEU, the positions are irreconcilable: Washington demands Iran’s stockpile of 440.9 kilograms at 60% enrichment be removed from the country. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei stated on state TV on April 17 that “Iran’s enriched uranium is not going to be transferred anywhere under any circumstances.”

I came across https://www.reddit.com/r/bloomington/s/jCZxZEkHnN, a voter guide from an Indiana Congressional campaign. If any of you are or work/volunteer for one of the campaigns, I would be very interested in a similar introduction to your priorities, and an opportunity to discuss them with you.

I always vote, and I always research for myself, but I haven’t started yet. I’m sure there are a lot of others like me. You have a chance to get your message to us for free.

Thank you for considering this.