Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Undermining Deterrence

Our freedom undermines the success of our military in demonstrating reasons not to test us in battle. Nothing we can do about that--our freedom is what we defend, after all--but it is a real problem with trying to measure deterrence.

Via Instapundit we have this cold bucket of water on our demonstrated military capabilities against mullah-run Iran:

It’s almost impossible to win a war any more given the disgustingness of today’s information space between American grifters, social media incentives for disinformation-fueled clicks and nefarious foreign influences posing as America First.

Sadly, even when we win on the battlefield our enemies know that we are vulnerable at home to losing. Which is a truth known since the Athenians defeated the Persians at Marathon. Iran--and China--will exploit our weakness.

Again, I would never suggest that we suppress freedom of speech to prevent this problem. That would cause more problems. Even communist scum in America have freedom of speech. I just hope shame may eventually constrain the, ah ... enthusiastic .. expression of the right of dissent. A right that oddly is not met with mass arrests from our Orange Hitler regime.

Nor can I imagine the Iranian fanatics not drawing hope from the Saturday night assassination attempt against the president and whoever else would have gotten in the way (which included an officer who was hit but protected by his body armor) had he not been stopped outside the ballroom. 

NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here

NOTE: You may also like to read my posts on Substack, at The Dignified Rant: Evolved. Go ahead and subscribe to it. It's the right thing to do!

NOTE: Photo from AFP.