@Red Logan Yes. I just wanted to offer some clarity for when the term “chemical weapons” is used. Most people immediately think a sarin gas attack or permanently disabling chemicals. The nuances regarding domestic vs. foreign adversary use and other substances is so complex that I avoided it. You also have inadvertent deaths caused when using them, like when Russia killed over 100 innocent people by pumping in a fentanyl based gas during a terrorist attack on the Dubrovka Theater. That was ruled a permissible use of a chemical weapon.

Horrible!

I think the vast majority of any faith are peaceful people who just want to be left alone to live their lives, basically cultural Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc. Usually there are about 10-15% who are extremely devout. The specific problem with Islam is that it is that it is the only major religion that requires it’s followers to subjugate and/or exterminate those of other faiths or no faith. It makes 10-15% of them extremely hostile and violent. Secondly, it is also the only major religion that is also a political system to be imposed on everyone. These two things will always make it incompatible with an open and free society. It isn’t a matter of hating Islam as a religion or Muslims, it is a matter of self preservation for non-Muslims.

@Crimson Wolf IMO, the problem is MOST people identifying as part of a faith know nothing about their faiths. They just celebrate the holidays that are part of that society and/or social group. Each of those faiths have the rules of morality that form the basis of that society. For most of the major religions, the more devout a person is, the better person he becomes: more peaceful, more kind, more charitable, etc. That is NOT true of Islam. A Muslim who does NOT follow the rules of the faith can be get along with others easily; but if he starts taking his faith more seriously, he can be a ticking time bomb of societal violence because of what Islam REQUIRES. This is very sad because it is the most devout person who is truly seeking God and spiritual support. The West is based on primarily Christian values which are focused on giving people the most freedom to choose for themselves. We believe a person must make a free-will choice to become Christian, that it can’t be forced onto someone. It also isn’t dependent on a book or behavior but rather a spiritual commitment. So, the relative freedoms of the West have sprung from that root. That doesn’t mean that the West hasn’t done bad things in the name of Christianity, it has; but those things were unchristian. Lol. We had reformations and counter-reformations to fix those things because Christians themselves demanded it. They demanded it not because they wanted to be nicer people but because they knew what the governments were doing was not Christian. The point of a Christian society is not to make nicer people but to maintain peace and freedom in the hopes people will freely choose Christ. Islam does not offer that free-will choice, they offer conversion or death.

@Joseph Dabby True.

@Joseph Dabby Venezuela demonstrated that the Russian and Chinese air defense wasn’t very good. Lol. To be fair, it probably wasn’t properly maintained.

I think Trump fears a scenario like Iraq, Libya, Yugoslavia, USSR, etc. My personal opinion is that Trump is still horse-trading with the main opposition groups (mainly Pahlavi and NCRI/MEK) on the formation of a governing coalition for a transition. I just don’t think Trump will do anything until he knows who will be in those leadership positions. Just my opinion, but I don’t think he will hand the keys to Iran to Pahlavi. It might be a coalition made up of both national and international advisors.