It would depend on the rock type, but I have the same opinion basically (I’m not a geologist or explosives expert, of course) - there is not enough data to claim destruction.
Places about 100 m deep (e.g. metro station Arsenalnaya in Kyiv) have been so far considered totally secure from conventional weapons. Of course, MOP is a big special purpose weapon, so the old truth might no longer apply… but I’m not convinced that Fordo is ruined.
Commentary:
You’re linking to the Times of Israel. Since the news outlet operates in Israel, it is subject to censorship by the IDF, and they have chosen to use their power to censor the article and omit weapon types.
If you want information about assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, get their list from Wikipedia and google each of their names, looking for descriptions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassinations_of_Iranian_nuclear_scientists
My guess: guided missile or drone strikes. All the assassinations happened at a time of Israeli air strikes over Iran. Whatever weapon was used, was deployed from airplanes. Given the high profile of the targets, Israeli intelligence agencies did their job this time (in Gaza, they seem to be feeding their troops low quality AI slop).
I will use the opportunity to remind that Signal is operated by a non-profit in the jurisdiction called “the US”. This could have implications.
A somewhat more anarchist option might be TOX. There is no single client, TOX is a protocol, you can choose from half a dozen clients. I personally use qTox.
Upside: no phone number required. No questions asked.
Downside: no servers to store and forward messages. You can talk if both parties are online.
After existing since 1979, Iran’s government is pretty far from “revolutionary”. In fact, looking at their domestic policy, I’ll call them reactionary without a second thought.
Their most “revolutionary” thought probably was: “let’s export our theocracy to other lands”.
They are a symptom however. The shah was so unpopular (read: repressive) that islamists were able to take over. The shah was propped up by the UK and US in the 1950-ties, in a coup, because Iran nationalized oil industries.
Not sure about “obliterated”. There’s two bomb entry points at the top of the ridge. Road entry points haven’t been bombed. Support building is standing.
Iran had warning, since they managed to bury the road access points. I would not be surprised if they evacuated all people and valuable stuff from the site.
Opinion:
Iranian air defense continues to be a joke, they knew it was coming, but accomplished nothing
seems like a poor bombing job from the USAF, unless they knew exactly where to hit and didn’t care about destroying the whole structure
seems like Iran had over 24 hours of advance warning and buried the road entry points (typically such a move would also speak in favour of evacuating all people and valuables)
Since they buried the entry ways, there’s good reason to think they didn’t leave any transportable (metallic) uranium there. It’s probably in 30 different basements and the owners think it’s a load of potatoes.
Political implications: oil price is going up, naval action in the strait of Hormuz is likely. :( Putin will be able to replenish his cash reserves. :(
Side note: in the recent days, Iran has acquired pretty good GPS jamming. Someone’s webshop will have a review soon: “4/5 quick delivery, easy to set up, good coverage, sadly doesn’t stop all bombs”.
Thanks for correcting. You’re right, I should have written something else than “probably yes” about Israel under Netanyahu. :(
Tankies are going to hate this comment.
They already are. :) I didn’t quite expect this effect, but I welcome it. :)
How many times can you list russia/ussr? Give me a break with this lib imperialism.
I may list it as many times as I need. I was born there and grew up there, and have a whole lot of information about how life was.
There’s a book on the subject written by Srdja Popovic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueprint_for_Revolution
Summary: protests that start (and try to remain) non-violent have a greater chance to succeed, because they can attract more people to their cause.
Critique: with some regimes, it’s not possible to non-violently protest. For non-violent protest to work, the environment must respect a minimum amount of human rights.
Case samples:
…etc. In some places, you can’t organize. Then your only option is to fight. As long as you can publicly organize, definitely do so - it’s vastly preferable. :)
Sadly, Iran has not been “tolerable to the media” in recent times.
(Example: a few months ago, their courts were discussing whether to sentence a rapper named Tataloo to death for “corruption on earth” - singing about the wrong things.)
Since they are now in war, media freedom in Iran is probably under the table.
Opinion:
Politically, the ayatollah can’t be toppled by foreseeable events, except if an Israeli strike should kill him. His successor in that case is unlikely to be milder. Netanyahu is also firmly in power due to special circumstances, and probably pretty safe from any Iranian attempts.
Militarily, Iran has taken bigger losses, and has probably lost expensive and important parts of its nuclear programme - but not its stocks of highly enriched uranium, or its ability to launch ballistic missiles. From that perspective, if the Israeli strikes were meant to disarm Iran - they didn’t.
Prognosis: they will trade more strikes and neither will achieve breakthrough success. Iran will lose more in the process.
On social media, putting the burden of blocking on a million users is naive because:
I have once helped others build an anonymous mix network (I2P). I’m also an anarchist. On Lemmy however, support decentralization, defederating from instances that have bad policies or corrupt management, and harsh moderation. Because the operator of a Lemmy instance is fully exposed.
Experience has shown that total freedom is a suitable policy for apps that support 1-to-1 conversations via short text messages. Everything else invites too much abuse. If it’s public, it will have rules. If it’s totally private, it can have total freedom.
it was also unclear he has in fact paid any taxes to the Russian government
Seems like a Captain Obvious moment. You work somewhere, your employer pays taxes to the government without even asking if you like it. I’m fully certain that even hardcore anarchist partisans who burn shit at night, pay taxes to the RF government on their day job - to look more like a normal citizen.
Perhaps more importantly, Netanyahu also exchanged the director of Shin Bet, as if anticipating that some day, that guy might get a warrant to arrest a certain person accused of war crimes.
To make it short and get to the point, Israel is also risking their constitutional order by letting Netanyahu run wild. He might decide not to leave at some point.
1.8.1 is sufficiently infectious and will attempt to self-install on you, functionality however is the same, it does the same stuff as Omicron did
In our modern times, Ea-Nasir still has some bars of aluminum to sell you. Quite several, in fact. :)
Saudi Arabia needs to run out of money and get into an “all hands needed” situation to change (at which point they will surely discover that half of hands belong to women).
The king needs to lose his ability to bribe people to shut up.
Everyone can help this a little by transitioning off oil, gas and other petrochemical products, not letting this country acquire advanced technology, and generally not cooperating with them.
How to make Saudia Arabia a normal society?
Most importantly: stop using oil and natural gas sooner rather than later.
Reasoning: the king stays in power by paying cops, security officials and prison guards - and paying people to shut up and tolerate the regime. Once the system runs low on money, things may change.
Note: women in Europe made rapid progress at getting civil rights at a time when they were needed to run ammunition factories.
It doesn’t have to be a world war - any development that makes it economically unavoidable that women start going to work outside their home, will change the role of women in society.
It’s not politically and psychologiclaly realistic for Iran to return to negotiations.
At this time, they perceive themselves to have been attacked without provocation - basically because Netanyahu needed a small victorious war - and resistance is not something one negotiates about.
Also, the ayatollah is an authoritarian ruler. Negotiation would be perceived as a sign of weakness by the opposition and population - and he might be ousted. He knows this, so he will continue the war.