Btw, if anyone is wondering, my assessment of the Israel-Iran war is that Iran didn’t lose. So it’s like the 2006 Hezbollah war, only Iran inflicted far more damage than Hezbollah did. Not losing is winning in this calculus, so Israel is deterred.

There’s this expectation now that Iran will double down on developing a nuclear weapons program. But such a program is extremely costly, both economically and politically. Yet its sophisticated missile arsenal proved extremely effective in its war with Israel. A tremendous amount of damage was inflicted — the extent of which is not fully accounted for, in part because of Israel’s military censorship. It does seem that doubling down on the missile program — with emphasis on hypersonic missiles — would be more cost effective and in turn would provide the necessary force to deter both Israel and US forces in the region. Almost think not pursuing nukes would be more effective were the missile program ramped up instead

Writer, Reader, Coder, Designer, and a wicked cricket geopolitical commentator. https://zora.co/@echoesofstreet

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The fatwa argument is super interesting in terms of why they didn’t pursue a nuke like NK did. Strategically, getting nukes would have seemed smarter. Maybe their missiles are enough to provide deference now given that their main enemy, Israel, has no strategic depth (and has shown that its infra can easily be smashed) and because they basically wanna be frenemy buddies with America now (if only America would buddy up) 🤷

“We consider the use of such weapons as haraam, and believe that it is everyone’s duty to make efforts to secure humanity against this great disaster.” — Ayatollah Khamenei

beyond missiles - tech, bio, influence related.. lots of ways to sway powers that be.. probably more effective than just nuking

I think those hypersonic missiles have proved your point

just my opinion, but i think strategically there's better weapons than nukes nowadays. nukes are for show

Ah yes I remember now that you mentioned your background as a journalist. Why the switch to crypto? More profitable? I can't imagine it being more fun than being a mideast journalist.

Me? Just a dev.

Long story oof haha. Used to be a journo based in the Mideast (israel/west bank/beirut/baghdad/cairo/dubai/damascus). Now I work with mostly crypto founders, somewhat with media stuff but also other stuff. How about yourself?