President Trump continues to say that Iran wants to make a deal to end the war and that the U.S. has control over the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the president downplayed concerns about the conditions aboard the USS Lincoln. MS NOW Senior National Security Reporter David Rohde and New York Times Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker join Stephanie Ruhle with more details and analysis.
The fact that the main US base in the Persian Gulf was destroyed has been known for months.
Here’s a story about it from June:
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-us-naval-base-bahrain-e87bbca3
I remember reading back then about how the navy was scrambling to evacuate the base because they couldn’t stop the incoming missiles.
You had to either really read in between the lines or be following alternative news sources to understand that the Bahrain base was destroyed in March. Most people following mainstream news did not know how bad it was. Heck - most casual people are still like ‘what war?’
Not really, it was a major article in the WSJ, it was in the NY Times. the BBC. It was in the military’s own news site Stars and Stripes.
I wouldn’t be surprised if most people were unaware, but most people seem unaware of just about everything.
they dont want destroyed bases in the ME to reach faux news or any other right wing outlets.
Fox News and others are covering it already:
An official with the self-described Chagossian government-in-exile said Sunday that the war with Iran has underscored Diego Garcia’s strategic importance to U.S. forces and Middle East regional stability, with the Pentagon shifting logistics to the remote U.K.-U.S. base in the Indian Ocean after an Iranian strike on a major American installation in Bahrain.
Naval Support Activity Bahrain alone sustained extensive damage to command facilities and communications infrastructure, The Wall Street Journal reported. Since the conflict began Feb. 28, 13 U.S. service members have been killed and 400 wounded, with most wounded returning to duty.
A fact that was and is still wildly under appreciated.
The loss of those bases is massive and likely a turning point in this mess.
I don’t think it’s that massive. It’s embarrassing and shameful, but the US navy has plenty of other bases that can take up the slack.
It was really stupid to start a war with Iran without first moving all the key personnel out of that base and redeploying them outside Iran’s reach. The navy had to know that once a shooting war started, a base that was just across the narrow part of the Gulf from Iran, only 200 km away, was going to be extremely vulnerable. It is a sign of the kind of military that Hegseth runs that they had to abandon and evacuate that base once missiles started hitting it.
But, there’s no need for the USN to be commanded from a building that’s only 200 km from Iran. They can manage that fleet from the nearby base in Naples, or from a US base.
And, of course, if Trump hadn’t alienated all the US’s former friends and allies, there might be plenty of places between the Persian Gulf and Naples that would be willing to help with resupplies. But, as it stands, the US doesn’t really have any friends anymore.
The navy had to know that once a shooting war started, a base that was just across the narrow part of the Gulf from Iran, only 200 km away, was going to be extremely vulnerable.
The “Navy” may have known, but the two military geniuses Trump and Hegseth didn’t know, because they literally know NOTHING. A couple of weeks after it started, and it was clear we were already in a quagmire, Trump went on air to say “Who would have expected that they’d shoot back? Nobody expected that!”
Everybody expected that, literally EVERYBODY. That’s why nobody did it in the past. Not because they were weak, or stupid, or secretly working for the Muslims, etc. It was because everybody knew they’d shoot back AND close the Strait.
Everybody except these two fucking morons, whose Dunning-Krueger has greatly overwhelmed their Imposter Syndrome, rendering them too stupid to know how stupid they really are.
Virtuosic Incompetence rules our military, this war, and this government.
Clearly not in the area. This is the thing, it is very much a massive issue and loss.
The usn is not currently functioning the way it is expected to, and the loss of bases (something total unthinkable just last year) is a leading factor.
How close does the base have to be? The USN has resupply ships, allowing the fleets to stay somewhere and never go back to the port. For anything other than resupply, the base could really be anywhere in the world.
The USN is functioning in the way it is expected to. In a “real” war, you would expect there to be losses, including bases near the front line. In a real war it wouldn’t be unusual for sailors to have to skip leave. The thing is, the US hasn’t fought a “real” war in a very long time – the kind of war that puts hardship on sailors. So, even though the US is sorta-kinda at war, it’s not the kind of war where sailors feel like they have to make sacrifices. So, they’re complaining a lot about having to stay out at sea for a long time.
Combine that with the military leadership being too proud to admit to making mistakes, the president being unwilling to ever back down, and nobody being willing to say that Iran managed to land a few blows, and you get sailors who don’t believe they’re in a real war, so they’re pissed off about not getting shore leave. You also get a Navy that isn’t willing to move other carrier strike groups into the region so that the sailors currently there can get cycled out for a break.
But, this is hardly devastating to the military. Morale on that carrier isn’t great, but it’s not like anybody’s injured or dying. They’re still getting regular supplies.
There’s nothing about what’s happening that’s unthinkable. In a real war you’d expect things to be much worse.
The bases in the Gulf states weren’t just sitting there for command. They were supposed to provide near-real-time intelligence and rapid response, in particular for the countries where those bases were stationed but also in general for the area. The bases synergized to protect each other, and in particular to protect Israel.
The point of that was to assert US control of the Persian Gulf and keep the Gulf states compliant. The importance of that can’t be understated for the US’s economy. These bases weren’t built as a joke.
The US believed that Iran’s government would fall and that Iran’s military would be unable to mount a resistance. That’s why the bases weren’t evacuated before the war.
So losing them is a huge deal. It’s at least 10 radar systems targeted, including the likely loss of 4 AN/TPY-2 radars for THAAD, of which only 14 has ever been produced. This means that the US is now in a much worse position to project power in the Persian Gulf.
The US will also never enter the Persian Gulf by sea again. I don’t think these losses can be beushed off as inconsequential. These assets can not be replaced or made up for with bases elsewhere. And when the US military presence is removed from the Gulf States, it is reasonable to assume that the petrodollar will be significantly weakened.
The USN is functioning in the way it is expected to.
Its not resupplying ships, this is not in debate. This “not war” has shown the usn is not functioning in the way their nation was expecting. They have a lack of ships (escort and supply) and this is showing.
Its not resupplying ships
It’s not getting as frequent supplies as would be nice… but the US is at war, and that ship is on the frontlines of the war. That’s perfectly normal in a war.
Yes it is, and the term for that is “losing”
This reminds of Dune where Raban is forced to hide that the Fremen and Paul halted spice production to save his own ass at the cost of countless others.
And apparently this snake wants to run for president
I hope he does, that should be entertaining.
I’m afraid that very notion is part of how we got here. I wouldn’t tempt the fates like that again.
Both of Trump’s election wins were the Democrat’s elections to lose. If Hegseth ran for office, it’s very possible he could win just as a result of the Democrats fumbling again. -The bar is so low.
So, Hegseth will throw his own country to the wolves just to deflect from his inexperience and ignorance. trump must be so proud of his acolyte.
I keep saying it but this is literal treason. In 19xx, any general or SECRATARY OF DEFENSE would absolutely be convicted immediately for putting american lives in danger to benefit your own ego. It’d be national news for weeks. Its fucking embarassing and dishonorable.
Id throw their tagline back at them, but theyve never believed in being “great” in the first place.
Conservatives are hypocrites held together by agreed upon bigotry.
That’s it, it’s not that complicated.
They never believed anything they said.
You shouldn’t keep saying that until you learn what literal treason is.
Figurative treason, maybe. But, not literal treason.
Dictators want unqualified people in high positions, to ensure loyalty and control, as these individuals are less likely to challenge dictator’s authority or policies.
And Congress won’t do jack shit about it in order to protect their own reputations.
I think this proves an assertion that I have made in the past: America excels at battles, but is unfit for war.
America used to have stamina, but the focus on ultra-tech and now “manhood” has robbed it of that important thing.
I’m not sure America excels at battles. Seems like sucker punches is what they’re best at.
To be fair, the best way to win a battle is to sucker punch.
Yeah but the US also wants everyone to like and respect and trust them.
You can’t do both.
Also kinda hard to win when you have no plan after said sucker punch.
Vs small nations/groups that have no real ability to fight back… eh kinda works (not in Afghanistan or Iraq though). For some reason I keep thinking about Black Adder goes forth and him talking about how his war experience vs the “Watutsi” was not applicable as they where armed only with fruit. This conflict is the states in the trenches trying to fight like their enemies have no strike abilities, and now all the us bases are gone they don’t have the local logistics.
So… “a few shepherds with basically sticks and stones” managed to fuck royally the whole US navy? The navy of the strongest military of the world? The navy that, apparently was able to destroy anything in its path?
I mean, they were saying months ago that Iran’s military was utterly destroyed and they won the war… How did they go from “we’re winning the war and Iran’s military is gone” to “our sailors are eating boot soles”?
Clearly Trump and Pete missed out on some of the core concepts of Dune if they watched it.
To be fair, if they were willing to have the Lincoln leave the region, they could resupply at a number of other US bases around the world. They just want to keep it nearby so that it can continue to be a threat to Iran and offer some protection to the ships and bases nearby.
They could send another carrier strike group to cover for it, but they want to continue to shoot fishermen in the Caribbean, threaten China, and patrol the east and west coasts of the USA. And, it would be embarrassing to have to pull out of RIMPAC.
What’s shameful is that the US bases in the region were so poorly thought out / poorly protected. The main US navy base in the middle east was past the Strait of Hormuz in Bahrain, and had to be abandoned after the Iranians kept hitting it with missiles. Even if it had been adequately defended, they might not be able to resupply it right now because to get supplies in means getting them past the Strait.
If the possibility of a shooting war with Iran was even vaguely considered, having the main base in the region be one you needed to pass the Strait of Hormuz to access seems like a bad plan, as was having one that’s only 200 km from Iran’s coastline.
Your comment almost got me to rewatch Ossoff (sp?) asking Kegsbreath the same question over and over.
NOT supplying our Troops is how you SUPPORT the Troops!
-Republicans!
They are just saving taxpayer money. Such a genius move
Would be nice if they were actually saving money instead of being the most wasteful admin ever. Instead we get shit and massive debt
That just makes them smart!
Is 2026 any different to the past? When Rumsfeld was in charge of the Iraq invasion soldiers jeered him because they were having to hack their vehicles with scrap metal to make them safe. His response was just belligerent.
It doesn’t matter how many times Republicans fuck the troops, the troops still vote for them.
Because basic training involves breaking the soldier psychologically into actually believing in God and country.
You’d be surprised. I know a lot of vets that are progressive. They just generally keep their politics to themselves
The majority consistently vote Republican.
Wonder how children would vote given the option.
I get your point, but, unfortunately, I think the vast majority of children would only vote the way their parent’s are voting. When you’re literally dependent on someone else to feed you, cloth you, and provide a shelter over your head - you don’t have a whole lot of options to go against your parent’s wishes. Add in that most kids are equally as uninformed, or drink knowledge from some of the most brainrot cesspools of the internet, and you’re not really getting the most informed voter on the other side.
I want to believe that a child voter would dramatically change the political landscape for better, but I’m far too jaded and cynical after seeing this current circus to believe it.
Even before the bronze age, armies often used lightly armoured scouts who could move quickly and quietly.
I don’t think the lightly armoured HMMWVs that were supplied were accidentally lacking armour, and that the soldiers were fixing a problem with them that the military should have noticed but didn’t. I think it was an intentional choice to have a lightly armoured recon and transport vehicle and that the soldiers didn’t agree with that choice and wanted a heavily armoured vehicle instead.
Sometimes soldiers know what they need better than the upper brass. On the other hand, sometimes the upper brass wants to save money. Sometimes they want a vehicle that’s quick and hard to spot, rather than one that’s really safe for its occupants.
It’s probably a bad sign, especially in an all-volunteer military, when the soldiers refuse to accept the equipment they’re given and insist on modifying it because they assume the brass are idiots and gave them something defective.
I think the scrap armor they’re talking about adding was to deal with the huge amount of mines they were dealing with in Iraq.
Speed doesn’t save you from an explosion.
The US went in with a mentality and approach, and the resistance forces found a weak spot and leaned on it.
Honest appraisal and adaptation is necessary in any competitive activity, not just war.
I think it’s the “honest appraisal” part that the US can’t do.
Yeah, I think IEDs were the big issue that was scaring the American soldiers. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the US planners were caught off guard. It might just mean that they thought that an occasional light vehicle taken out by an IED was an acceptable loss.
The number of acceptable losses according to military planners is always going to be much higher than the number of acceptable losses according to the people getting killed. Often the power rests with the planners and the soldiers just have to grumble and accept it. It’s interesting that in this case the soldiers were able to make their case so effectively that the military started putting armour on light vehicles, something that’s very rarely done.
Lots of people driving “behind the lines” supply routes with vehicles that were never meant to operate under fire or be nimble also got hit.
The US went in thinking that it would be like the Normandy campaign with overall friendly locals.
Nah I remember it pretty well they shipped the soldiers without adequate body armor as well.
It was less a calculated, strategic move and more of a “dumbass doesn’t know how it works” thing.
Again, who decides what’s “adequate” when it comes to body armour?
Everyone wants “adequate” body armor but no one wants to wear the IBA’s nut flap and thigh guards…
This is embarrassing for the Navy because the combat units weren’t able to protect the base, because the Seabees weren’t able to repair the base in a timely manner, and/or because the logistics units weren’t able to re-route the supply lines effectively. Take your pick!
They picked a fight with a country that’s been planning for this for decades and has the weapons to continually threaten our bases and supply lines, not to mention keeping the straight too dangerous to rely on.
Worse than embarrassing. Trump and his ilk have made it clear that they don’t really care about the conditions on the Lincoln as long as those conditions don’t become publicly known. With competent leadership there would be a contingency plan in place for this exact scenario, but instead we’re stuck with a MAGA TV personality that should be working on a used car lot next to a junkyard.
Well yes, but the point I was trying to make is that the issue (and the embarrassment) extends well beyond the Lincoln. This debacle puts the effectiveness of the entire Navy itself into question.
I mean, for the past 75 years, THE thing that the US Navy was best at, that set it apart from and above any other organization in the world, was its amazing logistics. We had dedicated ice cream barges in WWII, for crying out loud! The fact that we’re apparently unable to resupply ships for months because of some relatively minor regional war is a decline of the same magnitude as the one the Ukraine war revealed about Russia.
We’re a long way from the WWII Navy ice cream ships. IIRC they have less than a few dozen logistical ships for the entire navy these days. Your last sentence is right on the money.
I think y’all actually agree and are saying the same thing. Now kith
this is a reoccuring thing when I describe america. its like the way 80’s russia was portrayed and he is making us like current russia. we will have our tank guys train with no tanks.
also trump doesnt want the war to stop, otherwise the news is going back to concentrating on domestic issues,ICE and epstein files
The troops deserve far worse cry more dude
Don’t even bother responding to this guy. Look at his comment history and just ignore him.
Literally quavering
I bet you’re a little pussy irl.
Not pussy enough to sign up to get my dick blown off by Ayatollah Khamenei because daddy would be proud of me
Okay, I actually lol’d
The US military used to have amazing logistics to the point that the navy built a mobile floating drydock &supply base to fight the Japanese without long supply lines.
This logistical prowess hasn’t been tested in decades and is showing weakness.
The US economy likely unable to build up to support a war economy. Everything has been outsourced to China.
A war with the PRC may prove embarrassing to the USA.
Yeah the US gutted itself to save a buck.
Oh well.
1. The proximate cause: Bahrain hub destroyed, logistics broken
Multiple outlets trace the Lincoln’s supply shortfalls to the Feb. 28 Iranian missile and drone attacks that “heavily damaged” Naval Support Activity Bahrain, a principal logistics hub for U.S. carrier operations in the Gulf, forcing an abrupt pivot to more distant ports such as Diego Garcia and stretching resupply lines . The New York Times and subsequent reporting state the damage to Bahrain directly contributed to shortages and longer deployments for carriers conducting operations related to the war with Iran .
2. Operational consequences: longer trips, Diego Garcia and exposure
The loss of the Bahrain hub forced the Pentagon to use Diego Garcia, farther from the Gulf, as an emergency logistics node; that longer transit, and the vulnerability of alternate ports to Iranian strikes, created measurable strain on sustainment cycles and contributed to the Lincoln approaching nine months at sea without a liberty port, increasing wear on people and materiel . Reporting links that logistical shift to additional Iranian targeting — for example, ballistic missiles aimed at Diego Garcia — and to the effort to keep continuous operations like the maritime blockade and airstrikes functioning .
3. Political overlay: accusations that Hegseth “hid” the damage
Television commentators and pundits framed the narrative as an intentional concealment by Pete Hegseth — the phrase that he “hid” the destruction appears on MS NOW and other clips — but those pieces present the allegation without producing internal memos or a paper trail proving intentional concealment [1]. The reporting available shows Hegseth and the Navy publicly pushing back, calling media descriptions “completely misrepresented,” and declining to confirm specific supply shortfall details in some interviews, which opponents interpreted as evasive .
TL;DR: Of course he did. The next base to supply them is 2,200 miles away. They fucked up super bad again.
As a sidenote: reading this really made me miss the Oxford comma
Even more fun, this sentence is grammatically vague [I removed the end clause, because it’s irrelevant to this point and adds another comma]:
The reporting available shows Hegseth and the Navy publicly pushing back, calling media descriptions “completely misrepresented,” and declining to confirm specific supply shortfall details in some interviews
That could be an Oxford comma, but it’s probably not. I assume the “calling…misrepresented“ clause qualifies the first point and the second comma is because they’ve ended a quote.
See, they could’ve reworded it for the sake of clarity, but no… they’re just lazy. Not to mention that the responsibility for published articles like this don’t just fall on the writer; there are editors who review this as well. At least three sets of eyes looked over this, and they all decided that this was the best version.
Sometimes I wonder if crap like this gets published just to prove that it wasn’t generated by AI.
The first thing I thought after skimming the numbered headings was that it was AI generated
use Diego Garcia, farther from the Gulf, as an emergency logistics node
I’m legitimately surprised that Trump hasn’t gotten around to ordering the British to rename that via a long nonsensical Truth Social rant.
Minutes away to a conservative pundit complain that the resupply base name is Hispanic instead of an Union general and Trump forcing everyone to change the name
Minutes away to a conservative pundit complain that the resupply base name is Hispanic instead of an
UnionConfederate general and Trump forcing everyone to change the nameFTFY
Yeah, that was I intended to write but got it wrong
I’ve also been drinking 🥃
In all fairness, you can’t let your enemy know how badly you’re damaged. And considering this administration sees everybody as their enemy, might as well keep lying.
In all fairness, the enemy knows precisely what they’ve done and why. They know the damage they caused.
They’ve been highly effective with precision strikes that crippled logistics with intent, by choice.
Their generals are better than ours. The pedophile clowns fired our generals, reorganized leadership and we’re getting our ass handed to us.
The rot in the US military leadership started long before this president. Nevermind the existing rot that comes with the better part of a trillion dollars showering (yes, it’s a golden shower,) on the arms contractors for a moment.
Bush in his invasion if Iraq saw half the generals in the US be forced out, as they wouldn’t sign on to a flawed doomed to fail invasion plan.
Their generals are literate, sober at least an hour a day, don’t constantly run war games where they’re penalized for winning as red team, and not doing the job for five years so they can retire to a Grumman sinecure. I bet they aren’t brain rotted by chatbots and yes-men either.
I am convinced that I would out-general any current american general in an actual conflict. I don’t even remember the branches of the military. Barracks factory starport?
A liar and a coward, shocker.
Was the damage done by drones or missiles?
Its tragically embarrassing either way, but even more so if drones because the whole fucking world knew Iran would be using drones to cause damage and the US ignored everything Ukraine learned and wanted to pass on.
I always though the US-Military is almost allmighty. It’s nice to see there are clear limitations to their power.
They are allmighty.
In Hollywood movies!
Wait, are you telling me U571 and Battleship are not documentaries?
They must be fact based though, yeah?Screw this, I’m going to check for myself. Brb…
Biggest paper tiger in history.
The air force of the army of the US navy (i.e. the air force of the USMC) is bigger than the air forces of all but 3 countries in the world. It’s the 7th largest air force in the world, only beaten by the actual USAF, the army’s air force, the USN air force, and the countries of China, India and Russia (though that last one might be out of date thanks to Ukraine).
The US might not be quite as powerful as it’s sometimes portrayed to be, and might really struggle when it faces tactics that it hasn’t prepared for. But, it’s still a ridiculously powerful military.
Honestly, their K/D/A ratio is pretty shockingly bad, also they’ve quite a few times been feeding (trained Osama, to sick him on another country they didn’t like, Osama came back to bite them in the ass. Gave support to a military Junta by a fascist military, that gov came back to bite them in the ass. Etc etc)
They just have an incredibly good propaganda arm, that makes them look more mighty than they are
The only massive wars the USA ever actually won were the Civil War (against ourselves, doesn’t count) and WWII (when we had almost the entire goddamn world on our side). We got like a participation trophy for WWI. Other than that, it’s all been colonialist bullshit oppression of smaller/weaker countries, there’s never been a direct conflict with another major industrialized country.
I would argue it won the cold war, in a largely peaceful way.
where is the rail gun we see in transformers.
Trump doesn’t like magnets
We’re going back to steam powered cannon
Best we can do is a catapult
And Iran has trebuchets
why not a ballista.
They cut the rail gun program a couple of years back or something.
I seem to recall reading the rail kept melting
I bet, it’s an incredible weapon, I would think it would be a good way to start out payloads into space, instead of just rocket boosters, throw them into the air at 30k mph or whatever, then hit the boosters.
Obviously if people are onboard that wouldn’t work as the gravity force would kill them.
The railgun projectile is comparatively tiny. The energy requirements to put anything of significance into orbit by that method would be prohibitive.
How about Lake Cabo Venezuela, they have so much lightning they can read a newspaper at night over 200 nights of the year.
Find places like that, set up lightning towers, with super heavy wires to carry the current (also prohibitively expensive but would pay for itself in this.) and use that, perhaps combined with added electricity. Lightning is a lot a lot, but just for an instant, which is exactly what a rail gun needs.
But I haven’t done the math maybe it’s too big for lightning idk.
The first rail guns on navy ships had a huge flywheel they would get spinning super fast then kick off electromagnets to bring it to an instant halt and generate a large spike of electricity. I think they had to be replaced regularly because the amount of current would blow them out.
War is ugly.
Russians in the trenches get like no food as they are so expected to die. It is like waste to send them food instead of selling their food. They usually have these cheap poles remembering like 100 000 per an 100 acre of bush. It is part of their culture. People want to tear these monuments down. But I say they deserved that shitty micro penis sized column in a bush. Going without a McDonald’s, a KFC, a Taco Bell and a Wendy’s.
Too sad, it was the only job opportunity or worse they got kidnapped and pushed into a meat grinder. People should care more about each other.
Unlike that path. Even if it is not always possible. Imagine like you had like a friend and ally, building a rainbow heaven of beauty riding only unicorns. Going there with you, giving you the best meals and stuff. Fighting some truly retarded evil. Don’t kick the buddy in the balls, humiliate it, bully it. Especially after a long story together. While kicking off all the hornet’s nests like a crackhead. You can get a so nice meal having that buddy swimming up there with all the McDonald’s the KFC, the Taco Bell, the Wendy’s.
You should try different drugs.
Did they destroy the entire base without killing anyone? What else are they hiding?
Don’t need to destroy a base to make it inoperable, just need to damage a few important things like runways and control centers
Blownup the port cranes and you’re basically done. It’s what the US and Saudis did in Yemen
Runways are easy to fix, like a day.
I don’t think that’s true, but also that’s assuming you have the supplies to fix them
When the US hit the syrian runways in the mad king’s first term after they used chemical weapons, they had it fixed by the next day. There are other examples too just can’t think of them right now.
The US, with their 900 billion dollars a year budget or whatever, should have everything needed on hand to repair the runway. If they don’t it’s just another example of how we have all the wrong people in charge, before this administration and even moreso now.
The VAST majority of the budget goes to the contractors and arms manufacturers. The actual money that gets used to take care of the troops is (at a guess based on current world events) vanishingly small.
The US is claiming zero navy related deaths. In an interview a couple of administration officials called it ‘a fucking joke,’ and the like.
It was just in the news but startpage won’t give it to me, and the other engines are worse and spy on me as I’m aware. Fucking illegal shittrust in search engines but that’s another story.
