As Donald Trump edges closer to a decision on whether to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been reportedly been excluded from high-level deliberations. “Nobody is talking to Hegseth,” an official told The Washington Post.
Despite early involvement, Hegseth’s role appears to have diminished over time, especially following the fallout from “Signalgate”—an incident in which he reportedly shared sensitive information regarding an incoming attack against Yemen’s Houthi rebels in a group chat that had mistakenly included a journalist.
Now, as Israel bombards Iranian nuclear facilities and Trump weighs joining the offensive, Hegseth is out of the team is advising him: JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine.
Although the Pentagon has claimed Hegseth remains closely involved, three current U.S. officials confirmed that key briefings and war planning are being led by Generals Kurilla and Caine, with no operational coordination involving Hegseth or his staff.
I don’t think that for Russia an US invasion of Iran would be bad. Russia builds most of the drones themselves on a license now. As Israel is already bombing Iran, Iran won’t be able to deliver a lot to Russia for quite some time.
Meanwhile if the US and its EU allies get bogged down in Iraq 2.0 for the next twenty years, Russia will be able to deal with Ukraine much easier, while China can increase its presence in South Asia. Furthermore a full blown war with Iran will likely block the strait of Hormuz, skyrocket the Oil and Gas prices and bankroll Russia as the EU will either directly come crawling back for Russian Oil and Gas or will scale down their efforts to limit sanction circumvention through India, Turkiye, Azerbaijan and others.
If the West commits to “regime change” in Iran, they will likely sacrifice Ukraine to Russia.
They assemble the drones - They have no capacity for some of the electronics or even the high mixture fuel only supplied by Iran. Some of the drone parts originate in China and Germany, Sure they make their own fuel mix but it gets them much less mileage. This will hurt their Ukraine terror bombing effort.
Ah, but it’s even better for Russia if we do it and fight each o5her over it, especially if we fight our own sides over it. Russia doesnt just want us making bad calls, they want us at each other’s throats to the point we can’t back down or start making better calls.
What do you mean on license as in their license will be revoked and they won’t be able to fly the drones that they are using, what’s stopping Russia from stealing the technology and making their own?
Production license.
Russia got the plans how to build the drones from Iran and pays a certain license fee for every drone they build in Russia.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/05/29/russia-iran-drone-cooperation-industry/
Production of weapons under licensing deals is quite common in the arms industry, especially as it helps to circumvent national export restrictions. For instance the second most common rifle in the West Asia region (after Kalashnikov variants) is the German Heckler & Koch G3 as millions of units were produced by various countries in the region under licensing deals.