In the early hours of March 4, 2026, in international waters off the coast of Galle, Sri Lanka, the USS Charlotte, a Los Angeles–class nuclear-powered attack submarine, closed in on the IRIS Dena, a new Iranian Moudge-class frigate.
Submerged, the Charlotte fired a heavyweight, acoustic-homing torpedo at the hull of the Dena. It missed. It fired another. It connected. The periscope footage of the attack was released by the United States Department of War. It shows the shockwave of the torpedo fracturing the Dena’s hull and sending its helicopter flight deck metres into the air.
Within seconds, what was left of the Dena was plummeting to the depths of the Indian Ocean, carrying at least sixty of its crew of 180 to their deaths.
Some moments later, an email was sent from US Indo-Pacific Command to Sri Lanka’s maritime rescue agency. Twenty miles from Galle’s coast, a ship is in distress. Sri Lanka immediately engaged a search and rescue effort that included its air force and navy. The surface of the sea contained clues that a vessel had been attacked and had likely been sunk. But it was not clear whether the attack had come from above or below. They were able to rescue thirty-two sailors, and recover the bodies of eighty-seven others, many of whom had mysteriously broken legs.
The Charlotte had long vanished like an apparition beneath the waves.
This was on the fifth day of the US–Israeli war on Iran, 2,000 nautical miles from the immediate conflict zone.
I don’t claim that know who the good guys are, but the US and specifically the military are definitely the baddies.
I disagree with you only on one point; “and specifically the military”.
Apologies for being blunt, but this is a coward’s logic. I’m not seeing that to attack you personally, but because far, far too many of us are guilty of this specific act of moral cowardice, and it needs to be called out now often.
A military acts on the will of a government. A government rules by the consent of the people (yes, even authoritarian governments; democracy is just a system for assigning that consent peacefully, fairly, and with minimal bloodshed).
With vanishingly few exceptions throughout history, militaries are not rogue agents acting on their own devices. They are our will made manifest. A soldier is a bullet fired from a gun. We take aim and pull the trigger. A soldier can do their best to act ethically and responsibly, but ultimately war is a scenario where no good outcomes can ever occur. Only degrees of terrible.
A soldier chooses to accept the responsibility of living and enacting that terror on our behalf because ultimately someone has to. War is sometimes inevitable and necessary. We do not categorically refer to the soldiers fighting for Ukraine’s defence as monsters even though most of them - especially those serving before the war, those whose bravery and skill ground the Russian invasion to a halt in those vital early hours - serve for the same panoply of reasons that any other soldier does. Many of those reasons are simple, or selfish, or thoughtless, but the reasons why they chose to shoulder that responsibility didn’t change the outcome.
It’s easy to blame the military, because it abrogates the collective shame of what war actually is; an extension of politics. I know plenty of soldiers who are some of the most anti-war people you’ll ever meet, because they understand what war costs, in a way the average civilian never will.
When war kills people, when war results in atrocities, when war is a nightmare of death and carnage and suffering, that responsibility is collective. It belongs to a people, not just a military.
Trump’s war in Iran is America’s war in Iran. Just like Iraq and Afghanistan and Vietnam and Korea, and so many others.
As Hawkeye says, “There are no innocent bystanders in hell, but war is chock full of them… In fact, aside from a few of the brass, almost everyone involved is an innocent bystander.”
America is NOT acting on the will of the people. It has been totally stolen from the citizens, and neither side is doing what the people want. MAGA approval rates are abysmal, but so are Democratic approval rates. NOBODY is happy about it.
Understand that we are a nation under siege. MAGA stole the 2024 election with election fraud, and the Dems let them off the hook, and now we’re dealing with the consequences. The majority did not want this, and now even many of them are leaving.
There is a national seething happening, just under the surface, and barely in control. MAGA tries to deny the Midterm Bloodbath, it will break loose.
I’m aware. But I didn’t actually say that, did I?
If you refer back to my previous comment, you’ll see that my exact statement was “A military acts on the will of a government. A government rules by the consent of the people.” There’s a subtle, but important distinction there. America’s actions in Iran do not necessarily reflect the will (read; desires, intentions) of the American people. But it is, none the less, being done by a government that is operating with the consent of those same people. And that will continue to be the case until the people choose - by one means or another - to withdraw that consent.
These sailors signed up to fight for the Iranian regime. Regardless of what you think of who did it and how: these were baddies.