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Comment by oa335 | Hacker News Reader

> If you want to argue from a power prospective then the US and Israel can just do whatever they want too

Yes, that’s exactly my point. any country can do whatever they want … within the limits of their powers.

What is currently stopping US/Israel from forcing Iran to open the strait of Hormuz?

I don’t believe they have the ability to take out enough of Iran’s missiles/drones to prevent Iran from exerting its control of the Strait.

> It’s a matter of principle

“ Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”

Thucydides

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“Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”

—Thucydides

You can't honestly attribute that quotation to Thucydides. The idea appears in his work, but he specifically attributes it to other unnamed parties. It receives this immediate response:

As we think, at any rate, it is expedient — we speak as we are obliged, since you enjoin us to let right alone and talk only of interest — that you should not destroy what is our common protection, the privilege of being allowed in danger to invoke what is fair and right, and even to profit by arguments not strictly valid if they can be got to pass current. And you are as much interested in this as any, as your fall would be a signal for the heaviest vengeance and an example for the world to meditate upon.

The quote is part of the Melian Dialogue, which is regarded as a dramatization of the events leading up to the siege and conquest of Melos by the Athenians. I think it’s appropriate to attribute the quote to Thucydides.

The arguments the Melians use against Athenians reasons for conquest end up going unheeded though - Athens conquers Melos and enslaves its inhabitants.

The arguments that the Athenians give also go unheeded. Nobody gives any arguments that have an effect. What do you want to conclude from that?

> I think it’s appropriate to attribute the quote to Thucydides.

Sure, just as appropriate as attributing "Somalis should go back to where they came from" to NBC.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-calls-il...

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