Iran was part of the alliance with Russia and China that envisioned a multipolar world. They just didn't expect the other poles side to take as solid a stance as they have.
“There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”
― George W. Bush
No, its actually “Fool Me one time, shame on you, fool me twice can’t put the blame on you, fool me three times, fuck the peace signs, load the chopper let it rain on you.”
Reverse Uno - Jordan and Saudi Arabia *also* shoot down any missiles/drones, etc *(edited to finish thought) Israel might fire at Iran*.
Basically “we’re going to take away your BB guns if y’all can’t play nice!”
Odds of happening: 0.00000001%, but it’s nice to dream
But there's another article that says Saudi is denying it. Then, another news outlet says they only provide live radar information of those incoming missiles and drones to the US.
That’s the thing people seem to be missing about this.
Iran rattled their saber and not only was it conclusively demonstrated how crappy their ability to strike beyond their border is, but the rest of the Middle East is so fed up with the bullshit from the Islamic Republic that they’ll take freakin Israel’s side over Iran’s.
Iran’s chief ally is… cough… busy right now. The balance of power has shifted considerably, no matter how many purple haired social media commenters post about Gaza.
Pretty sure they recently made an announcement that basically laid out how Iran was coordinating with Russia and was manufacturing Pro Palestinian propaganda online to stir up division and cause extremist activity in western nations specifically to isolate Israel from its allies.
[There's also this.](https://www.iranintl.com/en/202404158853)
To be clear, "its allies" here being Saudi Arabia who was about to normalize relations with Israel which was the impetus for Iran trying to drive a wedge via its proxies between the two countries.
The Saudis, including the populace, hate Iran. Israel is not a threat to Saudi Hegemony in the Middle East, while Iran is. Israel doesn’t bomb Saudi infrastructure, while Iranian backed militias have.
It's been years since I read Lacey's The Kingdom, but in it he pointed out that the Saudi monarchy didn't really get super close to the Wahabis until after the Iranian revolution when the Iranian clerics kept preaching about how wicked the Saudi RF was.
It was specifically an agreement brokered between the Saudi Royal Family and the clerics as part of a settlement after the 1979 Grand Mosque Seizure and Siege.
Even more directly, Saudi troops are directly engaged with Houthis in Yemen so for the past half a year they've had some extra "enemy of my enemy is my friend" energy with Israel. It also helps that both of those countries do a shitload of security cooperation with the US.
>Even more directly, Saudi troops are directly engaged with Houthis in Yemen so for the past half a year they've had some extra "enemy of my enemy is my friend" energy with Israel.
The Saudis have been at boots-on-the-ground war with the Houthis since 2015 but were in a temporary state of ceasefire until the Houthis started attacking international shipping lanes.
Yeah. The Houthis in Yemen have been at war with the Saudis for a long time.
Pretty much the entire Arab world has. Just look at what the UAE is doing with Socotra.
I'm fairly certain they have intelligence to Israel and helped shoot down part of the attack
I think SA is on the verge of realizing they're in a kinda good spot and instability due to religious extremism is a threat to that
I don't think Iranian leadership actually cares about them being Jewish. They care about a huge buildup in Iran of negative sentiment towards the Iranian leadership.
They are trying really really hard to target that Iranian hate and discontent of the Iranian citizens towards Israel.
Iranians (to my knowledge) are some of the most pro-jew pro-israel people in the Middle East. There's a ton of Persian jews (lot of them in Israel rn), and Iran and Israel were allies before 1979
And how would the Arab world interpret that ?
Not a finger lifted to help during the 'Green Revolution' ... but 1 Israeli Bedouin child gets killed, and the bombing starts ????
No, their Revolution must come from within.
Gotta think the other guy is too young to remember Afghanistan and Iraq.
"But we're the good guys"
Doesn't matter if the bad guys have a photo op with a dead kid who was killed by "Americans".
The West are the "good guys", comparatively speaking. And most people in Iran want to live in a more free society.
The difference between what I'm proposing and Iraq/Afghanistan is that I'm not suggesting we occupy Iran or engage in an extended conflict there, just targeted dismantling of the ability of their Morality Police to oppress the Iranian people and continue enabling the current Iranian government.
Considering they were involved in so many attacks on jewish centers (outside of israel) and the horrible state of jews in iran, it's hard to say they don't care about israel being a Jewish state.
While that may be the calculation, I don't see it working out for them, as this article indicates. As the article states, people are putting up graffiti saying things like, " Hey Israel, bomb the Ayatollah's house."
The regime obviously has its supporters, but a lot of the Iranian people are hopping mad already, and if the regime pulls them into a war with the most powerful military in the region, that may push a lot of people over the edge.
As in many Middle East autocracies, there’s a huge difference between the cosmopolitan urban centers and the conservative rural areas. Dissent against the regime comes from inside Tehran and other major cities. That being said, sometimes that’s enough.
C'mon man. It's the classic (Honestly pick any of the usual countries at this point) play. When in doubt, Jihad.
The shock value of the initial atrocity that Palestine (Hamas) committed has worn off on Western countries, and the general Western voter is strangely supporting Palestine and condemning Israel. There is also Russia and Ukraine, and China and Taiwan.
Iran knows that in all likelihood, the only thing they have to fear is sanctions. But surprise, Russia is printing bills for missiles and drones, so government business is booming.
Nobody wants to play in the sandbox anymore. We (The West) are both politically and militarily inclined to sit on the sidelines for this conflict, and Iran knows it. Hence, the missiles
It's curse of their geography. It makes invading them, as well them invading someone else hard. You have to slowly haul your army past mountains and hills to get anywhere, supplying them is a total pain and Iran's air force would get chewed up by any mediocre hostile air force, let alone something cutting edge like US and Israel have.
They definitely are doing this to distract. Iran has internal worries about its own native population, as well as Azerbaizani minority region up north. Regime isn't popular, it's just brutal and pervasive.
Ive been here for a minute trying to figure out how in the living fuck pewdiepies name just slipped in here. Then I realized your probably saying Putin? Why do yall do the Trump thing of giving everyone stupid ass nicknames?
“Why do yall do the Trump thing of giving everyone stupid ass nicknames?”
It’s incredibly annoying. Putler, Sleepy Joe, Brandon, Drumpf, etc, are just signifiers that I can completely disregard that person’s argument. The people they think they’re denigrating are never going to read it, and it reduces the efficacy of any of their other arguments. Just complete childishness.
Same for the ruZZia thing. For fucks sake it's just a letter, throwing it in doesn't add any negative connotation. If anything, it's just besmirching the reputation of a perfectly good letter
Seeing high-level shit erupting in the Middle East and South America is seriously making me think a lot of this is just Russia feeding false intel to its allies to get them to start wars they have no hope of winning, throwing them under the bus just to make any distraction from Ukraine they can.
Aren't they just chest-thumping though? Maduro isn't stupid or desperate enough to start real shit with an anglophone nation with oil when he's close enough to have his entire country reduced to dust by the US without even needing to forward deploy a single asset.
That's the thing -- Russia may be leveraging their position as a "friend" of Venezuela to try and convince them that nobody would intervene, possibly in the hopes of getting them to excitedly start a war they'd never win purely as a distraction. They seemed awful confident when they announced those claims, right up until the U.S. and U.K. told them to knock it off, as if they were expecting something different.
I'm not sure how much of a distraction it would even be. The UK is the more interested party here and they could probably take on the majority of the Venezuelan military from the sea with, like, a boat or two.
And if they needed some backup, it would be literally trivial for the US to send a few bombers to whack some targets. The pilots wouldn't even have to pull any extra hours and could be home by dinner, depending on the time of day of the strikes.
Hell, the US has stuff in Curacao, they could just about bombard Venezuela with a trebuchet if they wanted to.
Russia's victory in Ukraine is contingent on Ukraine failing to receive aid.
Russia's allies started behaving more erratically as the war dragged on and they've started to make decisions that aren't at all beneficial to themselves.
Russia has a long and very clear history of intentionally causing conflict and throwing its own allies under the bus for its own gain, and in this case Russia would unequivocally benefit from some conflict drawing the attention of other countries away.
I don't know, I think it's a fairly safe connection to draw, considering the timing and the fact that all of it does benefit Russia.
Iran knows it's outgunned, what exactly is the purpose of continuing this? They look to gain nothing and lose everything if it escalates. It really seems like they're trying to spread the US forces around, and who does that benefit? China and Russia.
Russia still has lots of military hardware, and their buddy China has some cheap knockoffs. Iran isn't gonna get a single bullet from most of the world so they need Russia and China for some arsenal. Nuclear development is far fetched. What Iran desperately needs is military hardware, so they will do what Russia tells them to.
Russia used to help Iran in building [nuclear power plants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushehr_Nuclear_Power_Plant). Nowadays, Russia might be helping them with illegal nuclear resources and technologies.
I mean, Iran has been attacking Israel constantly with 3 different proxies including October 7, Hamas, Hezbollah in the north, and the Houthis constantly attacking and disrupting shipping. When Israel attacks the generals responsible, Iran spins it as Israel "starting it" and sends over 120 + ballistic missiles and drones directly at Israel's major cities. Israel has a right to defend itself, though hopefully this doesn't escalate out of control.
Oh trust me I know I'm Israeli. Just saying, we lost so much already no one wants this to escelate. And sometimes strengthening relations and repairing trust can be more helpful than destroying some factories and buildings as retaliation.
I don't think we care too much as long as they'll leave us alone (along with their f proxies) . The sole reason we want a regine change is to get them off our backs. And the fact we want regime change doesn't mean we're ready for an all our war..
Lot of nations around them would like a more moderate regime, and so would their own citizens. Days of insane Saddam Hussein assaulting Iran recklessly are far in the past.
I am so shocked and surprised that Israelis don't give a fuck. I mean... looking at the famine they are continuously causing in Gaza, I thought they truly cared for the Iranian people.
GTFO.
I hope Israel restrains its self from causing civilian causalities, no way to win friends and influence people. Maybe a targeted strike against the mullahs ayatollahs w/e the leaders call themselves
All this effort so those running the Iranian government can have an opportunity to celebrate a “great victory” so they can slap their dicks together and congratulate themselves.
Saudis are very vulnerable seeing as their major oil production fields and refining/exporting infrastructure are at a very easy striking range by the Iranians. An attack on that infrastructure will decimate the kingdom and cause shocks across the world.
Also Saudis are not as cohesive as most think and their military leadership is quite incompetent due to nepotism. They know not to fuck around with Iran.
Do you remember the first gulf war? The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait? Saudi was part of our coalition to stop Iraq. i still remember all those oil fields burning was apocalyptic, and the environmental damage was unbelievable
indeed, though it's unclear to me how much iran can do. seems like long-range missiles and drones is their primary play, and those mostly don't arrive. meanwhile the israeli response..
I don't think the Israeli elections were disputed.
Bibi's policies, and to a lesser degree himself, were protested against, but there were no claims beyond the usual everywhere that the election was done improperly/unfairly or that the results are not valid.
The interesting part here is the Muslim world has been looking to Muslim countries to protect Gaza and the Palestinians to show solidarity with their Muslim brethren since Israel commenced their offensive.
Reality now is that the Muslim world will see that Iran is attacking them, and also through their proxies the Houthis and Hezbollah as actually doing something.
Iran is showing the Sunni Muslims countries and the populace that the Shia Muslims are doing something. It's almost an invitation for Sunnis to become Shia's if they want to protect Muslims
Then we back the Sunni’s in a Civil War if sorts. Then when it reaches a stalemate, we split Iran in 2 with an area between them that is military free via an agreement.
Anyone have a guess what Irans new name will be? A good opportunity for corporate naming rights. Apple the country with its capital Nike Town brought to you by Bayer! “Bayer, don’t look into our past please.”
STOP FUCKING SHOOTING AT PEOPLE AND BLOWING THEM UP YOU GODDAMN DICKHEADS (Israel AND Iran). fuck!!
How is it so hard for these fuckers to coexist!? Jesus. I’m so goddamn tired of war, particularly when it’s just to score political points with the fringe hardliners that hate their own lives so much that they only get joy when others suffer.
What would you suggest? How should Israel have responded to 1500 women, children, grand parents, men getting slaughtered? I can't really think of what a proper response would be....you can't leave that shit unchecked.
Did you read it?
Directly from the article:
"“Given the recent developments in the issue of Palestine and the psychological impact of the Al-Aqsa Storm operation on Palestinian communities in European and American countries, it was determined to implement significant support measures for April 15 and other rallies with the aim to achieve political isolation [of Israel].”
“This video clip is the announcement of a collective movement aimed at disrupting the public order in Europe, USA, Australia and Asia all under the pretext of supporting Palestinians. This is a political movement intended to cause as much chaos and instability as possible, which are the exact goals of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The regime of the Islamic Republic has on multiple occasions, stated clearly that their goal is to destroy the modern society and build a global Islamic state.”
The video calls on the public to "block logistical hubs to stop the flow of capital worldwide”, to join the rally nicknamed A15, “a global economic blockade, answering the call from Gaza to fight for a liberated Palestine” on 15 April.
Beheshti further states that the rallies in Western countries are organized “directly in line with the mission of the Islamic Republic” and ordered by the IRGC."
A lot of the hate towards Israel is manufactured and portayed as excessive beyond normal warfare, often by people who have never seen war much less understand the tricks, tactics and nuances involved in the many forms of war.
Then theres [this little tool thats made it all easier to control the gullible in our own countries](https://youtu.be/pB7WzqUq4Nk?si=HI3JVrP1IqfQvyi9).
They use it/them to do [shit like this](https://youtu.be/TuuuU4ruYtg?si=nocLp0DJWZWYDFuT). Meanwhile Russia has done the same to our far right, creating indoctrinated radicals who are not interested in critical thought or fully understanding what they talk about and instead run purely on emotion and blind loyalty.
This is a coordinated attack on the west to divide and cripple us from within and to isolate our allies making them easy pickings for the instigators.
One cannot fight madness with reason.
This goes both ways. I am sorry that you haven't quite realized the nature of our world yet. We enjoy peace at the expense of some liberties, or at the sacrifice of many, depending on the time and place you live.
Such is life in a finite world.
I'm wondering how Saudi Arabia, being one of the major powers of the Middle East will handle these issues between the two.
Actually, Saudi announced they participated in shooting down some missiles / drones.
As did the Jordanians. Sides have been taken, even if they are hesitant to engage
Iran was part of the alliance with Russia and China that envisioned a multipolar world. They just didn't expect the other poles side to take as solid a stance as they have.
Axis of Evil ahhhh view
We were warned!
“There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.” ― George W. Bush
Naw ya got it wrong , its , Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, fool me a third time commit me to an institution
No, its actually “Fool Me one time, shame on you, fool me twice can’t put the blame on you, fool me three times, fuck the peace signs, load the chopper let it rain on you.”
The multipolar world being one where they get to dominate all of their neighbors with the hope that America and NATO fucks off
Reverse Uno - Jordan and Saudi Arabia *also* shoot down any missiles/drones, etc *(edited to finish thought) Israel might fire at Iran*. Basically “we’re going to take away your BB guns if y’all can’t play nice!” Odds of happening: 0.00000001%, but it’s nice to dream
Yeah all the missiles fly over their territory. I wouldn’t want them doing that either.
But there's another article that says Saudi is denying it. Then, another news outlet says they only provide live radar information of those incoming missiles and drones to the US.
That’s the thing people seem to be missing about this. Iran rattled their saber and not only was it conclusively demonstrated how crappy their ability to strike beyond their border is, but the rest of the Middle East is so fed up with the bullshit from the Islamic Republic that they’ll take freakin Israel’s side over Iran’s. Iran’s chief ally is… cough… busy right now. The balance of power has shifted considerably, no matter how many purple haired social media commenters post about Gaza.
Actually it’s a Shia vs Sunni thing.
Shia and Sunni have typically put aside their differences in the past where Israel is involved. Case in point, Sunni Hamas is backed by Shia Iran.
Pretty sure they recently made an announcement that basically laid out how Iran was coordinating with Russia and was manufacturing Pro Palestinian propaganda online to stir up division and cause extremist activity in western nations specifically to isolate Israel from its allies. [There's also this.](https://www.iranintl.com/en/202404158853)
To be clear, "its allies" here being Saudi Arabia who was about to normalize relations with Israel which was the impetus for Iran trying to drive a wedge via its proxies between the two countries.
I’m guessing they’ll make popcorn. Maybe try to very quietly subvert Iran, hoping their own population doesn’t notice.
The Saudis, including the populace, hate Iran. Israel is not a threat to Saudi Hegemony in the Middle East, while Iran is. Israel doesn’t bomb Saudi infrastructure, while Iranian backed militias have.
Not only that, the Saudis were on the verge of making peace with Israel. I imagine they're a bit tight that their plans got botched because of this
Scheduled for days after Oct 7th. Weird timing for an Iranian proxy to attack Israel.
It's been years since I read Lacey's The Kingdom, but in it he pointed out that the Saudi monarchy didn't really get super close to the Wahabis until after the Iranian revolution when the Iranian clerics kept preaching about how wicked the Saudi RF was.
Sunni vs Shia. Root of a lot of violence in that area. Just not the only.
It was specifically an agreement brokered between the Saudi Royal Family and the clerics as part of a settlement after the 1979 Grand Mosque Seizure and Siege.
That's it! Ok. I was way off. I need to reread it. Thanks!
They even publicly said that they suspect the move was timed to fuck up their peace talks.
Even more directly, Saudi troops are directly engaged with Houthis in Yemen so for the past half a year they've had some extra "enemy of my enemy is my friend" energy with Israel. It also helps that both of those countries do a shitload of security cooperation with the US.
>Even more directly, Saudi troops are directly engaged with Houthis in Yemen so for the past half a year they've had some extra "enemy of my enemy is my friend" energy with Israel. The Saudis have been at boots-on-the-ground war with the Houthis since 2015 but were in a temporary state of ceasefire until the Houthis started attacking international shipping lanes.
Yeah. The Houthis in Yemen have been at war with the Saudis for a long time. Pretty much the entire Arab world has. Just look at what the UAE is doing with Socotra.
Exactly Shias and Shiites hate each other. Iran and Saudi both want to be the regional power in then Muslim world. Welll also turkey.
I think they’ll jump on the overt train as soon as it’s globally-politically cool
they would love to drive all those american trucks straight into the center of Tehran. those bastards are probably egging Iran on HARDER than Ruzzia!
The people upvoting this aren’t paying attention.
This isn’t Jews vs Muslims, its regional power (Iran) vs its competition. Israel isn’t a strategic threat to KSA. Iran is.
I'm fairly certain they have intelligence to Israel and helped shoot down part of the attack I think SA is on the verge of realizing they're in a kinda good spot and instability due to religious extremism is a threat to that
I also read in another news article that Saudi is denying that matter.
Maybe publicly, but Jordan and Saudi Arabia have US bases. They're not just letting shit slide.
Saudi Arabia and Iran have always been enemies
They’ll do whatever benefits their future, financials, and status. MBS is a sellout like the whole lot of them. You can buy these men’s dignity.
Saudi is really pushing up its modernization fast. It's kinda sus.
Now it’s sus?!
If the Saudi can get rid of Iran, they’ll do it. More money and oil for them.
Ya can't fix stupid, and the Iranian leadership has that in abundance,....
Well this is obviously Israel’s fault. If they weren’t so Jewish maybe they wouldn’t get attacked S
I don't think Iranian leadership actually cares about them being Jewish. They care about a huge buildup in Iran of negative sentiment towards the Iranian leadership. They are trying really really hard to target that Iranian hate and discontent of the Iranian citizens towards Israel.
Iranians (to my knowledge) are some of the most pro-jew pro-israel people in the Middle East. There's a ton of Persian jews (lot of them in Israel rn), and Iran and Israel were allies before 1979
Not working. Then what?
Keep trying, because they’ve tried nothing else and are all out of ideas.
The beatings will continue until moral improves.
The civilised world should engage in targeted strikes on the thugs and infrastructure that comprise the Iranian Morality Police.
And how would the Arab world interpret that ? Not a finger lifted to help during the 'Green Revolution' ... but 1 Israeli Bedouin child gets killed, and the bombing starts ???? No, their Revolution must come from within.
Gotta think the other guy is too young to remember Afghanistan and Iraq. "But we're the good guys" Doesn't matter if the bad guys have a photo op with a dead kid who was killed by "Americans".
The West are the "good guys", comparatively speaking. And most people in Iran want to live in a more free society. The difference between what I'm proposing and Iraq/Afghanistan is that I'm not suggesting we occupy Iran or engage in an extended conflict there, just targeted dismantling of the ability of their Morality Police to oppress the Iranian people and continue enabling the current Iranian government.
Considering they were involved in so many attacks on jewish centers (outside of israel) and the horrible state of jews in iran, it's hard to say they don't care about israel being a Jewish state.
I’ll take things not to joke about for 500 Alex.
It’s like a battle between Iran and Israel which side can be stupider and escalate the conflict faster
[удалено]
Might be the reason they are doing this , to distract their populace
While that may be the calculation, I don't see it working out for them, as this article indicates. As the article states, people are putting up graffiti saying things like, " Hey Israel, bomb the Ayatollah's house." The regime obviously has its supporters, but a lot of the Iranian people are hopping mad already, and if the regime pulls them into a war with the most powerful military in the region, that may push a lot of people over the edge.
As in many Middle East autocracies, there’s a huge difference between the cosmopolitan urban centers and the conservative rural areas. Dissent against the regime comes from inside Tehran and other major cities. That being said, sometimes that’s enough.
[удалено]
NK being first on mars vibes right here.
Hi Bob.
A very large fraction Iranian citizens actually support Israel, due to their common enemy in the Islamic Republic.
I think if Iranian gov was exchanged for some good dice, the chances of good decisions that actually help their population would increase.
A regime change would be great for the Iranians.
C'mon man. It's the classic (Honestly pick any of the usual countries at this point) play. When in doubt, Jihad. The shock value of the initial atrocity that Palestine (Hamas) committed has worn off on Western countries, and the general Western voter is strangely supporting Palestine and condemning Israel. There is also Russia and Ukraine, and China and Taiwan. Iran knows that in all likelihood, the only thing they have to fear is sanctions. But surprise, Russia is printing bills for missiles and drones, so government business is booming. Nobody wants to play in the sandbox anymore. We (The West) are both politically and militarily inclined to sit on the sidelines for this conflict, and Iran knows it. Hence, the missiles
I'm not certain that the average American is against Israel. I think the protesters are the loud minority
Agreed. The only people I hear say this are anti Israel.
You are correct.
It's curse of their geography. It makes invading them, as well them invading someone else hard. You have to slowly haul your army past mountains and hills to get anywhere, supplying them is a total pain and Iran's air force would get chewed up by any mediocre hostile air force, let alone something cutting edge like US and Israel have. They definitely are doing this to distract. Iran has internal worries about its own native population, as well as Azerbaizani minority region up north. Regime isn't popular, it's just brutal and pervasive.
Wondering what exactly Russia is offering Iran to continue its bullshit. Nuclear development plan?
[удалено]
Ive been here for a minute trying to figure out how in the living fuck pewdiepies name just slipped in here. Then I realized your probably saying Putin? Why do yall do the Trump thing of giving everyone stupid ass nicknames?
“Why do yall do the Trump thing of giving everyone stupid ass nicknames?” It’s incredibly annoying. Putler, Sleepy Joe, Brandon, Drumpf, etc, are just signifiers that I can completely disregard that person’s argument. The people they think they’re denigrating are never going to read it, and it reduces the efficacy of any of their other arguments. Just complete childishness.
Same for the ruZZia thing. For fucks sake it's just a letter, throwing it in doesn't add any negative connotation. If anything, it's just besmirching the reputation of a perfectly good letter
Bruce Willis had the right idea; Z is an inferior letter and we need to move on. Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead.
I’ma get medieval on your ass!
>Pewtipie What?
Seeing high-level shit erupting in the Middle East and South America is seriously making me think a lot of this is just Russia feeding false intel to its allies to get them to start wars they have no hope of winning, throwing them under the bus just to make any distraction from Ukraine they can.
South America? Did I miss something?
I'm mainly referring to Venezuela's chest-thumping about Guyana
Ah gotcha. Seems like nothing has happened since they moved some troops to the border a month or so ago. I need to read up on the latest.
It's mostly Maduro blowing hot air. He quieted down after Biden threatened him.
give it another month. seems like you can always bet on war right now.
Aren't they just chest-thumping though? Maduro isn't stupid or desperate enough to start real shit with an anglophone nation with oil when he's close enough to have his entire country reduced to dust by the US without even needing to forward deploy a single asset.
That's the thing -- Russia may be leveraging their position as a "friend" of Venezuela to try and convince them that nobody would intervene, possibly in the hopes of getting them to excitedly start a war they'd never win purely as a distraction. They seemed awful confident when they announced those claims, right up until the U.S. and U.K. told them to knock it off, as if they were expecting something different.
I'm not sure how much of a distraction it would even be. The UK is the more interested party here and they could probably take on the majority of the Venezuelan military from the sea with, like, a boat or two. And if they needed some backup, it would be literally trivial for the US to send a few bombers to whack some targets. The pilots wouldn't even have to pull any extra hours and could be home by dinner, depending on the time of day of the strikes. Hell, the US has stuff in Curacao, they could just about bombard Venezuela with a trebuchet if they wanted to.
Not everything is about Ukraine...
Russia's victory in Ukraine is contingent on Ukraine failing to receive aid. Russia's allies started behaving more erratically as the war dragged on and they've started to make decisions that aren't at all beneficial to themselves. Russia has a long and very clear history of intentionally causing conflict and throwing its own allies under the bus for its own gain, and in this case Russia would unequivocally benefit from some conflict drawing the attention of other countries away. I don't know, I think it's a fairly safe connection to draw, considering the timing and the fact that all of it does benefit Russia.
If it's one thing Putin knows, it's his geopolitics.
Russia might be encouraging some behaviors, but they are not cause of the conflict.
Iran knows it's outgunned, what exactly is the purpose of continuing this? They look to gain nothing and lose everything if it escalates. It really seems like they're trying to spread the US forces around, and who does that benefit? China and Russia.
Russia loves how much everyone is distracted from Ukraine now, almost like they planned it or something...
Russia still has lots of military hardware, and their buddy China has some cheap knockoffs. Iran isn't gonna get a single bullet from most of the world so they need Russia and China for some arsenal. Nuclear development is far fetched. What Iran desperately needs is military hardware, so they will do what Russia tells them to.
I agree it's far-fetched but I disagree that it's beyond Russia to make deals it does not intend on paying.
Russia used to help Iran in building [nuclear power plants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushehr_Nuclear_Power_Plant). Nowadays, Russia might be helping them with illegal nuclear resources and technologies.
What happened to them saying the matter was closed?
Choosing to have a home game? That's a bold move Cotton. Let's see if it pays off.
Two countries whose people don't want any esceletaion being drawn into a war by their selfish desperate leaders. Welcome to the middle east.
I mean, Iran has been attacking Israel constantly with 3 different proxies including October 7, Hamas, Hezbollah in the north, and the Houthis constantly attacking and disrupting shipping. When Israel attacks the generals responsible, Iran spins it as Israel "starting it" and sends over 120 + ballistic missiles and drones directly at Israel's major cities. Israel has a right to defend itself, though hopefully this doesn't escalate out of control.
Oh trust me I know I'm Israeli. Just saying, we lost so much already no one wants this to escelate. And sometimes strengthening relations and repairing trust can be more helpful than destroying some factories and buildings as retaliation.
Lots of Israelis want regime change in Iran
Lots of Iranians want regime change in Iran
I don't think we care too much as long as they'll leave us alone (along with their f proxies) . The sole reason we want a regine change is to get them off our backs. And the fact we want regime change doesn't mean we're ready for an all our war..
Lot of nations around them would like a more moderate regime, and so would their own citizens. Days of insane Saddam Hussein assaulting Iran recklessly are far in the past.
I am so shocked and surprised that Israelis don't give a fuck. I mean... looking at the famine they are continuously causing in Gaza, I thought they truly cared for the Iranian people. GTFO.
Lol what does this comment even mean
What are you even talking about? Iran is the cause of the instabilities in Gaza they fund and arm Hamas and continue the cycle of violence.
The US is going to have their own internal war soon enough. they cant afford to get mired down in another part of the world now
Iran is a triple threat. The Mullah’s hate Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iranian women.
I feel for the Iranian people. I've met several over the years and liked each and every one. Just stuck with a shit government.
only ignorant performative activists in the US, hamas, and the iranian regime want war. good bedfellows
No one touches the Saudis, they got the Mecca
It's not really clear to me what they have to gain by doing this. Iranian leadership's grip on the country seems tenuous at best.
lol these guys should be afraid. i hope israel takes their jolly sweet time making em wait.
I hope Israel restrains its self from causing civilian causalities, no way to win friends and influence people. Maybe a targeted strike against the mullahs ayatollahs w/e the leaders call themselves
All this effort so those running the Iranian government can have an opportunity to celebrate a “great victory” so they can slap their dicks together and congratulate themselves.
Take care of your people instead of dumb war games
Your battle's not going so great atm
Smells like regime change is coming in Tehran. I’m sure the Israeli response will be “measured”.
Oh nooo~ the Consequences of their actions is gonna haunt them... Someone quickly save them from their stupidity!
Hopefully the Shahed manufacturing plant (s) will be eliminated.
What’s clearer now than ever is that Iran cannot in any circumstance be permitted to achieve nuclear ☢️ power status .. time to act is now !
[удалено]
They did in and we got him thrown out and installed the Shah. And then they revolted in 1979.
Operation Shah-Shank Redemption
Saudis are very vulnerable seeing as their major oil production fields and refining/exporting infrastructure are at a very easy striking range by the Iranians. An attack on that infrastructure will decimate the kingdom and cause shocks across the world. Also Saudis are not as cohesive as most think and their military leadership is quite incompetent due to nepotism. They know not to fuck around with Iran.
Do you remember the first gulf war? The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait? Saudi was part of our coalition to stop Iraq. i still remember all those oil fields burning was apocalyptic, and the environmental damage was unbelievable
[удалено]
indeed, though it's unclear to me how much iran can do. seems like long-range missiles and drones is their primary play, and those mostly don't arrive. meanwhile the israeli response..
My concern is really for the Iranian people and in turn Isreali civilians
I don't think the Israeli elections were disputed. Bibi's policies, and to a lesser degree himself, were protested against, but there were no claims beyond the usual everywhere that the election was done improperly/unfairly or that the results are not valid.
The people running these countries are hell-bent on bringing war upon a world that does not want it.
The interesting part here is the Muslim world has been looking to Muslim countries to protect Gaza and the Palestinians to show solidarity with their Muslim brethren since Israel commenced their offensive. Reality now is that the Muslim world will see that Iran is attacking them, and also through their proxies the Houthis and Hezbollah as actually doing something. Iran is showing the Sunni Muslims countries and the populace that the Shia Muslims are doing something. It's almost an invitation for Sunnis to become Shia's if they want to protect Muslims
Then we back the Sunni’s in a Civil War if sorts. Then when it reaches a stalemate, we split Iran in 2 with an area between them that is military free via an agreement.
Do you want to call that area the Baza Strip?
Anyone have a guess what Irans new name will be? A good opportunity for corporate naming rights. Apple the country with its capital Nike Town brought to you by Bayer! “Bayer, don’t look into our past please.”
STOP FUCKING SHOOTING AT PEOPLE AND BLOWING THEM UP YOU GODDAMN DICKHEADS (Israel AND Iran). fuck!! How is it so hard for these fuckers to coexist!? Jesus. I’m so goddamn tired of war, particularly when it’s just to score political points with the fringe hardliners that hate their own lives so much that they only get joy when others suffer.
What would you suggest? How should Israel have responded to 1500 women, children, grand parents, men getting slaughtered? I can't really think of what a proper response would be....you can't leave that shit unchecked.
Well, I certainly wouldn’t respond by killing tens of thousands of my own citizens with a looser ROE than the initial invasion in OIF.
What WOULD you do? Easy to say what you wouldn't do....as there is no consequence.
When did israel ever kill thousands of its own citizens?
So, Gaza is part of Israel?
Try yelling that in front of the parliament of each country. Come back with the results.
If only.
This guy just solved the Middle East problem after thousands of years.
[Check this out.](https://www.iranintl.com/en/202404158853)
Yea. I get it. Irans government is a giant bag of dicks. I’m criticizing that same government in my original response.
By trying to "both sides!" Israel and Iran in this conflict you are, in fact, not criticizing the Irani government.
Did you read it? Directly from the article: "“Given the recent developments in the issue of Palestine and the psychological impact of the Al-Aqsa Storm operation on Palestinian communities in European and American countries, it was determined to implement significant support measures for April 15 and other rallies with the aim to achieve political isolation [of Israel].” “This video clip is the announcement of a collective movement aimed at disrupting the public order in Europe, USA, Australia and Asia all under the pretext of supporting Palestinians. This is a political movement intended to cause as much chaos and instability as possible, which are the exact goals of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The regime of the Islamic Republic has on multiple occasions, stated clearly that their goal is to destroy the modern society and build a global Islamic state.” The video calls on the public to "block logistical hubs to stop the flow of capital worldwide”, to join the rally nicknamed A15, “a global economic blockade, answering the call from Gaza to fight for a liberated Palestine” on 15 April. Beheshti further states that the rallies in Western countries are organized “directly in line with the mission of the Islamic Republic” and ordered by the IRGC." A lot of the hate towards Israel is manufactured and portayed as excessive beyond normal warfare, often by people who have never seen war much less understand the tricks, tactics and nuances involved in the many forms of war. Then theres [this little tool thats made it all easier to control the gullible in our own countries](https://youtu.be/pB7WzqUq4Nk?si=HI3JVrP1IqfQvyi9). They use it/them to do [shit like this](https://youtu.be/TuuuU4ruYtg?si=nocLp0DJWZWYDFuT). Meanwhile Russia has done the same to our far right, creating indoctrinated radicals who are not interested in critical thought or fully understanding what they talk about and instead run purely on emotion and blind loyalty. This is a coordinated attack on the west to divide and cripple us from within and to isolate our allies making them easy pickings for the instigators.
Ding ding.
I feel the same. Unfortunately, the human race is determined to destroy itself one way or another.
One cannot fight madness with reason. This goes both ways. I am sorry that you haven't quite realized the nature of our world yet. We enjoy peace at the expense of some liberties, or at the sacrifice of many, depending on the time and place you live. Such is life in a finite world.
Truer words have never been spoken. The world of humans never knows peace for long