Exact same question I have.
I have another question, also. Did you ever think you would see the day when the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran is on the right side in a conflict with the United States?
Iran (IRGC & Co.) is a sponsor of terror groups. They terrorize and murder their own citizens.
His speech is a textbook definition of Crocodile Tears.
That’s probably true, but it doesn’t answer the question. We did attack them, and we did kill a bunch of children.
EDIT: I see he does say “we are not terrorists”, which is obviously false (not that it makes starting the war any smarter or less immoral).
It absolutely answers the question. Unless…
…was the question you had in mind.
So what did I say that was false?
If you were talking about the terrorists quote, then nothing.
Let’s all agree, for the sake of argument, that killing school children is wrong.
With that out of the way…
There is no right side here. There are just degrees of wrong. Uncomfortable as it may be, we should not feel compelled to side with one over the other.
ex.:
The IRGC is a malevolent force in the world.
The Trump administration is an incompetent, stupid, and destabilizing force in the world.
Agreed.
Though for Trump please Greedy & Self-Serving.
The “right side” was to not start this stupid war. Starting this war helped the Iran regime and hurt the US.
Also agreed.
Though I will add, if you’re going to start a war vs. Iran, plan it and listen to those that have been wargaming it. Don’t go about like some coked up frat boys looking to score their next line.
Obviously. Though the wargames almost certainly indicated the closing of the Strait, and Trump and Hegseth seem to have just ignored this.
There is no end to that list.
Or didn’t even consult to start with. I’m sure Trump didn’t. Hegseth, may or may not have asked and ignored.
That’s true of all wars, though there may be one or two exceptions in the long bloody history of humanity.
Summary
(No, WWII is not it, Britain was an imperialistic exploitative power, the southern half of the U.S. was engaged in low-grade terrorism against it’s own population to deny them the right to vote, etc.).
Moderating:
Please keep very hijackable comments like this out of this thread.
I almost replied as a poster. I’ll hide it for you.
Be more careful, this is at least the 2nd modnote for you in this thread.
My opinion? Escalation of the ongoing Israel-Iran war was probably inevitable, but I think we can now say for sure that the U.S. deciding to join in was a mistake, one that will be studied ad nauseum in the coming decades and centuries. If it had just been fighting Israel, Iran probably wouldn’t have closed the Straits and attacked the Gulf states, and we wouldn’t be where we are right now.
So yeah, the situation sucks. But who knows - the Iranian regime could collapse tomorrow. Things are not going great there, from what I’ve heard. Personally, while I would loathe to give Trump and Bibi a victory (especially so close to the two countries’ elections), I’m still rooting against the people who tried to kill me with missiles. I’m selfish that way.
Yes, but I like to look at the world as it is, not as it I wish it to be.
I’m not entirely convinced of the former or the latter.
I think that, on balance, fewer ayatollahs and IRGC commanders in the world is a good thing.
To whatever extent the IRGC and proxies were damaged and Iran’s nuclear program was set back is also a good thing.
The US will recover from whatever damage the Trump administration has caused. But obviously not from the 18 US military lives lost because of the incompetence of this administration. Nor the innocent children’s lives taken in that school bombing. The punishment I’d like to see meted out on those responsible will never happen, and I will certainly be mod noted if I post the specifics of what it ought to be.
Callous bastard. /s
At the cost of vastly strengthening the regime’s hold on the country? We made an enemy of the Iranian people by killing so many civilians. We pushed them into having to choose between their own appalling leadership and Trump/Hegseth’s indiscriminate bombings and genocidal rhetoric. They may hate their government, but their government didn’t blow up a school.
As far as the damage to us, Iran made the most powerful military in the world look like chumps. They beat us! We’ve lost the war, a war we started, to a much smaller county. We lost it in the first week. We’re just prolonging it for political reasons. There’s no strategy, no mission, and no plan.
As for nukes, Iran has the Strait. That’s much more useful to them than nukes. They can squeeze global trade without killing anyone, and without looking like the bad guys. After all, we started the war. Iran has gained the sympathy of much of the world, while we’ve made ourselves the villains. It will take decades to recover our reputation, if it’s even possible.
This war has just been catastrophic. Your rose colored glasses show a fantasy.
They killed 30,000-40,000 of it’s citizens in a matter of a few days.
I think you underestimate the hate and fear a large proportion of Iranian citizens have for their government.
They haven’t. Stop with the hyperbole.
This too shall pass.
Which parts? Who is sympathetic to a murderous regime that threatens and attacks their neighbors?
MAGA propaganda. It’s laughable. It’s not remotely hyperbole. Any path to victory has been closed for months and months.
Iran will have the threat of closing the Strait as long as they have a coastline in the Strait. That’s much, much more threatening to the world than a handful of nukes. They’ve proven they’re willing to use it to defend themselves and proven that it can have a massive impact.
And this was all predictable. I was getting briefings on this possibility in the Navy 20 years ago.
I don’t think sympathy is the right word, but almost every country rralizes they would do everything Iran did if they were attacked this way in 2026.
The alternative is being Venezuela and surrendering.
Also one of the most useful propaganda tools for authoritarian regimes is to convince enough people who aren’t true believers that the regime is necessary to protect the country from their enemies. Since it consolidated power Iran has tried to make Israel and the US into those enemies. Now how do either make the case to would-be opposition figures in Iran that this isn’t true and Israel and the US are the ones defending themselves from Iran’s terror state? How do internal dissidents already in Iran shake they label that they’re actually foreign agents?