It depends on what you and iiandyii mean by “us”. I assumed you meant the US generally including US interests in the region. In that realm, they’re not only a current threat, given the last few years in the Straits and Gulf generally, they are an active threat.
I COMPLETELY agree that diplomatic efforts are the better path for most problems.
Instead, it’s likely to result in the opposite effect, at least in the short term. Air strikes validate the regime and will likely cause the populace to redirect their anger from the oppressive regime to their attackers in a “rally ‘round the flag” effect.
ETA: I see this point was already made upthread by @Der_Trihs.
On cnn’s website, it says “Trump encourages Iranians to take over their government” - imagine his reaction if Americans tried to do the same.
So, is Congress in thumb-twiddling mode?
The powers that be have been saying Iran is a threat for decades. We made a peace deal that was working ten years ago. I don’t remotely buy the minimal, outdated case presented by the biggest liars in the world why somehow this war is remotely necessary.
I for one am tired of “US interests” being a thing we need to defend everywhere. Your assumption, I think, is wrong.
Iran is a negligible threat to the US. Our “interests” in the region don’t count.
Wow, amazing! Iran dismantled their nuclear and ballistics weapons projects ten years ago? Incredible! How did they pull an entire ballistic missile program out of Khamenei’s ass in such a short period of time if that was the case? How did they build their network of terrorist proxies up overnight, since they apparently dismantled it ten years ago?
The deal has been dead for 8 years…
Is there any cite other than IRNA so far? Every article I’ve seen just quotes the Iranian state media report.
Is it your contention that a peace deal has failed unless everything desired is accomplished instantaneously?
Moderating:
@iiandyiiii & @Babale
Find or start a new thread for this peace deal debate. This is a big pull away from the current ongoing bombing.
I feel like there must already be another thread for you two to hash this out.
It probably was beyond their capacity last week. Now, though, thanks to Trump, it’ll be easy for them.
I highly, highly doubt that.
“Listen, Iranians, we know we crack down on you guys and beat the shit out of you with our morality police and we murdered 30,000 of you a few weeks ago. But you have to understand, we did it all to protect you from Israel and America” is a much tougher sell when you’ve demonstrated your complete and utter worthlessness at fighting Israel and America.
There’s a reason why the last go-around of fighting caused the protests rather than helping Iran quell their internal dissent.
You don’t demonstrate your value as an authoritarian strongman by being exceedingly weak and ineffective.
Over/Under on how soon he belches forth his next complaint about not getting the Nobel Peace Prize?
(To be fair, they gave it to Henry Kissinger, so I hesitate to call this contretemps disqualifying…)
As far as I can tell, no, which also makes me a bit skeptical of the report.
I think I have three thoughts about this.
When did the US decide it was OK to use military force not in response to an actual attack? I suppose there was Vietnam, but Bush’s Iraq invasion was probably the turning point?
Strategically, I suspect it is correct that regime change is not going to happen just from air attacks. It would have to be boots on the ground.
The outcome will probably be disasterous. Did Bush’s invasion result in a stable, prosperous, democratic Iraq? As far as I can see, Iraq has become, if not an actual failed state, a fragile one, with no strong government and a lot of disruption caused by various armed militias etc. I will admit that I have no first hand information about this and would welcome informed data.
If only there was some kind of “Board of Peace”.
It would be nice if we had something like Kipling’s Aerial Board of Control.
There is a picture.
I realize we don’t know what type of building that is, but it seems undeniable that civilians are present.
Yes, we should wait for the official report from the Department of War.