United States and Israel are bombing Iran

[Der_Trihs]

@Monty

Back to the thread topic. How long do you suppose it will take before Trump realizes that if it’s okay for him to assassinate another country’s top leader, then it must also be okay for another country to assassinate him?

Never. “Rules for thee, but not for me.”

[Si_Amigo]

Just like Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan did. How did those turn out?

[Babale]

For those who find anything that comes out of Iranian state media remotely reliable, they’ve now confirmed that Khamenei is indeed dead.

Live updates: Trump say Iran’s supreme leader is dead

[Smapti]

Matthew Sheffield (@matthew.flux.community)

[Der_Trihs]

@Si_Amigo

Just like Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan did. How did those turn out?

The /s means “sarcasm”, if you didn’t know that.

[PhillyGuy]

Re last post, Mike Huckabee sent out an apparently unclassified email yesterday (February 27) strongly implying that Israeli airspace would be closed today (February 28):

If any staffers or family members want to depart, they “should do so TODAY,” Huckabee writes in the email sent this morning at 10:24 a.m. local time, according to The New York Times.

I’m not sure when the New York Times story came out yesterday, but the Wayback Machine first picked it up at 11:26 AM Eastern Standard Time.

So if the insider trading was before 10:24 AM Jerusalem time, it really was insider. If during the gap between the email time and the New York Times story release, it was semi-insider. If any later, it wasn’t insider at all, because Huckabee’s email really was a statement that there was going to be a war tomorrow.

P.S. I’m not saying Huckabee’s email made it definite that there would be war tomorrow. Trump could always change his mind, and often does. But it does mean that loyal insiders, like Huckabee, were under the strong impression of war coming tomorrow.

[Wesley_Clark]

@Son_of_a_Rich

The naysayers are going to look pretty foolish when the Iranian people greet us as liberators.
/s

I know that’s sarcastic, but its my understanding that there are about 500,000 members of the Iranian paramilitary forces who oppress the public.

Granted its a nation of 90 million and something like 80-90% of Iranians reject the current regime, but those half a million paramilitary soldiers are going to engage in guerilla warfare for years if the regime falls. I hope the Iranian regime falls and is replaced by something better, but occupying and pacifying the nation will not be easy.

I do wonder if the kurds will invade to help put down the IRGC in exchange for some land in the northwest of Iran to have their own country. The kurds have a few hundred thousand well trained soldiers, I could see them possibly offering to hunt down and kill IRGC militants in exchange for national sovereignty within Iran.

The Arab nations also hate Iran, and Azerbaijan hates Iran. I’m wondering if they will send funds to help kill off the IRGC leftovers if the regime falls.

Maybe groups like the green berets will go in to help train counter insurgents.

I really have no idea. My understanding that since the official Iranian military is full of people who hate the government, that they aren’t going to fight to defend the government when it collapses.

[Fear_Itself]

Ballistic missile from Iran falls in Tel Aviv; one dead, 21 injured

USA TODAY (@usatoday.com)

[Chronos]

@Wesley_Clark

I do wonder if the kurds will invade to help put down the IRGC in exchange for some land in the northwest of Iran to have their own country.

What makes you think the US has any intention of helping out the Kurds? We didn’t help them in Bush 43’s war; why would we help them now?

[Wesley_Clark]

@Chronos

What makes you think the US has any intention of helping out the Kurds? We didn’t help them in Bush 43’s war; why would we help them now?

The US and EU have a long alliance with the kurds. They helped the west fight against ISIL. But the US has thrown them under the bus before too.

My point was if the Iranian regime falls, I wonder if the new proto-government in Iran will offer the Kurds their own land in northwest Iran in exchange for the Kurds providing military help to help fight against the IRGC remnants in Iran. A Kurdish protostate with autonomy that spans northern Iraq and northwestern Iran would provide motivation for the peshmerga to provide boots on the ground to help stabilize the new Iranian state if the current regime falls.

If the Iranian regime falls, they are going to need weapons, training and soldiers to fight against the insurgents who supported the old regime.

[Beckdawrek]

The girls school..I’ve always understood girls were not allowed to go to school in Iran.

It being Saturday and kids were at that building I’m willing to believe they were human shields and that’s not a school at all

[Smapti]

@Beckdawrek

It being Saturday

Why would it being Saturday be relevant? The Muslim Sabbath is on Friday.

[Elmer_J.Fudd]

@Beckdawrek

The girls school..I’ve always understood girls were not allowed to go to school in Iran.

Iran likely has the most educated female population in the Islamic world. Women represent half of student enrollment in Iranian universities.

[BobLibDem]

It’s interesting the see the bizarre spin that MAGA Facebookers put on things. Like this:

Hillary Clinton supplied Iran with uranium to enrich their nuclear program

Barack Obama gave Iran $1.7 Billion than they used to fund their nuclear program

Joe Biden unfroze $16 Billion of funds for Iran

So Don’t Even Blame This On T***p.

What the ever loving fuck? Is the Hillary smear something to do with UraniumOne? Where Hillary as Secretary of State was one of nine cabinet secretaries who signed off on the sale of UraniumOne, which did not export any uranium anyway since the company lacked an export license and exporting of uranium from the US is generally prohibited? Why the fuck single out Hillary? As for Obama, he merely was complying with an international court judgment against the US for fighter jets that Iran paid for in the 1970s but never received because of the revolution. As for Biden unfreezing of Iran’s own fucking money, this was for humanitarian purposes, not nuclear. We had a fucking deal with Iran on their nuclear program but DJT tore it up. Now he thinks that killing the Supreme Leader will magically turn Iran into Switzerland. Just like Libya is a wonderful place after Khadafy was killed, like Syria is magical after Assad, like Iraq is a model democracy after Hussein. Killing leaders and hoping for the best doesn’t fucking work.

[Monty]

@Beckdawrek

The girls school..I’ve always understood girls were not allowed to go to school in Iran.

You’re confusing Iran with the Taliban. Girls and women have been attending schools in Iran for quite some time, even under the current regime.

Marojorie Taylor Greene criticizes Trump on this war.

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) slammed President Trump’s decision to launch major strikes on Iran in a push to dismantle its nuclear efforts and push for regime change.

Greene posted a broadside against Trump’s Iran strikes on social media platform X, dismissing the administration’s rationale and accusing the president of betraying his supporters who backed his campaign message of opposing more foreign wars.

“Thousands and thousands of Americans from my generation have been killed and injured in never ending pointless foreign wars and we said no more. But we are freeing the Iranian people. Please,” the former GOP lawmaker wrote Saturday in a nearly 700-word post.

“There are 93 million people in Iran, let them liberate themselves. But Iran is on the verge of having nuclear weapons. Yeah sure,” she continued.

“It’s always a lie and it’s always America Last. But it feels like the worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different and said no more.”

And what do US intelligence agencies have to say about his claims?

U.S. intelligence experts believe that President Donald Trump’s claims about Iranian threats to the U.S. are vastly exaggerated.

Trump, the self-proclaimed “President of Peace,” launched a wave of missile strikes on Iran early Saturday morning, telling the public in a prerecorded address that the U.S. military had begun “major combat operations.”

The strikes, unauthorized by Congress and performed alongside Israel, are designed to stop this “very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests,” Trump, 79, claimed in the video message. “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground.”

He accused the Iranian regime of building missiles that “could soon reach the American homeland.”

However, this argument, which he also peddled during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, is tenuous at best. While Iran has a vast arsenal of short and medium-range ballistic missiles capable of hitting Israel and U.S. military bases in the Middle East, it is years away from producing the intercontinental ballistic missile Trump warned of.

Someone upthread asked who was in charge of the attacks, Netahanyu or Trump. The live feed I linked in the OP has this:

Netanyahu also extended his gratitude to President Donald Trump “for his historic leadership.”

That was posted at 11:22 a.m. GMT, Saturday, 28 February 2026.

[Snarky_Kong]

@Wesley_Clark

My point was if the Iranian regime falls, I wonder if the new proto-government in Iran will offer the Kurds their own land in northwest Iran in exchange for the Kurds providing military help to help fight against the IRGC remnants in Iran.

I can answer this.

No.

[Beckdawrek]

Thanks for the info guys.

[nearwildheaven]

You’re thinking of Afghanistan.

The school may have been a boarding school, or an event was taking place when the bombing happened.

[Monty]

From the NBC News live update as of 10:54 p.m. EST:

Iran has a process for choosing a successor to Khamenei, killed in the U.S. and Israeli attack.

Article 111 of the country’s constitution gives the job to its Assembly of Experts, an 88-member body of qualified clerics approved by voters, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Until the assembly speaks, a three-member council of the president, the head of the judiciary and a jurist of the Guardian Council chosen by the country’s Expediency Discernment Council takes over the supreme leader’s duties, according to the constitution.

If any of those three are unable to serve, the Expediency Discernment Council is to appoint a replacement, the constitution decrees.

Suzanne Maloney, a senior fellow for Middle East policy at the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program, said that process, as well as other political forces in Iran, may withstand outside influence.

“Any mere change at the top of Iran’s leadership remains insufficient to topple the current system,” she said in a post on the Council on Foreign Relations website today. “Over time, a political movement capable of challenging the regime could yet emerge, but any forthcoming leadership transition in Iran is unlikely to result in a beneficial change in the regime itself.”

Here is the English translation of the constitution for the Islamic Republic of iran. I’ll quote Article 111:

Whenever the Leader becomes incapable of fulfilling his constitutional duties, or loses one of the qualifications mentioned in Articles 5 and 109, or it becomes known that he did not possess some of the qualifications initially, he will be dismissed. The authority of determination in this matter is vested with the experts specified in Article 108.

In the event of the death, or resignation or dismissal of the Leader, the experts shall take steps within the shortest possible time for the appointment of the new Leader. Till the appointment of the new Leader, a council consisting of the President, head of the judiciary power, and a faqih from the Guardian Council, upon the decision of the Nation’s Exigency Council, shall temporarily take over all the duties of the Leader. In the event, during this period, any one of them is unable to fulfil his duties for whatsoever reason, another person, upon the decision of majority of fuqaha’ in the Nation’s Exigency Council shall be elected in his place.

This council shall take action in respect of items 1,3,5, and 10, and sections d, e and f of item 6 of Article 110, upon the decision of three-fourths of the members of the Nation’s Exigency Council.

Whenever the Leader becomes temporarily unable to perform the duties of leadership owing to his illness or any other incident, then during this period, the council mentioned in this Article shall assume his duties.

It’s a bit more involved than just getting rid of the top guy.

[Eric1]

I remember a CBS 60 Minutes story about 7-8 years ago about how friendly Iran was to tourists. I’m sad to say it might not be like that again for a long while.