Israel - Iran and regional players | Please post respectfully and stay on topic

Once again I find it fascinating how so few people will blame Iran for anything, particularly on the left.

It's Biden's fault for being weak. Oh but look at those war-mongering conservatives! They're so cringe.

Iran just gets to keep f*cking around with the world order, its agency is ignored or even accepted, and it's the fault of the western nations in how they react. The kid-glove treatment is staggering. The same vociferous voices that blame any US action in any foreign border is oddly silent when Iran do it, constantly.

Look at what Iran could achieve this year, and cost it virutally no citizens and no consequences: by instigating October 7th and (easily) predicting the Israeli response, it has entirely destablised that region, driven a wedge into world politics and created a swell of anti-Biden force that could see Trump get into power, thus ending US foreign-policy for at-best 4 years. By shutting down crucial shipping lanes, it has increased world inflation and impacted world economies to the tunes of billions and billions.

And what to consequence? Nothing.


This just isn't reality in any mainstream sense, though. Putting aside the policy of actual governments or the stances of mainstream media in the west (certainly not much notable apologism or favouritism for Iran in either) and sticking to general online anti-US/Iran and other authoritarian regime hypocrisy, you only need a cursory glance through social media or large online discussion boards ( like reddit's biggest political subs) to see that there is in fact a great deal of condemnation and disdain for the Iranian and other authoritarian governments from all sorts of political viewpoints. This had been the case over the entire social media era. They're all full of talk right now about coming down hard on them, making an example, or incoherent takes about appeasement in the middle-east not working (with obligatory WW2 references)...some of the "needs a reaction" talk is moderate in scope, but there's also plenty of overt 2000s Bush era warmongering. The latter certainly outweighs leftist/liberal apologism for Iran by a considerable margin from what i can see.

These far-left apologists that only criticise the usa/west then automatically default to their opponent in any issue being a justified good-guy are a powerless, irrelevant tiny minority; it's largely an online thing too, compared to the real damage the far more mainstream public acceptance of populist right-wing to outright far-right views is causing. It's not the 1960s-70s when there were genuine far-left militant organisations or parties with some power causing trouble in Western countries (Red Army Faction, the Years of Lead and strong communist support in Italy, etc.), while at the same time genuinely believing a lot of the partially-to-entirely true stories of authoritarian brutality coming out of communist countries was all propaganda.
 
Everyone who is not blessed to be living in the West? So you expect the West to apologize because power-hungry people/factions have shown time and time again to be too immature to make their own non-Western countries grow or be sustainable in a peaceful manner for starters? I have seen very bad takes before, but this has to be among the very worst of the lot.

Your bullshit is quite very rich, especially considering that you would not have a country today if it wasn't for the West.
What drivel.
 
America's presence in Jordan is no business of Islamic Republic regime in Iran. If Jordan gov't wants American troops to be there, they can be there. If Jordan gov't complains, then US should leave. Every country's sovereignty must be respected.

This lumping the entire Middle East region into "one" collective is hilarious, considering the hundreds of different belief systems, factions, and rivalries not just between the nations, but among the factors within each nation.

Imperialism isn't just an American thing. Islamic Regime militias and Ummah-imperialistic mindset has its. tentacles on Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen via their terrorist militias. If you demand US to f*ck off and leave the countries there alone, demand the same for the other powers to do so as well.

 
Yemen: US and EU ignored our warnings about Houthis to court Iran for nuclear deal

BRUSSELS — The U.S. and EU were so determined to court Iran for a nuclear deal over recent years that they ignored repeated warnings about the risks that Tehran-backed Houthi rebels pose to global security, Yemen’s foreign minister said in an interview Thursday.

“We have been saying this a long time,” he said on a visit to Brussels. "I have been here three times before and always we said if we didn't do this ... the Houthis will never stop. The Houthis have an ideology, have a project. Iran has a project in the region and unfortunately, the others do not respond."
https://www.politico.eu/article/yem...about-houthis-to-court-iran-for-nuclear-deal/
 
The US response to the Jordan attack is of course to attack Syria.
 
Where would the B1s be based out of, Diego Garcia?

e - they made the trip from the US with the help of a couple of tankers

 
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The top comments in that tweet are not particularly kind with the fact that the US basically telegraphed about the strikes several days ago instead of 1) maintaining total silence and then 2) hitting the enemy with the Japanese method (i.e. hard and with a total element of surprise).
 
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Whole attack lasted 30 minutes, quite the aerial orchestra with some bombers flying 13 hours from the US to participate...

 
In recent period too? The US and Iraq are in talks about the future but up until then, it seems US presence was tolerated or supported by Iraqi government.


https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/24/iraq-new-prime-minister-sudani-us-troops/

This is an article from Jan 2023, alot has changed since then, he himself the PM had the iraqi parliament vote/act in his drawer for 3 years. 2 weeks ago he came out an said maybe its time we discuss the presence of the forces, but he will gladly keep the military consultants.
 


In what could easily be ranked as Thomas Friedman's most outlandish NYTcolums

He decided to "understand the Middle East through the animal kingdom" —because, naturally, likening entire peoples to animals is the height of sophistication in the face of genocide and dehumanization. Lo and behold, the US and Netanyahu prance about as a lion and a lemur, the undisputed prom kings of the animal ball. Meanwhile, the local denizens are demoted to the ranks of insects and parasites, buzzing and leeching in the background.

Friedman, in his infinite wisdom, distills complex geopolitics for the American audience into a simple fable: We, the regal creatures, reign supreme in a jungle overrun by vermin. And should these pests overstep? Perhaps it's time for exterminatory housekeeping.
 


In what could easily be ranked as Thomas Friedman's most outlandish NYTcolums

He decided to "understand the Middle East through the animal kingdom" —because, naturally, likening entire peoples to animals is the height of sophistication in the face of genocide and dehumanization. Lo and behold, the US and Netanyahu prance about as a lion and a lemur, the undisputed prom kings of the animal ball. Meanwhile, the local denizens are demoted to the ranks of insects and parasites, buzzing and leeching in the background.

Friedman, in his infinite wisdom, distills complex geopolitics for the American audience into a simple fable: We, the regal creatures, reign supreme in a jungle overrun by vermin. And should these pests overstep? Perhaps it's time for exterminatory housekeeping.


I don't know why people keep platforming this guy.
 
Egypt’s Suez Canal revenues fall by almost half after Red Sea attacks: Official

Egypt’s Suez Canal revenue plunged by almost half in January, a top official said, after attacks by Yemeni militants on Red Sea vessels forced major shipping firms to avoid the waterway.

The drop is the latest headache for the North African nation that was already wrestling with its worst economic crisis in decades before the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October and threatened to disrupt trade and tourism.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/...ues-fall-by-almost-half-after-Red-Sea-attacks
 
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Interesting take from The Observer...