Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦It's not war, it's a "major combat operation"?
Trump can't even come up with his own bullshit, has to steal Putin's homework.
Also a reminder that while the Iranian regime is undeniably horrible, it is also the result of CIA and MI6 instigating (in 1953) a coup d'état against the government of Iran that had a democratic mandate, over oil:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
Here's the Wikipedia page about the prime minister of that government, Mohammad Mosaddegh:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh
The coup made shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi an authoritarian monarch with US backing. His oppressive regime ended with the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Peter Brett@rysiek Gotta give the British more credit, here. It wasn't merely “over oil”, it was specifically over British Petroleum's completely unfair monopoly in the region… hard to think of a clearer example of The Brits Are At It Again
Andrew
Tim Finnerty
LisPi
Oblomov@rysiek I with we had an Alternate Historyscope that would tell is if the Iranian Revolution would have happened also under Mossadegh (or whoever would have followed him) rule. Several elements of the shah's “modernization” that pissed off the clergy were already present in Mossadeghism, but the clergy wouldn't have had the support of the left wing that they had in 1978 in our timeline.
malcolm@rysiek The US interfered a second time in the 70s - the left wing were rebelling against the Shah (Evin prison was set up to hold left wing political prisoners) so the US invested in training and weapons for the Islamic students who became the IRGC as it thought they'd be more pliant and less left wing
@rysiek Whenever the future of Iran is brought up it's always portrayed as Muslim fundamentalist authoritatians Vs rich right wing authoritarians, as if there's nothing more to the country (or the diaspora)
@rysiek There's an article in The Guardian talking about how (this bit is mentioned once) "sections" of the Iranian diaspora in the UK are happy about the strikes. Nothing about their politics or if there are any parts of the diaspora not happy though (IME the newer arrivals are happy and the older ones are cynical and don't trust Trump be doing anything that will actually benefit Iran no matter their actual politics as they've got a better knowledge of Western politics)
@rysiek Guardian always seems to highlight what "sections" of the diaspora think and it's always the same sections, if I were a cynic with a good working knowledge of the diaspora I might wonder why that is. And the diaspora really go for mutual aid/support in a way many diasporas don't even if they have otherwise gone native so they could all point you at secular lefty Iranians etc.
Parker Morse@rysiek I feel like one of the significant weaknesses of our party politics is that it encourages leaders to ignore these long-term historical patterns (Iran is far from the only example, unfortunately) and instead blame the last time the opposing party did anything (in this case, Obama). And we all know what happens to those who ignore history.
"Wow, who screwed this up?"
$ git blame /iran
"Oh."
"Wow, who screwed this up?"
$ git blame /iran
"Oh."
@flashesofpanic I wonder if this lack of context in public debate could somehow be linked to media bought and paid for by the oligarchs?.. 
@rysiek I mean, yeah? As one factor, but also this weird triumphal America-can-do-no-wrong-because-DEMOCRACY idea we've embedded in elementary education so deeply that anyone over the age of 40 needs significant deprogramming to even *understand* colonialism properly, let alone recognize it when we see it in action. (And it's ongoing in large swaths of the country, that's the "DEI" they're all complaining about.)
Sibtodon
Barbara Monaco@rysiek The US and Britain overthrew a duly elected president and installed the Shah, literally a king.
The Shah was a murderous tyrant who utilized secret police and torture to keep citizens in line until he was overthrown by mullahs and revolutionaries. He died in exile.
Shah's son trying to play a major role in Iran after the current war. Should work out just fine. 🙄
The Shah was a murderous tyrant who utilized secret police and torture to keep citizens in line until he was overthrown by mullahs and revolutionaries. He died in exile.
Shah's son trying to play a major role in Iran after the current war. Should work out just fine. 🙄
αxel simon ↙︎↙︎↙︎@rysiek yeah, the shah was horrible, the regime that took root after the revolution of 79 is horrible, and quite a few people now want Reza Pahlavi, the son of Mohamed Reza Pahlavi the last shah, to be the alternative.
It's hard not to have a bad feeling about that option.
sortius 