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More and more Americans understand that anti-Iranian sentiment here is mainly due to propaganda, not any rational considerations. Iran should be a natural ally

More and more Americans understand that anti-Iranian sentiment here is mainly due to propaganda, not any rational considerations. Iran should be a natural ally of the US.

acjohnson55 9y ago
The Iranian hardliners do a lot to stoke that flame too. Much like us, they have a polarized society. Their support for Hezbollah, Hamas, and other problematic groups complicates things too. Add to that the fact that it would be tough to repair the rift with Iran, while managing our Saudi relationship. All that said, I think it's a worthy undertakings to normalize relations with Iran. And selfishly, I look forward to the day when I can freely visit Persia as an American.
- curiousgal 9y ago
  Honest question, how does Iran's support for Hezbollah and Hamas directly affect Americans? I'd argue that Saudi Arabia's support for ISIS and Al-Qaeda had more/actual negative effects on Americans.
  - thebooktocome 9y ago
    They affect Israel. For better or for worse, Israel has a special relationship with the US. Obama had tried to moderate it over the past eight years, but...
    - davidf18 9y ago
      It was Israel that bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor. If it had not, Iraq would have had nuclear weapons making action against Iraq very difficult. It is Israel that tests US weapons systems in real world combat situations giving a tremendous amount of feedback to improve the weapons systems. The Tom Cruise movie "Top Gun": It was Israel that stole the MIG fighter jet that enabled our government to understand the operating characteristics so as to train US higher pilots to fight the MIGs. Israel serves as an "aircraft carrier" for the US where many, many weapons are stored. US troops train with Israelis. It is Israeli drone which protect NATO troops in Afghanistan including German troops. Israel is the 3rd largest exporter of weapons technology to India after US and Russia.
      - hexomancer 9y ago
        Are these supposed to make Israel sound good? Because to me, it sounds like Israel is doing the dirty, inhumane works for the US.
        davidf18 9y ago
        Can you please be specific? What is inhumane about preventing Iraq from acquiring nuclear weapons? Or inhumane about saving the lives of American fighter pilots (eg. Top Gun), or Israeli drones protecting the lives of NATO troops, or helping Indians protect itself from attacks from Pakistan? For example, the Prime Minister visited Israel in July had Israel has a lot of support from the people of India.
        DanBC 9y ago
        Please stop.
        dang 9y ago
        Since you haven't stopped despite repeated requests, I've banned this account until we get a guarantee that it won't do political flamewars again. I suppose I need to add that this isn't any kind of position on Israel, Iran, the U.S., terrorism, 9/11, bombs, or wars. It's just a position about what sort of threads aren't ok on Hacker News. One could flip all the political bits in your comments and its status for HN purposes would be just the same. My colleagues and I have a lot of empathy for the feelings of loyalty and love that drive a person to fight these battles. The feelings are important and the issues are important—much more important than Hacker News. Nevertheless the moderation job here is to protect HN as (1) a community and (2) a web forum dedicated to what gratifies intellectual curiosity. Nothing threatens that more than political battle, so we have to be proactive about this.
  - davidf18 9y ago
    I was miles away from 9/11 when it happened. I could see the smoke from the WTC buildings when looking south on Broadway Ave. Hezbollah and Hamas are terrorist organization according to the US, EU, and Israel. Iran is a state sponsoring terrorist groups. There must be zero tolerance for terrorism and terrorist organizations. There must be zero tolerance of state sponsorship of terrorist organizations.
    - danso 9y ago
      Iran had nothing to do with 9/11. Perhaps you're thinking of Iraq, which also was not behind 9/11, but a similarly named country that we happened to go to war with shortly after 9/11.
      - davidf18 9y ago
        9/11 was a terrorist act. Iran is supporting Hamas and Hezbollah which are terrorist organization (US, EU, as well as Israel). Terrorism is terrorism. When Iran supports terrorism it supports terrorism. The only way to denounce terrorism is to universally denounce terrorism. Otherwise you are just supporting terrorism. Do you understand this?
        danso 9y ago
        Boy I hope you never get in a position of power where you also have access to history books. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone
        davidf18 9y ago
        Perhaps you enjoy movies with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts? If so, you might enjoy the movie (and there is a book on which it is based) "Charlie Wilson's War" which is Operation Cyclone. [1] It is very, very entertaining and based on fact. The Soviets were using armored helicopter gunships to slaughter Afghan citizens. Congressman Charlie Wilson worked with the CIA, and with Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia to supply arms to the Afghans so that they could defeat the Soviet invaders. This was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. The arms used had to "look" as if they were Soviet weapons that were captured. To use American weapons would start a real war. Israel has the largest cache of Soviet weapons outside of the Soviet block. This they acquired from 1967 and 1973 Wars with Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. So, again, the US and Israel are the good guys defeating the Soviets. [1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Wilson%27s_War_(film)#Plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Wilson%27s_War_(film)#...
- davidf18 9y ago
  > "Their support for Hezbollah, Hamas, and other problematic groups complicates things too" Both Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist organizations. This is true according to the US, EU, Israel, Saudi Arabia, ...). Iran is developing nuclear weapons which they said will be used against Israel, but Suni Arabs states such as Saudi Arabia are very, very worried as well. I was just a few miles away from 9/11 when it happened. Please, never, never minimize terrorism and state sponsorship of terrorist organization.
  - carsongross 9y ago
    The majority of 9/11 attackers were Saudi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijackers_in_the_September_11_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijackers_in_the_September_11_... Iran is our natural ally in the region.
    - davidf18 9y ago
      Terrorism is terrorism is terrorism. 9/11 was a terrorist act. Iran supports terrorist organizations. If Iran had any true respect for 9/11 it would not be supporting terrorist organizations. > "Iran is our natural ally in the region." Alies don't support terrorist organizations. My understanding is that the problem is the government and not the people. I fairly confident that the people of Iran do not want to support terrorism nor do they want to support building atom bombs.
  - davidf18 9y ago
    Please have the courage to state why you are downvoting. I have stated facts and it surprises me that anyone would be for Iran supporting terrorist organizations. Iran is also developing nuclear weapons. If you believe that Iran is not supporting Hamas and Hezbollah or that it is not developing nuclear weapons, please cite your sources. A simple web link will do.
    - acjohnson55 9y ago
      I didn't downvote you, but my guess would be the 9/11 remark, which doesn't seem to connect with the rest of your argument.
hammock 9y ago
Iran was a natural ally until the US dropped the gold standard and now it's in the middle of a proxy war with Russia for control of the trade of its oil and gas resources. That has led to a pretty massive disintegration of culture and governance. Go ahead and compare photos of Tehran in the 70s vs today.
alexanderdmitri 9y ago
I hope you're right. I have met quite a few Iranians here in the States and it often leaves me feeling very sad that government & media rhetoric is so negative and narrow-sighted. Another example of how the macro reality we create can become massively misaligned with ground-level truths.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

More and more Americans understand that anti-Iranian sentiment here is mainly due to propaganda, not any rational considerations. Iran should be a natural ally of the US.

acjohnson55 9y ago

The Iranian hardliners do a lot to stoke that flame too. Much like us, they have a polarized society. Their support for Hezbollah, Hamas, and other problematic groups complicates things too. Add to that the fact that it would be tough to repair the rift with Iran, while managing our Saudi relationship. All that said, I think it's a worthy undertakings to normalize relations with Iran. And selfishly, I look forward to the day when I can freely visit Persia as an American.

curiousgal 9y ago
Honest question, how does Iran's support for Hezbollah and Hamas directly affect Americans? I'd argue that Saudi Arabia's support for ISIS and Al-Qaeda had more/actual negative effects on Americans.
- thebooktocome 9y ago
  They affect Israel. For better or for worse, Israel has a special relationship with the US. Obama had tried to moderate it over the past eight years, but...
  - davidf18 9y ago
    It was Israel that bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor. If it had not, Iraq would have had nuclear weapons making action against Iraq very difficult. It is Israel that tests US weapons systems in real world combat situations giving a tremendous amount of feedback to improve the weapons systems. The Tom Cruise movie "Top Gun": It was Israel that stole the MIG fighter jet that enabled our government to understand the operating characteristics so as to train US higher pilots to fight the MIGs. Israel serves as an "aircraft carrier" for the US where many, many weapons are stored. US troops train with Israelis. It is Israeli drone which protect NATO troops in Afghanistan including German troops. Israel is the 3rd largest exporter of weapons technology to India after US and Russia.
    - hexomancer 9y ago
      Are these supposed to make Israel sound good? Because to me, it sounds like Israel is doing the dirty, inhumane works for the US.
      - davidf18 9y ago
        Can you please be specific? What is inhumane about preventing Iraq from acquiring nuclear weapons? Or inhumane about saving the lives of American fighter pilots (eg. Top Gun), or Israeli drones protecting the lives of NATO troops, or helping Indians protect itself from attacks from Pakistan? For example, the Prime Minister visited Israel in July had Israel has a lot of support from the people of India.
        DanBC 9y ago
        Please stop.
        dang 9y ago
        Since you haven't stopped despite repeated requests, I've banned this account until we get a guarantee that it won't do political flamewars again. I suppose I need to add that this isn't any kind of position on Israel, Iran, the U.S., terrorism, 9/11, bombs, or wars. It's just a position about what sort of threads aren't ok on Hacker News. One could flip all the political bits in your comments and its status for HN purposes would be just the same. My colleagues and I have a lot of empathy for the feelings of loyalty and love that drive a person to fight these battles. The feelings are important and the issues are important—much more important than Hacker News. Nevertheless the moderation job here is to protect HN as (1) a community and (2) a web forum dedicated to what gratifies intellectual curiosity. Nothing threatens that more than political battle, so we have to be proactive about this.
- davidf18 9y ago
  I was miles away from 9/11 when it happened. I could see the smoke from the WTC buildings when looking south on Broadway Ave. Hezbollah and Hamas are terrorist organization according to the US, EU, and Israel. Iran is a state sponsoring terrorist groups. There must be zero tolerance for terrorism and terrorist organizations. There must be zero tolerance of state sponsorship of terrorist organizations.
  - danso 9y ago
    Iran had nothing to do with 9/11. Perhaps you're thinking of Iraq, which also was not behind 9/11, but a similarly named country that we happened to go to war with shortly after 9/11.
    - davidf18 9y ago
      9/11 was a terrorist act. Iran is supporting Hamas and Hezbollah which are terrorist organization (US, EU, as well as Israel). Terrorism is terrorism. When Iran supports terrorism it supports terrorism. The only way to denounce terrorism is to universally denounce terrorism. Otherwise you are just supporting terrorism. Do you understand this?
      - danso 9y ago
        Boy I hope you never get in a position of power where you also have access to history books. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone
        davidf18 9y ago
        Perhaps you enjoy movies with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts? If so, you might enjoy the movie (and there is a book on which it is based) "Charlie Wilson's War" which is Operation Cyclone. [1] It is very, very entertaining and based on fact. The Soviets were using armored helicopter gunships to slaughter Afghan citizens. Congressman Charlie Wilson worked with the CIA, and with Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia to supply arms to the Afghans so that they could defeat the Soviet invaders. This was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. The arms used had to "look" as if they were Soviet weapons that were captured. To use American weapons would start a real war. Israel has the largest cache of Soviet weapons outside of the Soviet block. This they acquired from 1967 and 1973 Wars with Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. So, again, the US and Israel are the good guys defeating the Soviets. [1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Wilson%27s_War_(film)#Plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Wilson%27s_War_(film)#...
davidf18 9y ago
> "Their support for Hezbollah, Hamas, and other problematic groups complicates things too" Both Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist organizations. This is true according to the US, EU, Israel, Saudi Arabia, ...). Iran is developing nuclear weapons which they said will be used against Israel, but Suni Arabs states such as Saudi Arabia are very, very worried as well. I was just a few miles away from 9/11 when it happened. Please, never, never minimize terrorism and state sponsorship of terrorist organization.
- carsongross 9y ago
  The majority of 9/11 attackers were Saudi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijackers_in_the_September_11_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijackers_in_the_September_11_... Iran is our natural ally in the region.
  - davidf18 9y ago
    Terrorism is terrorism is terrorism. 9/11 was a terrorist act. Iran supports terrorist organizations. If Iran had any true respect for 9/11 it would not be supporting terrorist organizations. > "Iran is our natural ally in the region." Alies don't support terrorist organizations. My understanding is that the problem is the government and not the people. I fairly confident that the people of Iran do not want to support terrorism nor do they want to support building atom bombs.
- davidf18 9y ago
  Please have the courage to state why you are downvoting. I have stated facts and it surprises me that anyone would be for Iran supporting terrorist organizations. Iran is also developing nuclear weapons. If you believe that Iran is not supporting Hamas and Hezbollah or that it is not developing nuclear weapons, please cite your sources. A simple web link will do.
  - acjohnson55 9y ago
    I didn't downvote you, but my guess would be the 9/11 remark, which doesn't seem to connect with the rest of your argument.

hammock 9y ago

Iran was a natural ally until the US dropped the gold standard and now it's in the middle of a proxy war with Russia for control of the trade of its oil and gas resources. That has led to a pretty massive disintegration of culture and governance. Go ahead and compare photos of Tehran in the 70s vs today.

alexanderdmitri 9y ago

I hope you're right. I have met quite a few Iranians here in the States and it often leaves me feeling very sad that government & media rhetoric is so negative and narrow-sighted. Another example of how the macro reality we create can become massively misaligned with ground-level truths.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]