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> The current Iranian regime maintains power because Iranians support it. Some Iranians love their government! This is true in every country. On the whole, tho

> The current Iranian regime maintains power because Iranians support it. Some Iranians love their government! This is true in every country. On the whole, though, this is a gross mischaracterization. Iran has been having enormous countrywide protests and strikes for the last several years. The scale of these cannot be understated. Protests in every city and town, and many small villages, across the entire country, for months and months on end. Over 20,000 Iranians have been arrested in the most recent wave of protests, and somewhere between 500 and 5,000 have been killed since September 2022. The government steals people's corpses and buries them in secret so that the true death toll is hidden. Iran has the largest standing military in the Middle East. About a third of the military is the IRGC, who is sworn protect not the people or national sovereignty, but rather to the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Republic, and is frequently deployed domestically. They have been instrumental in crushing protests, going as far as shelling their own villages with artillery to quell dissent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahsa_Amini_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahsa_Amini_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Iranian_food_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Iranian_food_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932020_Iranian_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932020_Iranian_prot... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018%E2%80%932019_Iranian_general_strikes_and_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018%E2%80%932019_Iranian_gene... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011–2012_Iranian_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011–2012_Iranian_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Iranian_presidential_election_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Iranian_presidential_elec...

midoridensha 4y ago
While obviously, many Iranians are very unhappy with their government, that doesn't equal an outright majority. In fact, many (most?) revolutions aren't even fought by a majority; usually it's a small minority that takes over by defeating another small minority, while the rest are complacent. Regardless, that huge military you refer to in Iran is composed of... Iranians. They're not foreign oppressors. If the Iranian people don't want these village-shelling assholes ruling over them, they need to stand up and do something about it. These soldiers live somewhere, and have families somewhere. No regime can stay in power without military support. Anyway, back to my point: Iran's current problems aren't America's fault. Iranians are doing this to themselves, just like Afghanistan's people are oppressing themselves.

midoridensha 4y ago

While obviously, many Iranians are very unhappy with their government, that doesn't equal an outright majority. In fact, many (most?) revolutions aren't even fought by a majority; usually it's a small minority that takes over by defeating another small minority, while the rest are complacent. Regardless, that huge military you refer to in Iran is composed of... Iranians. They're not foreign oppressors. If the Iranian people don't want these village-shelling assholes ruling over them, they need to stand up and do something about it. These soldiers live somewhere, and have families somewhere. No regime can stay in power without military support. Anyway, back to my point: Iran's current problems aren't America's fault. Iranians are doing this to themselves, just like Afghanistan's people are oppressing themselves.