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There are reasons why presidents have avoided attacking Iran. - massive instability in the ME. Just a few men with shoulder fired missiles can disrupt oil ship
by dkjaudyeqooe 1y ago
There are reasons why presidents have avoided attacking Iran.
- massive instability in the ME. Just a few men with shoulder fired missiles can disrupt oil shipments from the biggest oil producers
- the high chance of being sucked into a forever war. Iran can cause a lot of problems with limited resources and can rebuild. They have no reason to give up and the US might have to continue bombing indefinitely, or launch a ground invasion.
- the increased chance of nuclear war in the ME. This action assumes that Iran has no backup facilities, or will never have, to continue building a bomb. Having already suffered the consequences, Iran has no reason not to seek a bomb.
- deadbabe 1y ago[flagged]
- csoups14 1y ago[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- austin-cheney 1y agoWorse, is that this was done at the behest of Israel. Israel is America’s shittiest ally in the region where the relationship is exclusively one-sided. There are good reasons why, despite all the lies and bullshit from America politicians, America has not executed military actions at their behest before now.
- dkjaudyeqooe 1y agoThis is probably the worst thing about Trump, he's let Bibi lead him around like a dog on a leash. Any other president would be infuriated with Bibi's actions, because they would know he's cornering the US. But he knew Trump was a pushover.
- I-M-S 1y agoI guess any other president doesn't include Trump's direct predecessor, under whose watch Gaza was allowed to happen.
- 0dayz 1y agoAllow Gaza to happen? You mean Biden approved of Oct 7?
- bravesoul2 1y agoNo the "self defence" that happened in response to that. 1000s of tonnes of bombs shipped to kill civilians and enact genocide.
- 0dayz 1y agoSelf defense? Afaik it was a war that now is a genocidal war.
- bravesoul2 1y agoAir quotes because that's how Israel propogandizes it.
- ekam 1y agoHe means the genocide and forced starvation of over a hundred thousand innocent Palestinians
- jordanb 1y ago“Every time anyone says that Israel is our only friend in the Middle East, I can’t help but think that before Israel, we had no enemies in the Middle East.” — John Sheehan, S.J.
- nullhole 1y ago> “Every time anyone says that Israel is our only friend in the Middle East, I can’t help but think that before Israel, we had no enemies in the Middle East.” — John Sheehan, S.J. Before Israel? Like before 1947? When half the place was under British rule and the oil industry was a fraction of what it was today? That's about as useful as saying that before the atomic bomb, we had no enemies in the Middle East. What a dishonest way to make such an inflammatory accusation.
- vFunct 1y agoYes. Before Israel, when America had no enemies in the mideast. Thanks for confirming.
- CapricornNoble 1y agoYes, before 1947, back when the Secretary of State as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all seasoned professionals who had just won WW2, strongly advised AGAINST supporting Zionism in Palestine. They correctly asserted that demands from the Zionists would never end, and that it would sour the US's otherwise solid relations with the entire Arab region. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1946v07/d541 https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1946v07/d5... https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1946v07/d489 https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1946v07/d4...
- mensetmanusman 1y agoIt wasn’t, the political pressure from Iran’s neighbors was higher, and it didn’t help that the EU was pissed at Iran for helping kill Ukraine.
- greenavocado 1y ago[flagged]
- 0dayz 1y agoCan we criticize Israel without obvious conspiracy bait.
- greenavocado 1y agohttps://x.com/IvanIvanovichC2/status/1912180077548179478 https://x.com/IvanIvanovichC2/status/1912180077548179478 https://christiansfortruth.com/the-road-to-dealey-plaza-how-jfks-refusal-to-allow-israel-nuclear-weapons-sealed-his-death-warrant/ https://christiansfortruth.com/the-road-to-dealey-plaza-how-...
- throwaway290 1y ago> On April 26, Ben-Gurion sent a letter to Kennedy warning about the forthcoming destruction of Israel due to the Treaty of Federation signed by Egypt, Syria and Iraq on April 17. then later > The most ominous part of Ben-Gurion’s letter was when he wrote: “Mr. President, my people have the right to exist – both in Israel and wherever they may live, and this existence is in danger.” This article is funny. This is set in 1960. 10 years after Israel was attacked by an Arab coalition and 10 years before Israel was attacked AGAIN by guess who, an Arab coalition. What do you expect, that president of a country lets it to be destroyed to later tell people like you "see, told ya"? Time doesn't allow you to go back. You can hate war but in this case it just seems like if they had no nukes they would be destroyed long ago by neighboring countries. About 4chan link, Techchrunch basically sums it up: > One 4chan janitor who spoke to TechCrunch on the condition of anonymity said they are “confident” the leaked data and screenshots are “all real”. Yeah totally real. because 4chan was hacked by a competitor we can be sure there was nothing planted in the dump. And because the guy who posted the screenshot limits replies we can be sure it is doubly real. Thinking how much antisemitism there was on 4chan I can only shrug.
- charbroiled 1y ago
- Beefin 1y agoyou have no idea what you're talking about - every single country that experiences domestic terrorism relies on israeli intelligence for counter terrorism. almost all of europe, us, much of the middle east all have very active intelligence partnerships. if you think it's one-sided you're either severely misinformed or bigoted.
- austin-cheney 1y agoObviously I must be an anti-Semite if I don’t 150% support the politics of Israel and their brutality in the West Bank. In reality though, I have completed 5 CENTCOM US military deployments. There are few people on HN more qualified to speak to the nature of US alliances in the region.
- idiotsecant 1y agoIsrael is a terrorist state. I don't know how else you can call it. They have a state policy of terrorizing their neighbors in order to get them to leave their land and have for decades. The fact that they also help spy on our citizens for our government should not be a reason to support them.
- Izikiel43 1y agoFor your first point, that’s not as big of an issue as it used to for the USA thanks to fracking, now the USA is a net exporter of oil. For the second, I don’t think anything other than an air campaign like it’s been done will happen, it’s not like the USA is out for blood like after 9/11. For the third, yeah, that’s unfortunately possible, North Korea, Ukraine and now this show that the only way no one messes with you is by having a good enough deterrent. However, even if this hadn’t happened, if Iran got a bomb, they wouldn’t threaten like nk does to get stuff, it would just test it on Israel, so you would get nuclear war anyway.
- bushbaba 1y agoActually now is different. The axis of resistance that would pop up (asad, Hezbollah, Hamas, houthis) are all basically gone and unable to mount an attack. Saudi, Egypt, Jordan, UAE, HTS, and majority of Middle East is not in favor of Iran getting a nuke. Hatred of Iran, is a unifying force.
- hiddencost 1y agoI guess that's better than "axis of evil". Looking forward to the strait of Hormuz shutting down...
- scruple 1y agoSounds like a good way to make China and Russia angry...
- cloverich 1y agoSerious question re Russia: Can they actually get more engaged than they already are...? Because id thought the opposite; Russia is weaker than anyone since initial soviet breakup, isn't now the ideal time wrt to Israeli involvement?
- vbezhenar 1y agoThey can, but that would be stupid, because they need all the weapons they have to continue Ukrainian war. China is the only country that can help Iran.
- PeterHolzwarth 1y agoWell put, and an important - and often either overlooked or fully unknown - point, especially in the west. Many in the west see the middle east as a broadly similar unit, not realizing that there Iran represents a frequently highly-disliked section in the broader area. The neutralization of Iraq definitely has had an impact on that front as well (the two being hard core enemies for a long time).
- 1y ago
- energy123 1y ago> the increased chance of nuclear war in the ME. I disagree, given the high probability they were going to do it anyway. They built Natanz enrichment in secret, they built Arak in secret, they built Fordow in secret, not to mention the more recent violations of the NPT to which they're still a signatory. They've violated the NPT over and over and over again. Why would one more agreement make any difference to their clandestine program? This is the thing Western liberals need to understand. The leaders of these despotic regimes don't think like you. They don't intend to adhere to the agreements like you would. Their psychology is different to your psychology. And you can't make a unilateral agreement with a party like this. The agreement becomes a weapon to creep forward and present the world with a fait accompli at a future date.
- mrkeen 1y ago> This is the thing Western liberals need to understand. First Western liberals needed to understand that Ukraine shouldn't have given up its nukes. Now they need to understand that Iran shouldn't have tried to get them.
- energy123 1y agoThe Ukraine situation proves my point, though. Russia was a signatory to an agreement with Ukraine to not do what they're doing. You can't make unilateral agreements with parties that have no intention of holding to them, as much as you would like to wishcast a different reality. The only option is a military one.
- bigyabai 1y ago> The only option is a military one. Oh, I've seen this one before! Then you install a police state, back it up with foreign weapons you sell to the police state in exchange for taxpayer money, forcibly "disappear" any disagreeable types and make the entire population hate your country for centuries to come! https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/legal-and-political-magazines/human-rights-abuses-shahist-iran https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/legal-and-political-mag... All observers to trials since 1965 have reported allegations of torture which have been made by defendants and have expressed their own conviction that prisoners are tortured for the purpose of obtaining confessions. Alleged methods of torture include whipping and beating, electric shocks, the extraction of nails and teeth, boiling water pumped into the rectum, heavy weights hung on the testicles, tying the prisoner to a metal table heated to white heat, inserting a broken bottle into the anus, and rape. Did "western liberals" get all that? Oh, I forgot this line by mistake! SAVAK was established in 1967 with help from both the CIA and the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.
- monkaiju 1y agoBlows my mind how people think Iran is building nuclear weapons when nobody in the intel community does... Thought y'all wouldve learned after Iraq but guess not... https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/17/trump-iran-israel-nuclear https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/17/trump-iran-i...