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Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule
- eudamoniac 8mo agoHuh... It turns out you can just kill your enemies. You don't have to spend a decade trying to negotiate and placate them.
- programmertote 8mo agoEither this will end in a fractured state with different factions OR another Ayatollah will be in charge. Just my guess from seeing similar stories play out in other countries though....
- adamiscool8 8mo agoEven as we speak, Ayatollah Razmara and his cadre of fanatics are consolidating their power!
- bombcar 8mo agoIt’s Ayatollah Rubio.
- indubioprorubik 8mo agoMaybe .. the revolutionary guard is fed up though with ineffective empire rule? Like to be rubbed in the dirt face first repeatetly as inheritor of the mighty persian empire sucks bad enough, to reconsider the way things are run? Sorry, but whatever israel & the us are doing, seems to work way better than - whatever has happened the last decades in iran?
- jcranmer 8mo agoAs I understand it, the IGRC doesn't particularly rub happily with the clerical council, and it's not entirely clear to me who will win that the power struggle. But the ultimate loser of the power struggle is clear: the Iranian populace at large, as all of the viable factions are quite committed to consolidating their power by repressing the population. The most likely situation, I think, looks a lot like Libya.
- indubioprorubik 8mo agoIslamic societies seem to be unable to form stable institutions. The recipe seems to be unable to synthesize this, no matter how many ressources are available and how benign the conditions. As a result the biggest formable state-institution remains the family clan and the family clan just does not cut it in preventing civil war. At best you get a clan-coalition masquerading as a military government with some democratic pets - at worst you get libya.But i guess after 52 countries, the results are in and the fact that other - non western powers are colonizing islamic countries now (china, russia) and everyone is scrambling for nukes post trump - the displayed weaknesses could end the region.
- lucketone 8mo agoHow about Indonesia?
- oa335 8mo ago“ the biggest formable state-institution remains the family clan” This is not at all how Irani society is structured. The rest of your comments generalizations are weak and ill-supported as well, at best they only apply to a subset of Arab countries in the Middle East.
- jcranmer 8mo agoThe Ottoman Empire lasted 600 years with only one major civil war, a feat not matched by any major Christian European country. England faced 3½ civil wars (counting the Hundred Years War as a ½ civil war here, because while it is essentially a dynastic dispute, it's not a dynastic dispute over England itself but rather English holdings in France) in the same timeframe. And this despite the Ottoman successor law being essentially "battle royale among eligible candidates" whereas standard European succession by this time is the seemingly clear "eldest son" yet somehow creating endless succession disputes.
- OkayPhysicist 8mo agoThose "battle royales" were the reason for the stability. The process selected for sultans (or, occasionally, mothers of sultans) who were most effective at building a backing coalition, and generally ended in the killing or at least exile of all pretenders to the throne. The disruption the process represented also helped quell the willingness of factions within the government to try and repeat it too often. The well-established succession processes practiced in the West guaranteed that at any given time, not only was there almost always at least one person who would benefit directly from the ruler's demise, there were often individuals for whom the ruler's premature demise was required for them to be inline for the throne. If you're the King's brother, for example, under male-preference primogeniture you need to make sure your brother doesn't have any kids.
- Drunk_Engineer 8mo agoFor those who don't get the joke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpEF6QPSVJE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpEF6QPSVJE
- quitspamming 8mo agoReplying authoritatively to a Simpsons quote betrays you.
- ReptileMan 8mo agoEven as we speak Israeli missiles are target at him.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- XorNot 8mo ago"Mission Accomplished"
- mkoubaa 8mo agoWe have such short memories don't we
- hnthrowaway0315 8mo agoI think maybe the reformists are able to hold on now that the IRGC is being hammered. There might be more internal bloodshed but chances are that Iran might be a bit more open and more modern. Of course I have zero knowledge about how Iran politics works, so that was just a guess, not even an intelligent one. BTW I don't actually think even the reformists will "accept Western ideas".
- suoloordi 8mo agoIran is not like other countries in the region. Despite its shortcomings, it's a cohesive society. I'm certain that there will be no fracturing and a central authority will emerge.
- elcritch 8mo agoIndeed, I'vve already read about an opposition government being organized.
- christkv 8mo agoFrom my reading I get the feeling it has more in common with Spain and Portugal before the fall of the dictatorships.
- throwaway2037 8mo ago> Iran is not like other countries in the region. Despite its shortcomings, it's a cohesive society. This is a weird comment. I would also describe Jordan, Oman, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia as cohesive societies.
- bonsai_spool 8mo ago> I would also describe Jordan, Oman, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia as cohesive societies. I don’t know much about the region; is it incorrect to say that the nations you listed (excepting Jordan) are collections of fiefdoms with a relatively weak central power? To OP’s point, that is not how I view Iran
- Gud 8mo agoThat would only be nominally correct regarding UAE, which consists of seven emirates.
- throwaway2037 8mo agoEmiratis would describe themselves as a cohesive nation of Emiratis living under seven different Emirs. (There are many YouTube videos about it.) Emiratis from different Emirs do not view themselves as from different ethnicities/tribes/nations. BTW -- My original post forgot to mention Kuwait as a cohesive nation.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 8mo agoBest of luck to the people of Iran. Be safe! I'm praying for the best!
- hattimaTim 8mo agoThey can not sadly. As the monsters of america and israel have free license to kill anyone, they will kill anyone they want to make their god happy. In the case of iran, they already killed 100+ girls in a school even though they have perfect intelligence and precision attack tech.
- ukblewis 8mo ago[flagged]
- jacquesm 8mo agoThe last thing Iran needs is another Pahlavi dynasty. They don't need the mullahs either.
- brap 8mo agoGood riddance
- vkou 8mo agoYou shouldn't celebrate the killings of heads of state, that would set a bad precedent.
- ReptileMan 8mo agoQuite the opposite - if they know they are risking their lives they would be more reasonable.
- dotancohen 8mo agoIt's the stated reason why the United States has an impeachment process. So that they have a process for removing undesirable heads of state without resorting to assassination.
- cosmicgadget 8mo agoTrue but other countries don't have an equivalent process.
- gus_massa 8mo agoMost have, but the decition is made by the local politicians instead of foreing nuclear powers. It's actually very similar to the impeachment.
- Ali_ll 8mo ago[flagged]
- cosmicgadget 8mo agoSorry I phrased that poorly. I meant countries have no means to impeach a foreign head of state so impeachment only serves as a power check if the citizenry disapproves. Not that I think heads of state fearing for their lives from airstrikes is necessarily good, being able to act with impunity is certainly bad.
- 4ndrewl 8mo agoIn a FIFA World Peace Cup year as well. Is nothing sacred?
- le-mark 8mo agoNetanyahu is leading Trump around by the nose apparently. And here we all thought Putin owned Trump. How the wheel turns.
- abraxas 8mo agoThose are not mutually exclusive. He is still Putin's bitch as well as Netanyahu's.
- mingus88 8mo agoTrump appears to be for lease.
- amarant 8mo agoNobody owns trump, you can't buy him. Trump is for rent. Shutting down a competitor is 25M, "full service" is apparently ~100M. I'm not privy to what invading an oil nation costs, but I reckon it's akin to a hand job, so a nice golden wristwatch should probably do it?
- thomassmith65 8mo agoThe Iranian diaspora around the world is celebrating. Here's the scene in Berlin: https://youtu.be/NSbx_0mtk80?si=MJ_Bfvx8gVd1P1mm https://youtu.be/NSbx_0mtk80?si=MJ_Bfvx8gVd1P1mm They've waited a very long time for this moment!
- mibibyesthedust 8mo ago[dead]
- paganel 8mo agoWhat moment would that be? Begging for the Americans to bomb their former country?
- Almondsetat 8mo agoAt some point you have to decide: if my country is held back by a brutal dictatorial regime where civilians can't hope to topple it, is there anything else to do other than get external help?
- jachee 8mo agoAs an American, I’m really starting to feel that way.
- eclipseo76 8mo agoReally... In a thread about Iran... This is not comparable at all and so insulting for what they have endured since 1979.
- quitspamming 8mo agoExcept midterm elections are literally this year. But other than that small detail, sure.
- jachee 8mo ago
- wesammikhail 8mo agoHoneeeeeeeeey get in here, the board of peace officially declared its first war! Bring the popcorn with you. No need for salt cause everyone got that in spades on both sides.
- ludicrousdispla 8mo agoit makes perfect sense when you realize they just misspelled 'bored'
- garbawarb 8mo agoTo any Iranians of HN: how do you feel about the current situation, and what's the sentiment of Iranians abroad?
- throwawayheui57 8mo agoIranian here! Lived most of my life inside Iran. I don't view US's actions as a favor to common Iranians. That's naive. No one wants war and bombing of civilians. Our misery is caused by a mix of religious extremism, theocracy and foreign intervention (in the past, Mossadegh, etc.) among other things. First and foremost I hold the regime responsible. For most of my life, I witnessed firsthand how they pushed us step by step closer to confrontation with the US, yet there's no single bomb shelter in Tehran or any major city for people to run to after 47 years of this shit. How would you feel in this situation? Their opposition to Israel is not from a humanitarian and moral standpoint, it's purely religious. They have no shame admitting this. You just have to listen to one of the 5 state TV channels in Farsi. I even think Palestinians would fare better if not for these extremists on either side! All that said, the supreme leader is the one who commands the murder of innocents in the streets, so he had it coming. Good riddance and he died like the rat that he was. But as to what happens next? No one knows. Also I personally don't think US is doing this because they want Iran's oil. I believe they want to put pressure on China to not get Iran's cheap (under sanctions) oil. That seems more plausible to me. *typo edit
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- swingboy 8mo agoThe US is doing this because Netanyahu visited Trump in the White House 7 times last year. It’s not about oil, protestors, or nuclear weapons: it’s about Israeli hegemony in the region.
- throwawayheui57 8mo agoKinda sorta... The reality of the situation is much more complicated. The narrative and actions of the Islamic regime don’t quite corroborate "Israeli hegemony in the region" as the sole purpose of this conflict. Their narrative has not been one of defense in the past; it's always been offense. When they talk about Israel, they talk about Quds (Arabic name for Jerusalem), Quds' freedom, and annihilation of Israel. Even the foreign arm of the IRGC forces are named Quds! They operate in Syria and Lebanon, right next to Israel's border. That's why I said that their enmity with Israel is not from a moral standpoint or, evidently, even defending Iran. It takes two to tango! Obviously, all this is not to say that Israel doesn't have a hegemonic stance. Probably even Arab nations have those dreams too! You're seeing this vast field of geopolitical shit show through a tiny crack of news and social media from the last year.
- monero-xmr 8mo ago[flagged]
- alchemism 8mo agoLong live the Yankee Empire. The world will learn to lick its boots.
- brap 8mo agoThis but unironically
- 982307932084 8mo ago[flagged]
- donkeybeer 8mo agoYes, let us do Trump next.
- cess11 8mo agoI'd rather wait until it is confirmed.
- hirpslop 8mo agoThis may or may not lead to a weaker Iran. From FP: “Iran is frequently portrayed as a political order bound tightly to individuals. Yet the architecture that emerged after 1979 was formed by a different logic, one founded in the revolutionary experience itself. Khomeini captured this hierarchy in a remark (https://abdimedia.net/en/ruhollah-khomeini/system-ahead-life-imam-zaman https://abdimedia.net/en/ruhollah-khomeini/system-ahead-life...) often cited within Iran’s political elite: “Preserving the Islamic Republic is more important than preserving any individual, even if that individual were the Imam of the Age”—a reference to Shiism’s 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi. It is still unclear whether the system will always follow this principle. But one should expect a change in leadership in Tehran to be treated less as an ending and more as a chance for the country’s institutions to show they can survive.” https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/28/iran-khamenei-ayatollah-assassination-israel-us-war/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/28/iran-khamenei-ayatollah...
- joshkojoras 8mo agoIt was about time. I hope the opposition in Iran takes charge and gets into power before they find another religious leader.
- FilosofumRex 8mo agothere is no such opposition in Iran, they're mostly in DC and Tel Aviv...
- FilosofumRex 8mo agothere is no opposition in Iran, they're mostly in DC and Tel Aviv...
- throwawayheui57 8mo ago[flagged]
- jasonvorhe 8mo agoGoogle isn't reliable. They'll present you whatever the current thing dictates, without any nuance whatsoever. Sure you can hunt down some exceptions here and there but post 2020, most publications are inviolacy captured by various interests that aren't yours or mine. But of course there are regime critics but apart from those already captured by US/Israeli intelligence are either people without any perspective or those smart enough to know that a US regime change will worsen their situation even more, so they rather not participate in riots. At least that's what I've been hearing. It's just an anecdote, make of it what you want.
- throwawayheui57 8mo agoWe’re talking about opposition here. Don’t straw man the “regime change”. So much mental gymnastics because you can’t accept the reality that the people of Iran may not fit the imaginary picture you had in your head based on what someone (very credible anecdote) told you. Yeah Iranians who don’t want to be oppressed have no agency or human dignity, or deserve to decide their own faith. They must be either captured by US, lack perspective or not smart enough. That’s some 19th century imperialistic attitude right there. You might want to reflect on that.
- omnee 8mo agoIn isolation the death of this brutal dictator is great news, but we have seen how previous decapitation strikes have not had the intended effect. And I can only hope the Iranian people somehow end up better for this entirely illegal war that the Trump administration has initiated, instead of facing up to a fractured leadership and a potential civil war.
- hit8run 8mo agoToday is a good day.
- kingofmen 8mo ago> President Trump announced the Iranian leader's death on social media, saying Khamenei could not avoid U.S. intelligence and surveillance. A source briefed on the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran told NPR earlier Saturday that an Israeli airstrike killed Khamenei. This does not seem to me like very strong evidence? Trump just says whatever, and "a source briefed on [the attacks]" just means at least one person in USG thinks Khamenei was in whatever house they blew up. Am I missing some other confirmation?
- ReptileMan 8mo agoIf he is not dead - Iran will have to show him - and he will be double tapped.
- Jensson 8mo agoHe is dead, Iran state media confirmed a couple of hours ago.
- pavlov 8mo agoThe killings of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were so amazingly successful in stabilizing those countries that Americans keep repeating the pattern.
- mkoubaa 8mo agoIt's almost like they are either stupid or the point was never about stability
- TulliusCicero 8mo agoNot a killing, but capturing Noriega did in fact work out well. Panama of today is generally stable and rich (by Latam standards anyway).
- jacquesm 8mo agoPanama's main asset can't be removed from Panama.
- pavlov 8mo agoAlso Panama's population and land area are an order of magnitude smaller than these Middle East states, and they were already an American client state in the past.
- sph 8mo agoThis is prime cherry-picked propaganda bullshit. What about Augusto Pinochet, to name drop a counterexample? How did that work out for the Chilean people? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet#U.S._backing_of_the_coup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet#U.S._backing_...
- TulliusCicero 8mo agoOkay, then how about Japan and West Germany? It's almost like whether "regime change" works or not depends on the specifics. It's not something that can be universally generalized.
- xannabxlle 8mo agoI'm tired of Israelis killing innocent people
- pjc50 8mo agoThis was has killed a lot of innocent people. Khamenei was not one of the innocent.
- TulliusCicero 8mo agoAh yes, the poor innocent dictator minding his own business while killing thousands of protestors.
- bambax 8mo agoIf what matters is the number of people killed, the next two should be Putin and Netanyahu. Yet I have a feeling that will not happen.
- TulliusCicero 8mo agoPretty much by definition, dictators do not allow themselves to be removed by the people through peaceful means, which is why it's easy to draw a line there. If someone's a dictator, it's morally okay to kill them. Always.
- bambax 8mo agoWhy isn't Trump bombarding the Kremlin? Isn't Putin a much larger threat to world peace than any leader of Iran? Also, it's never "morally okay" to kill anyone, ever; the fact that the US still has the death penalty shows how little they understand about morals and logic.
- Psychoshy_bc1q 8mo agoBecause Russia has Nuclear Weapons dummy
- hnthrowaway0315 8mo agoIf the hard-liners IRGC generals went with him then it might be a good thing for its economy. I have heard some rumors that China was frustrated that IRGC pushed against the deals and were not willing to accept foreign investments in key oil/infra projects because they sit on them -- and that was why China never put down any real investments after signing the deals.
- eunos 8mo agoIRGC or whatever succeed next should wise themselves and stop hedging about whatever next deal with US/EU.
- hnthrowaway0315 8mo agoI think the biggest problem of IRGC is that they grabbed a large share of economy but spent a lot of that in geopolitical expansion for the last 1-2 decades. This in turn contributed to a more fragile Iranian economy and high inflation, which makes them extremely unpopular among the people.
- estearum 8mo agoNo matter who steps up, Trump's actions make clear they have only two options: 1. Permanent subjugation to western countries, to be unilaterally abused whenever they felt like it, or 2. Race to the nuke as fast and as secretly as possible
- underlipton 8mo agoWhy would a regime that came to be, ultimately, precisely because of foreign meddling in resource extraction ever entertain more foreign meddling in resource extraction, especially when it's levered with "or else we'll kill you."?
- SethMurphy 8mo agoIf the United States truly supported regime change there should be a clear next leader favored to succeed the Ayatollah, otherwise this feels more like a favor to oil companies, raising prices temporarily, and a sound bite for political gain, without a care of what happens to the country later. Simply toppling a government seems quite risky without further planning. Just expecting "good" people to fill the leadership vacuum is a gamble that could easily backfire and lead to greater crackdowns on freedoms and death to those Trump told to go get the power.
- eunos 8mo agoI'm not discounting that Trump is thinking he could back another Pahlavi and restore the Peacock Throne.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- Dig1t 8mo agoObviously has nothing to do with oil companies or oil, this is a war on behalf of Israel. Netanyahu visited Trump 6 times in the past year. Prominent Zionists and Israelis inside the US have been agitating for the US to do this for years, especially since Trump took office last year.
- SethMurphy 8mo agoWars are almost always about commerce, history has shown that. Ideology is used to back the motive publicly, but the reason for involvement is almost always trade or commerce. This case could be different, but it is not obvious to me that this case is any different. A simple example is WW1 where the US was forced to back the UK because of their large debt to US banks, despite them still being a colonist power at the time.
- wqaatwt 8mo agoYou are implying that Trump is rational and/or the interests of his administration align with those of the country?
- dispersed 8mo agoTrump hasn't provided any evidence of his death and is quoted as saying something very non-Trumpian here: https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/live-blog/israel-iran-live-updates-rcna261099 https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/live-blog/israel-iran-liv... > Earlier, Trump addressed reports that Khamenei was killed in airstrikes today, saying, “We feel that that is a correct story.” This doesn't sound like Trump's typical bluster, and it's even weirder that Trump didn't immediately go on TV to brag. I'm not saying this is fake news, but I'll wait for confirmation.
- casefields 8mo agoMaybe you should contact Iranian state tv because their promoting what you claim is an incorrect story: https://x.com/marionawfal/status/2027940530982625471?s=46 https://x.com/marionawfal/status/2027940530982625471?s=46
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- small_model 8mo agoIf true, and given how easy it seemed decapitate the regime I can't see another Ayatollah taking over, hopefully the people take over and institute a real secular democracy based on capitalism.
- grey-area 8mo agoWithout proper support and a huge nation building effort, the same fate as Lebanon, Syria, Lybia Iraq, Afghanistan is the more likely outcome after this evil dictator is gone. Assassination doesn’t remove the system or rewrite the balance of power, nor does it reconstitute civil society.
- XorNot 8mo agoWhy not? If there's one thing that's been proven over the last 20 years it's you can just outlast America.
- squibonpig 8mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- lostlogin 8mo agoThe secular democracy in that region is hardly helpful in terms of peace.
- ReptileMan 8mo agoDing dong the witch is dead. Let's hope other witches follow his steps.
- bossyTeacher 8mo agoWhy didn't he flee? This was a long time coming
- TulliusCicero 8mo agoIt's definitely odd if he was just sitting in his compound. That's a very, well, known place for him. Surely Iran has plenty of secure underground bunkers for leadership to retreat to?
- fourseventy 8mo agoApparently they hit the compound with 30+ bunker busters. So perhaps he was in a bunker but the bombs still got him
- jihadjihad 8mo agoIs there a source for this? I haven’t read any of the specifics on the strike.
- dotancohen 8mo agoThat's how Nasrallah was eliminated as well.
- TulliusCicero 8mo agoEven if he has an underground bunker there, it's still a super well known place. You'd think they'd at least try to hide somewhere.
- bjourne 8mo agoFleeing is seen as dishonorable in many parts of the Arab world. Remember the Israeli lies about how Yahya Sinwar dressed in women's clothes and were trying to cross the border to Egypt? In reality he was out in the field with his men killing Israeli soldiers. He died a brave death and Khamenei will now have died one too.
- 8mo ago
- g8oz 8mo agoAmerica and Israel are lawless countries. Can you imagine other countries assassinating a foreign head of state and not getting immediate blowback?
- bamboozled 8mo agoMy thinking is that, it's good when it works in your favor, but one day it night not, and if it doesn't well what recourse is available then?
- powerpcmac 8mo agoFine, you got me. We will expedite another billion in aid to Israel to make up for it.
- TulliusCicero 8mo agoThere's no such thing as a legitimate dictator, and every one of them belongs six feet under.
- SkyeCA 8mo ago> America and Israel are lawless countries. The truth of the world, as much as we may hate it, is that at least at the state level might makes right.
- danny_codes 8mo agoWell not right, but effective in the short term. In the longer term I assume this kind of policy is destabilizing and bad for everyone
- hackable_sand 8mo agoTry again
- steve-atx-7600 8mo agoSaid another way, if you don’t kill your enemy before he kills you, you die. Human nature hasn’t changed. I think it just gets forgotten.
- msuniverse2026 8mo agoIn my opinion the real problem for Iran lies in the north, on the border with Azerbaijan. The Israeli-supplied Azeri military has already demonstrated its effectiveness when it curb stomped the unprepared and internally betrayed Armenian military and militias. Baku will eventually decide to intervene in the northern territories. If I had to guess, a "special military operation" into northern Iran is the most likely follow-up scenario goaded into and supplied of course by Israel/US. The goal will be to foment a civil war and begin the dismemberment process of Iran. A little personal conspiracy theory I have is that after the last Israel/US intervention (when they mysteriously liquidated the only high-ranking and influential internal opposition of the Khamenei clan left) is that some sort of deal was worked out behind the scenes with the clan to get rid of the wizard-in-chief kinda like how Maduro was sold out. It is much easier to go to war with a country when it responds with only symbolic attacks and secretly promises to fight with one hand behind its back - provided cash and security flows for those at the top of course.
- 1a527dd5 8mo agoI wonder how old the rest of the commentators are. I watched the Shock and Awe campaign. I watched Saddam fall. I remember thinking this is great. Years later, I understand it was a complete folly. Removing Saddam in itself was good but what it did the wider region was not good.
- heavyset_go 8mo agoThis will be the start of something that never ends
- TulliusCicero 8mo agoYes, whether these strikes are a good idea in general depends on whether they make life better for the regular people of Iran imo. That said, fuck Khamenei.
- paxys 8mo agoEvery new generation in America learns this same lesson the hard way. You and your children will be paying the bill for this war for the rest of your life. Oil and defense companies will get richer. Nothing will change in the middle east.
- judahmeek 8mo agoThat's oversimplifying. Iranian regime-allied forces were a big part of why Iraq was such a quagmire. The balance of power in the Middle East is shifting from the Sunni~Shia schism that it once was. Most of the remaining powers are willing to actually engage in diplomacy with Israel & prefer secular groups to Islamist groups. There's still personality conflicts, such as the one growing between the heads of Saudi Arabia & the UAE, but the general trend seems to be very promising.
- Paianni 8mo agoNah, if anything the Islamist groups are biding their time, waiting for the internationally-supported governments to lose the will to carry on before striking.
- gip 8mo ago[flagged]
- bambax 8mo agoThe murderers are the people committing murders. That the victim was himself a ruthless tyrant doesn't change the fact that this is intolerable. The US can't be the only one allowed to bend the rules. Don't come crying around when the next 9/11 inevitably happens.
- flyinglizard 8mo agoIn hindsight, from the perspective of the Middle East and Arab world in general: Obama’s tenure was a geopolitical nightmare, while under Trump’s first presidency the Middle East made a big step forward with the Abraham Accords.
- oa335 8mo ago> In hindsight, from the perspective of the Middle East and Arab world in general Do you live there?
- culi 8mo agoSo are 80 schoolchidren at a primary school https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/28/children-dead-as-missile-hits-elementary-school-in-southern-iran https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/28/children-dead-...
- culi 8mo agoThe count is now over 165
- dispersed 8mo agoObama literally signed a deal with Iran to constrain their nuclear program, and Trump ripped it up in his first term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Comprehensive_Plan_of_Action https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Comprehensive_Plan_of_Ac... Was the bottleneck in these situations really the US' willingness to kill or capture world leaders?
- aaron695 8mo ago[dead]
- heavyset_go 8mo agoThank god we're kicking 5 million people off of their health insurance in 2027, otherwise we would not be able to afford all of these bombs.
- culi 8mo agoThere was a clip of one of Iran's missiles dodging 3 Patriot interceptors to hit the US base in Bahrain. I realized I just watched $12m wasted for nothing in less than 5 seconds.
- aucisson_masque 8mo agoThat's your money that's being Squandered yet you have no say in the decision to wage this war, nor your representative.
- UncleMeat 8mo agoDon't worry, Chuck Schumer has asked Trump for an explanation for why he's conducting new wars.
- cosmicgadget 8mo agoThere was an election in 2024.
- culi 8mo agoThat's no excuse. And if a choice between 2 people that have been thoroughly vetted by elites is your definition of democracy, you have a sad sad view of what's possible.
- cosmicgadget 8mo agoSorry, how are free and fair elections not democracy?
- 8mo ago
- zyngaro 8mo ago[flagged]
- squibonpig 8mo agoThe student becomes the master
- zyngaro 8mo agoWhy the downvotes. Please elaborate when downvoting.
- squibonpig 8mo agoI didn't downvote you.
- kaveh_h 8mo agoIsrael can’t do anything without US. They don’t have the resources.
- zyngaro 8mo agoThat's called counterfactual thinking.
- w10-1 8mo agoThis claim and the offer of immunity may be intended more to reduce Iranian resistance than to represent reality. (I would not rely on immunity from a nation that left collaborators on the tarmac in afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam?)
- Rapzid 8mo agoImmunity from the USA maybe. I would hope the new Iranian government would prosecute people for crimes appropriately.
- UltraSane 8mo agoApproximately 370,000 Hmong Americans live in the U.S. largely due to their alliance with the CIA during the Vietnam war.
- bonsai_spool 8mo ago> Approximately 370,000 Hmong Americans live in the U.S. largely due to their alliance with the CIA during the Vietnam war. Correct, but how does this invalidate OP’s assertion? Are you saying that there are no collaborators who were left behind in Vietnam after supporting the US? If I recall correctly, even getting the Hmong here was a political lift that some opposed
- UltraSane 8mo agoIt contradicts his assertion that the US abandons allies.
- thecarbonista 8mo ago[dead]
- jryan49 8mo agoCause people are sick of their tax money going to endless wars
- mirekrusin 8mo agoBecause it's not them who did it.
- UltraSane 8mo agoTrump didn't get congressional approval
- thecarbonista 8mo ago[dead]
- thisislife2 8mo agoIsrael, Trump claims Khamenei killed, Iran denies - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/2/28/live-israel-launches-attacks-on-iran-multiple-explosions-heard-in-tehran https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/2/28/live-israe...
- csmpltn 8mo agoAll the angry people here coming out of the woodwork in this thread. Where were you just a month ago, when the Iranian regime murdered 30k of its own civilians within just a couple of days, during the recent wave of protests? This site is infested with woke moralists and islamists.
- avoutos 8mo agoIt's remarkable to me how many seem to forget there is "morality" apart from "legality". Even if this does violate some treaty somewhere, we need not wring hands over the death of an objective dictator.
- palmotea 8mo ago> Even if this does violate some treaty somewhere, we need not wring hands over the death of an objective dictator. We absolutely should. It's a key principle of international law that brutal regimes should not be disturbed, until an opportunity for a regime change brokered by international lawyers presents itself in a century or two. Moral legitimacy comes from international law, and international law only.
- seanmcdirmid 8mo agoWhat country in the Middle East has actually gotten better after removal of a bad status quo, in the last 26 years? I really can’t think of any. Is even Iraq considered a success?
- C6JEsQeQa5fCjE 8mo ago> Is even Iraq considered a success? For Israel, absolutely. Improving the victim countries is not the aim.
- swingboy 8mo agoEach one has worked out pretty well for Israel.
- PolygonSheep 8mo ago> I really can’t think of any. Is even Iraq considered a success? It was for Netanyahu, and that's the important thing here.
- AnimalMuppet 8mo agoIran confirms: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/latest-israel-launches-attack-irans-073331344.html https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/latest-israel-launches-a...
- _zagj 8mo agoLooks like Russia's Shahad drone supply chain just got disrupted.
- mna_ 8mo agoRussia has a license to make their own in Russian factories, but this will decrease Russia's overall supply.
- konart 8mo agoRussia does not import Shaheds for years now. Modern versions where developed in Russia and are produced on Russian soil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelabuga_drone_factory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelabuga_drone_factory "As of late spring 2025 Russia has been producing around 170 Geran-2 drones per day, with indication that a total of around 26,000 Gerans were produced by Yelabuga drone factory"
- clot27 8mo ago[flagged]
- lostmsu 8mo agoThere might be something to read between the lines for Putin.
- fishingisfun 8mo ago[flagged]
- throw102225 8mo agoIllegal according to whose laws?
- elcritch 8mo agoNope the US has interests and stakes in this going back decades. Saudi Arabia was also heavily lobbying the US to attack Iran as well (1). 1: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-israel-attack-iran-iran-israel-tensions-news-explosion-in-tehran-saudi-prince-called-donald-trump-to-strike-iran-despite-public-push-for-peace-repo-11153456 https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-israel-attack-iran-iran-i...
- hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 8mo agoI think some people get so absorbed in the news that they forget that their life is no better than it was yesterday.
- UltraSane 8mo agoThe US, Canada, and Mexico are just as illegal as Israel as there were already people living on the land.
- IAmGraydon 8mo agoSmart strategy by the administration - go after people who are universally hated (Maduro, Khamenei) so you can normalize breaking the law and no one will speak out against you or they're a supporter of said hated people.
- icar 8mo agoIn 1953, Iran was a secular and democratic country. They had elected a prime minister who decided to nationalize the oil industry. The US didn't like this and overthrew him. They imposed a brutal monarchical dictatorship. Popular discontent led to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The ayatollahs, to a large extent, existed because of US interference. The same is true for all the instability in the Middle East, entirely manufactured by the West. Action-reaction, cause-effect: You never know how a story will end. And after the 1979 revolution, the CIA and British MI6 provided the ayatollahs with lists of communists to exterminate, which they did. Imperialism always prefers to deal with theocracies rather than communists. https://www.declassifieduk.org/how-britain-helped-irans-islamic-regime-destroy-the-left-wing-opposition/ https://www.declassifieduk.org/how-britain-helped-irans-isla...
- wqaatwt 8mo ago> In 1953, Iran was a secular and democratic That glosses over a huge amount of details. Calling it democratic is a huge stretch. > They had elected a prime minister The election of 1952 were rigged (seemingly by both sides) and not free at all. The vote was even stopped early and almost half the seats left empty. Mosaddegh was also already in power (being appointed by the Shah) before these “democratic” elections and his reforms were already underway.
- Ray20 8mo ago> Imperialism always prefers to deal with theocracies rather than communists. Communist regimes are also a form of theocracy (proof can be found in the writings of any communist leader). It's just that, unlike other theocratic regimes, other countries have to deal with millions of starving refugees (because the communist faith requires banning food production or something like that, I don't know much about their religion).
- CodinM 8mo agoThis is skimming over the important details, "democratic" is really stretching it. I also liked the idea that oh look Iran was this liberal country and whatnot but unfortunately it's just not true.
- andriy_koval 8mo ago
- jacknews 8mo ago"American heroes may be lost", Trump said. He argued this would be a necessary price to pay to inflict damage. lol. "Some of you will lose your lives. But that's a price I'm willing to pay"
- mixxit 8mo agoGood
- throwaway742 8mo agoRIP
- seydor 8mo agoGood, Trump can now claim victory and shout some words in his third-world-dictator style, and american sailors move out of the region. Stock market is opening tomorrow and it doesnt want to see ugly things
- hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 8mo agoIf you want to accurately predict the future, look no further than following prominent Israeli Americans and whatever it is they are after.
- twocommits 8mo ago[flagged]
- Mikhail_Edoshin 8mo agoTo celebrate deaths this way is satanic.
- littlestymaar 8mo agoI don't think anyone should shed a tear for Khamenei's death, but I'm not convinced the current trend of regime decapitation is setting the world in a desirable direction. I'm convinced that with current technology (namely, drones) any half competent state actor can easily assassinate any world leader, and I wonder if the recent US actions aren't going to make the practice commonplace, with dramatic destabilization risks. (For instance think about Air Force One being shot down during landing by an FPV drone controlled over LTE from somewhere in South America by a Cuban intelligence officer).
- impossiblefork 8mo agoIt's pretty obvious that these dictators etc. are legally civilians and that this kind of thing is against the laws of war. Traditionally even people like the US president, who is technically commander in chief, kings etc. with formal military ranks but who are not real battlefield decision makers etc., have been regarded as civilians.
- uyzstvqs 8mo ago[flagged]
- Cipater 8mo agoI work with and know a lot of Shia (non-Iranian) Muslims and listening to them talk about this assassination I'm convinced that the likelihood of attempted terror attacks against the US has increased significantly. The non-Iranian part is key. Millions of muslims around the world viewed the Iranian theocracy as the only power in the world fighting for Islam. They are devastated.
- echelon_musk 8mo agoI can't recommend Heretic by Ayaan Hirsi Ali enough.
- CoastalCoder 8mo agoFor those of us who haven't read it, could you explain why it's salient on this topic?
- dotancohen 8mo agoIt's an English language book aimed for Westerner readers. It purports to argue that the core strategy for spreading Islam - terror - is not compatible with Western values. It also states that other features of Islam are incompatible with Western values, such as repression of women. The book argues that since these ideologies are incompatible with Western values, they must be abandoned. However, the abandonment argument is only valid if one already accepts Western values as an axiom - which being an English-language book most of the readers would agree with. These readers will perceive the book to promote the reform of Islam into a religion that resembles a modern Christian denomination, just with different idols and prayers and holidays. However those who do not come from the perspective of modern Christian values and as axiomic, will reject the argument outright. This is the Muslim population who might read it.
- ndsipa_pomu 8mo agoYou seem to be mixing up "Western values" and "Christian values" whereas Christian values are very much against the accumulation of wealth, whereas "Western values" seem to be all about worshipping wealth to the exclusion of all other considerations and even worshipping those who deliberately exploit others to amass an ungodly amount of wealth.
- izietto 8mo agoHi Iran, enjoy your civil war
- sega_sai 8mo agoI have no sympathy for Khamenei, but, if that is allowed we should not be surprised if Denmark prime minister is next?
- Alifatisk 8mo agoOf all options, why would Denmarks prime minister be next?
- jonathanstrange 8mo agoRefusal to hand over Greenland. (I'm not saying it's plausible, just want to explain the rationale.)
- morkalork 8mo agoIt does feel like we're on a slippery slope though. Normalizing and supporting the violation of international norms because 'they were bad guys and deserved it' is like turning a blind eye to corruption when its people you agree with. It doesn't lead anywhere good in the end.
- gib444 8mo ago> Refusal to hand over Technically correct but slightly loaded phrasing. It implies the USA is in the right. Denmark is /defending/ itself and its territories.
- ekjhgkejhgk 8mo ago[flagged]
- 9864247888754 8mo ago[flagged]
- IsTom 8mo agoI don't think killing democratic representatives has as big of an effect as killing authoritarians. You can't have cult of the leader without the leader, but in parliamentary systems you'd have to off quite a few people.
- hakavlad 8mo ago[flagged]
- shell0x 8mo agoIsrael is a horrible human rights abusing country. Why would you support that?
- hakavlad 8mo agoIsrael is a wonderful country that protects human rights. I see no reason not to support Israel.
- megous 8mo agoYou support organization that's on a UN international blacklist of organizations that intentionally harm children. Have some shame. I will never forget the thousands of little children that IDF burned to death, cut off their legs and arms, separate they heads or just degutted. Bleh. IDF taught me that you can cut off both legs of a toddler at the hips and it will still live and scream, and will not die instantly from shock and hypovolemia. Fuck scum that support this organization for whatever reason.
- hakavlad 8mo ago>a UN international blacklist Fuck UN. UN's UNRWA is a friend of HAMAS and sponsor of terrorism. >you can cut off both legs of a toddler As far as I know, it was HAMAS, not the IDF, who burned the children.
- megous 8mo agoIt's unreasonable approach to blame UN and by that largely the whole world for Israel's own failings, like the whole failed approach to build a state based on brutal violence against other inhabitants of the land they stole. All they managed is to build a failed distopia that just brutalizes all its neighbors and non-citizen subjects. You google for images of "israeli" or whatever and all you get is endless images of armed nutjobs. What other normal nation has that? Like no culture but blue/white flag and gun worship can be discerned from a simple generic search like that.
- KnuthIsGod 8mo agoGood way to boost the midterm vote. Next Greenland and then Canada.
- Alifatisk 8mo agoWhat is happening to this world. There is so many intense events happening in a such short time. I feel like we are truly living in weird times. Trumpet is out here deciding the fate of countries future for his own good. Now, it so happens to be something that benefited the Iranians. But I do not think he did it for the people directly, rather a side effect. I feel like I've lost the touch of which direction our future is going now, the worlds geopolitics is fluctuation too much. Maybe I should remind myself that feelings also gets amplified by constant stream of news and social media. I am certain 1990s, 2000s and early 2010s was worse times.
- shell0x 8mo agoExactly just because the dictator was horrible doesn’t give the US the right to attack other countries. I see no difference between Russia, Israel, America. They’re all hostile countries which should be sanctioned for human rights violations and violating international law.
- olelele 8mo agoThis.
- Hnrobert42 8mo agoI've begun to think of Trump as a forest fire. The consequences may be horrible, at least for the status quo, but it does provide an opportunity for new beginnings. At least, that is the only way I maintain hope.
- Ylpertnodi 8mo agoA 'new beginning' eould be vance in charge?
- righthand 8mo agoNot worth killing more people. Very sad stupid day. Just because a “bad guy” died doesn’t mean we did a good thing.
- Alex_L_Wood 8mo agoIt’s so funny reading most comments here, knowing that they’d be celebrating and saying this is good if it was Netanyahu. But when it’s a maniacal islamist declaring his goal to be the destruction of US and Israel, it’s suddenly very nuanced.
- wiseowise 8mo agoIt's not nuanced at all. Both deserve death row.
- hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 8mo agoDon't worry, if you say maniac and islamist enough times everyone will understand your view point and change their minds about what it means to blow up middle eastern countries.
- pydry 8mo agoNetanyahu committed genocide. The worst crime humanity can commit. It's not actually very funny how many people go very far out of their way to try and downplay that.
- muzani 8mo agoThey don't downplay it anymore, they're justifying it.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- nailer 8mo ago> Netanyahu committed genocide No he didn’t, you made that up.
- bigyabai 8mo agoThe charges are not made-up, he just hasn't been tried on them yet: https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu
- pythonic_hell 8mo agoI’m struggling to understand how this will be different from Libya.
- moi2388 8mo agoThese comments are insane to me. Have any of you ever spoken with Iranians? Lived with them? Trust me, they were wishing for Khamenei to be removed for decades.
- rKarpinski 8mo agoWhen the Arch Duke was Franz Ferdinand was assassinated would the comments have just been about policy position in the Balkans? There are now 3 active hot conflicts in Eurasia involving different Nuclear armed powers. This is a scary and unstable time.
- SegfaultSeagull 8mo agoThe fall of the Iranian regime would be a strategic turning point not just for the Middle East, but globally. For more than four decades, the Islamic Republic has been one of the primary state sponsors of terror. Hezbollah is not an organic Lebanese movement — it is an Iranian creation. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are sustained by Iranian money and weapons. The Houthis’ missile and drone capabilities exist because Tehran supplied and trained them. Shi’a militias in Iraq killed hundreds of Americans with Iranian-provided EFPs. Today, Iranian Shahed drones are striking Ukrainian apartment buildings. This is not passive instability. It is deliberate, systematic export of violence as state policy. At the same time, the regime has consistently pursued a nuclear capability while publicly calling for the destruction of Israel and “death to America.” Even if one assumes deterrence logic would hold, a nuclear umbrella for Iran would dramatically increase its freedom to escalate proxy warfare across the region. The downstream geopolitical effects are not hypothetical. Without Iranian drone and missile transfers, Russia’s ability to sustain certain strike campaigns in Ukraine would be materially degraded. Without heavily discounted Iranian oil shipments, China’s energy calculus shifts, particularly under sanctions pressure. Without Tehran’s funding pipelines, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis become far more constrained actors rather than semi-state militaries. There is also precedent for preventive action against nuclear programs. Israel’s 1981 strike on Iraq’s Osirak reactor (Operation Opera) was widely condemned at the time; decades later, most analysts agree it delayed Saddam Hussein’s nuclear ambitions. Likewise, Israel’s 2007 strike on Syria’s Al-Kibar reactor (Operation Orchard) prevented the Assad regime from developing a covert nuclear capability. Both operations were controversial in the moment and regarded as stabilizing in retrospect. Preventing a hostile regime from acquiring nuclear capability has historically proven wiser than managing it after the fact. Yes, regime change carries risk. So does allowing the world’s most aggressive revolutionary theocracy to entrench itself indefinitely while arming proxies from Beirut to Sana’a to Moscow. The status quo is not stable. It is violent by design. If a regime that funds terrorism on three continents, arms Russia during a European war, and openly seeks nuclear weapons is dismantled, history is unlikely to judge that harshly. It will likely judge it as overdue.
- sosomoxie 8mo agoIsrael's enemies aren't "terror", they're legitimate resistance to an actual terrorist entity. Israel and the US are the terrorists, not the people defending against them. This latest round of unprovoked attacks only opens the world's eyes even more to this reality.
- yanko 8mo agoTwo aircraft carriers just to kill an 86 years old man in a democratic way 10000 km home away as proof of the empire sunset
- hu3 8mo agoThat's one way to put it. Another view can be: ending a 36 years long autoritarian, human rights infriging, regime with very few casualities.
- rozap 8mo agoIt was never about human rights. Bibi gets to do genocide and we supply the weapons to make it happen. khamenei being a piece of shit is pure coincidence. If he was a nice guy he'd be equally dead right now. This feels very much like a "mission accomplished" moment. Nobody knows what the future holds. Highly likely it gets worse.
- cnd78A 8mo ago[flagged]
- ethbr1 8mo agoI realized how different the Iranian definition of "democracy" is compared to Western democracies when I was discussing Iranian elections with a regime supporter. Me: "What about the Guardian Council having veto power over presidential candidates?" Him: "Well, you can't let a goat herder be president!" Say what you want about American democracy, but we do let any idiot run for president.
- somenameforme 8mo agoAnd for anybody that didn't see this coming somehow, a planned four day operation has now turned into a 4 weeks long one. [1] Want to guess what happens in 4 weeks? [1] - https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/trump-military-campaign-against-iran-could-extend-for-four-weeks/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/trump-military-...
- sudo-umar 8mo agoA r*pist and a war criminal decided to give justice to the people of Iran and so many people here are approving their actions.. some geniuses here