Should the US become involved in helping protesters in Iran?

I notice in his " truth" he did not state "in addition to existing tariffs". So if your nation is on 40% for example, it appears that dealing with IRAN will actually see your tariffs drop.

And in any case, it is the importer that pays anyway.

The left wing don't care about Iran. Only Gaza.

Yes, but with caution. This requires diplomacy, not just bombs. There are also complicated relationships between world powers here, so no easy clear plan of attack. That said, the regime needs to go. I also wish that the people going on about Gaza had something to say about this. They won't, of course. Just as they have nothing to say about the women of Afghanistan or any other oppressive situation that they can't blame on Israel.

Ultra religious proto fascist regime I've never heard this before

@Friendlygingercat and did they know what they were getting? I heard one lady tonight on the radio saying ,we were promised safety and allowed to keep our doors open, they came in and turned the whole country into a prison (paraphrasing )..

Why is the USA the one who may go in ? Why can't Egypt, Pakistan ,Saudi etc ? Ie some countries from the actual region ? Do they care what's happening don't they want to help ??

Trump has just imposed a 25% tariff on goods from countries with commercial ties to Iran “effective immediately”.

The countries this will affect include China, the UAE, India & Turkey.

Yes but the reason they deposed the Shah was because he was a pretty brutal autocratic Monarch, being propped up by the British and the US in the first place. Yes, they supported the Ayatollahs who were also naively supported by the Left in Iran and abroad, who then murdered them, leaving a purely ultra religious proto fascist regime in its place. I can't imagine what those academics and students wanted when they deposed a brutal authoritarian regime was a brutal religious fundamentalist authoritarian regime. But even if they did, that was 50 years ago.

No, we should keep out of it. The people of Iran brought this evil regime into poser back in the 1970s. They should deal with it themselves.

I hope there would be a referendum on this. I read an article in the Indy that was saying that there may be concerns about a democratic Republic of Iran among the absolute Monarchies of the ME, so they may prefer the Ayatollahs to remain ( because the absolute Monarchies look good compared to them but wouldn't compared to a free democratic state). So basically to get buy in from the other countries in the ME it may be better if Pahlavi came back, but yes, there is a good chance that he will be bloody awful as well. In many countries where they have deposed a Monarch there is a romanticised view of what they were like, decades later and why they were deposed in the first place.

Well that would be quite the dilemma for the flag wavers. They've only just swapped from support for a evil regime to being against one. If Trump takes action in Iran they're going to self destruct they won't know what to do.

So no lefties there then, Cool. All to the right.

That's a fine skill to have.

I don't see any face masks or attempts to hide their identity though which seems to be the obligatory dress code for left wing and pro Pal protests.

I guess it because they are either quite open and proud of their views or that they're not too worried about Covid anymore.

As you are agreeing with a post saying the left are a bunch of fuckwits, or whatever, can you take a look at the photo below and tell me how you know there are no "lefties" here ? I see plenty of bobble hats. Are they not a "left" thing?

I possibly am. But maybe I know a bit about the effects of state web control because I am posting this from a nation that alongside Iran, is also in the bottom 3 of various internet freedom indexes.

And yes, you can get around it. Without being young by the way.

Edit to add, are you always ageist ?

I think you're grossly underestimating the ingenuity of the average urban Iranian, particularly the tech-savvy young people.

I am not saying his statements inflamed it, I am saying your average person in the street, in normal circumstances, can only see the news the regime allows them to see.

The stuff you see now, that gets out by satellite. Smuggled dishes, satellite phones . It will be very dangerous. There won't be shops with signs in the window saying " download your vids to X here"

There is also talk of the return of the Shah.

I read that there would be a referendum. However, were the Shah’s son to win the referendum then all the human rights advocates who have been silent about these protests would immediately call for him to be deposed.

True, but the protestors are getting some news out; they're also backing Pahlavi, which suggests they do have some access to wider online media.

I'm not saying the unrest would not have happened if not for Trump; it's been brewing for a long time, but I'm not sure we can say for certain his statements haven't inflamed it.

When has the West getting involved actually ever helped??

Theres an argument to be made that if Saddam was still in power the ME wouldn’t be the disaster zone that it now is. And groups like ISIS wouldn’t have grown in prominence

I know, JHound, but that's overall and in fairness I did say that forcing others to pay more for their defence was "one thing" which had gone down well

I don't know too many US Trump supporters, but even those who detest him tend to give him that one ... "stopped clock" and all that

I think you underestimate the power of censorship in authoritarian states. Iran has one of the strictest internet censorship programs in the world. It's in the bottom 3 for internet freedom in the world.

Typical Iranians are not reading the same news as people in the west. Western social media banned too. And VPNs

Trump will discuss the options for US intervention on Tuesday, according to the Wall Street Journal .

He is said to be considering “very strong options”, which may include cyber-attacks and direct strikes by the US or Israel or tightening sanctions, sources said.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-retaliation-trump-war-military-bases-middle-east-b2898605.html

I am too. The ME is so complex that it is very difficult to have a 'good guys/ Bad guys' narrative ( Obviously the Iranian Mullahs are very easy to characterise as 'bad guys, as they are funding terrorism worldwide while their people starve and women are stoned to death for having a strand of hair showing). The problem is, what will happen if the USA intervenes? Will the Mullahs be able to characterise them as outside Western/Israeli forces and unite the population behind them as a result? The protesters do want US support because they are being killed in their droves and cannot do it just on their own. But we don't know how many people in Iran support the regime and would turn on the protesters, causing more bloodshed. Hopefully the US does mean humanitarian and infrastructure support and the promise of lifting sanctions if there is a democratic regime. There is also talk of the return of the Shah. I don't know whether that will make things worse, as the Shah being the puppet of the US was what caused the Islamic revolution in the first place. I don't know what the new Crown Prince is like, and he doesn't seem to have any ideas, just wants the fall of the current regime and to return. Maybe an absolute Monarchy in the interim may be a good thing for the purposes of stability but it is very easy for them to fall into dictatorship and decide not to leave/ change etc. But it seems to be a system that is satisfactory in some of the other wealthier and more stable parts of the ME. A fall in the Iranian regime will hopefully mean the collapse of Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram and the rest of them and mean the money is spent on the Iranian people, rather than waging a proxy war against the US/Israel.

It is beyond awful, and I think the US has an obligation to help after Trump encouraged it under the promise of support.

How many of those killed would not have taken action if they didn't believe they'd have US backing?

I'm just not sure we should push for the US to make good on Trump's promise. There is every chance that US boots on the ground could add to the atrocities, especially under Trump's leadership. The US military has its own history of committing horrific crimes against locals in countries it occupies.