To think the US was right to bomb Iran? What am I missing?

[Lastu]

I am no fan of Trump. I’m very much left wing.

But am I missing something here? Why has everyone become such huge supporters of Iran? The world is a safer place as a result of removing their capability to develop nuclear weapons? Why is everyone carrying on like Iran is a victim and they were truly just trying to implement peaceful nuclear capabilities? Has everyone lost the plot?

How should we resolve the Israel nuclear weapons issue? Iran isn't currently conducting a genocide and ethnic cleansing. If Iran is a threat to stability in the region, so is Israel under the current government. Let's tackle both.

Iran having nuclear enrichment = very bad.

Israel having nuclear weapons = fine. Or at least not as bad?

Ethnosupremacy captured succinctly.

Murdering women for not covering their fucking hair is a "philosophical difference" is it?

Occupation would be if you were colonizing a country that wasn't your own, whereas anyone who can read can see that we have reports of the Jews living in what is now Israel, Gaza, Judea & Samaria and also parts of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Added to that, Israel doesn't occupy the palestinian controlled areas of Gaza, and much of Judea & Samaria even though they are part of their ancestral lands. In fact jews are not allowed in to parts of Judea and Samaria under Palestinian Authority control, whereas Palestinians can cross into the Israeli controlled areas with a permit. So I'm not sure what you mean by 70 years of constant occupation - occupation of where exactly? I would say that the ancient Land of Israeli has in fact been colonised by Arabs and Ottomans and parts of it are currently occupied by them.

The irony to call Iran a hostile nation after we bombed them. They are not hostile against our countries, they are hostile against our countries slight tendencies to colonise, steal and create chaos in the region to keep controle of the oil.

If Iran was doing to Europe and the US what we have been doing for decades, you would not have a problem seeing they are the baddies.

The intelligence shows a range of predictions. Some of the intelligence says a weapon was weeks away, some says months. How close should we leave it?

What would you do to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons?

@PinkSwatch US didn’t bomb Iran because women have to cover their hair.

US left Afghanistan in the hands of the Taliban who treat women and girls appallingly

Argentina? WTF are you talking about? Argentina has free healthcare, free education, progressive social rights. Its a modern, progressive country. For sure they have economic problems, but to liken them to Iran is insane.

Some Jews used to live in the region a few thousand years ago is different than current days Jews own the region

"Added to that, Israel doesn't occupy the palestinian controlled areas of Gaza, and much of Judea & Samaria".

Yes, they are

Israel is a democracy and an ally. Iran is a hostile state. Can you really not see the difference?

Arabs have been on the land there for just as long. You can try to persuade people that its not an occupation but we can see it for what it is. Israel controls the borders at sea an air, it controls what is allowed in and out. You can try to keep people from seeing what is happening to Palestinians every day but the world can see.

I read somewhere there was concern that Iran was rushing through acquiring nuclear weapons to give them to the Houthis or Hezbollah. Not a particularly outlandish idea considering Israel’s success in eliminating Hamas leaders.

They are hostile to western way of life. Hostile to democracy and freedom. Why are you so keen to defend a country which wants to kill you and all of your fellow citizens?

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2020/01/12/Iran-s-Basij-protests-to-demand-closure-of-UK-embassy-in-Tehran-Iranian-media

The intelligence has shown that Iran was weeks away from building a nuclear bomb for decades.

The point about the US is that it's massively hypocritical to pontificate to others about the evils of nuclear weapons without even a trace of self-awareness.

As others have said, we were led by the US into an illegal war with Iraq on spurious 'intelligence'. What's to say that's not also the case here?

The world is currently full of unhinged megalomaniac leaders who seem to need to overcompensate for their inadequacies with weapons and crazy talk. I suppose it was ever thus, but it's the actions of Trump, Putin and Kim Jong-un who most scare me in terms of world conflict at this point in time, not Iran.

I'm not aware of anyone saying that religious fundamentalism doesn't exist in the west, but it is correct to say that the mostly-secular west does not have the same level of religious fundamentalism as Islamic regimes in the middle east (including Iran).

It's fine for the pot to call the kettle black when the pot is grey and the kettle is an intense shade of black.

They can reject whatever they want in their own country and close whatever embassy they want, I don't care

No.

Was there another choice Trump could have made instead of the strikes?

Was Iran (prior to recent Israeli strikes) priotrising development of a bomb? US officials said no in March and no again last week.

The step up in enriched uranium could be used for developing a weapon. It could also be used as a bargaining chip in the diplomatic talks to get Iran a better deal and have some economic sanctions lifted.

I don't have much confidence in Trump or his government as creative or psychological thinkers. They don't seem dynamic, wiley, perceptive or really that bright. Was there the need to attack now? Was there a need to directly attack at all? What else could they have done? I don't have any answers, and I accept they're privy to more information than I am. I just think better people might have seen other solutions and made better choices.

@BigBillyButterBollocks do you think Iran should go on to develop nuclear weapons?

I’d be genuinely interested in reports that said Iran was about to produce a nuclear weapon. I know it’s hard to read tone on here but if there are properly authoritative reports/intelligence, I would be really interested to read them. I think we should all be open to learning facts, not just cherry-picking information that suits our narrative.

Everything I’ve read though, including from the US, said Iran were carrying out concerning activities but weren’t able to produce a nuclear bomb any time soon.

The question remains - why has Trump got involved NOW? If for a moment we take the intelligence about an imminent threat at face value, why did he wait so long? Why wait until they’re allegedly on the verge of producing a bomb? It just doesn’t make sense logically.

There has to be democracy. One of the world’s most powerful countries can’t just take it upon itself to bomb another country.

What if it were China? What if China decided that a country it viewed as hostile shouldn’t have nuclear capacity - would it be ok for them to bomb them too? That country might not be hostile to us, but if it’s hostile to China and their allies, then it’s ok for China to bomb them - because after all, the US has just done that….

If a country presents a genuine and imminent threat, there are emergency procedures. Trump has ignored everything that’s in place.

Hopefully there won’t be retaliatory attacks because Iran is weak and hopefully the US did wipe out their nuclear plants - that would as least be some consolation. But this is a very powerful country that’s gone rogue which isn’t something that any of us should be applauding.

How can an apartheid state be an exemplar of democracy?

Israel has bombed all over the middle east, but is not hostile right? The West's savior.

How dare Iran get bombed repeatedly by Israel, and now the US and dare to have a reaction.

Ok but you're advocating here to attack them to force a regime change.

Israel and Trump attacked them to destroy their nuclear capability (ostensibly)

If you're going to go to war, you need to be very clear what the objective of that war is and at what point it can end

I don't care. I genuinely don't. Enough woth that Iran boogie man fearmongering.

I don't think Israel should have nuclear weapons, let's bomb them.

I don't believe the USA should have nuclear weapons, let's bomb them. Let nomb everyone into peace!

So? That's no comfort when our bills rise.

I think they have tried to keep the people of Gaza from firing constant rockets, infiltrated their country with suicide bombers, blowing up school buses, digging tunnels underneath Israel and launching terrorist attacks. Israel took all its people out of Gaza, and left the gazans a well developed country with industry and infrastructure in place. What did the Gazans do? They destroyed most of the factories, tearing them apart so they could produce rockets, then then elected Hamas who have spent the time since building tunnels, rockets and amassing arms to attack Israel. In fact there have been around 50,000 SEPARATE incidents of terrorist attacks on Israel since 1994. So if they dont treat them particulary well, one could argue there's some justification for it.