The Iranians see the strikes as a liberation, in the same way that France was liberated from the Nazis in WWII

[Endoflight]

So please do not be against the war in the name of any Iranian.

The Islamic regime purposefully shot girls in the face, chests and vaginas to destroy their beauty. This was a regime of terrorists.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/feb/17/x-rays-injuries-iran-protesters-hospital-birdshot-bullets

This is a regime that has massacred 30000 of its OWN people since January.

Body bags have lined the streets for months.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/27/iran-protests-death-toll-disappeared-bodies-mass-burials-30000-dead

The strikes are targeted and destroying the regimes military bases. Iranians are celebrating and feeling support for the first time in years.

We might not want to get involved in War in the U.K., but to not understand how this is a liberation is jarring to all Iranians who do not have sympathy for the terrorist regime, so please do not speak for them

But OP lives in England, not Iran. She made that clear.

You talk a lot about women @Endoflight but you must know that the regime has killed/tortured/imprisoned far more men than women. When did you last live in Iran?

But she has family in Iran who are in danger ...

I am not sure the Iranian regime would be able to identify her and her family from posts MN?

Anyway, we now seem to have been joined by some apologists for the Iranian regime. How depressing.

It’s a terrifying regime in Iran.
Quite a few Iranians live near me they fled many year ago and would love to go back if there was regime change.
They are very happy about Trump invading as it’s there only hope of change.

They are very happy about Trump invading as it’s there only hope of change.
Trump hasn't invaded and it doesn't look like he will

Attacking /invading. Doing something to disarm

The regime is horrendous. It does however enjoy some popular support - I assume those Iranians do not welcome the bombing. And as for the very many who do not support the regime, I think most are hoping to live long enough to see a liberated Iran, rather than being killed in pursuit of one.

Where is the resistance? Where is the armed insurgency? Where are the revolutionaries who will overthrow the regime? Where are the pro-democracy forces being armed and supported by the West?

Nowhere. They don’t exist. All there is is unarmed protestors in the cities, and the Kurds who just want independence and certainly aren’t going to sacrifice themselves to liberate the country that has been oppressing them since 1918.

You can’t liberate a country from the air.

Trump will get bored, declare victory in a week or so, and the regime will simply carry on.

I would be utterly delighted to proved wrong.

I agree.

My take on this is that the US has attacked Iran for two main reasons:

Coercion from Israel

An oil shock will surely benefit American oil companies, who will profit massively if there's a spike in oil prices. The same American oil companies who poured millions into Trump's election campaign.

Why and how do you think Israel has coerced America?

'Coercion is the practice of forcing another party to act against their will through threats, intimidation, psychological pressure, or physical force.'

Which part of this did Israel do to America and through what mechanism? And how do you know about it?

Where did they say that?

No one is denying the atrocities of the regime. We're just pointing out that Trump's bombing campaign isn't likely to improve matters. Khamenei has been replaced by Khamenei. The IRGC is still there. Trump will quickly get bored and move on to bombing Cuba. Regime change would require boots on the ground - fat chance of that happening.

It’s in the post - ‘so find myself wanting them to ‘win’ this war.’

Ah, found it buried in there. Thanks.

Even if regime change doesn't happen as a result of this war, the regime has been weakened. This makes it more likely that regime change will happen one day and it will likely come from within.

Plus Trump & Netanyahu have more than one goal. They could claim some victories even if the war ended today, which it won't. They have almost destroyed Iran's navy as over 30 Iranian warships have been sunk, and also devastated their air force. They are also preventing Iran from supporting their proxy groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

They are in the process of destroying Iran’s missile capabilities and no doubt are working on preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

@Twiglets1 the Taliban continue their brutal repression of the Afghan population with no airforce, missiles, or nuclear weapons. Destroying these will do nothing for the people of Iran.

Marco Rubio himself said that as the US learned Israel was going to attack Iran with or without US assistance, this would inevitably mean Iranian retaliation versus US assets, and therefore the US felt compelled to then attack Iran in an effort to minimise Iran's ability to retaliate.

Quite literally the US being dragged into a shooting war by the actions of Israel.

Destroying these things help the US & Israel to achieve other war goals though. It's not like regime change is their only goal or they have said it is their primary goal. Pointing out where goals are being achieved is in response to people saying the war has achieved nothing.

Regime change would be wonderful and anything that weakens the current regime has to be a good thing, in my opinion.

You say you can't liberate a country from the air, and I agree. The people of Iran have to do that and Netanyahu on Tuesday urged them to topple the Ayatollah.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you to remove the Ayatollah regime and gain your freedom," the prime minister posted on X.

Precisely.

The Iranian Army appears to still be relatively intact, and you do not require a Navy, fast jets, or a nuclear programme to quell a rowdy population rioting in the streets.

Nothing short of a full invasion and literal, physical removal of the regime is going to change anything for the better, and since there is no apparent will to do that the regime will remain. The bombing is nothing but a pointless exercise that may serve to impede the regime's goals somewhat, but it is not going to remove the regime itself. The only way this is going to change organically is if the Army itself decides it's had enough of the mullahs and turns on them, however, that's highly unlikely to be through any notion of liberating the civilian population from tyranny, and would likely be nothing but a power-grab by an equally or more despotic military command. God knows where that would leave the Iranian population, because military Dictatorship is never benign either. In the first few days of this conflict the Iranian government made it known the Iranian military was singing off it's own songsheet anyway, so going by the response it appears the military would be even more keen to get into a fight to the death with Iran's enemies than the mullahs are.

Interesting that the US's supposed answer to the question of "what will you do when the bombing stops and missile/drone production is resumed" is apparently "bomb them again". 🤔

Regime change is not even on their list of goals.

I think regime change is something they would like to see but not a primary goal.

According to the Washington Institute:

One week into the war with Iran, the United States seems to have settled on four primary objectives: (1) destroying Iran’s navy; (2) destroying Iran’s missile capabilities; (3) preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons; and (4) preventing Iran from supporting proxy groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen. Administration officials—notably President Trump in his initial remarks regarding the war—have hinted that regime change is also among their goals, but have consistently excluded this message in recent days.

www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/assessing-us-progress-iran-war

A lot of people on the left are against the war just because Donald Trump and Israel are involved in it. They conveniently ignore the mass protests that have been happening on the streets of Iran since the start of 2026. They constantly bring up the 146 school girls who died when a school was bombed - but completely IGNORE the 36,000 people (including children), who were massacred on the streets of Iran by the Iranian regime.

I’ve read some horrific accounts of life in Iran, so I’m not surprised that the vast majority of Iranians are celebrating that they finally have a chance of liberation after FOUR DECADES OF REPRESSION. If you want the repression of Iranian people (specifically women and young girls) to continue then you should hang your head in shame!

Here’s one example - Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh. At the age of 13, she was raped by a 51 year old man. She was then arrested, jailed, given 100 lashes and subjected to further torture and rape by prison guards.
What happened to her? At the age of 16 she was publicly hanged from a crane.

This is one example from many of what this regime has been subjecting its people to. And frankly I find it utterly shameful that we’ve allowed them to have an embassy in the UK.

The people bemoaning the attacks on this regime should thank their lucky stars that we don’t have to endure what the Iranians have for the last 40+ years.

Excellent post @Marmalademorning

This is what was said on Monday (so after the date of the article you linked to).

“The goals of this mission are clear,” Mr. Rubio said at a State Department event on Monday before Mr. Trump held his own news conference. “It is to destroy the ability of this regime to launch missiles, both by destroying their missiles and their launchers; destroy the factories that make these missiles; and destroy their navy.”