Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

781–790 of 1001 posts

Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule

#781

Post by twoodfin »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #473
underlipton wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know whether I'm "kidding" or not, but I might as well post what immediately came to mind as I read this: Sandra Bland et al. ICE detainments The excess 20k (as far as absolute numbers go) road fatalities in the US versus Iran. And the excess I-have-no-idea-how-many-k who died under Trump's bungled COVID response (and who are going to die from Biden's bungled rail strike response)(and who died under Obama's f…

> because of his pre-9/11 mismanagement I'm not here to defend GW Bush. He did many stupid things. But I don't recall a lot of criticism around his "pre-9/11 mismanagement". Can you offer some specifics? The hunt for Osama Bin Laden started (at least) with Clinton and continued with GW Bush. Unfortunately, neither was able to stop him before the 9/11 attacks.

There was a cottage industry in elaborating the theory that Bush and his administration were unnecessarily caught flat-footed or even knew the attacks were imminent.

Richard Clarke is a good place to start:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Clarke

He seemed more interested in publicity and exaggerating his own bureaucratic importance than being objective—tendencies the political opposition and media were in no mood to criticize.

But YMMV.

Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule

#782

Post by EtienneDeLyon »

maybelsyrup wrote: post #709
dotancohen wrote: post #692

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably one in a thousand. But as one whom the Ayatollah has sworn to eliminate, I can still state that man was sharp and brilliant and extremely well spoken. His worldview was internally consistent. He had vision and experience and knew how to motivate people. He was a one in ten million leader. I give him that praise and more, even recognising that his stated mission was to exterminate myself and my children.

> But as one whom the Ayatollah has sworn to eliminate What does this mean — did you stick him with the bill at all restaurant or something?

He's doing what's called "Hasbara". Regular people call it "lying".

Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule

#783

Post by RaftPeople »

kjfarm wrote: post #540
Cipater wrote: post #454

I 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.

I think the responses are very diverse throughout the region. Got example, in Karachi protestors gathered outside a consulate https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-protesters-attacked-us-c... But inside Tehran (and in my neighborhood of D.C.) there have been celebrations https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/world/middleeast/iran-kha...

I have a friend that left Iran just before the Shah was overthrown. Over the years he has gone back multiple times to visit family and friends etc.

He told me years ago that the majority in Iran were not aligned with the new regime, it was a minority of the population that were.

Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule

#784

Post by hollerith »

rayiner wrote: post #766
estimator7292 wrote: post #744

Earlier quoted context omitted.

9/11 was the first major attack on the continental US in living memory. It was literally a world-altering event for most of the population, and it radically changed the geopolitical calculus of the average citizen. Lots of american citizens demanded retaliation. Our counterattacks weren't sanctioned by congress, but they were by the people. Meanwhile, the current president just started a war based on a temper tantrum…

I agree with you that the Iran strike is an effort to distract the public from Trump’s failure to bring down grocery prices like he promised: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wag_the_Dog I was addressing the hypothetical of how Americans would react if Trump was killed by a foreign country in airstrikes similar to how the Ayatollah was killed. I think Americans would react like they did after 9/11, instead of celebratin…

I agree. Half the country would be happy if an entity composed of Americans killed Trump, but most of those would be unhappy with a non-American entity doing it. Or at least I hope they would.

Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule

#785

Post by enrightened »

sosomoxie wrote: post #758
SegfaultSeagull wrote: post #748

The 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 be…

Israel'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.

[flagged]

Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule

#786

Post by cookiengineer »

throwaway173738 wrote: post #655
dotancohen wrote: post #603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you assume that someone with decades of experience could not be an effective leader?

People lose cognition as they age.

Tell that to the US regime, too?

Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule

#787

Post by estearum »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #751
wiseowise wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prophets are more dangerous when they're dead. At 86 he would either die from old age or fighting "imperialistic, evil" Israel/US.

This Prophet believed/taught that school girls should be raped before they are executed for not wearing hats so that they can't get into heaven (believing God would judge a child for being raped). Should a believer/teacher of such things even be called a prophet? Old boy was straight trash with a horrific morality.

AFAICT nearly everyone who is called a "prophet" by anyone is horrible, no?

Doesn't stop people from killing or dying in their name though.

Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule

#788

Post by estearum »

muzani wrote: post #601
Cipater wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any celebrations are an indicator but are far from the entire picture. Wouldn't there be celebrations in the US if Trump died? What conclusions would you draw from that?

Exactly. Oddly enough most countries have politics split down the middle. A left and right. Up and down. Rarely even a 2/3 majority. If you wanted to find people celebrating, you'd find people celebrating. But my opinion is more often than not, you have two bad guys fighting each other for the top spot. They don't support Option B because they're dumb, they support B because Option A would sell his mom for power, whi…

It's a lot easier to agree Current Guy Bad than it is to agree on who Next Guy should be

Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule

#789

Post by estearum »

rayiner wrote: post #760
spaghetdefects wrote: post #752

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Terror attacks? I think you mean self-defense, as the US/Israel just bombed Iran with no justification at all. That is a terror attack.

I’m quite sympathetic to the general assertion that the U.S. launches unprovoked attacks on random countries that didn’t attack the U.S. Iraq being the most egregious example. But Iran is perhaps the least sympathetic actor on that front. Iran has been attacking the U.S. and its proxies for no reason for decades: https://www.britannica.com/event/1983-Beirut-barracks-bombin... . Tehran is a thousand miles away from Te…

Aren't Iran's interests in Israel pretty analogous to the US's?

Regional security and holy book brainmush?

Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule

#790

Post by sosomoxie »

enrightened wrote: post #785
sosomoxie wrote: post #758

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel'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.

[flagged]

Israel is surrounded by "enemies" because it's a European colony that was artificially constructed through ethnic cleansing and terror. I'm in the US, and it's crystal clear that Israel is the #1 threat to my way of life. There's a massive population that is done being gaslit about this.
Post reply on HN