Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sunni Muslims will be upset too, because Israel was involved.
Upset enough to get into terrorism?
Probably not.
Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule
791–800 of 1001 posts
Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule
#792Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well he’s been slain like the dog that he was, alongside some family members - same as the families of those who were slain and tortured on his theocratic watch. Perhaps this is good evidence that Allah is just, even if Allah’s justice has to be delivered by the hands of the Israelis.
[flagged]
This comment likely confuses Khomeini and Khamenei, and is inaccurate either way.
Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule
#793Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> Iran has been attacking the U.S. and its proxies for no reason for decades Iran did not attack the US and Lebanese Shia did not attack the US. Israel invaded Lebanon and the US went in in August 1982. This allowed for the Istaeli allies to perform the Sabra and Shatila massacre. About six months later the US embassy was bombed. Then the barracks was bombed. The US eas not attacked, the US sent troops into Lebanon,…
> About six months later the US embassy was bombed. Then the barracks was bombed.
By whom? Passive voice doing a lot of work.
Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule
#794Earlier 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…
Iran has not attacked the US. Israel has though, just look at the Epstein files.
Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule
#795Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, no they were trying to get Epstein out of his bunker... I mean free the oil from the people, err no, the people from the regime. Someone start playing fortunate son.
[flagged]
Israel murdered the indigenous population of Palestine, Iran possibly (zero proof has been produced) killed some Zionist spies. These are not the same, Israel is our enemy, not Iran.
Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule
#796Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
That’s my point. The U.S. certainly can’t complain it’s catching strays either. It chooses to involve itself in that conflict.
Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule
#797Earlier quoted context omitted.
Iraq is a fantastic lesson to heed today. In the first gulf war, Bush Sr. refused to occupy the country. He viewed it as too difficult and too expensive. In the second gulf war, Bush Jr. declared victory from the deck of an aircraft carrier, occupied the country, hunted and executed its leader, and then opened the U.S. treasury to deal with the aftermath. Thousands of Americans died. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's…
> There isn't even a falsified pretext like WMD's I don’t think anyone believes it, but I’ve heard media reports that ‘unnamed officials’ thought the regime was weeks away from a nuclear weapon. I think an Article 5 invocation would be a cynical way to destroy NATO with some deniability
Not a long time ago, the previous time when USA had bombed Iran, Trump claimed to have destroyed completely anything that Iran could use to make nuclear weapons.
It would be weird (or not?) to contradict himself now by claiming that they were able to make nuclear weapons.
Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule
#798Earlier quoted context omitted.
Judging by George W. Bush’s approval rating right after 9/11, it probably wouldn’t be very many.
Bush’s approval rating benefited from the US being attacked, and then responding. Trump has the order wrong; preemptively attacking countries (even bad ones) doesn’t poll very well with Americans. (This is ahead of Trump’s base being isolationist; it’s not even clear who wants this besides conventional hawks.)
I think it’s just wagging the dog: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wag_the_Dog.
Combined with the fact that the media will be confused about how to respond. You’ll have Iranian diaspora celebrating, like Venezuelans did after the capture of Maduro, making it impossible for the media to frame this simply in terms of “Trump is racist.” As a result, the whole thing will get memory holed, just like the Venezuela attack.
Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule
#799Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe the President should have taken that into account when lying publicly about the impacts that he admitted in private conversation, or mocking and undermining expert advice?
[flagged]
Fauci injected money into the economy? Who was the President at the time?
Re: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule
#800I 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.
First, the Islamic Republic was not “the only power fighting for Islam.” It was fighting to expand Iranian state power under a religious banner. There’s a difference. The regime’s foreign policy has consistently followed geopolitical logic: expanding influence through proxies in Lebanon (Hezbollah), Gaza (Hamas and PIJ), Iraq (Shi’a militias), Syria (Assad), and Yemen (Houthis). That’s empire-building through asymmetric warfare, not some abstract defense of the global ummah.
Second, Islam itself is not a single centralized political bloc. The idea that “millions of Muslims” saw Tehran as their champion ignores deep sectarian and national divides. Sunni-majority states like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and Turkey have spent decades actively countering Iranian influence. Many Arabs view Persian expansionism with suspicion for historical reasons that predate modern geopolitics by centuries. Even within Shi’a communities outside Iran, loyalty to Tehran is far from universal.
Third, the Islamic Republic’s model is explicitly totalitarian: clerical rule, suppression of dissent, morality police, imprisonment of reformers, execution of protesters. Calling that “fighting for Islam” collapses a complex global religion into one revolutionary state ideology. Many Muslims—Sunni and Shi’a—despise the regime precisely because it fuses religion with authoritarian control.
As for retaliation risk: yes, whenever a regime that funds proxy groups is hit, the risk of attempted attacks rises. That’s true by definition. But that risk has existed for decades already because of the regime’s own strategy of exporting violence. The question isn’t whether risk increases from zero. It’s whether removing a state sponsor that systematically arms, trains, and finances militant networks reduces long-term capacity for global destabilization.
Iran was not some neutral spiritual defender of the faith. It was a regional power using religion as a mobilizing ideology while building a cross-border militia network.
That distinction matters.