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

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

#971

Post by OkayPhysicist »

hnuser847 wrote: post #689
agb123 wrote: post #636

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one liked the ayatollah, but if you think the president can go to war without congressional approval then you are unamerican. On top of that, the younger generation of the IRGC is more extreme than the current one, and there has never been a successful regime change by only using an air campaign. Dummies might point to Kosovo or Libya, but the opposition in those cases were armed. In Iran, the opposition is about…

> if you think the president can go to war without congressional approval then you are unamerican The last time congress declared war was 1942. That ship long ago my friend.

And, probably not coincidentally, 1942 was the last time the US got involved in a conflict that we can be proud of.

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

#972

Post by OkayPhysicist »

hattimaTim wrote: post #731
oytis wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it bad? Imagine a world where instead of sending hundreds of thousands young men to die, countries would just launch targeted attacks on the head of enemy's state.

Would you say the same if iran killed trump?

This isn't the gotcha you think it is. Most people in my social circles have a bottle waiting for a date.

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

#973

Post by OkayPhysicist »

impossiblefork wrote: post #500
oytis wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they? In most countries the head of the state is also army's commander-in-chief.

Yes, but these are traditionally not treated as actual soldiers, but civilians commanders-in-chief-in-name-only.

Only because of professional courtesy between powerful assholes. I have far more sympathy for an infantry grunt from literally any country in the world than any head of state.

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

#974

Post by SR2Z »

mango7283 wrote: post #309
Jensson wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't think of any time when bombing the shit out of a country and killing their leader has actually worked. Japan? Although their leader wasn't killed, but same logic. The more civilized a country is the easier it is to reform them into a good state, and Iran is a pretty civilized and structured nation, the dictatorship is the main issue. Most people in Iran want a democracy and are capable of running it, you ju…

The Americans had to occupy and place both Japan and West Germany under their military rule afterwards to make it stick, that's not a comparison

The US did not have to occupy Japan and deal with rebels - the emperor surrendered unconditionally and the US fed the existing pro-democracy movement while rebuilding the country.

If you look at the US' history of interventions, the common thread is that nations with established pro-democracy movements tend to become stable democracies, and nations where democracy lacks popular support tend to turn into flimsy Republics that easily fall apart when American support is removed.

Occupation is so expensive that it's virtually unthinkable for even a medium-size country to be occupied. There are just too many civilians and too few soldiers.

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

#975

Post by acdha »

foldr wrote: post #770
acdha wrote: post #706

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s true, but it’s not always good—Americans have stark examples of the risks of octogenarian leaders whose experience leads them astray by discounting how much the world has changed since they were young. I think of mental faculties and experience as two separate overlapping curves where there’s a sweet spot in the middle where both are high but either one being low can become a big problem. They also just don’t…

Biden's surely a poster child for the value of experience and connections in the Presidency. Whatever you think of him (and I would certainly agree that he should never have considered a second term), he was quite successful in furthering his agenda while in office.

Yes, I agree that he used his experience well for many things (and had competent staff he could trust to get things done) but I will say he made a huge mistake continuing to back Israel's actions in Gaza to an extent which I don't think someone too young to remember the Six Days War would have done. I think you could also make a solid argument that earlier in his career he probably would have had more energy to put into getting a few of the close votes in Congress over the line.

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

#976

Post by LastTrain »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #853
stavros wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can feel OK about Khamenei dying and still worry about what it means that the US can just murder anyone in the world just because.

"Just because they're a brutal dictator who murdered thousands of people." Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of other reasons to be skeptical of American military adventurism, but killing this one guy in particular really isn't one of them.

Of the several reasons Trump has given for doing this so far, which one do you believe?

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

#977

Post by throwaway2037 »

jacquesm wrote: post #640
throwaway2037 wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are speaking about the last Shah's first son: Reza Pahlavi. You can read about his planned policy for Iran here: https://rezapahlavi.org/en To quote: > For the transition from the Islamic Republic to a national, secular, and democratic government One idea is to transition to a secular democracy with a figurehead Shah like a northern European (or Japanese) monarchy. Also, my personal opinion: I think it is…

What he says he's planning and what he will do are not necessarily the same thing. The former Shah's regime was really bad and paved the way for everything that happened afterwards. Between the SAVAK (which tortured and executed quite a few of those in opposition to the Shah regime) and excesses like Persepolis ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,500-year_celebration_of_the_... ) there was created an atmosphere in whic…

This comment is weird. The Shah's son != the Shah. Reza Pahlavi left Iran when he was 17. The Shah fell the following year. All of the issues that you raise are perpetrated by his father. His son was not responsible.

    > What he says he's planning and what he will do are not necessarily the same thing.
Not much being said here. This is true for anybody anywhere anytime. You might as well write: true == true.

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

#978

Post by bigyabai »

nailer wrote: post #937
pydry wrote: post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netanyahu committed genocide. The worst crime humanity can commit. It's not actually very funny how many people go very far out of their way to try and downplay that.

> Netanyahu committed genocide No he didn’t, you made that up.

The charges are not made-up, he just hasn't been tried on them yet: https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu

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

#979

Post by nerdyadventurer »

nerdyadventurer wrote: post #660
Hendrikto wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a brutal dictatorial regime that finances international terrorists on your doorstep does that to you.

You know who created ISIS? US

Please read: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/opinion/how-america-helpe...

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

#980

Post by throwawayheui57 »

ahartmetz wrote: post #943
throwawayheui57 wrote: post #901

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AFAIK, about 50% support the religious strongman in both countries. Do you have any credible source for this?

For Turkey, election results. For Iran, no hard numbers, just fuzzy memory about articles I've read. What is clear is that the regime has supporters and not just those who benefit directly / materially.

Of course. It has actually staunched supporters. One cannot kill innocents in the streets by just the promise of money. So there’s religious ideology involved. However the percentage matters a lot here and even 10% of 90 million is a large number.

*typo edit

update: Here’s some relatively independent polling from inside Iran which does not corroborate the 50/50 divide. And remember this was taken before the 2026 massacre: https://gamaan.org/2025/08/20/analytical-report-on-iranians-...

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