Iran Super Thread- Merged

[Colin Parkinson]

Rubio was just on now contradicting his earlier statement about going in because of Israel.

https://www.axios.com/2026/03/03/rubio-trump-iran-israel-attacks

Now saying it isn’t because of Israel.

Whoever is in charge of messaging has really bungled this up.

Yes the messaging from this administration is painful. I agree with what they are doing, just wish they just shut up and not drop the message ball.

 

[HavokFour]

It seems they were able to recover the vote tally from the rubble.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s oldest son elected as supreme leader to replace his dad: report

The son of Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was selected to replace him as supreme leader, according to a report in Iranian opposition media.

nypost.com

 

[Remius]

It seems they were able to recover the vote tally from the rubble.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s oldest son elected as supreme leader to replace his dad: report

The son of Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was selected to replace him as supreme leader, according to a report in Iranian opposition media.

nypost.com

Right now that is like signing a death warrant.

 

[RangerRay]

It seems they were able to recover the vote tally from the rubble.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s oldest son elected as supreme leader to replace his dad: report

The son of Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was selected to replace him as supreme leader, according to a report in Iranian opposition media.

nypost.com

Yes, “elected”.

 

[RangerRay]

I swear this sounds familiar.....

https://twitter.com/x/status/2028855191601054142

“Special Military Operation”

 

[Remius]

“Special Military Operation”

Of course. Best way to counter the no new wars lie they’ve been peddling.

 

[Cloud Cover]

It would appear while the story is real, the image is was ai generated.

 

[Cloud Cover]

New update: The US will provide insurance, and if needed, naval escorts for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

And the USN will start escorting ships.
I bet the RCN somehow gets roped into this to gain trade clout.

 

[ytz]

Yes the messaging from this administration is painful. I agree with what they are doing, just wish they just shut up and not drop the message ball.

It's more than messaging. War termination usually requires a political plan. The SecDef says the President decides. The President says "Forever if necessary".

Maybe we should just wait for Netanyahu to tell us what the plan is, since he seems to be the actual leader here.

 

[MrWhyt]

Maybe we should just want for Netanyahu to tell us what the plan is, since he seems to be the actual leader here.

what are the statue of limitations for the criminal charges he's facing? that'll give you the timeline

 

[McG]

PM’s newest statement:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2028958420888428737

 

[Kirkhill]

 

[ytz]

I inferred that to mean mass killings, so perhaps you can explain how the Shah's rule is worse than the Islamic regime?

I didn't say worse. I said they remember how bad the Shah's rule was. For every person happy to chat "Pahlavi", there's somebody else who remembers that regime's oppression. Unfortunately, for all his name recognition, he's also polarizing.

And remember. We're both sitting in comfy Canada. What matters is what the folks in Iran think.

Your statement about coming out on the streets is wrong. The population in every major city and many smaller urban areas did come out onto the streets and were succeeding, until the Regime decided to machine gun the crowds (something the old Shah did not want to do). With an estimated 30-100,000 dead and similar numbers detained and tortured, going out on the street is very difficult, but it is still happening and there is a resurgence in street protests since the bombings as the IRGC starts to become uncoordinated.

Right. And the last time they were promised help the cavalry never arrived. The bravest of the lot have been slaughtered. The bar for Tier 2 to risk their lives is a lot, lot higher.

You also ignore the reality that the vast majority of any population are somewhat apolitical or have other considerations. The Persian majority are really weary of any balkanization and deeply suspicious of minorities. The minorities are worried that any change will see them pay in blood. Etc. Ignoring the ethnic differences and interests is not far from what led to substantial failures in Iraq.

Also completely disagree with you diaspora remark, the protests are important to direct public opinion and political pressure in the West.

They should mount up like the Cubans did, if they really believe in the cause. Right now their "opinion and political pressure" look a lot like the Iraqi exiles who dragged the US into a ruinous war. Remember this guy?

Ahmed Chalabi - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[QV]

Yes the messaging from this administration is painful. I agree with what they are doing, just wish they just shut up and not drop the message ball.

Is it possible the media, which has been very pro Trump all along, puts a little extra zing on everything coming out?

Ignore the noise and pay attention to the signal.

Example: No, Marco Rubio Didn’t Claim That Israel Dragged Trump into War with Iran | National Review

A large cadre of commentators have been arguing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dragged U.S. President Donald Trump unwillingly into war with Iran. At first blush, this theory received a boost from comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday. But when you listen to Rubio’s full comments in context, it’s pretty clear that he wasn’t advancing this claim.

 

[Czech_pivo]

“Special Military Operation”

Waiting for the 'Mission Accomplished' tarp to be dusted off.....

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Is it possible the media, which has been very pro Trump all along, puts a little extra zing on everything coming out?

Ignore the noise and pay attention to the signal.

Except I fear that the noise actually IS the signal. The message is to drown the signal with noise.

 

[brihard]

Iran may have landed a couple better hits than we were aware of. Some very expensive and high end radars appear to have been damaged or destroyed.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2028960550026129874

https://twitter.com/x/status/2028966387926835445

 

[QV]

I really enjoy the microscopic scrutiny of the US in the first few days after it starts a new round of hostilities. Always a litany of failures.

Regime removal is easy; replacement is hard. Iran did have a bit of democratic tradition decades ago, but not enough to shake revert-to-authoritarian mode when things got tough. It was certainly politically stunted by the Allied meddling in the '40s and the colonial meddling before that, but I also haven't seen evidence of any credible long-term Iranian-government-in-exile projects/think tanks, let alone one that has a well-developed plan for everything that has to happen to get from occupying the institutions to holding the first elections and initiating a project to write a new constitution. That's the greatest weakness.

There are always competing governing wannabe factions waiting for opportunity. Some are not necessarily domestic. A period of civil war is certainly on the table.

Nothing done by western countries has ever been acceptable to the extreme political left (the ones who are always out there with the signs deploring attacks against reprehensible regimes); presumably they want all non-marxist governments to fail and become some flavour of marxist. Ignore them. What does that leave? Maybe just allowing countries to repeatedly try and fail until they get to some kind of non-authoritarian government.

Iran is a special case. Repeat "Death to Israel/America" often enough and work obviously and credibly at developing nuclear weapons and delivery capabilities, and Israel and America are not bound to ignore the threat indefinitely.

Here is the GoC's evolving position as explained by National Post:

Carney says he supports U.S. strikes on Iran 'with regret,' as Liberal divisions emerge

Carney supports U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran "with regret," because the conflict represents a "failure of the international order."

nationalpost.com

Convening remains the go-to solution for Canada, which apparently hasn't worked for 47 years but heck lets keep trying....