US/Israel conduct airstrikes on Iran again

Tacitus Kilgore DCLXVI · 02-03-2026 08:06PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279272#Comment_124279272

I am pointing out the poster's clear bias when it comes to the Middle East based on things he has literally said. But yeah accuse me of being an anti-Semite or whatever.

patnor1011 · 02-03-2026 08:06PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279295#Comment_124279295

The amount of dancing expat Iranians is so pitifully small compared to population at home plus the fact that they ran away, it make no sense even to mention it. Have you seen crowds in Iran screaming death to USA and death to Israel?

RoyalCelt · 02-03-2026 08:07PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124278704#Comment_124278704

There's no defending enriching to that level while also declaring the destruction of another state. You definitely won that argument but tbf it's not a hard one to win.

Piskin · 02-03-2026 08:08PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279341#Comment_124279341

They fled an oppressive religious regime

patnor1011 · 02-03-2026 08:09PM

This adventure will result in one thing. Energy companies and pretty much everyone else is popping up champagne bottles as this is beautiful excuse to jack up prices of everything even higher. And we know from experience than even when this adventure ends and prices of oil and gas come back to january levels consumer prices will not fall down one red cent.

Happened many times.

Ardillaun · 02-03-2026 08:12PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279295#Comment_124279295

They are like some of the Iranians I know but are they a representative sample of the entire population at home? Exiles are a notoriously unreliable source of information on the mother country - look at Irish America or the Miami Cubans. Generally speaking, the sort of people who support the regime aren’t taking white collar jobs in the West. The pro-mullah faction may only be 10-20% of the total but that might be enough to keep the regime in place unless there’s a split in the government itself.

nachouser · 02-03-2026 08:13PM

It'll all go away when a few Saudi's get together and chuck 10bn at Trump through some crypto wheeze.

Manic Moran · 02-03-2026 08:20PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279255#Comment_124279255

I wouldn't be so sure. The spice must flow, and folks are going to do what it takes to make it do so, even if it means swallowing their morals and talking with the US.

As to the organisation, whatever about the political-level machinations, the lower level systems such as military-to-military have generally remained good globally. If the Omani Navy Ops Chief wants to talk with the US Fifth Fleet Ops Chief, I strongly suspect he knows him by name, has his 'phone number, and speaks the same military operational language.

That's assuming that nations don't just do it on their own. There aren't many threats left Iran has which non-US forces can't handle.

Podge_irl · 02-03-2026 08:35PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124277867#Comment_124277867

While I imagine this is broadly correct, it is a fairly stupid game for Iran to be playing.

I also think people misinterpret statements like "Iran is x months away from a bomb" - not helped by anyone who is making the statements mind you. The timeline US intelligence reports is a breakout time for a bomb if and when Iran decides to restart their nuclear weapons program. However, they are not consistently enriching uranium to 60% and building underground labs and amassing high tech centrifuges for fun. Their goal seems fairly clearly to get as far along as possible while technically not developing a bomb so that the breakout time (and thus the amount of time to stop them) is as short as possible.

Withdrawing from JCPOA was unbelievably stupid - mind you, it did nothing to stop Iran's non-nuclear malevolence - but what's done is done in that respect. Biden made very little headway with Iran as the "trust" was broken. The Omanis claim a deal was close, but Iran refused to halt enriching uranium, so I'm not sure it was as close as they thought.

Nor is it "fair" that Israel (allegedly) has nukes but other States are stopped from developing them. But geopolitics aren't fair, and the entire world is a safer place if Iran doesn't have them - if you can avoid religious fundamentalists having a nuclear device that is a good thing.

There are no "good guys" in this entire endeavour. There frequently aren't in reality. But the speed with which Iran has scattershot missiles at all their neighbours (who had nothing to do with this for the most part) and how quickly all the nearby Arab countries have turned on them does rather say something about how Iran is viewed.

At this stage all there is left to do is hope that some good comes of all of this for the Iranian people and all those who suffered under Iranian terrorist proxies. Though I don't rate the chances of that super highly.

Strazdas · 02-03-2026 08:37PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279358#Comment_124279358

Indeed : exiles are likely to be young, well educated, liberal, perhaps not even practising Muslims etc…..couldn't really be said that they represent 'Iranian public opinion' to a huge degree.

brickster69 · 02-03-2026 08:39PM

4-5 weeks now according to Trump or as long as it takes. Qatar has 4 days left of interceptor missiles and other Gulf states are asking for more already which they wont get because they don't have them to give.

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/2028515322454487114

BettyS · 02-03-2026 08:41PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279373#Comment_124279373

The strategy used to be coherent. However, now it is liable to change, depending on what way the leader-in-chief is feeling at that particular moment. The strategy of suppressing any uprisings depends on relative stability and collaboration with other foreign powers. Trump uses international relations as a bargaining chip. Eventually, people get fed up of the threats and end up walking out. It was the collaborative approach that empowered America, not the current isolationist approach. And two nations are not enough to suppress a nation as large as Iran

Exiled Rebel · 02-03-2026 08:42PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279358#Comment_124279358

Every Iranian I knew in London, and there was quite a few, hated the regime. None dared return even for a holiday. Many travelled to Turkey to meet family who travelled in the other direction from Iran.

SeanW · 02-03-2026 08:53PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279167#Comment_124279167

Deals don't work with tyrants. Countless examples throughout modern history.

Neville Chamberlain made a deal in Munich, 1938 leading to "peace in our time" that … didn't work out very well.
Ukraine made a deal with Russia in 1994, Ukraine gave up its nukes in exchange for security guarantees. That didn't work out very well.
The US made multiple deals with North Korea in the 90s and early 2000s for them not to develop nuclear weapons.
But hey, a "deal" with Iran would surely have worked out totally … this time 🙄

Though I think we would all wish it were different, some problems can't be solved by making deals, sooner or later they have to be solved with force, because some people only respect force.

Enduro · 02-03-2026 08:54PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279327#Comment_124279327

Well, please explain why you think knowing Jewish people introduces some kind of biased thinking in someone.

Sudden Valley · 02-03-2026 08:55PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279425#Comment_124279425

That sounds a lot like the Venezuelan and Cuban exiles. Both regimes they escaped from still exist.

The Shah actually added to unpopularity by being liberal so not sure what the general population in Iran actually support now.

.Donegal. · 02-03-2026 08:57PM

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are urging allies to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump to shorten the war with Iran as their missile defense systems' stocks are running low, Bloomberg reported.

According to an internal analysis citedby Bloomberg, Qatar's stocks of Patriot interceptor missiles will last for the next four days if Iranian attacks continue at their current rate.

The United Arab Emirates reportedly requested assistance with medium-range air defense, while Qatar has found drones to be a bigger threat than ballistic missiles. According to sources cited by Bloomberg, both countries are working to build a coalition to persuade Trump to end the war diplomatically.

Ardillaun · 02-03-2026 08:58PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279445#Comment_124279445

There’s usually a selection bias inherent in being an exile. You’re likely to be unrepresentative of the people who stayed at home.

Ardillaun · 02-03-2026 09:00PM

We’ve seen zombie regimes survive for years with little popular support eg Syria, Belarus.

Ardillaun · 02-03-2026 09:07PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279425#Comment_124279425

That hasn’t been quite my experience.One left-wing colleague disliked the regime and America with equal intensity. Another became conservative. But that’s not really my point. The exiles are by their nature an unrepresentative group. They have fewer of the MAGA-type contingent - conservative, religious, poorly educated, xenophobic - than Iran would have.

Tacitus Kilgore DCLXVI · 02-03-2026 09:11PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279444#Comment_124279444

Because he has literally said this in previous posts, but yeah keep trying to accuse me of being an anti-Semite or whatever.

Ardillaun · 02-03-2026 09:12PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279408#Comment_124279408

There is no ‘allegedly’ about Israel’s nuclear weapons. As Netanyahu himself once put it: We have Amona (a former West Bank settlement), and we have Dimona. They have existed since 1970 at the latest. The Israelis promised the Americans they wouldn’t build them and went ahead anyway. They even stole American technology to do it. These are established facts despite both Israeli and American attempts to conceal them. I think fifty years is long past time for us to call out the opacity policy of that state. Unlike American politicians and civil servants we can still speak freely about it here.

RoyalCelt · 02-03-2026 09:14PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279341#Comment_124279341

You are right to an extent. About 20-30% of Iranian's support an Islamic republic. So that's about 20-30 million people. Which is a sizable county in itself. That leaves about 70 million pensions wanting free of the Islamic shackles.

gormdubhgorm · 02-03-2026 09:20PM

It is noticeable to me that on the BBC they seem to pretend Iran didn’t exist before the Ayatollah. No mention of how the UK and USA displaced the democratically elected Modsaddagh and put the Sha in charge. Who was then overthrown by the Islamic Republic.

Enduro · 02-03-2026 09:20PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279485#Comment_124279485

You're very defensive about being accused of being an anti-semite. I haven't said anything about you. I hve simply asked you to explain what you yourself wrote in this thread.

I have no problem believing that the other poster knows many people of many backgrounds (So do I. I would guess that these days most people do). That has nothing to do with the question I have asked you. You have not answered the question in any way.

Please explain why you think knowing Jewish people introduces some kind of biased thinking in someone.

Tell me how · 02-03-2026 09:20PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124279443#Comment_124279443

Though I think we would all wish it were different, some problems can't be solved by making deals, sooner or later they have to be solved with force, because some people only respect force.

Did force solve the problems in Iraq? Did it solve the problems in Afghanistan? In Vietnam? In Korea? In Libya? In Syria?

Do you think it has solved the problem in Gaza?

That is a horrendously simplistic take and one that is ignorant of the global conflicts that have occupied the world for the last 70-80 years. And before that, force was indeed solved as a resolution to WW2, but that was a World War for crying out loud, there are many reasons why force was required as it was in that circumstance. And even then, excessive force was used at the every end just because.

The reality is that force can serve a function, but it should be that of a deterrent. Not this attention diversion tactic by which Trump uses it, or selective regime placement by which America in general has used it for decades, or inflicting a genocide, as Israel has used it also for decades.

True problems are solved with dialogue and negotiation and a recognition and acceptance that just because you do not win, it does not mean that you will lose. We know that in Ireland better than many communities and it is an insult to the millions of people who have died because of idiots who think this next bit of force will fix everything to advocate for what we are watching happen these last few years. If America wanted peace and security around the world, it would embolden and push the UN as the peacekeeping (ideologically and in real terms) body that it could and should be. But the US doesn't want that. It wanted the UN as a faux cover for its dominance for decades and now one idiot in particular thinks that he can ignore even that and treat the world like his to divvy out as he wishes.

There's a phrase that could possibly match with what you are saying "Speak softly, but carry a big stick" But we don't see that from the US do we? We see bluster, and bravado and barely hidden corporate agendas and then they close their eyes and start waving that stick around like they're hitting a pinata.

Israel showed us how they could target the leadership of an entire organization at a simultaneous moment without dispatching a single flying drone or bomb and yet when they then tell us that they needed to flatten Gaza and kill nearly 100K people they are doing so as the most moral army in the world. Any who peddles their narrative can do one as far as I'm concerned.