let's get a second opinion on Iran

[Carlos Danger]

A littlle long but a good read.

It’s no coincidence that in the wake of the targeted killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s most important military proxy has begun taking credit for terror attacks committed nearly four decades ago. For example, Hezbollah-affiliated media and activists  are laying public claim to the organization’s responsibility for bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in October 1983, which killed 241 Marines. So why now?

The answer is, to scare Americans now that Donald Trump has thrown the regime in Tehran off balance by changing the 40-year-old rules of the game. The United States always knew that Hezbollah was responsible for the Marine barracks attack and that the Lebanese militia was armed, trained, funded and directed by Iran. President Reagan’s decision not to respond directly to the attack was part of a tacit agreement that America and the Islamic Republic entered into during the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran. It mirrored similar arrangements with the Soviet Union in which neither superpower held the other directly accountable for the actions of proxies in order to reduce the likelihood of a nuclear cataclysm.

Yet, unlike the Soviet Union, the Islamic Republic was hardly a globe-spanning nuclear superpower. It was merely a hostile local power that threatened the American regional security order through terror attacks. Washington’s response was to look away, under the theory that it was beneficial to the larger order to pretend, in public, that rules still existed. In turn, Iran was happy to play make-believe and accumulate prestige and leverage.

The terms of this weird deal held fast for the next four decades, through the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the First and Second Gulf Wars, Bush’s occupation of Iraq, Obama’s Iran deal, and other local and global milestones. Washington wouldn’t hold the clerical regime accountable for the violent proxies that it funded, armed, trained, and directed. In exchange, Iran and its partners would refrain from embarrassing the Americans by boasting about the murders they committed. The founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, famously said that America couldn’t do a damn thing. It is more accurate to say our elected officials wouldn’t do a damn thing.https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/296604/iran-and-america-are-suddenly-both-naked

[frenchy]

wait. Let's ask someone who took the school bus with an Iranian in 1983.

[Anler]

2 minutes ago, frenchy said:

wait. Let's ask someone who took the school bus with an Iranian in 1983.

I ate a shisk a bob last week! 

[f7ben]

"The American regional security order"

 

Fuck america

[washedupmxer]

Just now, f7ben said:

"The American regional security order"

 

Fuck america

[SVT MXZ XRS]

Poor Failure Francois 

[frenchy]

1 minute ago, SVT MXZ XRS said:

Poor Failure Francois 

still butthurt I see

[SVT MXZ XRS]

Just now, frenchy said:

I still got nothing

I know you don't