Trump is for rent. Shutting down a competitor is 25M, "full service" is apparently ~100M. I'm not privy to what invading an oil nation costs, but I reckon it's akin to a hand job, so a nice golden wristwatch should probably do it?
https://youtu.be/NSbx_0mtk80?si=MJ_Bfvx8gVd1P1mm
They've waited a very long time for this moment!
Also, these countries were not formed by themselves, but rather through deals with France and/or Britain.
Iran, while also diverse, has a thousands of years long history. Persians still see themselves as continuation of Persian peoples from the empire times, etc.
So, it is not very correct to compare it one to one.
Iran has a much worse relationship with its minorities, where if you are of the wrong faith then you literally face state-sanctioned laws preventing you studying or working. In fact, things in Iraq became much worse for minorities after the overthrowal due to the adoption of Iranian cultural practices like Abrahamic elitism.
The cherry on top of all of this is that you probably don't realize that Persians in Iran only make up 60% of the country. You have Iranians who wholly reject Persian ancestry (Azeris, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds...) but you don't even account for them, despite Iran having, what, three? entirely separate ethnic-based separatist insurgencies active across the country LOL
You should consider conformation bias.
How can you compare Arab countries to Iran?
Are you suggesting Iranians should have protested harder, maybe tried more to "bring change from within"?
10 million Iranians live outside Iran. They want a normal country again.
Later today, I'm sure footage from LA, Toronto, London, Stockholm will be up.
Not perfect option, but still is an improvement even from your positiom.
Actually, they will probably assume the IRGC killed them to blame the West. I don't believe that, but the Iranians can't stand the regime.
Surely there could never be any unintended consequences from this! If history of conflict in the middle east has taught us anything it's that the power vacuum this bought will be filled with something much better and more enlightened.
Hope to hell that you or anyone you care about isn't on the receiving end of such sentiments.
At some point, you have to take the path that offers at least some hope for the future. To turn into something that has lost all hope - there is no fixing that.
But this assassination is no guarantee of change for the better. Far from it.
Anyone know?
India only shifted to using Russian oil in 2022 [2] after Venezuelan [3] and Iranian [4] oil sanctions were enacted, which was when both began increasing engagement with China.
It's a similar story for South Korea [5] and Japan [6].
This helps reduce prices for ONG, as India is shifting back to Venezuelan crude which gives slack which South Korea and Japan can take advantage of, as India, Japan, and South Korea represent 3 of the 5 largest oil consumers globally.
[0] - https://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/ongc-awaits-instr...
[1] - https://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/reliance-venezuel...
[2] - https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65553920
[3] - https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/india-and-venezuela-gro...
[4] - https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trump-tightens-sanctions-...
[5] - https://eastasiaforum.org/2019/09/13/south-korean-oil-refine...
[6] - https://mei.edu/ar/publication/japan-and-middle-east-navigat...
I would hold back on any hopes until we see how the current government handles things. Intervention from other countries does not always lead to positive outcomes.
>...This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country. We are hearing that many of their IRGC, Military, and other Security and Police Forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking for Immunity from us. As I said last night, “Now they can have Immunity, later they only get Death!” Hopefully, the IRGC and Police will peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots, and work together as a unit to bring back the Country to the Greatness it deserves...
The merge peacefully or die thing may motivate them.
We have probably entered an era of the Internet where new account signups need some sort of validation. An invite from a user with >500 karma? $10? Strong KYC? Or perhaps one of multiple such methods to be more inclusive?
We all know there's propaganda accounts on this site (and all over the internet). Is this one of them? I have no idea! But the fact that I have no idea makes it harder to enjoy HN and be confident in the things I am reading.
The time for changing user signup flows is probably nearby.
(And this is why we can't have nice thighs.)
My evil agenda is to encourage people to watch every season of Futurama.
Shed no tears for the deaths of tyrants. They would happily see you and any other threat to their illegitimate power put six feet under.
Regardless, dictators deserve to be put into the ground no matter where they are.
That said, for anything aside from a despotic world leader, I'm also against the death penalty.
I actually oppose the death penalty as a punishment for crimes, but for practical rather than principled reasons: I don't want innocent people (and there's always a chance of innocence) to be killed, and it's more expensive than life in prison anyway.
So please go ahead and tell me, where does International Law prohibit a state that’s at war with another to assassinate its head of state?
This planet uses international law.
[Accept all international laws]
[Accept only necessary international laws]
[Customize settings]I'm not saying the Ayatollah wasn't a vile criminal, but it's always innocents on the ground who face the brunt of war.
I hope the citizens of Iran can have a peaceful transition and chart a better path for their country, but every single one of America's previous forced regime changes in the region (and across the world) has shown otherwise.
I also just saw state tv threatening people once more. They're so scared.
I'm not saying that the diaspora doesn't care about the risks or have empathy for those that remain in Iran. I'm sure there are also many people who are deeply concerned. Just that being an emigre changes things.
I'm not saying that Iranian loved Khamenei, but maybe they are not that happy that he is dead because of other reasons. Instability for instance.
Taking out both Maduro and Khomeini over the course of a few months without a single American or Israeli casualty is peak.
And a portion of HN.
Decapitation airstrikes have been possible for decades. I suppose now we find out whether that was a good idea or not. Slightly surprised the Iran strike worked, if you remember the hunts for Saddam and Bin Laden.
Bring the popcorn with you. No need for salt cause everyone got that in spades on both sides.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/28/iran-khamenei-ayatollah...
No you're right people usually love to be murdered by their regimes.
Sure there is! Some got killed and executed but many alive in jail! We even have a Nobel laureate in jail. For God's sake it's just one google search away!
This does not seem to me like very strong evidence? Trump just says whatever, and "a source briefed on [the attacks]" just means at least one person in USG thinks Khamenei was in whatever house they blew up. Am I missing some other confirmation?
Their opposition to Israel is not from a humanitarian and moral standpoint, it's purely religious. They have no shame admitting this. You just have to listen to one of the 5 state TV channels in Farsi. I even think Palestinians would fare better if not for these extremists on either side!
All that said, the supreme leader is the one who commands the murder of innocents in the streets, so he had it coming. Good riddance and he died like the rat that he was. But as to what happens next? No one knows. Also I personally don't think US is doing this because they want Iran's oil. I believe they want to put pressure on China to not get Iran's cheap (under sanctions) oil. That seems more plausible to me.
*typo edit
> Earlier, Trump addressed reports that Khamenei was killed in airstrikes today, saying, “We feel that that is a correct story.”
This doesn't sound like Trump's typical bluster, and it's even weirder that Trump didn't immediately go on TV to brag. I'm not saying this is fake news, but I'll wait for confirmation.
Assassination doesn’t remove the system or rewrite the balance of power, nor does it reconstitute civil society.
The truth of the world, as much as we may hate it, is that at least at the state level might makes right.
Not that it's ok for the US, or anyone else to do it.
Considering how Israel had to raze entire cities to beat 'Hamas' or the US dropping nukes in WW2 instead of bombing the Japanese Emperor. This is decent as far as wars go.
The Israeli-supplied Azeri military has already demonstrated its effectiveness when it curb stomped the unprepared and internally betrayed Armenian military and militias. Baku will eventually decide to intervene in the northern territories. If I had to guess, a "special military operation" into northern Iran is the most likely follow-up scenario goaded into and supplied of course by Israel/US. The goal will be to foment a civil war and begin the dismemberment process of Iran.
A little personal conspiracy theory I have is that after the last Israel/US intervention (when they mysteriously liquidated the only high-ranking and influential internal opposition of the Khamenei clan left) is that some sort of deal was worked out behind the scenes with the clan to get rid of the wizard-in-chief kinda like how Maduro was sold out. It is much easier to go to war with a country when it responds with only symbolic attacks and secretly promises to fight with one hand behind its back - provided cash and security flows for those at the top of course.
Years later, I understand it was a complete folly. Removing Saddam in itself was good but what it did the wider region was not good.
That said, fuck Khamenei.
You and your children will be paying the bill for this war for the rest of your life.
Oil and defense companies will get richer.
Nothing will change in the middle east.
I say that ISIS was worst than Saddam.
But I personally think that the reasons why you see violent insurgency after a regime change and foreign occupation is a little more universal to humans than specific to islam.
Parts of Iraq are much better off, like Kurdistan. Other parts were utterly devastated by our operations, insurgency, sectarian violence, ISIS, and so on. Some people had religious freedom and now live in areas under theocratic control.
As you said.. plenty of evidence where on the surface it seems good. But in reality it turns out to make the people in the region worse off.
I believe this is the legacy of leaders like Saddam. They build a very messy future for their countries. Whenever such a leader is gone, somebody has to take over power. Dictators tend to concentrate as much power in their hands as possible. Forced removal of such a leader might accelerate and / or destabilize power transition. Which might end up in a very messy scenario.
Absolute power transition worked well with monarchy in the past, cause everybody knew who would be the next guy, there were rules and procedures. With dictatorship often times there are no rules. So power transition might turn into a complete chaos even with a natural death of a dictator.
Going to take a night off from worrying about forever wars and celebrate the end of the Ayatollah and Ali Khamenei.
Now, these results may lead to unintended consequences in the future. But today, a murderer is dead.
Don't come crying around when the next 9/11 inevitably happens.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/28/children-dead-...
Was the bottleneck in these situations really the US' willingness to kill or capture world leaders?
(I would not rely on immunity from a nation that left collaborators on the tarmac in afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam?)
programmertote•2h ago
adamiscool8•1h ago
bombcar•1h ago
indubioprorubik•1h ago
jcranmer•1h ago
But the ultimate loser of the power struggle is clear: the Iranian populace at large, as all of the viable factions are quite committed to consolidating their power by repressing the population. The most likely situation, I think, looks a lot like Libya.
Drunk_Engineer•1h ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpEF6QPSVJE
quitspamming•1h ago
ReptileMan•1h ago
XorNot•1h ago
mkoubaa•1h ago
hnthrowaway0315•1h ago
BTW I don't actually think even the reformists will "accept Western ideas".
suoloordi•1h ago