You're conflating separate issues. Try to stay focused instead of devolving off into a rant on a myriad of other topics.

Iran ramped up pressure on American assets within Iraq through the use of proxies. There was a perception, right or wrong, that Trump was concerned about getting dragged into a conflict ahead of the election. When the United States struck Iranian backed militias, Iran's proxies responded by staging a protest in front of the embassy. The implicit threat to the embassy led the United States to do two things. 1) Warn Iran that attacks via proxy would be treated as attacks from Iran itself. 2) Kill the architect of Iranian imperialism.

Iranian imperialism is largely to blame for Iraq's current sectarian quagmire. It was Soleimani and Khamenei who sank the proceeds from the nuclear deal into a regional imperialist project. Now the deal is gone, the money spent, and Soleimani dead. It's gross strategic mismanagement on a colossal scale.

Conservatives are acting like waging ethically black proxy wars hasn't been the norm for all sides since the cold war.

It's such a boring argument. Iran is a corrupt theocracy where the IRGC has become a state within a state. The United States is the world's premier power.

The two do not operate under the same rules. The UN recognizes this inherently in the structure of the security council.

you think we are not corrupt?
and its some Christian proper values vs Muslim? you cracked if you think we are not corrupt af in this region for decades

This post was edited by theCrossbones on Jan 5 2020 01:19pm

Markets don’t think there will be further escalation tbh. Too soon to see what the results of this move will be. Let’s wait and see, certainly is an interesting setup. Also people reading into Iran’s response too hard. Doesn’t matter that they said they are gonna retaliate, literally was no other response that was going to occur. Time will tell what they actually do.


Edit
I also don’t care bout Iran saying they will ignore nuclear deal. Literally just words. the deal has been effectively dead for awhile anyway and if they were making nuclear progress it would be independent of these US actions , given they have no incentive not to make nuclear progress

This post was edited by Bazi on Jan 5 2020 01:27pm

Big brain cali cuck on the loose, watch out.

The only difference is the U.S. has more pull on the world stage to appear more legitimate. We are not the moral ones in this case, although we have more institutional power to appear to be so.

If you want to make an argument based on our interests, then sure, but I've seen conservatives trying to play the "we're morally superior" card and it just falls flat on its face with a basic knowledge of our international affairs.

providing relevant context to refute your lazy narrative is not 'conflating seperate issues'. this administration has not been "soft" on iran by any stretch of the imagination, and if anything the perception is that this recent escalation's timing is exactly BECAUSE of domestic issues (impeachment & election), not DESPITE them - and trump's mouthpieces and propaganda outlets are indirectly but eagerly confirming that.

always funny to see an american lecture about 'imperialism', considering WHERE the US was 'attacked' (which is another one of those incredibly idiotic and biased framings of this whole issue) and what they are doing there.

i mean, you predictably already resorted to the good old "WE do it because we can, 'murica, fuck yeah" narrative - and sure, you certainly demonstrated plenty of times that you indeed "can" (sacrifice your boys down there and spend trillions on defense contractors rather than healthcare). all i'm saying is that to the rest of the civilised world it is abundantly clear that you are NOT the good guys - and i know that's probably incredibly difficult for you to wrap your head around, especially that it's not because we're 'jelly'. this administration put iran in that situation. does that make their shitty actions ok? of course not. but most halfway intelligent people understand at least the basics of how we ended up here. as for the means, you alluded to it yourself: massive power imbalance, not the same rules...

well i hope my XAR stock does well now.

This post seems tongue-in-cheek to me. However, considering that you've literally said that you'd vote for whoever promises less taxes for you (a.k.a. more money) it's sadly a very ironic joke.