Trump says he bombed Iran

[Maxmars]

The news cycle doesn't seem to be doing anything other than barking for the oil industry...

I have to wonder if it is ever really that simple.

This entire debacle arose from traditionalists and robber barons.

Man they take so much from our world...
and seem to give nothing back...
(aside from virtue signals...)

Some of these folks seem a lot like the privateers of old, don't they?

[cherokeetroy]

Have to say, that’s two of the most interesting sentences I’ve seen next to each other.

Doesn't appear westerners know what the Persians were up to during the "stone age"

[CriticalStinker]

Doesn't appear that westerners know what the Persians were up to during the "stone age"

Not only that, but the lack of self awareness to imply we are the civilized world while calling for infrastructure and power to be hit before summer in a desert is alarming.

There is absolutely nothing civilized about targeting civilians. It’s the very thing western powers have always said separates us from terrorists.

[Oldcarpy2]

Don and Pete, good day to you, look....................... Just keep bombing the sh*t out of the main state sponsor of terror within the ME. You are doing a grand job, beautiful totally beautiful. You really need to take out the infrastructure next. Just do it for the civilised world, send the Iranians back to the stone age. Plus don't concern yourself with a few losses just check out the bigger picture, Iran is on the ropes, just bring out the big guns and finish the job. Your most dangerous enemy is the liberal lefty elite sitting in control of much of the west indeed our own British island is under their control with International Commie Starmer at its helm. Ignore anything from these Commies, they don't care for you or your people, indeed they don't even care for us. They are international Commies and have an agenda to destroy the world we grew up in and love by dismatling our industries and flooding our nations with illegal immigrants mainly of the Muslim type. Ignore them, you are doing a wonderful thing for your people and the future of Planet Earth. From a Brit, have a good Easter too.

Bombing power plants, bridges, desalination plants and such are War Crimes and would hardly be the "help is on it's way" that was promised to the ordinary Iranian protesters.

No fan of Starmer but he is not remotely a Communist, he purged the far left from the Labour Party.

As for your fear mongering nonsense, less said the better.

By the way, you seem to think you are talking to Don and Pete on here, which is delusional.

[Astyanax]

Then specifically look at Adoption Day, Transition Day, and Termination Day.
You’ll find my facts are true.

Yes, all that is true. So what? You wanted an agreement in perpetuity?
 
Dreamland.

[cherokeetroy]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/lmNjDsX.jpeg]

He's a fucking embarrassment 

I've seen him compared to Yeltsin


But at least we own the libs!

[Vermilion]

Yes, all that is true. So what? You wanted an agreement in perpetuity?
 
Dreamland.

That’s where you’re missing the whole point.
No deal was ever going to stop them from getting nukes and the ability to launch them.
Giving them more hopium money was the dumbest idea ever.
They have to demolish those sites.
No other way.
This could have been done long ago but our previous presidents were pussies.
Now here we are and Trump doesn’t mind taking the heat for doing what we should have done decades ago.
You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.
Time to brush.

[putnam6]

China is the only reason the norks have nukes.
Fascinating that you need to be told that.

[cherokeetroy]

If true, it looks like the French have made a deal with Iran then.

From Bloomberg:

"container ship signaling French ownership has exited the Strait of Hormuz, in what appears to be the first known transit by a vessel linked to Western Europe since the war all but shuttered the vital waterway"

https://x.com/business/status/2039968760363172028?s=20

[putnam6]

Where does this say anything about saving women from rusty machetes or honoring the memory of murdered protestors 


[Image: https://i.imgur.com/YpiiyKF.jpeg]

Yeah, dude, it shouldn't have to be mentioned every time Trump speaks.

Besides, he is trying to motivate the rest of NATO and the Gulf states to participate.

Women's rights aren't exactly a top priority for them either, but unfettered access to the Strait of Hormuz is

If you don't think that freeing 40 million women from being treated like dogs is a positive outcome for the future of Iran thats on you.
 

freeing Iranian women (and Iranian society more broadly) from the Islamic Republic's systematic, institutionalized oppression of women qualifies as a noble outcome in principle—rooted in universal human dignity, individual liberty, and opposition to theocratic totalitarianism. This does not require endorsing any specific war, its conduct, or naive assumptions about easy regime change. It simply recognizes that the regime's treatment of women is a profound moral evil, and ending it would represent genuine progress for human freedom.
Documented oppression under the regime
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's legal and social system has enforced gender apartheid. Women are legally second-class citizens:
• Compulsory hijab and "morality" laws (enforced by the Gasht-e Ershad/morality police) criminalize "improper" dress, with punishments including arrest, beating, fines, business closures, surveillance, job loss, travel bans, and worse. Mahsa Jina Amini's 2022 death in custody after arrest for "bad hijab" ignited the "Woman, Life, Freedom" (Zan, Zendegi, Azadi) uprising, which the regime crushed with hundreds killed (including minors), thousands arrested, and documented torture/sexual violence in detention.
• Discrimination is baked into law: unequal rights in marriage, divorce, inheritance, child custody, court testimony (a woman's testimony often worth half a man's), employment restrictions, and travel (husband's permission sometimes required). Women cannot serve as Supreme Leader, judges in certain roles, or run for president without vetting barriers. The regime ranks near the bottom globally on gender equality indices.
• Broader repression includes high rates of executions (Iran leads per capita; dozens of women executed annually, some for "moral" or protest-related charges), femicides without adequate legal protections against domestic violence, and targeting of activists. Protests against these rules continue into 2025–2026, met with renewed morality police mobilization (e.g., plans for 80,000 enforcers in Tehran), electronic surveillance, and business raids. Even after temporary lulls (e.g., post-2025 Israel conflict), defiance persists but at great personal risk.
• This is not cultural preference but state policy: "Islamic criteria" override equality, with penalties for apostasy, homosexuality, or "corruption on earth" that disproportionately harm women and dissenters. Reports from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and UN experts describe it as structural discrimination verging on gender apartheid and crimes against humanity in crackdowns.
Iranian women have led resistance for decades—burning hijabs, protesting publicly, and risking everything—showing the demand for freedom comes from within, not external imposition. Many in the diaspora and inside Iran (via smuggled voices) express hope that weakening or ending the regime could mean liberation, not just from hijab but from broader tyranny.
War as a mechanism: potential vs. reality
A war that credibly dislodges the clerical regime and enables a freer, secular order could deliver this outcome as a byproduct—much as defeating the Taliban in 2001 temporarily expanded Afghan women's options (schools, work, public life), despite later reversals. Noble ends can justify weighing costs if the alternative is perpetual subjugation. The regime exports terrorism, pursues nuclear weapons, and represses its people while enriching elites; its fall would remove a major source of regional instability and ideological poison.
However, nobility is not guaranteed:
• Unintended harms: Wars kill civilians (including women and girls), disrupt services, risk increased gender-based violence in chaos, and can empower harder-line factions or warlords if no viable alternative emerges. Recent conflicts with Israel and reported strikes have already mixed hope with fear among Iranians—some see liberation potential, others pessimism over instability or a worse successor.
• Historical lessons: Regime change via external force often fails without internal readiness and post-conflict institutions (see Iraq 2003). Iran's protest movements show widespread discontent, but the regime's security apparatus (IRGC, Basij) is entrenched, and ethnic/ideological fractures could lead to fragmentation rather than democracy.
• Agency matters: True freedom requires Iranians themselves building alternatives—secular governance respecting rights, not imposed puppets. External military action can create openings (as some Iranian women reportedly view current events), but cannot substitute for internal will. Many Iranians prioritize ending the regime over fearing "foreign interference," given the domestic body count from protests and executions.
Moral clarity without illusions
Opposing the regime's oppression of women does not mean cheering every escalation or ignoring strategic realities (proxies, nukes, refugee flows). It does mean rejecting moral equivalence: the Islamic Republic's compulsory veiling, executions for "improper" life choices, and systemic misogyny are not "cultural" quirks to relativize—they violate basic individual rights that apply universally. A world where Iranian women can dress freely, speak freely, inherit equally, and live without fear of state-sanctioned "virtue" enforcers is objectively better. If conflict accelerates that (by collapsing the theocracy), it counts as a noble secondary outcome, even if primary war aims differ.
The real test is outcomes, not intentions: Does the post-regime order expand liberty for women, or replace one tyranny with another? History shows revolutions and wars are messy; Iran's women have already paid dearly for their defiance. Supporting their freedom—through pressure, sanctions on enablers, amplifying voices, or, where justified, targeted force against the regime—aligns with humanist principles of reducing suffering and expanding autonomy. Pretending the status quo is tolerable, or that "stability" under gender apartheid is preferable, is the truly callous stance.