The thing people need to remember is this.
Iran attacking its neighbors is something the fascists who started this war want you to hyperfocus on to justify starting the war.
Iran has made it clear that this was a consequence to being attacked for decades. Iran has long promised to destroy the world economy if it was attacked. Its neighbors knew this, and that is why they are so pissed at the US for starting this war against their wishes and with zero coordination or protection promises being fulfilled.
Iran was never developing nuclear weapons, ever. THIS is their “nuke”. This was their deterrence. Deterrence failed because you can’t deter a sociopathic narcissistic rapist and pedophile in charge of the most powerful military. Especially when all guard rails against his rule have been removed, and he also has dementia.
The President has always been a limited role in Iran, playing second fiddle to the Supreme Leader, i.e. the Ayatollah. While he can say he wants peace and to not attack their gulf neighbours, it is doubtful the actual leadership and the revolutionary guard share his views nor will they listen to him.
It seems Irans best best of “winning” this war is to drag it out as long as possible, and cause as much regional damage as possible to undermine the Oil trade and damage the US and global economy.
The Saudis and others are already considering pulling investments from the stock market in the USA to safe places due to this war.
Couple that with Iran potentially targeting important infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the UAE such as desalination plants, which could cripple them domestically and we’re looking at a recipe for the US stock market tanking and the AI bubble bursting as it can no longer be floated by wealthy middle eastern investment.
I presume they expect to either way. What this would be designed to do is build resentment in those countries for the bombings against the USA and the governments that align with the USA.
The point of this strike was to undermine moderates in internal Iranian politics, what other logic is there to it given the context of how Iran had been adhering to the nuclear deal set out and was showing no signs of desiring direct escalation?
On the one hand, religious fundamentalists are fucked in the head and just want violence and their opinions and feeling should be discarded.
On the other hand, while it’s in many ways commendable that the Iranian president wants peace, he is negotiating with a group of people who are not acting in good faith, and should probably himself remember the axiom “never obey in advance.”
Religious hardlinersCIA*
