You don’t need to know much about Iran at all to know for a fact that US intervention will make it worse, you just need to look at Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Palestine, and every other “repressive dictatorship liberated by US efforts” to see the consequences of invasion.
The protests in Iran are happening because people are literally dying due to impoverishment caused by western sanctions causing the local currency to implode. Focusing only on the government reaction during a period of military buildup Against Iran amounts to atrocity propaganda, however well-meaning your intentions are. It’s meant to create mixed feelings about the invasion amongst progressives “look at how dictatorial they are”
Nobody here is claiming that a US intervention would make things better, I think the point here that lying about the situation in Iran and Eastern Ukraine only helps the violent fascists in power in those places.
The nuance is that workers are being slaughtered by Putin and Khamenei and defending them just because the US doesn’t like them is only helping the fascists.
lying about the situation in Iran and Eastern Ukraine only helps the violent fascists in power in those places
Looking at history, it’s western intervention leading to far right in both though. Ukraine saved itself from Nazism thanks to communism, and only after western-style capitalism took control have far-right movements taken place. As for Iran, I wish Mosaddeq hadn’t been ousted by the west too, but alas it’s again not “tankie lies” leading to violent regimes, it’s western meddling. The tankies you hate have advocated since the past century against the ending of the USSR (which would have saved Ukraine from the demographic and humanitarian disaster it’s suffering for the past 25 years) and against intervention against Mosaddeq. If you had listened to the tankies 70 years ago, there would be no far right.
You’re absolutely right that I have mixed feelings and am conflicted, I would love to say with 100% confidence that “Iran is different” but I can’t.
Part of the protestors anger is impoverishment caused by sanctions, it was certainly a big factor in this protest and at least a minor factor in every other protest.
But conversely these protests are also fueled by discontent with the treatment of women.
They’re also fueled by the thirsty people who are suffering from poor water management policies that ignored traditional irrigation methods in favor of the western approach of spraying huge amounts into the air to grow water hungry crops in a famously water scarce region. Fuck even Israel was egging on the protestors with the promise of sending water experts once the regime is gone.
I’m not supporting America invading but I do think that there are real humanitarian issues that need to be addressed.
What upsets me most is not that the rest of the world is silent and only “brave and compassionate” America is speaking against them, its that the Iranian people only have America to turn to, that the only countries that are “on their side” (from the view of the public) are America and Israel.
This regime is so quick to label any unrest in the country as foreign meddling but they themselves are the cause for half of the problems.
Believe me, I’m a communist, there’s nothing I wish more for Iran than a secular socialist government, land reform, LGBTQ and women’s rights, economic equality… Unfortunately, the west destroyed their most recent chance at this with the total sanctioning and military intervention against Mosaddeq, because British Petroleum’s interests in the region were more important than the lives of Iranians. CIA paying mafias to perform protests against the government, MI6 paying actors to destroy private property and pretend they were communists, military blockade of petroleum exports… The whole suite.
This is why I reject so much further western meddling. If Iran is to have a socialist government, it will be by itself without meddling, and the point of focus from the west should be, IMO, preventing sanctions and military action against the Iranian people. However bad the Iranian government is currently, the only alternative for now from what I see is ISIS or Israel, and neither is better, it’s the sad truth of geopolitics.
You don’t need to know much about Iran at all to know for a fact that US intervention will make it worse, you just need to look at Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Palestine, and every other “repressive dictatorship liberated by US efforts” to see the consequences of invasion.
The protests in Iran are happening because people are literally dying due to impoverishment caused by western sanctions causing the local currency to implode. Focusing only on the government reaction during a period of military buildup Against Iran amounts to atrocity propaganda, however well-meaning your intentions are. It’s meant to create mixed feelings about the invasion amongst progressives “look at how dictatorial they are”
Nobody here is claiming that a US intervention would make things better, I think the point here that lying about the situation in Iran and Eastern Ukraine only helps the violent fascists in power in those places.
The nuance is that workers are being slaughtered by Putin and Khamenei and defending them just because the US doesn’t like them is only helping the fascists.
Looking at history, it’s western intervention leading to far right in both though. Ukraine saved itself from Nazism thanks to communism, and only after western-style capitalism took control have far-right movements taken place. As for Iran, I wish Mosaddeq hadn’t been ousted by the west too, but alas it’s again not “tankie lies” leading to violent regimes, it’s western meddling. The tankies you hate have advocated since the past century against the ending of the USSR (which would have saved Ukraine from the demographic and humanitarian disaster it’s suffering for the past 25 years) and against intervention against Mosaddeq. If you had listened to the tankies 70 years ago, there would be no far right.
They absolutely are
You’re absolutely right that I have mixed feelings and am conflicted, I would love to say with 100% confidence that “Iran is different” but I can’t.
Part of the protestors anger is impoverishment caused by sanctions, it was certainly a big factor in this protest and at least a minor factor in every other protest.
But conversely these protests are also fueled by discontent with the treatment of women.
They’re also fueled by the thirsty people who are suffering from poor water management policies that ignored traditional irrigation methods in favor of the western approach of spraying huge amounts into the air to grow water hungry crops in a famously water scarce region. Fuck even Israel was egging on the protestors with the promise of sending water experts once the regime is gone.
I’m not supporting America invading but I do think that there are real humanitarian issues that need to be addressed.
What upsets me most is not that the rest of the world is silent and only “brave and compassionate” America is speaking against them, its that the Iranian people only have America to turn to, that the only countries that are “on their side” (from the view of the public) are America and Israel.
This regime is so quick to label any unrest in the country as foreign meddling but they themselves are the cause for half of the problems.
(also thank you for engaging me in good faith)
Believe me, I’m a communist, there’s nothing I wish more for Iran than a secular socialist government, land reform, LGBTQ and women’s rights, economic equality… Unfortunately, the west destroyed their most recent chance at this with the total sanctioning and military intervention against Mosaddeq, because British Petroleum’s interests in the region were more important than the lives of Iranians. CIA paying mafias to perform protests against the government, MI6 paying actors to destroy private property and pretend they were communists, military blockade of petroleum exports… The whole suite.
This is why I reject so much further western meddling. If Iran is to have a socialist government, it will be by itself without meddling, and the point of focus from the west should be, IMO, preventing sanctions and military action against the Iranian people. However bad the Iranian government is currently, the only alternative for now from what I see is ISIS or Israel, and neither is better, it’s the sad truth of geopolitics.