Americans, do you support military intervention in Iran?

If you do, please explain under what circumstances you would see it as acceptable and what you think it would achieve.

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

Theseus · 46-50, M

Ordinarily no, but in those situations where civilization is under existential threat if we do not intervene, military involvement is the clear lesser of two evils.

All that aside, through various proxies Iran has CLEARLY demonstrated hostility toward the United States. If there is a war, it won't be one we started. (My personal preference in all these skirmishes is to obliterate the hostile government with as little civilian casualties as possible.)

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@Theseus I don't get how Iran is a potential threat to the USA. They are thousands of miles away and have maybe 1% of your power. They might be a regional rival to US allies Israel and Saudi Arabia but they are surely no threat to US citizens?

Theseus · 46-50, M

@Burnley123 They've financed/fomented several attacks against us and our allies. Time constraints limit the degree to which I can address the sour history between the U.S. and Iran, but these two links will get you started:

https://www.aipac.org/-/media/publications/policy-and-politics/aipac-analyses/one-pagers/a-history-of-iranian-attacks-on-americans.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93United_States_relations

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@Theseus Who is the greater threat, American to Iran or Iran to America?

Theseus · 46-50, M

@Burnley123 Indirectly, Iran is a greater threat. Why? Because Iran has a) the potential to start a global conflagration by attacking Israel, Saudi Arabia, et al, and b) is governed by madmen who actually WANT to precipitate an apocalyptic holocaust. (Google Twelver eschatology or just Twelver Islam).

Contrast that to American/western leaders who, for all of their many foibles, only want to make the world safe for capitalism. 😊

Now, by all this I do [b][i][u]NOT[/u][/i][/b] mean to suggest that the U.S. is by any means the innocent party in all this. The U.S. has treated Iran horrendously throughout its history. Despite (or perhapse because of) that knowledge, Iran is still one of our foremost threats.