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Comment by Sapient | Hacker News Reader

I don't think many people defend the government of Iran, they just don't want to start a war with them and feel that if there is something wrong with the Iranian government, then the Iranians should bloody well sort it out themselves.

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Yeah, they should send civilians up against the tanks and helicopters of the government. That way their deaths won't be on our hands.

Much cleaner that way.

Should another country had invaded the US for the actions of your government? From invading other countries, to using blacks as slaves, to segregation, to developing and having the Bomb, to the practice of the death penalty?

Who told you you get to pick what government you like and what not, and act in another sovereign country? And who said the population of other countries want you to interfere with their affairs? You can find anti-government people in any country, including yours. Even anti-government groups and parties.

That doesn't mean the general public of said countries want someone to invade and take care of their government for them.

There is a very long list of bad governments, would you suggest the US should invade them all?

Tool around Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and CiF and you'll run into plenty of people who go well beyond that into deflecting any criticism of Iran, denying that there is any possibility that Iran might be developing a nuclear weapon rather than being skeptical of American claims that it is building one, denying that Iran has any links to Hezbollah (which was founded as the Lebanese branch of the Iranian revolution), and so on. In most online forums outside the right wing, people promoting Iran as a liberal democracy seem to be more common than those recognizing that it is not one.

On the nuclear weapon front, at least, they have yet to do anything that falls outside the range of a civilian nuclear program, and the IAEA inspectors say there is absolutely no evidence of a weapons program. In fact, Iran had earlier agreed to halt their enrichment program and instead accept LEU for use in their reactors from other countries, but the US wouldn't take yes for an answer and now they're playing the silent game with eachother.

I'm not defending Iran, and I think it's high time for the whole bloody revolutionary government to be thrown out and replaced with a democracy. That said, I find the claims of the US and Israel to be somewhat suspect.

"In most online forums outside the right wing, people promoting Iran as a liberal democracy seem to be more common than those recognizing that it is not one."

This is patently false.

I can't say this is what you've run into, but there have been rumors that nations are engaging in propaganda in online forums. Some people defending a nation may be paid to do so.

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