It didn't have to be this way but they decided this to turn into a fight of survival for Iran and destroy any option for a peaceful resolution. Now they are going to pay the price.
And let us not act like the decades of sanction were not designed to do exactly this. Sanctions mean you create as much hardships as possible for the people in hope they topple their government. They nearly never work but here we are.
> Contrary to popular belief, economic sanctions are ineffective in fulfilling their objectives. Historical observations from Russia to Cuba and Iran reveal that the more sanctions are designed to pressure the ruling class, the harder ordinary citizens are hit. Leaders often perceive sanctions as a means to enhance nationalism, portraying the United States and its allies as hostile. In many instances, such actions have only strengthened their hold on power while stifling dissent internally.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yljdgwppzo
As for the protests, the truth is also that these were not peaceful protests. Mossads agents had been arming people and instructing them to riot. Hundreds of police offers have been murdered and mosques have been burned down. Mossad agents have been instructed to fire at protestors to increase the death toll.
Yes, there has been valid criticism and unhappiness with the government. But most of these people had been protesting for economic reasons. They didn't want to see their country invaded.
Today many of the people that had protested in January are joining the mass demonstrations in favor of the Islamic Republic. The war has united the Iranians.
Source?
> “Foreign actors are arming the protesters in Iran with live firearms, which is the reason for the hundreds of regime personnel killed,” wrote Tamir Morag, the diplomatic correspondent for Israel’s Channel 14, during the uprising. “Everyone is free to guess who is behind it.” Morag and his network are well known for their close ties to Netanyahu.
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iran-ministry-of-intelligence...
You also find the some information in a Israeli Newspaper:
> On December 29, what is dubbed the Mossad X/Twitter account in Farsi encouraged Iranians to protest against the Iranian regime, telling them that it is literally physically with them at the demonstrations.
> “Go out together into the streets. The time has come,” the Mossad wrote. “We are with you,” it added. “Not only from a distance and verbally. We are with you in the field.” [...]
> Foreign actors had armed Iranians to help them fight against the regime’s forces being used to crack down on and oppress protesters, Channel 14’s Tamir Morag reported Tuesday. Iran’s foreign minister retweeted the report for his own agenda.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-883524
See also interview with Prof. Marandi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-tcwcon30M
He claims the a nurse was burned alive in a clinic by rioters.
All according to the numbers confirmed by Iranian government.
God, the moral depravity of defending the IRGC and islamic regime is mind boggling. You can still be against Mossad and what they do in Iran while holding the islamic regime accountable for its own atrocities.
So, how many have been killed in those two days of massacre exactly?
A credible source please, and "killed", not "accused of killing", "allegedly killed" etc.
I was following this news in real-time at that time. One thing I noticed was that media outlets started killing/withdrawing many of their stories.
That made me mighty suspicious.
Worth adding that the regime claims around 3000 were killed while not allowing any independent investigation and also completely blocking the internet for days and arresting reporters. Mighty suspicious indeed.
But that is besides my point. Even if we go with the regime's number and compare it with the casualties of the war (2), you can get a picture of the scale of the massacre compared to an actual war against US freakin army!
1. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2026/01/what-hap...
2. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/1/us-israel-attacks-on...
This feels far too much like Iranian government propaganda to be plausible.
It would be very surprising if they didn't. Heck FBI was doing it to citizens at one point, during war against terror.
Let me even quote an Israeli newspaper:
> On December 29, what is dubbed the Mossad X/Twitter account in Farsi encouraged Iranians to protest against the Iranian regime, telling them that it is literally physically with them at the demonstrations.
> “Go out together into the streets. The time has come,” the Mossad wrote. “We are with you,” it added. “Not only from a distance and verbally. We are with you in the field.” [...]
> Foreign actors had armed Iranians to help them fight against the regime’s forces being used to crack down on and oppress protesters, Channel 14’s Tamir Morag reported Tuesday. Iran’s foreign minister retweeted the report for his own agenda.
Any credible source for this?
1. Western media is not credible because West treats Iran as enemy
2. Iranian media is not credible because they obviously want to hide facts when they're negative
Now my question is, why are you spreading unverifiable information as something credible and building your facts on top of it?
For tens of thousands? No. That’s the upper end of estimates. For the brutality? Yes. Wikipedia is a good start.
As I said, West considers Iran as enemy, used words by BBC reflects this clearly.
1. "accused of" - we don't know, but lets say they're "accusing" them
2. if true, then they have killed the "police officers" (seems many?) so what do you expect from Iran?
>36,500 killed in 400 cities... Our Editorial Board has now obtained more detailed information provided by the IRGC Intelligence Organization to the Supreme National Security Council.
they are an Iranian opposition outfit funded but the Saudis. (https://www.iranintl.com/en/202601255198)
There are zero verified sources of any mass killings by the Iranian government. In fact all evidence points to Mossad agents committing the mass killings of Iranian government officials as caught on video, including the wrestler that was just executed for killing a police officer with a machete, on video.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – Supreme Leader
Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi – Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces
Major General Mohammad Pakpour – Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC
Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh – Minister of Defense
Mohammad Shirazi – Head of Supreme Leader’s military office
Ali Larijani – Senior national security chief
Esmaeil Khatib – Minister of Intelligence
Gholamreza Rezaian – Iranian police intelligence commander
Gholamreza Soleimani – Basij paramilitary commander
Saleh Asadi – Head of military intelligence at Khatam‑al Anbiya
Has there been any other war in which one side so quickly killed the leadership of the other side?
It is clear the initial aim was to decapitate the leadership and expect capitulation of some form or another to follow. This obviously hasn't happened, and so the fallout grows by the day.
It is really not an accomplishment to murder someone in their own house when they have not been hiding.
Khamenei was already very old.
His security begged him to evacuate but he asked them if they can evacuate all Iranians. If they can't why should he get special treatment?
He knew he could serve his country best by becoming a martyr.
Meanwhile Israeli leader Netanyahu is so afraid to come out of his hole that people are wondering if he is still alive.
A win is a win. Irrespective of whether the enemy’s fuckup put it on a silver platter for you.
> He knew he could serve his country best by becoming a martyr
And taking down his inner circle with him. Brilliant man.
We like to think we're winning, but are we ? Iran leadership is supposedly decimated, missile capabilities destroyed etc. And yet, when Israel attacked their gas field, they immediately wiped out 17% of Qatari gas productions capacities which will take 5 years to rebuild and they could have wiped out everything. Seems their leadership structure is doing just fine.
As for all the killed - what did we actually achieve ? Replace Khamenei with his son - a guy who had all of his family blown up to pieces by US / Israeli ? That should do wonders to Iran's future relationship with those countries.
Only places that falsely believed to be immune due to being of same blood, like Qatar.
>Replace Khamenei with his son - a guy who had all of his family blown up to pieces by US / Israeli
Rumor has it son was also blown up, just not completely (supposedly disfigured with leg missing) and is most likely hiding in Moscow.
This doesn't change the fact that Iran is the aggressed party in an invasion of an incredibly aggressive US-Israel axis that seem to revel in death.
You can hate the Iranian murderous regime, and also understand that it is fighting against another evil, murderous regime.
You would prefer to tell people in Iran who oppose the regime to take up arms (which they don't have) and fight IRGC soldiers with better training and more resources?
Best case, if they did, Iran would end up in a situation like Syria. Would that be an improvement?
More likely, it would simply be a massacre.
Let's not pretend that the US and Israel regimes have the best interest of the Iranian people in mind. They want murder.
Edit: and even people celebrating in Iran itself, which seems incredibly brave.
"videos posted on social media showed joy and defiance elsewhere, with people cheering as a statue was toppled in the city of Dehloran in Ilam province, dancing in the streets of Karaj city, near Tehran in Alborz province, and celebrating in the streets of Izeh in Khuzestan province. In the town of Galleh Dar in southern Iran, people knocked down a monument commemorating Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic in 1979, a video on social media showed."
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/polarised-ira...
Even The Guardian, as anti-Trump as a source can be, reported that "videos shared widely on social media also showed people celebrating, dancing, honking car horns and setting off fireworks as news of the leader’s death broke."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/01/celebration-or...
I am very skeptical of war propaganda. You would do well to be skeptical of it too.
Not condoning anyone but shows the priority of both sides.
Of course it will be hard to completely avoid civilian casualties in the long run, I fear but yeah Iran has been pretty measured. Iran's fight is with the US imperialists and Israel and not the people that live in the region.
Surely the US are using civilians as human shields?
That is why they constantly lie about Hamas using human shields. Every accusation is a confession with these people.
They are infamous for fulminating against liberals, plotting to kill enemies, torturing and hanging dissidents from cranes, persecuting minorities and women, funding terror cells, and fleecing their citizens to enrich themselves.
Many of the comments here suffer from a misguided refusal to be impressed by the regime's reputation, as though anyone the American establishment criticises must automatically be righteous.
You have to thank the actions of the genocidal State of Israel that anything below it is somewhat acceptable. Reaping what they sow themselves.
Israel and Iran somewhat independently came to the conclusion that they’re the regional hegemon, and that protecting that position is worth any cost.
This left Israel similar to the USA post 9/11 or Peal Harbor. On a streak to make it never happen again in a very decisive/brutal way. Hegemony wasn't the moving factor for Israel, at least until very late in the war, and due to the same reasons
Locally, yes. Iran not condemning those attacks was a fuckup.
More broadly, this is the Levant versus Persia, a power contest as old as civilization.
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-israel-hamas-stri... https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hamas-fighters-trained...
The attack plan of October 7 is generally so similar to the attack plan prepared for Hezbollah by the IRGC, that it is not surprising it is one and the same.
That's why Israel in this current conflict early on made moves on Iran and why the end game is this war.
> More broadly, this is the Levant versus Persia, a power contest as old as civilization.
Wasn't it more, Egypt and Greece vs Persia while the Levant was rapidly conquered?
People always ask here why the community flags every post on these issues. Comments like this are why. Hardly anyone on this site knows even basic information on the nations involved.
If I were in charge of HN, I'd geoblock anyone from commenting on the Middle East who isn't at an IP from the Middle East. I wouldn't be able to comment either, but at least there might be enlightening information in the comments.
That said, the first page of any reputable history on Iran/Israel relations would go over 1979, when Israel went from friend of Iran to foe, based on Khomeini's interpretation of Islam.
This one was just this week: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-execution-teen-wrestler-ja...
So there's that.
The evil of your enemy does not excuse your own strategic stupidity or cruelty.
"Rights groups said the trio were executed without a fair trial and had given confessions under torture."
> The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has recorded more than 7,000 killings, with the vast majority being protesters, while warning the toll could be far higher.
Neither CBS News nor this agency are friends of the factions you mention. Facts are stubborn things.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/15/what-is-hrana-the-u...
Iran might have at best have a self-regime change, at worst split in 3. Now that the war is on, the regime consolidated.
Before I get downvoted to hell Im not conding anything or taking any side, just pointing out an obvious deduction
If you have a problem with those laws and think our borders should be wide open, that's of course a different matter, and one you should take up with Congress, which makes the laws.
I think those laws should be changed by the way, to be much friendlier towards Hispanic immigrants. They share our cultural values and are easy for the US to assimilate in my opinion, so long as they're properly vetted for obvious criminal behavior, ability and motivation to work, etc.
Would you attack the US because they "murdered" thousands of Germans to take down Hitler in WW2?
Most of their ordinance has been intercepted. And a good fraction was unguided enough that it would have hit a school or hospital.
Already has in Azerbaijan [0] and attempted in Israel [1].
Most reporting is hyper-regional and somewhat kept under wraps (eg. Qatar and UAE are actively prosecuting leakers who are using Reddit, and have even taken control of Qatar's subreddit [2]) or reported on in regional languages.
I've found the information control in this conflict to be much more strategic/professional in comparison to what was is seen in Ukraine and Russia.
[0] - https://www.euronews.com/2026/03/06/aliyev-vows-attacks-on-a...
[1] - https://www.jns.org/news/israel-news/iranian-cluster-bomb-hi...
[2] - https://www.reddit.com/r/qatar/comments/1rt2fth/timeout/
The fact Israel has a very effective defensive system (active and passive) does not mean Iranians avoid civilian targets.
Literally all Israeli casualties were civilian.
Your comment made me realize international media doesn't care to even publish this, leading to this incredibly skewed view.
I'd edit my previous comment but I can't.
So every time allied militaries protect their schools and hospitals by intercepting missiles, drones etc from Iran, you give credit to Iran?
I think it’s more that these attacks are counterproductive to Iran’s state goals, which reveals that we’re seeing a hardline faction in Iran use the war as cover for consolidating power.
We in the West, well we are aiding the US in this war by allowing it to operate from military bases in our countries. We deserve it for looking the other way while Israel has been mass murdering Palestinians for more than two years now.
At least Spain showed some guts.
Of course it will also potentially cause suffering in the global south but that is on those that started the war.
Maybe there have been further attacks today that I missed but if true that would be an huge escalation.
My last information was that China has no problem getting oil but that was like two days ago.
The rebuilding was referring to the destruction of Iranian infrastructure in general. The oil is still getting exported.
The sad part is how the genocide in Gaza could have been prevented:
Imagine an alternate history, in which successive precedencies didn't turn a blind eye to Iran, imagine a decade ago (regardless of democrat or republican administration) that they decided to do what they are doing today in Iran. Iran wouldn't have had the funds and resources to sponsor Hamas and Hezbollah. The populations in Gaza and Lebanon wouldn't have been sandwiched between the projected powers of Israel and Iran. Their power structures could have been legitimate democracies etc. In that world there wouldn't have been a reason for Israel to attack and invade, and even if they did in this alternate history, the rest of the world would have strongly condemned it to the point of military intervention on behalf of Gaza / Lebanon.
Always take not how a faction has risen to power initially. In the case of Iran's regime it was hostage taking. A faction will very often resort to the same tactics and methods it used during its initial ascent to power, a form of survivorship bias.
If the West hadn't let the situation of Iran rot indefinitely for decades (they even systematically rewarded the regime's behavior by systematically giving in to the hostage politics it conducted, in my opinion they should have just drawn a line and said: return these hostages unconditionally or we treat this as hiding behind a human shield).
Hezbollah came to be as a resistance group against the invasion of Lebanon by Israel.
The reason both Hamas and Hezbollah exists is because Israel.
There can not be peace in the region as long as Israel exists. They are a settler colonial state build and sustaining itself by the dead bodies and suffering of the Palestinians.
> the rest of the world would have strongly condemned it to the point of military intervention on behalf of Gaza / Lebanon.
That is completely delusional.
I Iran had fallen ten years ago, there would be no Palestinians anymore. No one would have stopped Israel from killing them. Israel would have annexed South Lebanon, part of Syria, Egypt and so on and created Greater Israel.
As you probably already know, my point was that it's a bit callous to focus on "this war is expensive and inconvenient" while innocent people are, you know, dying.
Certainly not by lives lost, damage done, or dollars embezzled. Not by interference in other countries, or apocalyptic rhetoric.
So, what exactly is your opinion based on?
By the fact that Trump hasn't killed thousands of people to stay in power. Pretty simple really. Protesting the US government is still legal. Protesting the Iranian government in Iran will get you killed.
Oh? How many do you think he has killed?
How many people have died so far because of Trump's aid to Israel?
How many people have died because of the cuts to USAID?
How many Iranians has Trump killed? How many Iranian children? ... Compare to, how many Americans did the Iranian government kill?
How certain are you that the conditions in the Iran protests weren't provoked by US and Israeli provocateurs? ... Why?
What's your explanation for Trump directing Lockheed Martin to ramp up production of interceptor missiles months before assassinating Iran's leader during negotiations? Months before the protests used as a fig leaf of justification?
> Pretty simple really.
Idk man. Is it? Maybe thinking Trump is a better person than the leader he helped assassinate is too simple.
> Protesting the US government is still legal. Protesting the Iranian government in Iran will get you killed.
Protesting the Israeli government in the US can get you thrown in a concentration camp and deported. That's pretty weird, no?
Even during the last admin, protesting the Israeli government could get you fired, or attacked by riot police.
Does the moral high ground of not murdering protesters give you the right to arm and enable genocide? To murder leaders while pretending to negotiate with them? To bomb schools?
It reminds me of that old joke:
> A KGB spy and a CIA agent meet up in a bar for a friendly drink. "I have to admit, I'm always so impressed by Soviet propaganda. You really know how to get people worked up," the CIA agent says. "Thank you," the KGB says. "We do our best but truly, it's nothing compared to American propaganda. Your people believe everything your state media tells them." The CIA agent drops his drink in shock and disgust. "Thank you friend, but you must be confused... There's no propaganda in America."
And that's only gotten more true every decade since. I don't see the US ever reaching the level of discourse where we question our 'allies' atrocities the same as [latest boogeyman]'s. And taking any accountability for our own war crimes? Not a chance. We'll invade anyone who tries (see the Hague Invasion Act).
At least when it comes to politics, the vast majority of the US lives on the Dunning-Kruger "Peak of Mount Stupid"; failing to clear the lowest possible bar while pointing fingers and laughing at everyone else.
All the money, all the access to information, and still that's where we're at. Weird af.
Where are you getting your news from?
People who say Iran is "crazy" or "lashing out" are falling for the most brain dead propaganda