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Comment by fragmede | Hacker News Reader

That option came off the table when the IRGC went through killing thousands of their own civilians and turned off the Internet.

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Yes, the Iranian government brutally murdered thousand of civilians in January.

Are Iranians safe now?

The US put the Shah in power which directly resulted in torture and killing of Iranians, and led to the Islamic Revolution.

The US removed Iraq from the list of state sponsors of terrors specifically so that Saddam could bomb Iran, including with chemical weapons.

You sound like you’ve never heard the major arguments against your position.

Yes, US sponsored chemical weapons attacks on Iran claimed 30 to 50 thousand Iranian lives that is still grieved like an open would today. To say nothing of downed civillian passenger jet by the Americans and the coup to oust Mossadegh.

Notably, Iran did not retaliate in kind to the US sponsored Iraqi attack with chemical weapons, now considered weapons of mass destruction. This might be related to the notion that WMDs are un-Islamic, which got formalized as Khamenei's fatwa against nuclear weapons.

Iran also has a doomsday clock ticking down saying Israel will get destroyed by 2040, only reasonable way that can happen is a nuclear weapon. If they really didn't want a nuclear weapon they wouldn't be so against bans on them enriching uranium.

Edit: Since some people don't seem to believe me:

> The clock was programmed to count down from 8,411 days, corresponding to a 2015 statement by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who predicted that "Israel won't exist in 25 years".[1][2][3] He claimed in his statement that there will be nothing left of the Jewish state by 2040.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Square_Countdown_Clo...

Oh no, not a clock!

But seriously, why do you think a nuclear bomb is required for Israel not to exist in 25 years?

Haven't Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, East Germany, Serbia, Montenegro, and the Soviet Union all ceased to exist in the last 50 years?

And how exactly is that the responsibility of the United States? And why just in Iran? There are so many other conflicts in the world. Sorry, but this argument has never made sense.

By that rationale, should America bomb China? Russia?

there is no rationale to pure nonsense

The USA is not responsible for Iranians' safety.

That's weird, I thought we were there to bring democracy to the people of Iran?

Well, that was the reason last Tuesday, or was it the Friday before that? I forget, since there's been so many.

The primary reason was always to eliminate the threat of Iran, if democracy could come out of it and so on that's secondary reasons.

What changed last month?

This situation is in large part due to bad decisions by American leaders, with this one being an absolute stand out.

The thread isn’t eliminated and America looks weaker.

> The thread isn’t eliminated and America looks weaker.

The threat is eliminated, Iran will not be a threat again after this. If USA pulls out Israel will finish the job for sure since Iran isn't in a position to stop Israel bombing their powerplants, and without power they can't do anything.

So the question now is what state we can get after the threat is eliminated, not if the elimination was successful.

> The threat is eliminated, Iran will not be a threat again after this.

I guess we will see. They have worked out how to control the straits quite effectively and made the US look very foolish. It’s weakened a load of US relationships and damaged a load of economies.

For a regime that’s eliminated, it’s sure proving hard to wrap things up, and the oil is not flowing.

It’s going to be interesting to see what any peace settlement looks like as the longer it goes on the worse it hurts everyone. Will Iran be the first to cave?

Is this what America winning looks like?

The USA doesn't have the power to eliminate the Iranian regime that the Israeli far-right doesn't like. Most of its military assets are deeply entrenched in the mountains.

Israel, on the other hand, has been manipulating the US president into entering an unwinable war, bombs its neighbors, including UN blue helmets soldiers, and now invades Lebanon and Syria. Its officials have publicly stated to agree with the "great Israel" plan.

Why aren't the USA considering that Israel is a threat and bombing it as a result (since it's the only available tool, apparently?).

Quite the contrary, the “genius” decapitation strike sold by Netanyahu only led to the coming of a new leadership with much more hardline views. While there was no threat to the US to start with, the current regime is much more entrenched, and its military still seems quite potent.

Iran is not a threat for the USA.

If this has been a simple humanitarian mission, then why hasn't the US got involved in other recent situations?

That option was completely on the table.

Trump’s reason for going to war with Iran had nothing to do with Iranian civilians lives or internet access privileges. The optimists say it was because of Iran’s nuclear weapons, slight optimists say it was over oil, cynics say it was a distraction from his role in the Epstein files. Literally no one thinks he actually had Iranian civilian best interests in mind.

> it was a distraction from his role in the Epstein files

I would love to know who chose the name "Epic Fury" (other than some kid in a COD lobby). Epic Fury. E.F. Epstein Files.

There is another option - he was completely played by Netanyahu, possibly using some of those points.

The NYT article on it is interesting (and possibly paywalled). https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/politics/trump-iran-wa...

It was very obvious from the beginning that this was the case, and now more and more information is coming out to support that this happened.

No, it didn't. USA is not the world police. Trump literally ran on this, "USA first" and all that.

and we give a hoot exactly why? america first, yes? why aren’t we in sudan, a lot more dire situation. give us a break with this nonsense

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