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Comment on Why is the USA attacking Iran?

Israel allows the U.S. to maintain a foothold in the Middle East and have an influence in the region (which is plentiful in natural resources like oil), that’s the gist of it. The U.S. also has a large Jewish community that is generally pro-Israel (not all of them, but many are. In recent events, many Jewish groups in America are now condemning Israel for their war in Gaza, starving the population, all that heinous stuff)

Iran’s government has made it clear that they don’t like Israel’s existence (due to their displacement of Palestinians, various war crimes, that sort. They also don’t like that they are so heavily American influenced). They don’t like the U.S. either, as they believe that they are an imperialist power that wants to take advantage of the Middle East. That is one reason that the United States deems Iran an enemy. Note that Iran’s government’s viewpoint is not necessarily the same as those of the Iranian people. Additionally, the state of Iran funds many proxy terrorist groups across the Middle East, all of which do terrible terrorist things, which the U.S. doesn’t like at all (especially when they do terrorist things against American citizens living in the Middle East).

Israel and Iran’s rivalry (and you can include the Saudi Arabia, UAE in this too) is mostly down to wanting to be top dog in the Middle East, having the most influence and power, and it doesn’t help that they have very different beliefs (not just religion, different styles of government, different policies, that sort)

TLDR:

U.S. supports Israel for Middle East influence

U.S. don’t like that Iran’s government is anti-America and anti-Israel, and they don’t like that they support terrorist groups either

Israel competes with Iran for power in the Middle East, and have very different beliefs

Please note that I am not trying to incite a political debate. America and Israel has done bad stuff (war crimes, imperialism, etc), Iran has done bad stuff (terrorist proxies, political repression, etc), both are bad in my book.

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protist@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
This is way bigger than just Israel, most of the Gulf Arab states hate Iran and would love to see its government fall. You’ll also notice that they’ve been funnelling literally billions of dollars to the Trump family since just before he took office again. The Qataris, Emiratis, Bahrainis, and Saudis are all openly bribing Trump, and this attack is almost certainly at least partially, if not mostly, driven by their talks with Trump behind the scenes.

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mkwt@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

They don’t like the U.S. either, as they believe that they are an imperialist power that wants to take advantage of the Middle East. That is one reason that the United States deems Iran an enemy.

In 1953, the CIA and MI6 effectively ended representative democracy in Iran when they backed a coup d’etat that deposed Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mosadegh. Mosadegh had tried to audit the books of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (which later became a division of BP).

The 1953 coup resulted in the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, ruling autocratically and with heavy support from the United States. This status continued until 1979, when an Islamist revolution deposed the Shah and installed the Islamist government led by a clerical Supreme Leader that exists today.

In 2013, the CIA released declassified documents that showed that the CIA planned and carried out the 1953 coup using all kinds of abhorrent tactics, including bribery of public officials, astroturfed paid protesters, and false flag operations.

So hopefully that explains why the US is “the great Satan” to Iran, and why Iran keeps spouting “death to USA” rhetoric.

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- IronBird@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  yup, anyone who seriously questions why so much of the world hates the US has nwver opened a history book. there are many many reasons, damn near all of them generally coming back to a sovereign nation trying to check the US’s extractive, unsustainable, capitalist-colonialism
  
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- sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Yes, I do know of the coup against the democratically elected Mossadegh in favour of the autocratic Shah. Wow, the U.S. removing democratically elected leaders in foreign countries in favour of autocratic ones that support American business interests? I wonder how often that happened! (a lot, that is)
  
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RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
So why was NOW the time? What’s the USA really gaining here with these strikes?

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- FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Israel has some real, incontrovertible dirt on Trump that they are holding over him
  
  He’s also desperate to have the US at war so he can suspend elections, because he knows that he will be hurt by the midterms
  
  He’s also pathetically insecure, and history has traditionally looked back fondly at wartime leaders like Churchill and the like. He’s hoping for that
  
  And the worst motivation, but one that I sincerely believe is accurate, is that he wants to use nuclear weapons. He wants to be remembered as a president who pushed the button. He’s a child, and he wants to play with all the toys
  
  I hope he dies before he can do more harm
  
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  - Cethin@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    
    He’s also pathetically insecure, and history has traditionally looked back fondly at wartime leaders like Churchill and the like. He’s hoping for that
    
    A key thing to note is that it’s normally defensive leaders that are looked back on fondly. Attacking another nation usually doesn’t give this boost, or at least not as significantly. Frequently it’s negative in fact.
    
    He’s too stupid to understand this though, if this is his reason. I don’t think it is though. At best, it’s a distraction. At worst, and more likely, it’s an excuse to implement policies that expand his powers, and maybe to prevent elections from taking place.
    
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  - fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    I.have no.idea what they’d know.that isn’t public already. In the past I’d say the Epstein connection but that’s all public. What the fuck could be in the files we don’t know about?
    
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    Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Only half of the files have been released.
    
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    SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Murder, rape, pedophilia directly linked to government.
    
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- Borger@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Distraction from the Epstein files, amongst other things. I straight up call this the Epstein war.
  
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  - 4am@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    To bring detail to this, the Republican Party has been wanting this for a long time. Some want the oil control, some have fanatical religious beliefs (encouraged by the greedy oil-wanting ones) that want to see Israel win because it brings about the “end of days” and they will be “raptured” into heaven (body and all) while the rest of us foolish non-believers perish in hell.
    
    Trump and Co. are using this desire of theirs to make them happy with him, distracting from the disgusting crimes that are coming to light about him. They won’t remove him and his criminal cabal from power if he keeps them happy by giving them the things they’ve always wanted, so they get to keep living and be in power as long as those freaks are happy.
    
    As ridicule this sounds, there are many many people in power who would oppose removing Trump, and have the ability to cris any dissent that would do so outside of the process of law, which they currently control through state violence. So, it’s not so easy as “fuck you guys, you’re insane, we’re not listening to you anymore, he’s gone” since they hold all the cards and that leads to a much bigger conflict for control of the most powerful nation on earth.
    
    Ironically, the current state of Iran is a good analogue for what happens when a sudden power vacuum appears, and we don’t want to be ruled by a Christian cabal any more than we want what we currently have.
    
    As much as we deserve it after all this, I sure hope we don’t find out; if only for my own sake.
    
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  - Kyouki@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    As well as calling Iran attempted to influence elections while Trump tries to get national emergency powers enacted so he can cancel elections.
    
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- sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  In the past, there have been moves against Iran (sanctions and the sort that are worsening their already mismanaged economy) but the recent strikes have been down mostly because Iran doesn’t really have any allies that are able to support them should they get attacked. Russia has their invasion of Ukraine that they are grinding soldiers in, and the Assads have been overthrown in Syria. Their bad bad economy also means they have lots of domestic issues too, making them super vulnerable.
  
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  - sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    and many of the naughty Iranian proxies have also been weakened through a hellfire of Israeli and American bombing, like the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
    
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- zxqwas@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Russia is impotent to act. Iran had recent protests indicating that the regime is weak. China has not done anything preemptive and can’t do anything now because it’s too late.
  
  Best case protests reignites and replaces the regime with something less US hostile. Worst case denies China cheap oil and Russia some war materials for a while.
  
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  - SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    China? Why would China give a fuck about Iran?
    
    It’s 2025, not 1980.
    
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    zxqwas@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    They don’t really care about Iran other than that they are useful for annoying the US and they have oil they are forced to sell at a discount due to western sanctions.
    
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- IronBird@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  all these other comments are giving far too much credit to those in-power in the US right.
  
  the only thing that matters to republicans, all establishment US politicians really, is that their lines go up. republicans actively try to crash the US economy every time their in power, as they’re abject disaster capitalists…smart people have to hedge when instability threatens their bottom line, disaster capitalists essentially run around throwing rocks at windows.
  
  everything this sociopathic cunts do is ultimately used as a way to extract liquidity out of the US stock/futures/bond markets…every…single…time. follow the money
  
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- SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Distraction. Americans have a long history of supporting any asshole as President the second they declare war.
  
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- cosmicrookie@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  The Epstein files are the reason
  
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- Zomg@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Depends on who you ask. I think topically it feels like it’s an Epstein files distraction. There’s also the whole issue with them enriching uranium for nuclear weapons. It doesn’t help that Israel leadership has been crying wolf about “Iran will have nukes in the next 3 years” since the 90s.
  
  It’s likely they are working to get nuclear weapons, and given that they fund all this terrorist stuff, it can’t be ignored. They’ve already been caught enriching uranium to levels beyond what’s needed for any peaceful application.
  
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- FiniteBanjo@feddit.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  If you look at news from the past few months you see Iranians were in famine and drought and political violence leading to many protestor deaths in Tehran and the Iranian leadership moving out of the capital. Now was the perfect time to strike.
  
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  - porcoesphino@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    That’s happened a few times before hasn’t it?
    
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sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Note that America’s support for Israel has exist since pretty much when it was founded after the end of WWII by Britain, this certainly isn’t a new thing. As for the dislike of Iran, that has been a thing for ages too (see the coup against the democratically elected leader when they were against American business interests, Iranian revolution that propped up the new government and had Americans living in the embassy taken hostage by protesters)

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FiniteBanjo@feddit.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
You forgot the nuance of Iran being backed by China and Russia.

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- sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  For your information, in a later comment I did note that the weakening of Russia due to their invasion of Ukraine is playing a part in making Iran more vulnerable. In terms of their ties with China, that is correct, their relations are an additional reason why the U.S. doesn’t like them very much. It doesn’t look like China would support them in a conflict though, at least not with troops on the ground.
  
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