Ahh, trying to bomb your way to regime change in the Middle East. This feels so familiar. What could possibly go wrong?

If only those who advocated for war were forced to fight in them.

I fought in Iraq.

Will you be volunteering to fight in Iran next? And any wars that fall out of it from a country with twice the population of Iraq being destabilized?

I am already volunteering

But I dont think we are invading

Obama attacked Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. We aren’t there now are we?

December 1, 2012 - 300th drone strike on Pakistan.

Obama executed 563 drone strikes on Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan alone while in office.

> Obama attacked Pakistan

I’m scratching my head on this because Pakistan was and is still a US ally, but I guess you mean the Bin Laden operation?

No, the 300 drone strikes.

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

From your link: "However, despite the public opposition of Pakistani officials, multiple former Prime Ministers gave covert permission to the United States to carry out these attacks."

Makes sense, they were in the tribal areas where I assume the government was losing control of their monsters.

Point is we weren’t at war with those countries.

Clinton - Yugoslavia 1999

Obama - Airstrikes on Libya in 2011

Goes back to the War Powers Act of 1973.

Impressive appetite for war.

Thanks!

Are you ready for another 9/11?

Come on man. Do you really want blood on your hands with that comment?

I'm not sure I understand what you mean, perhaps my comment sounded snarky? But I don't think it's unwarranted either.

9/11 was not a direct response to any US invasion, but the London and Madrid bombings were a direct response to the second Iraq invasion. I would be surprised if there will be no terrorist attacks on American soil.

In those cases it was performed by non state actors

Iran is a state which cannot project power. If they do try to hit the homeland via proxy you can almost guarantee we will hit back harder.

They didn’t do much after we killed their general who also was a sponsor of terrorism in the region. Any effects will be regionalized

I don't know why you are so confident that no terrorist attacks will happen this time. I would argue that now it's even worse, because Israel is pulling strings. Every single Trump "deal" has fallen flat, he just now realized that smear campaigns don't work on an international level. But bombing a country to submit them to sign some deal is not going to work out either - you need to bomb AND talk smooth to get something, but Trump is basically just talking shit as usual. It won't work out unless he blows it up into a full ground invasion, with countless people dying - including Americans.

There will be another 9/11.

> There will be another 9/11

Then this just confirms that Iran is a terrorist regime.

Just like the USA and Israel. Don't complain later.

Not going to happen

Iran will do some nominal attacks. There is little power projection that they will do. I bet they will focus their attacks on Israel which has been happening already.

But why not? Do you think that the general sentiment is somehow gone? Or that you can submit terrorists by force?

Because Iran's leadership isn’t stupid. They know a full-on attack against the US would bring overwhelming retaliation and possibly collapse the regime. They've been hit before (like when Soleimani was killed) and their response was pretty measured. They’ll do something to save face. Maybe hit a US base through proxies or ramp up attacks on Israel-but a direct war with the US? Not worth it for them. Too much to lose.

9/11 and the other attacks were not a war, precisely.

You'll get a decade of terrorism, and the more you bomb Iran the worse it will get.

I don’t think we’d see something like 9/11 again. Attacks on the US homeland bring a level of blowback that even Iran’s hardliners would want to avoid. But I totally agree there’ll be fallout in the region. Expect more proxy attacks on US bases, shipping lanes, and of course Israel. That kind of long, drawn-out pressure is way more in line with how Iran operates. Not total war

But why does Iran get to take workers hostage for 444 days in 1979, conduct Beirut embassy bombing in 1983, then the Beirut barracks bombing in same year, 1982-1991 Hezbollah (Iran sponsored) kidnappings of Americans in Lebanon, TWA 847 Hijacking, December 1983 Kuwait Embassy Bombing, June 1996 Khobar Towers Bombing, multiple EFP attacks on US forces in Iraq, May 2011 Camp Liberty Rocket Attack, 2011 IRGC plot to assassinate US officials, Dec 2019 Kirkuk base attack, etc

How is this any different than your 9/11 scenario and Iran has been doing it for 40 years?

You can convince yourself that you're waging a war of Good vs Evil.

The truth is that 9/11 was revenge for devades of invasions and general terror, killing thousands of innocents and destroying civilian lives. You're just a pawn for billionaires.

You are a pawn for Al Qaeda, IRGC, Hamas, and ISIS. Don’t buy into the propaganda

> You are a pawn

Don't comment like this on HN. Please observe the guidelines, especially these ones:

Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.

Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Love how you comment back to me and not to his comment

“ You're just a pawn for billionaires”

Your bias is showing

I have been following the guidelines. Your comment is misplaced on the wrong person.

We're routinely characterized as taking orders from billionaires, so, it's a change to be accused of that kind of bias.

Fair enough to point out that the parent comment initiated it, though. I hadn't seen it (that's almost always what's happened when we're accused of bias in a subthread) but I've replied to them now.

Do please have a re-read of the guidelines though. We want a variety of points of view to be represented here and we want HN to be a good place for discussing difficult topics, but that can only happen if people make more effort to keep to the guidelines for inherently-controversial topics like this.

Thanks

Now there is a ceasefire brokered by Trump.

Mission accomplished.

Wait - I've seen that one before

> You're just a pawn for billionaires

I callout out the other commenter for their reply to you but they were right to point out that you initiated the "pawn" slur. Please don't comment like this on HN. It's against the guidelines and takes discussions away from being substantive.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Make sure you quote the text like you did to me

This isn’t a game or a battle. We’re just trying to have respectful conversations.

I know I just expect the standard to be applied equally. It’s not.

> You'll get a decade of terrorism

That's what people said when Israel fought back against Hezbollah. Lots of "this will make more terrorists". Turns out this was wrong. The war against Hezbollah ended terrorism. The literal opposite of the predictions people like you were making.

Fought? Was it a fight? Killing civilians from choppers? No American ever fought in Iraq.

Ok

Part of the said massacre masquerading as fight here : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007,_Baghdad_airst...

Killing Civilians and journalists, then laughing at them. This is not fight, that you and your compatriots did was nothing but crimes against humanity, with impunity.

Are you proud of that?