[Painsawman123]

that's the thing that people overlook the most in regards to this war.iran isn’t doing this on its own. Russia, China and north korea have been backing it from the start. they’re the ones helping with intel on US base locations across the Middle East, supplying drones, and working out strategies to drag things into a stalemate, plus whatever else iran needs along the way

[epolanski]

Can you blame them? Iran is fighting for its own survival and has to find help where it can.

If the US had an educated administration not composed by lap dogs they would've known that attacking Iran was going to be a terrible idea.

Saddam did the same mistake in 1980.

He thought that the Iranian Kurds, the political opponents, the Iranian Arabs, civilians were going to raise against the regime.

None of this happened. None. In fact, hundreds of thousands of people, even kids, rallied around the banner. There are documented stories of 13 year olds, jumping on barbed wire to use their bodies as bridges for infantry. Disgusting, yet telling of the fact that the Persians will do everything to defend their land even if they don't like its leadership.

It's very difficult to convince people you're bombing left that you're helping them get rid of a regime (which, you never know for sure how popular or unpopular it is).

Iranians, yet again, are rallying around the flag for what is effectively a foreign aggression.

[kstenerud]

Iran has been preparing for this war for 40 years. So has Israel. They will engage in a battle of supremacy over the Middle East. Both want the USA knocked out so that the Americans can't use their influence there anymore (both consider the USA a nuisance).

As soon as ground troops land in Iran, it's over for the USA. As it is, oil and goods shipping via the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea will be controlled by Iran for a very long time to come. All Iran has to do is withstand the pummeling, which it very likely will do. And they'll get plenty of support from China, since this plays into the South China Seas plan quite nicely as the USA moves carrier after carrier out of Asia.

[1234letshaveatw]

The corpses of Irans’s leadership have us right where they want us

[SmirkingRevenge]

It's relative. We're in a pretty bad spot relative to where we were before the attack, and so is the world economy.

The Iranian regime is doing much better so far, relative to where they should be after a joint military attack from the US/Israel and maybe even relative to where they were just a few months ago.

The previous Ayatollah was 86 and had multiple bouts of pancreatic cancer. He was on deaths door, Iran was destabilizing with bouts of protest and repression, the regime itself suffered major military blows, and a potentially rocky and fractured transition was imminent.

Thanks to the war, the regime survived a transition, and seems consolidated around the son of the former Ayatollah, who's entire family was killed by our strikes, and the US seems largely impotent as Iran chokes off a large portion of the worlds oil supply and strikes at energy assets in the ME.

[1234letshaveatw]

The son seems to have a distinct lack of “vitality” lol

[40four]

The thing getting overlooked is all of the recent moves by Trump all lead back to China. Venezuela, Cuba, now Iran. These are all tentacles of China. The aggression against these 3 countries is not a coincidence. It’s a concerted and indirect attack on China in an attempt to weaken their subsidiaries. In the eyes of this administration, this is unpleasant, but necessary housekeeping that should have been done decades ago but no one was willing to spend the political capital to do it.

In Iran, Trump was clearly hoping (and verbally requested) the same thing you say about Sadam. I think we actually do know how unpopular the regime is, the mass protests demonstrated that. But the religious hardliners are the ones with the guns. And they clearly aren’t afraid to use them. So while there was some momentum, after everyone got gunned down in the streets by the IRGC it quickly deflated. So asking unarmed protesters to step up again is kind of big ask, without any material support.

[chirau]

Iranian protesters were not calling for US interference. Let's be very clear about that. They were doing it for their own regime change, not some US imposition. What they think of the US or whether they are for this war or supposed regime change by the US is a totally different consideration.

[mandeepj]

> The thing getting overlooked is all of the recent moves by Trump all lead back to China.

Are you trying to frame the twice accidental president as some sort of visionary? He doesn’t even remember what he said 5 mins ago. If he had planned or even had any clue about wars, we’d not be in this mess. He insulted Zelenskyy last year but ended up asking for his help.

Do you recall orange phenomenon was asking for China’s help just last week, let’s wait for it, to act against their friends, which you called their subsidiaries :-). You can’t script this horror show, even if you wanted to.

[epolanski]

Also, he's pushing the world towards China.

And rightfully so. China isn't killing and kidnapping world leaders, supporting genocides in Gaza, launching military operations, threatening its allies of annexation or overtly interfering in their democratic process.

[limagnolia]

Russia and North Korea are obviously doing so, but I haven't seen any direct evidence that China is providing intelligence support to Iran, do you have any links? It is certainly plausible, China would love to see Russia tied up in Ukraine and the US tied up in Iran.

[kasey_junk]

There has been speculation that China is letting Iran use their satellites for targeting but it’s not confirmed.

China is for sure providing material for drone and rocket manufacturing as well as air defense systems.

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2026/01/28/how-china-aims-to-bloc...