[hermannj314]

I have friends in the US that want the US government destroyed, there are people in the southern US that think the south won the civil war. Who cares?

Every government in all of human history has had its detractors and supporters, more detractors probably exist in expatriated communities, their existence does not really prove anything.

[dionian]

the No Kings movement doesnt seem to care about Ayatollahs

[arbitrary_name]

the no kings movement draws a line between no kings in the USA, and leaving other countries to pursue the same.

didn't Donald Trump campaign on no more foreign wars? doesn't America First mean not starting some forever war?

and if there is a good case for intervention: then make it! what are the objectives? Regime change? we killed most of their leadership, and they are still running the show. We killed Osama... and then fled Afghanistan decades later. why is there such a short memory in this case? these dudes HATE US: their recruiting propaganda gets more effective with every bomb we drop on them.

and if regime change is so important, than surely we will invade North Korea next right? and Russia? what about them? how about Venezuela? ohhh, yeah we left the regime in place, with no change for the people living under it.

perhaps was controlling oil the key objective? well... we stopped sanctioning the Iranian regime, and they are still in a position to stop traffic in Hormuz: the current terms they are asking gives them more control over the strait, rather than less?

so what the hell is our objective? can we just admit that we have no idea what we're doing, because we have no strategy?

Be an apologist for something that isn't truly riddled with internal inconsistency.

[RiverStone]

I’m not sure what your point is. Are you suggesting that anti-regime Iranians are a minority?

I’m not sure if we have good statistics on this. So everyone may have a different perspective.

All I can say is this: I’m married to an Iranian woman, and through her I’ve met many Iranian expats, and I’ve talked to her family members within Iran.

I think you’ll find that Iranian expats are pretty unanimously against the regime. That’s millions of Iranians. My in-laws who lives in Tehran are anti-regime, along with every single person on my wife’s side of the family: aunts, uncles, cousins. Everybody.

Thousands of protesters were killed opposing the regime. And that’s just the latest protest.

This is a regime that will kill women who don’t cover their hair correctly. Dancing and singing in the street is illegal.

Don’t be concerned on behalf of the regime. This is a just war supported by Iranians. You are on the right side of history to kill people who hang protestors and force little girls to cover every part of their body.

[CapricornNoble]

>That’s millions of Iranians. My in-laws who lives in Tehran are anti-regime, along with every single person on my wife’s side of the family: aunts, uncles, cousins. Everybody.

How do you square this with the absolutely massive pro-government rallies that we've seen all across Iran for the entire duration of the conflict? Millions of Iranians opposed to the regime, in a country of 90 million+, might still be a fringe minority.

If you asked some American expat their thoughts on MAGA, and they responded "China should bomb MAGA rallies so we can be free from the Republican party, my whole family in the US agrees".....that person would be considered a fringe lunatic, even if Trump's regime has record-low approval like it does now (and rightly deserves, I hope he is impeached and jailed).

[RiverStone]

We have limited data on this. There have been surveys, but survey data isn’t always very accurate.

Here was one survey that showed 81% disapproval of the Islamic Republic: https://gamaan.org/2023/02/04/protests_survey/

In a country of 90 million, if the regime has 20% supporters, that’s 18 million supporters.

Tehran population is 9 million, 20% of that is 1.8 million.

So it’s easy to understand why you might see videos of hundreds or thousands of regime supporters in the streets. That doesn’t mean they’re the majority.

[krainboltgreene]

Hey man, 60% of americans disapprove of the current government, that doesn't mean they want to nuke Washington DC.

[RiverStone]

All I can tell you is to go talk with Iranians. I don’t know where you live, but every major city has an Iranian expat community.

All I’m trying to communicate is the conversations that I’ve had with my Iranian wife, her expat friends, and my in-laws in Tehran.

[herewulf]

Maybe they should go be the boots on the ground for the next quagmire if it's so important to them? Commander in Chief Bonespurs and the Secretary of Booze can lead the charge straight up the Straight.

Or maybe they should just focus on being Americans in America and some day Iran will sort itself out without the US' "help".

[krainboltgreene]

I'm well aware of the insane perspective of Iranian monarchists in America. Frankly it's not really their fault, American interventionists have pushed them into this brainrot.

But having an opinion doesn't make it a good opinion and there is no way to say "please get my grandmother's blood on your hands for my insane vision of Iran" sanely.

[CapricornNoble]

Mint Press News has a good article about why Gamaan's methodology is unsound:

https://www.mintpressnews.com/gamaan-iran-polling-regime-cha...

[RiverStone]

Thanks, I hadn’t seen that article before. Interesting read.

My take is that GAMAAN likely overstates the opposition, but all surveys on Iran are imperfect, not just GAMAAN.

I know Pew has done surveys in Iran, but didn’t directly ask if people support the regime.

I personally believe that the opposition group is larger than the regime supporters. I think there’s enough data to infer that.

But I’ll also admit that there’s probably a sizable percentage of ambivalent/non-revolutionary Iranians who would just be satisfied with a better economy.

[mlrtime]

I trust the people who are close to this more than what you hear on the news. My guess is 90%+ of the readers here know nothing of Iranians except what they read or hear on the news.

How many of you have been to Iran, have family members there, etc? I'm guessing very few.

[klustregrif]

> that anti-regime Iranians are a minority?

A majority of Americans want Donald Trump removed https://www.newsweek.com/majority-americans-want-trump-compl...

And a significant portion of the opposition wish he was dead.

It’s not about “minority vs majority” it’s the very biased phrasing of “we should bomb Iran because people want regime change” Imagine if Iran was bombing USA because the majority of Americans want regime change.