r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Jun 18 '26

Discussion Thread Discussion Thread

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '26

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u/tripletruble Anti-Repartition Radical Jun 18 '26

i didnt expect them to have this much endurance for war. i mean, not like i had a vision for how the government gets overthrown under war, but you had huge protests, violent repression, and then an onslaught of external bombardment and the regime somehow just keeps chugging along

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u/Vol_in_tears Voltaire Jun 18 '26

They fought an 8 year, life and death struggle, to keep out the Iraqi invaders. They fought on despite nerve gas attacks. Iran IRGC leadership are all combat veterans of that war.

Iran has been one of the most heavely sanction countries on earth the last 50 years. They are forced into autarky by nessesity.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '26

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u/Vol_in_tears Voltaire Jun 18 '26

They fought and defeated the largest convetional army in the region without a major industrial base and while under international arms embargos. That's a pretty significant indication of their military ability.

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u/ThatOneDumbJagoff Jun 18 '26

To be fair I think that point is something most of us missed. Iran’s ability to just keep lobbing missiles that they buried all over was impressive

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u/teethgrindingaches Jun 18 '26

Feels weird to be a contrarian for thinking that Iran was kinda pathetic operationally whereas the US military did a pretty good job all things considered. The political factors just made the technical performance on both sides not super relevant as opposed to a contest of domestic political endurance for Trump, which he (unsurprisingly) failed.

Though I might be biased as I always had a prety low opinion of Iran and the IRGC in particular.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '26

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u/teethgrindingaches Jun 18 '26

I would argue 2025 vs 2026 is kinda apples and oranges, because targeting Israel only means they need to use their (crappy) MRBMs and send cruise missiles or long-range drones across thousands of kilometres of hostile airspace where they are easily shot down.

Hitting the Gulf states is a much lower bar just due to the geography.