United States President Donald Trump says Washington had armed Iranian opposition groups and protesters during mass antigovernment demonstrations in December and January, in which thousands of people were killed during crackdowns by government forces.
Iran’s government is quite bad on certain social issues, I won’t disagree. It isn’t a dictatorship, though. The head of government is elected and the head of state is appointed. Not a perfect democracy, but not very different from most democracies either. But I digress, because that really isn’t the main point.
If you’re equivocating them in any way you aren’t seeing the situation clearly. If Iran loses, there will be nothing left to check Israeli expansionism throughout the middle east. They will expand and drive out the Arab inhabitants out of their homes so they can create their racially pure homeland. It will be a continuous Genocide - Gaza, constantly, on a regional scale, alongside the continued American grip on the rest of the world.
On the other hand, if Iran wins, they halt Israel, stop the genocide of Palestine, and liberate the entire region from US domination. The American puppet dictatorships and absolute monarchies, much more repressive than Iran (though you never hear about it since they’re American puppets), will be left without support, and the people will actually have a chance to choose their own destiny. This will be a massive blow to the American empire, and will show the world that America can be fought and beaten.
So on one side you have the throne of fascist capital, a genocidal apartheid state, and various kleptocratic slave dictatorships, all fighting for domination. On the other, you have a semi-democratic theocratic republic, along with rag-tag resistance groups, fighting against the fascist world empire and its local cronies. Are Iran “good guys”? It’s complicated. Are they “the good guys”? Fucking unambiguously.
JFC…
Yes, Iran is a theocratic dictatorship. The government is based on Islamic law and led by religious leaders, particularly that “wonderful” Supreme Leader. The system combines elements of theocracy with authoritarian governance, limiting political freedoms and dissent, and happily tortures you for whatever reason they want.
But yeah, its not a dictatorship though, because the internet guy ™ told me so, just like he told me that if Iran wins, it will only do good things, because they are just misunderstood santa claus elves, you know! They know no wrong!
So in the real world, on the one side you have a fascist semi dictatorship with a money obsessed pedophile and on the other side you have a theocratic religion obsessed dictatorship (BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT IT IS) that murders people world wide and happily tortures its own citizens. Geez, who would be the good guy ™ here!??!
So how about this: Both sides are bad and best we can hope for is Iran winning and immediately being overthrown by a coup by the citizens, so that they can finally pave a path to freedom and democracy?
Being immediately overthrown after victory isn’t realistic, but I expect that without the imperial boot off their necks, they will moderate over time. Without foreign imperialists using social issues as a cudgel while actually wanting to loot and defang Iran, change, whether revolutionary or reformist, will come more easily. In either case, this will be in the hands of Iranians, not westerners.
Certainly, I would prefer if a secular socialist government were kicking America out of the middle east. I would be hooting and hollering nonstop, unable to contain my joy. But that isn’t what we’re getting, so I’ll hoot and holler at a somewhat reduced rate as a Shia Islamist government kicks America out of the middle east. Try to look on the bright side, you’ll be happier.
Of course, Iranians have to solve this themselves, but if you think that this theocracy will only stop because the west stopped meddling then I have a bridge to sell ya
Everything ends eventually