Game On in Iraq: Iranian Quds and Militias Suffer a, um, Setback

I'd say that it's precisely the internet that is really starting to make inroads into dictatorships and denying them control of information within their borders. In 1980 Iran may have been able to get away with denying it shot down a plane. Even going as far as to blame it on America.

But in 2019 with access to the World Wide Web? Impossible. The truth gets out.

Even in North Korea it's difficult for the government to control information compared to say fifty years ago. Mass communication devices make it hard to hide the truth.

Mom's been dead for a couple of years now. Guess she's better than what you're getting at home. Now care to try to respond with something other than shit for brains attempts at insults?

Just so we're clear, it was a fucking typo. I went back and edited the post to make it a more cohesive sentence.

Actually, I can't argue with this and I like it better. Our government probably would fuck it up. If I were god or president or whatever, I'd make every leader of every Middle-Eastern country sit down and come up with some sort of peace deal, but they'd have to acknowledge Israel as a legitimate state.

Remember when Reagan shot down Iran Air flight 655 killing 290 civilian passengers because it thought they were a military aircraft?

Maybe the right wing should STFU considering it happened on Ronnie Raygun's watch and their saint of idiotic right wing warmongering is just as responsible for that action as any Iranian leader who would not have ordered or been contacted in a spur of the moment mistake by the people on the front line.

If we are going to hold Iran leadership accountable for a mistake made by the front line people in a heightened sense of alert because of Trump's illegal assassination of their armed forces in peacetime, then we should hold warmonger Reagan and any of his regime responsible for the same mistake that killed 100+ more people in 1988.

Who's denying the US's responsibility for flight 655?

Never said anyone was. Is engluish your second language? Because you don't seem to grasp things that are said and have a real habit of making up shit. What I said is it makes no sense to hold Iran to a higher standard than they hold their icon reagan to. It is hypocrisy at republican finest. They really should give Iran the same lack of complaining they did and possibly even cheer them on like they did to reagan in the past since shooting down civilian flights has not tarnished his name in their eyes.

You said that we should be held responsible for the shoot down of flight 655. Doesn't that imply that we weren't held responsible for the shoot down of flight 655?

...and why you always feel obligated to get all adversarial whenever someone asks you an honest question.

What higher standard are we holding Iran to in regards to accidentally shooting the plane down?

I don't speak Engluish. Please say it in English.

Engluish is the goofy shit you say on an airplane glue high.

I'm assuming.

All good with this, yeah?

That's the most convincing reply I've had thus far, thank you. Unfortunately a lot of it could also apply to "our" (I use that term loosely) activities. After all, it was the US who assassinated him on sovereign third party soil during peacetime. That's an act of terrorism right there.

Well, obviously.

Intel is by definition going to include a lot of classified and/or secret material, but if the reason for labelling a terrorist lies within that realm what basis do the public have for using that label? If you haven't seen the intel why call him a terrorist?

Obviously he was a dangerous man, but then again so is Trump, so was Dick Cheney, so was Bush, so was Blair. Nothing on Soleimani's roster could really be differentiated from the actions of his Western counterparts, who are also quite happy to torture, imprison and kill when it suits.

yep! The protestors are doing fine on their own. And these protestors are risking their very lives in a big way. Hundreds (possibly thousands) have been outright killed or "disappeared" recently.
The average Iranian person lives in a state of oppression & suspicion rivalling North Korea. Anybody upsetting the apple cart is living on borrowed time.

Iran is not remotely like North Korea. There is a difference between their kind of authoritarianism and actual totalitarianism.

Also, it can't both be the case that the protesters are doing fine and that they're at risk and/or being killed. You're all over the place.

was it just an insult? Maybe there were subtleties in my comment beyond your grasp - everything isn't binary as you well know.

what I mean is by "doing fine" is yes the protestors are at great risk, but they can enact change (and are enacting change over time) without U.S. intervention. That they are risking their lives means change is that important to them. And yes Iran is more like NK than it is different than NK. Both are terribly unfree & oppressive, granted just not to the same level.

Your people are pounding for war.

Nope, this is a load of bullshit.

I don't see anyone pounding for war over this airplane being shot down.

I also don't see anyone pounding for war in general regarding the killing of the general and Iran's missile attack. Seems to me it's you and your people who are the loudest hot air blowers in the room on the subject.

indeed! I don't know who Tererun means by "your people" either. I know I've been saying to cut them some slack and to just consider it tragic accident, which it was. I heard on the news that some people (Ukranians I think) were saying that the person/people who made the decision to shoot it down did it on purpose, and did not consult with his boss first. What part of "holy shit there's a likely enemy fast mover coming into our restricted airspace and I have seconds to react!" do the Ukranians not understand? Initially denying the crash was friendly fire has backfired epically of course. The Iranian people are madder than a wet hen at their leadership, adding fuel to their already enraged disgruntlement. Talk about making a bad situation much, much worse!

Yes I heard on the radio news that the people of Iran want a functioning democracy and to part of the free prosperous secular world again. Then again you have Solemeini fanboys but I think that a lot of them are the older hardliners. If that completely happens without too much drama & bloodshed wouldn't that be something? You never know!

Twitter thread by someone with family in Iran.

Wow, imagine what it must be like to live in a country where folk get worked up by their government blatantly lying to them...

As opposed to a country where a large percentage of people revel in being lied to?

okay fill me in here - what did the Iranian government say about where the plane was heading? Last thing I heard it was heading into secure air space. Was that not true?

FTFY. You have shown that you are willfully blind and therefor what you see is irrelevant.