This is very heartwarming in these troubling times.

Fuck the mullahs and fuck the monarchists. Pahlavi sabotaged the broader collation he was a part of during the Women Life Freedom movement because he's not interested in working with anyone to bring progressive political and social change to Iran. The blood of the school children and thousands of Iranians and Lebanese killed in the last two weeks is on his hands

This is a pro-war rally.

I wouldn't describe it as heartwarming. These people are supporting a war that didn't need to happen, where innocent people are being killed by bombs that never needed to fly.

One of the photos show people stepping on an effigy of the old ayatollah, (i think thats who it is). Any protest that is using effigies in that way can't really be considered a "heatwarming" event no matter who it is. Expressions of hatred sit pretty ugly alongside heartwarming.

and of the up to 30,000 killed in January by the regime ?

Ikt!? Awesome you suddenly care about deaths?! I'm glad, how about denouncing Israel for their murders over the last few years? Also the people murdered aren't all Muslims, so don't let that stop ya. How about at least Zomi Franckom ^(Please read dripping with sarcasm, its more fun that way)^

Violent and non-violent death tolls for the Gaza conflict: new primary evidence from a population-representative field survey - The Lancet Global Health

Findings
We estimated 75 200 violent deaths (95% CI 63 600–86 800) between Oct 7, 2023, and Jan 5, 2025, representing approximately 3·4% of the Gaza Strip's pre-conflict population. Women, children (ie, younger than 18 years), and older people (ie, older than 64 years) comprised 56·2% (95% CI 50·4–61·9) of violent deaths, totalling 42 200 deaths (95% CI 33 100–51 300). We also estimated 16 300 non-violent deaths (12 300–20 200), of which 8540 (4540–12 500) represent excess deaths above pre-conflict projections. The MoH figure for this period (49 090 violent deaths) was 34·7% below our central estimate.

Ikt i mean this frankly and honestly, if you want to be taken seriously, and not as simply propagansing for your own partisan narrative, you need to maintain ethical consistency. Murder for reason of political repression is either bad or it isn't.

Look at the flags there. The Monarchists killed thousands while in power, the USA has caused over a million deaths in Iraq alone this century not to mention the thousands murdered from their bombing of Iran over the last two years.

The Israeli's are the most blood thirsty regime in the Middle East, estimates ~60,000 to over ~80,000 +~8500 non-violent deaths, and counting, Palestinians since the October 7 attack alone. Of course we won't know how many Palestinians have been murdered by Israel for years because they are so embarrassed by their genocide they let no one in for years, and then only highly scripted chaperoned tours after that, how very North Korean of that so called free and civil State. This isn't to mention their imprisonement and torture regimes. Now they're attacking Lebanon, and before that took a slice of Syria, for 'sEcUriTy'. Thats also one of Russia's arguments for border expansion as well, but Ukraine are the good guys, and Palestine are the bad guys! For... reasons...

I'd like to separate out our Aussie flag, it represents the least egregious of the parties there, but we don't cover ourselves in glory and have blood red marks of oppression and genocide as well that we shouldn't overlook. But I hope we can deal with our history maturely and with care for our countrymen.

Its worth noting the 30,000 figure has been called into serious question multiple times now. I don't actually care about the specific number and its highly suss when people do, the crackdown on protests was insane political repression by an awful regime, one murder of a protestor was enough. So I question the partisan narrative people are trying to propangandise for those pushing the 30,000 protestors number so relentlessly.

Sometimes your history is too rich for a simple one liner reply. I'll try harder to be pithy next time.

Damn a Tu Quoque but still

The Monarchists killed thousands while in power

They've had an iron grip on the country for the last 50 years, "killed thousands" is a bit of an understatement don't you think?

Some extremely light reading:

https://www.dw.com/en/iran-a-timeline-of-mass-protests-since-1999/a-75431588

When it comes to Iran I'm with the people, the people want a change and have overwhelmingly indicated they don't like the IRGC

I don't expect perfection from any country going to war, if North Korea of all people attacked the IRGC I'd be in the unfortunate situation of cheering for North Korea, if China attacked North Korea to free the people, likewise I'd be in the shitty position of cheering on China, the tactic known as "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"

I wish Europe had done this and properly but they've got their hands full with their overburdened debt heavy societies and handling Russia

Is American perfect? No

Do they have a democracy? Yes

Do the Iranian people want to be free of the IRGC? Yes

Therefore I'm in the unfortunate position of supporting Israel and America and anyone else Europe etc who support the war against the IRGC

For some reason it seems like if America attacked North Korea to save thousands of children being tortured 24x7 for watching Friends you'd be on North Koreas side arguing against America, that's where we're different

I'm not discussing I/P because every time I do I'm outnumbered 100 to 1 here and the number of mentally challenging posts blows up as people invent strawmans of me and then nuke them before doing a victory lap, then months later random losers throw one liners at me that contribute nothing to the discussion

It's already difficult enough here to have a discussion outside of blatantly jerking off over being anti-America, anti-Israel, anti-AI in this place, I get this place is a left wing progressive echo chamber that's for the most part dead but I'm sorry I'm not up for I/P discussion number 5 million while I'm mostly used as a punching bag by randoms with nothing of value to contribute

Anyway gym time, have fun!

edited it, I appreciate it :P

I think the first part of your response mixes up the monarchists with the IRGC? Anyway, i won't defend either, and we're in line with supporting the people of Iran's choice of direction. I will caveat my part in that, where undue influence from interested parties don't rob the people's choice.

I'm glad you're not up for it, i'm not up for going round that carousel with you again we know where each other stand. But i'm always going to call out inconsistency where i identify it.

'Friend of my friend is my enemy', leads to an unstable world where the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.

Forgetting about that being a horrible future to end up in globally, more personally being Aussie we are on the wrong side of that needle. 'Might is right' is not a future that has good outcomes for a nation like Australia.

I will always advocate changing these regimes by negotiation, openness where possible, and winning the debate of what is the good life by demonstrating that, not by enforcement. Enforcement breeds resentment and further conflict. Break your enemies by showing them how ridiculous their own system has become, and always carry a big stick, as a last resort.

Hope I git your blood boiling for a good power lifting session, have fun at the gym.

A small part of the Gaza Genocide responsibility falls on Iran as well, they armed and funded Hamas then told them to attack the music festival which reignited the war. Iran leadership is willing to watch every single Palestinian die a horrible death just to make themselves look better on the world stage.

Sacrificial Lambs and Vanity, as if all of Islam's teachings were wasted on them.

Tolerance must end with the intolerant or only the worst of us will thrive and rise to power.

Fuck the Ayatollah, I hope his death was slow and painful. I hope the Iranian people take the pain and sorrow they have endured under autocracy and channel it into hatred with which to tear down their oppressors, because while there is never a time to act irrationally there is a time to get angry, to get mad. I do not side with the Shah faction nor the Trump Admin who clearly doesn't want to support the rebellion and instead is fighting Israel's border expansion war, but I side with the Iranians who want to fight the IRGC for a better future for themselves and the generations to come.

I think the first part of your response mixes up the monarchists with the IRGC

Oops yeah you're right sorry, not a huge fan of monarchy either (unless you strip them of all their power and just have them as a novelty then eh they're not really at the top of my most pressing concerns)

Forgetting about that being a horrible future to end up in globally, more personally being Aussie we are on the wrong side of that needle. ‘Might is right’ is not a future that has good outcomes for a nation like Australia.

For me might makes right is the defacto status quo, it's simply after ww2 europe was fucked, china was fucked, America wasn't, and look who has done most of the invading recently (by recently I mean in the time post ww2), this is why Europe has NATO and we do our best through alliances:

As a middle power in an era of increasing great-power competition, Australia lacks the strategic weight to single-handedly ensure its own security. Throughout its history, it has chosen to ally with great powers: initially Great Britain, before realigning towards the US during the Second World War. Australia has fought alongside them as a junior partner in conflicts in Europe, Asia and the Middle East to forge enduring relationships and maximise the probability that they would defend Australia were it threatened.

Australian concerns about the trajectory of a more aggressive China have driven the ANZUS alliance, typically referred to as the Alliance, to greater levels of intimacy. However, Australia’s efforts to build stronger relationships with both old and new partners, such as Japan and India, suggests that it has long-term concerns about the reliability of its alliance with the US and is seeking to mitigate future risks by diversifying its range of security partners.

https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_departments/Parliamentary_Library/Research/Briefing_Book/47th_Parliament/AustraliaSecurityRelationships

Europe is busy bodying over paperwork but China isn't, and now it looks like they are also ready for war

Enforcement breeds resentment and further conflict. Break your enemies by showing them how ridiculous their own system has become, and always carry a big stick, as a last resort.

I think we can both agree Trump has once again fucked it but my big question is North Korea and Cuba, and arguably you could say Iran and other places particularly in Africa that have either slid backwards into dictatorships or have recently (coup belt), this doesn't seem to work, the UN appears to be as powerless as ever

It seems like we're going backwards not forwards with this path

Hope I git your blood boiling for a good power lifting session, have fun at the gym.

💪

I'm really going to have to think and research the insanely useful things international law and the UN in particular are getting done now, today, but have also been instrumental in in the past period post war.

We keep coming back to this point, and its an area where I know enough to disagree, but not well enough to concisely (at least as concisely as my normal essays on topics like this ;) ) frame and prosecute the arguments in favour. One of the key problems is, this area doesn't really generate much interest. And the topics can be pretty dry, even for me.

One nugget in favour of international law I'll leave you to consider is that Robert Duterté is currently holed up the Hague for prosecution for his extra judicial murder spree as Mayor and then President in the Philippines all those years ago. So that might be a 'now' example of some justice being delivered to the families of those victims caught up in that purge.

But its a whole thing I'm not really well across, political enemies are now in power in Philippines; how much justice can really be delivered, yeah i admit there are problems that I don't have answers for, which is why I'm calling it a 'nugget'.

Problem is we've seen this movie before, people got rightfully angry, they tore down their oppressors, the Shah, and then the Iranian peoples victory was usurped from the them by the Ayatollah and his religious extremists. The Iran-Iraq war also didn't help opposition to the regime, in fact it helped cement them in place.

There are no actors on any of the sides in this conflict that won't try to usurp a victory to serve their own causes. Trump keeps cynically trying to entice a rebellion, but noticeably hasn't a genuine plan to help deliver Iranians into a free and prosperous nation. This isn't a rebellion of freedom fighters, this is a war of rival elite networks. Welcome back the warring nation state instability of 19th Century Europe, but this time its gone global.

they armed and funded Hamas then told them to attack the music festival

This is the first time I've seen that claimed, do you have a reputable source where they explain this theory?

I believe you that the Iranians would let all the Palestinians die, it seems few people with any power in the world are willing to do anything for Palestinians. They seem truly friendless in the halls of power of this world.

We've also seen democracies form and last, clearly the key is to keep trying.

Trump has no reason to support a rebellion, Trump is a soulless ghoul with an opportunity to enrich himself by helping Netanyahu and crew gain territory in this war.

But the Iranian people were already rebelling before the war began, you cannot stop this even if you tried. It is already in motion.

Hamas Fighters Trained in Iran: https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hamas-fighters-trained-in-iran-before-oct-7-attacks-e2a8dbb9

Hamas used Iranian smuggled weapons: https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-guns-weapons-missiles-smuggling-adae9dae4c48059d2a3c8e5d565daa30

Additionally, Israel has also made many many claims that captured documents show decades of funds transferred from Iran, but they're not exactly a reliable source and at one point Israel helped a Qatar agent move suitcases of cash into Gaza, so harder to say. One thing we do know for sure is that Ismail Haniyeh, one of Hamas leadership, was killed in Iran during the war on Gaza.