Huge Protests In Iran Call for IRGC and Regime to Go After They Admit Shooting Down Plane

Yes thats real courage.

 

Zankou chicken.

 

Yet nobody thinks African foreign policy should be their top voting concern

 

I wish there was a way for them to build the country they deserve. Maybe they can. I’m rooting for them.

 

The propaganda here would be entertaining if the stakes weren't as high.

The problem isn't that you can't find, in a nation of 80 million, several million Iranians who (after all Iran has been through) are willing to follow the footsteps of foreign powers seeking to overthrow the regime. Of course, you can -- but that is not going to get you anywhere: in any contest for the streets, the regime can bring to those streets several times these numbers just calling its supporters to attend their rallies.

The problem for the regime, instead, is that in many ways, it has lost a large percentage (maybe a huge percentage) of what may be considered "Iran's best and brightest". The students at Sharif University of Technology, and Amir Kabir University, represent students of two of Iran's most elite (top 5) universities. And they represent, more broadly, a huge segment of Iran's younger, college educated, westernized, voices. Voices which don't find much hope in Iran's current trajectory and dispute with the US, who aren't happy with the social and cultural restrictions that exist in Iran (even if those restrictions have been substantially relaxed), and who think a country with Iran's natural resources could do much better economically than it is doing under "maximum pressure".

It was, in some ways, emblematic, not surprising, that the plane shot down included so many graduates of these universities and students affiliated to them. That is because these Iranians have and are indeed leaving their country in droves. The brain drain Iran has suffered from is hugely costly in economic terms. But, overtime, its biggest cost will be political. In helping weaken the forces of resistance in Iran and strengthening the forces of the West. That will happen, inevitably overtime, unless the forces of the resistance (which do include some very bright Iranians on their side too) manage to chart a path which will inspire greater hope for the future they have in mind for Iran.

p.s.
Even among Iran's student body, General Soleimani was very popular. While the crowd depicted in these videos and pictures is unlikely to include too many who attended his funeral, as this crowd represents the most alienated voices in Iran's student body, a majority of their fellow students across Iran were attending General Soleimani's funeral ceremonies and were grieving his loss.

 

Of course it has, but the problem is whether they are masquerading killing disagreeing people as such

 

Peaple believe that the regime of Iran is very corrupt. They prioritize commitment to this or that party or being a member of Basij or performingreligious axlcts over the expertise, honesty, keeping to employee's word & concsience when employing for the government. People are angry about the ،embazzlements, lies, whitening, discriminations, etc. Many are even leaving Islam, as they see the government is doing these acts under the cover of Islam, acts they were thaught to be against Islam, previously.
Not to mention jailings, executions, imposing the dressing type, restrictions, suppressions, poverty, Gini coefficient, paying to Syria, Lebonane, Yemen, etc.
Many think the Americans are right to impose sanctions on a country that attacked USA embassy, taking hostages and not releasing them for a long time.
Unfortunately, the people are in majority of the cases on the right side. The regime has chosen to use force, compulsion over advice. The thing Shah also tested.
As for calling protesters 'foreign agents', 'dirts', etc , the regime is again wrong in using this old-fashioned trick to suppress the people.
And the brain drain is again the fault of the regime itself. People go to where they can show their stuff, where they are free, where they are not suppressed for being opposite, where they are not condemned for playing against Israelis or forced to lose, etc.

The question is not which side is the majority. Read the Quran chapter Takathur. The regime shall return to Islam, or it shall be gone like the previous ones, sooner or later.

 

God willing, but it admitted after denying, labeling the opposite as liers and threatening them, with the investigation ongoing. It also refused to give the Boing company the black box.

 

God willing, but it admitted after denying, labeling the opposite as liers and threatening them, with the investigation ongoing. It also refused to give the Boing company the black box.

 

The most legitimate complaint about Iran and its government is precisely its corruption, which has been endemic and widespread. This belief by 'people' in Iran is with solid foundation.

Some of what you say is correct but not all of it. The people being promoted within the government and its myriad of institutions and state companies aren't either Iran's most qualified, or those in Iran most loyal to any of its ideological principles. They are, instead, those who have the strongest "mafia" support. Some of these mafia groups have foreign linked and connections and exist by virtue of some the networks of corruption built in Iran's foreign trade and oil and gas deals. Others have domestic links to some of the kind of groups you mention. But certainly, the process neither promotes honesty nor ideological purity nor qualification. It is simply corrupt in many cases and in some cases, it is treacherous.

True.

On this front, Iran is actually a lot better than many other countries and acts rather prudently. I don't agree that Iran's system is repressive in this sense. While it still leaves a lot to be desired, except for those who are trying to overthrow the system through violence or those who are promoting foreign agendas, I think the regime handles protests and dissent with greater enlightenment than the ridiculous propaganda against it. Of course, if someone is trying to shoot and kill you, it is not surprising that they will be shot back.

Iran's economy suffers from corruption, mismanagement and sanctions. However, it is remarkable that Iran has been able to handle all that has been thrown its way and yet not do worse. In the meantime, one of the ironies about Iran is that those who have the greatest reasons to complain when it comes to the economy, and when it comes to poverty and such, are actually those who are the least likely to be involved in anti-regime agendas. On the other hand, those who already have the largest share of the pie from Iran's economy, are the ones who complain the most simply because they compare their situation with what they imagine the situation of people in the most advanced and developed economies to be.

Overall, however, Iran remains an upper middle income country. Sure. Given its resources and highly educated populace, it could and should do better. But it could be doing much worse. Simple rhetoric and mild sanctions often serve equal or greater blows to the economies of some countries, e.g. Venezuela or even Turkey, than the severest sanctions imposed on Iran. That aspect of Iran's economic performance, given all the corruption and mismanagement that exists, is almost miraculous.

Most Iranians support what Iran does on those fronts, even if some have been steered to oppose those policies.

Whatever the pretexts for US foreign policy viz a viz Iran, and some of those pretexts have greater justification than others, the "many" you refer to are actually a small minority in terms of percentage of the population. Most Iranians (up to 80%) are rather nationalistic and very much against US policies against Iran. But, in absolute numbers, you are right: there are 'many' (a few million) who are alienated enough and are willing to follow these footsteps.

The regime has not called the 'protesters' foreign agents. It says, and it is right in saying, that there are foreign agents, terrorists and saboteurs who use legitimate protests and gripes to carry out foreign agenda to try to cause an implosion in Iran. In the process, the protesters (in the regime's lexicon) are a "misguided" minority.

The 'brain drain' is the 'fault of the regime' in one sense, but reflects a larger reality; by choosing resistance to foreign hegemony, Iran is fighting against what is the dominant world order. On an individual basis, and in the short run, many will indeed find siding with the more advanced and prosperous enemy more to their benefit than siding with the (slightly) less advanced and less prosperous home front, especially when the home front is often (correctly) seen as being represented by corrupt people.

I am not religious in the sense of believing you find answers reading the Quran. I do have faith, however, and my faith is based on other things.

 

LOL! When has that ever happened when we meddled in the Middle East and overthrew governments?

Maybe as often as tax cuts paying for themselves. i.e. never.

How can one do the same thing over and over again, but this time expect different results?

 

If Obama was still President, he'd already been overseas apologizing for America.

 

Iraq

 

Even the Europeans are recognizing the folly of the agreement and no Iran did jot back down on it's support of terrorism. And if you want to post here defending the terrorist regiem in Iran and their goal to dominate the ME by whatever means necessary that's your hill take it.

 

They warned us first why do you think they did that?

 

I have been quite clear I think it our responsibility to support the protesters and continue with the sanctions to end that regime and its exporting of terrorism and jihadist goals. Don't you?

 

Well the chairman of the joint chiefs said they were trying to kill Americans. Why do you think they’d want that?

 

Their country sucks. There should finally be a remedy for that.

 

Why do you think they warned us?

 

Agreed.

 

And, that may have been the story, if the evidence didn't grow supporting the apparently true story of the missile shoot-down. But, that's not all that unusual. It took generations before we admitted the CIA involvement in placing the Shah in power, the assassination of Diem, in Vietnam. And, Eisenhower lied about the U-2 overflight of Gary Power, until the Russians produced photos of the plane and Powers as a prisoner. Not agreeing with their initial position, but government cover-ups are not that unusual.

 

No. I think that could be our policy, but I don't believe it's our responsibility. Based on what?

 

How do I know they did?

 

Obama, along with a lot of Americans, disagreed with our invasion of Iraq, and our post WW II policy of supporting dictatorial regimes in the region. His "apology" actually supported the post-invasion Bush policy of regime changes and bringing democratic governments to the region. The difference was that Obama understood, what Bush apparently never grasped, that in Islam there is no such thing as a "secular government."

 

I am not defending Iranian policies. I am questioning Trump's. He campaigned on no more "endless wars" and bringing the troops home. His policies should reflect those goals, not the opposite.