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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Yeah as mentioned above, Iran's leaders can be crazy powerful and crazy...well. Crazy. But their people are not as repressed as Best Korea's so they actually get a say and to refuse U.S trade commodities in downright suicidal for a political party if they appeal to a base that is not completely ignorant
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothesYes, moderates won a majority in the recent Iran elections.
That doesn't mean the nation will democratize in a day—many political experts suspect they cannot get away from the intertwined authoritarianism, theocracy, and regional instability without another revolution.
So, reform will be slow until a more liberal leader can be elected, and even then he may only be marginally moreso. It's a process. Great Britain took awhile to get its parliament more powerful than the monarch.
Iran is also moderately democratic by the region's standards (low bar I know). It has a fair amount of power out of the hands of elected officials but the president and parliament do have some real power and the democratic checks and balances on the president are solid.
Iran isn't North Korea, Iran actually has popular support for the goverment, a functioning economy and a rich history. Also Iran has good reasons to hate/fear the US, what with it (and the UK) have installed a dictatorship during the Cold War so that BP could keep Iran's oil. A dictatorship so bad that pretty much everyone agrees that it being removed was a good thing.
That's how the entire nuclear thing got started, Iran overthrew the dictatorship and went hard into anti-US Theocracy, the backlash against the US was huge (the embassy hostage situation) and the US struck back. Since then the US and Iran pretty much kept fucking with each other out of spite (including the US once shooting down a plane full of civilians), with both sides holding blame.
The nuclear issue was pretty much initially made up by the US so it could have an excuse to try and overthrow the Iranian regime. Thing is the US kept at the idea for so long that the Iranian goverment started considering actually developing a nuclear program.
Thing is by the time Iran was actually looking like it might develop a nuke program it was post-Iraq and nobody wanted another war. So sanctions were put in place, the international community joined in and eventually Iran cracked, a new president was elected and the current deal was made.
Edit: Oh and someone mentioned NATO and its name, that has real world effects. NATO can't be called into non-North Atlantic conflicts. An attack on a NATO member south of the Tropics of Cancer doesn't count as an attack on all of NATO.
edited 10th Mar '16 3:40:28 PM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranIs North Carolina Ground Zero For Election Law Battles?
Speaking as someone who lives there: Yes. Yes, we are. Fuck this state legislature for literally gerrymandering themselves into a supermajority, among other things, and thank goodness these lawsuits are finally proceeding.
edited 10th Mar '16 3:56:09 PM by darksidevoid
GM: AGOG S4 & F/WC RP; Co-GM: TABA, SOTR, UUA RP; Sub-GM: TTS RP. I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire.The US has balanced its Middle East alliances with lots of bribery/military aid.
I'll give you a quick run down of the basic region (though what counts as part of the Middle East varies).
- Turkey: Ally and NATO member (currently being a pain in the bum over several issues).
- Syria: in civil war and ruled by a Russian ally.
- Iraq: US created mess that still leans the US' way.
- Lebanon: Barely functional clusterfuck that the US would like to keep semi-functional but won't commit to fixing.
- Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar: The sane more reasonably Gulf Monarchies, Kuwait is actually kinda democratic. All US allies.
- Bahrain, Saudi Arabia: US allies that are authoritarian dictatorships.
- Yemen: Cluckerfuck involved in a civil war that has the Saudis involved, US drone playground.
- Iran: US enemy alongside enemy of Israel and Saudi Arabia, bit less hate then there used to be though.
- Jordan: The sane man of the Middle East. Reasonably monarchy that's generally chill with everyone, also the first ones to make peace with Israel, no oil.
- Israel: US ally.
- Egypt: US ally despite the military staging a coup after a revolution removed the former dictator. The US pays it a regular "don't start a war with Israel" bribe.
- Libya: Semi functioning mess that's been repairing itself since the 2011 revolution had a civil war come after it between the guys who overthrew the dictator. The US and others are helping with the fixing a little as mediators.
- Tunisia: Formed dictatorship turned democracy, the only place after 2011 where the Islamists were willing to give up power after first winning elections then loosing the later ones. Everybody likes Tunisia but it's not that significant strategically.
- Algeria: Authoritarian kinda dictatorship/kinda just skeezy and authoritarian. US reasonably friendly I believe.
- Morocco: Kinda a bit authoritarian monarchy, US ally, first country in the world to recognise the independent US after the American war of Independence.
Oh and there's also (depending on definition) Afghanistan which has been covered and Pakistan (basically a authoritarian semi-democracy with the military holding the real power and the US propping the military up so it doesn't loose a nuke or get overthrow by the Taliban).
That's just governments though, popular opinion will often vary a lot. The US isn't rather unpopular amongst the people of several countries due to it propping up dictatorships.
edited 10th Mar '16 4:15:11 PM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranFrom the previously linked NY Times article - and holy god damn that's blatant.
edited 10th Mar '16 4:46:51 PM by ironballs16
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"

The thing to understand, is that the current government isn't very friendly to the United States, but they're WAY more willing to play ball with America than Dinner Jacket was, for fears that the continuing economic sanctions would destabilize the country (most likely) and realized taking a less absolute hard-line would serve their long term interests. (The current Supreme Leader is still staunchly anti-US, but he probably realized tanking the country on ideology isn't the way to being remembered as a good leader.)
(Vox) Obama is right: Washington's obsession with "credibility" is wrongheaded and dangerous
Senate Passes Broad Bill to Combat Drug Abuse
“What good are additional programs if they aren’t adequately funded?” asked Senator Bob Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania. “We can’t ask medical professionals to do more to treat addiction if they don’t have the resources.” (Mr. Portman and Ms. Ayotte were among five Republicans to vote for the extra funding measure.)
But in the end, the bill was considered too urgent to dismiss over a funding fight.
edited 10th Mar '16 2:49:16 PM by PotatoesRock