Iranians on Wednesday struck a defiant tone, celebrating U.S. voters’ rebuke of President Donald Trump in the midterm elections while many in the Middle East waited to see how the results could affect the Iran war.
Concerns about the war, particularly frustration over rising prices for fuel and other goods in the U.S., helped Democrats win control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s vote, a sharp setback for Trump and his Republican Party.
But Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father and predecessor was killed in the opening strikes of the war in February, dismissed the prospect of any major change in the U.S. approach to the Islamic Republic.
“If there are still those who harbor even a slight hope for a change in behavior or partisan and factional shifts within the system of domination, or who imagine that by giving concessions to America they can dissuade it from hostility toward the Iranian nation, they are gravely mistaken,” he said on his social media account.
To add, a majority of those voters discontent isn’t gas, too. They murdered school children, y’all.
It’s not a majority of all Americans, but murder of Iranian civilians and Gazan civilians does break through to many people not on a 24/7 propaganda loop. That mattered in 2024 as it mattered in 2026, to obviously different outcomes.
Also the double tap air strikes on South American boats. And the extrajudicial detentions and murders of foreigners and citizens alike. And the Epstein stuff and . . .
It’s nearly impossible to hit a regime like Iran without any civilian casualties. The school jumps out but overall the ratio of collateral deaths was very low
It was the deadliest US attack on civilians since 91. It was also a deliberate double tap meant to maximize casualties, and none of it had to happen at all.
Do you mean in a single (double) missile strike?
I’m sure they whacked a lot more civilians in the battles against ISIS, for instance
It’s a cost-benefit balance. You want to have a minimum amount of collateral damage to achieve the goal. The goal also needs to be worth the damage. Finally, you need to have exhausted non military options.
America effectively achieved nothing, for a lot of damage. Trump also ripped up the carefully negotiated, internationally backed, treaty that was working to bring Iran back into the fold. They didn’t even competently argue that Iran was in breach.
The end result, a large loss of life, a lot of money wasted, and peace set back decades. It will also have knock on effects for years (fertilizer being a big issue).
How would you argue that the treaty “was working to bring Iran back into the fold”?
It was basically them promising to postpone their nuclear proliferation to 2031 in exchange for all sanctions being dropped.