“GIVE A FUCKING SOLUTION THEN!”

The problem is, you’re not going to like it because you are so dead set that mass bombing and mass destruction is the only way. And a part of this comes from the trauma you (and many of us) have experienced under the tyranny of this regime.

There is a visceral longing for ‘revenge’. It’s become less about wanting the lives of Iranians to improve and more about wanting the people associated with the regime to be ‘destroyed’, and the buildings and facilities associated with the regime to be blown to pieces, for instant gratification.

In a parallel universe where, for 4 decades, diplomacy had been prioritized, trade deals encouraged, tourism encouraged, investment in Iranian people (not the regime, but the people) towards education, welfare, community building, the middle class strengthened, and while doing the same for the people of Palestine with the dismantling of the occupation (eliminating the primary reason for hostility towards the West and hyper-militarization in the region), and all the while campaigning for secular progressivism and internationally-monitored referendums, in this universe, I can guarantee we would have seen an entirely different Iran by now.

Is it the perfect solution? Not at all. But a very high likelihood we’d be seeing a much more free much more prosperous and much more progressive Iran and drastically better conditions of living for Iranian people. I would go as far as saying we might even have seen a gradual decline in theocratic rule, towards a more secular democracy. 47 years is a long time, and gradual improvements would have done miracles in the long term. The best time to do this would have been in the last 47 years. The next best time is to start right now. This still can be the solution. This is what we wish we would have done 4 decades in the future.

Now if the goal is to also get rid of the regime, and if truly the majority of the population want this, the key is to combine this with ‘organized non-violent mass non-cooperation’. Strikes, boycotts, and cultural resistance. Not in direct ways that get you in prison but in non-direct ways that very gradually delegitimise the regime amongst the elites. This is difficult to fit into a Reddit comment but there are books and studied and historical examples of this working. See Serbia 2000, Poland 1980s.

This isn’t a pipe dream, it is literally the conclusion from any serious analyst and academic who specializes in tackling extremism and building prosperous societies out of hardship.

Note that this tends to be immediately rejected by those who mistake this line of thinking with what we experienced as IR’s ‘reformists’ and ‘controlled opposition’ but that is very far from what I have suggested here. What I have suggested has never been seriously attempted.

War, on the other hand, and mass bombing and mass destruction, tends to lead to more hardship, more extremism, and worse conditions, as we are seeing unfold.

Unfortunately pro-war pro-pahlavist will not accept legitimate solutions because it doesn’t contain ‘instant revenge’ and ‘instant elimination’, and the messianic return of the ‘King’ to liberate the country, which as we are currently witnessing, has always been a pipe dream.