> There are no indications that Iran intends to use nuclear weapons against Israel.
The Iranian government are rather extreme theocrats, but they aren’t a suicide cult. They know that a nuclear first strike against Israel would result in massive nuclear retaliation aimed at annihilating Iran as a modern nation-state. They aren’t going to do that.
I think their primary reason for pursuing nuclear weapons is as a deterrent against conventional invasion, forcible “regime change” like what the US did to Saddam Hussein - much as Iran welcomed the removal of one of their national archenemies - given Iraq is majority Shi’a, a democratic Iraq is generally more friendly to Iran, although not all Iraqi Shi’a are pro-Iranian (e.g. Ayatollah Sistani, who is very influential, dislikes how Iran has politicised the religion) - but it raised the risk the Americans might try the same thing on them.
Edit: In case people don't understand why this is the kind of comment we'd call out: I've said a few times in different ways that Hacker News should be a place where we can discuss difficult topics. There are few more difficult topics than armed conflict between nations. It's pointless to have a discussion that mostly consists of people with entrenched oppsing views hurling insults at each other. If somebody is wrong, refute them with opposing evidence. Otherwise the only thing we'll achieve is to drive away anyone who is interested in actually learning anything new about the topic, in which case we're much better off not having the discussion at all.
redczar|8 months ago
[deleted]
skissane|8 months ago
The Iranian government are rather extreme theocrats, but they aren’t a suicide cult. They know that a nuclear first strike against Israel would result in massive nuclear retaliation aimed at annihilating Iran as a modern nation-state. They aren’t going to do that.
I think their primary reason for pursuing nuclear weapons is as a deterrent against conventional invasion, forcible “regime change” like what the US did to Saddam Hussein - much as Iran welcomed the removal of one of their national archenemies - given Iraq is majority Shi’a, a democratic Iraq is generally more friendly to Iran, although not all Iraqi Shi’a are pro-Iranian (e.g. Ayatollah Sistani, who is very influential, dislikes how Iran has politicised the religion) - but it raised the risk the Americans might try the same thing on them.
tomhow|8 months ago
You can't comment like this on Hacker News, no matter what you're replying to.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Edit: In case people don't understand why this is the kind of comment we'd call out: I've said a few times in different ways that Hacker News should be a place where we can discuss difficult topics. There are few more difficult topics than armed conflict between nations. It's pointless to have a discussion that mostly consists of people with entrenched oppsing views hurling insults at each other. If somebody is wrong, refute them with opposing evidence. Otherwise the only thing we'll achieve is to drive away anyone who is interested in actually learning anything new about the topic, in which case we're much better off not having the discussion at all.
TiredOfLife|8 months ago