[g8oz]

America and Israel are lawless countries. Can you imagine other countries assassinating a foreign head of state and not getting immediate blowback?

[muzani]

I prefer assassinations of leaders in wars over deaths of soldiers and especially civilians.

Considering how Israel had to raze entire cities to beat 'Hamas' or the US dropping nukes in WW2 instead of bombing the Japanese Emperor. This is decent as far as wars go.

[ekjhgkejhgk]

> Considering how Israel had to raze entire cities to beat 'Hamas'

1) Israel didn't "have" to raze anything, they chose to.

2) "Beat Hamas" is an excuse for Israel to do what it wants, which is to raze entire cities.

[throwaway2037]

    > I prefer assassinations of leaders in wars over deaths of soldiers and especially civilians.

To me, this argument doesn't hold water. Think about some counterexamples: (1) Netanyahu and Gaza. Surely, 100K+ civilians died as a result of that war. (2) Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Vietnam. A staggering number of civilians died in that war. (3) GW Bush in Afghanistan and Iraq/2.

My guess: All of those leaders are responsible for more innocent civilian deaths in each conflict than Khamenei's entire reign.

To me, I am very conflicted about the assassination of Khamenei. Yeah, he did a bunch of bad stuff and was very destabilising in the region, but I need to draw the line at assassination. It was unnecessary. It is a slippery slope.

[jasomill]

To the extent that they're actually effective, I agree.

Trouble is, higher-ups are easily replaceable, and the rank-and-file True Believers may be even more willing to follow orders in the name of a dead tyrant than a living one.

Or not. Sic semper tyrannis. Best wishes to the people of Iran.

[deaux]

> Considering how Israel had to raze entire cities to beat 'Hamas'

They didn't, they just had to stop funding them, as Hamas has been funded by Israel.

[SkyeCA]

> America and Israel are lawless countries.

The truth of the world, as much as we may hate it, is that at least at the state level might makes right.

[steve-atx-7600]

Said another way, if you don’t kill your enemy before he kills you, you die. Human nature hasn’t changed. I think it just gets forgotten.

[danny_codes]

Well not right, but effective in the short term. In the longer term I assume this kind of policy is destabilizing and bad for everyone

[hackable_sand]

Try again

[TulliusCicero]

There's no such thing as a legitimate dictator, and every one of them belongs six feet under.

[shell0x]

The EU should do more to move away from being dependent on america . America is a hostile nation and should be treated like Russia and China.

[y-curious]

EU needs the US so much and every time I see this comment, I remember why. Too many idealists running the EU

[davidguetta]

International law is below its ability to bé enforced

[hearsathought]

> America and Israel are lawless countries.

America is as much a victim of israel as iran is. You act like we have a choice in this matter. We are forced to cut funding for food programs, education, healthcare, etc because of soaring debt. Yet, we'll take on any amount of debt for israel's wars. It's amazing how we've become a slave of such a small nation.

> Can you imagine other countries assassinating a foreign head of state and not getting immediate blowback?

It's simply a matter of power. Who is powerful enough to do the enforcing of laws or punishing of bad actors? Might makes right.

[TiredOfLife]

Russia tried many times in Ukraine. No blowback.

[sschueller]

What are you talking about? Russia has effectively been blocked from the west while when the United States invaded Iraq nothing happened. Europe trades with the US like nothing ever happened while Russia will never return to what it was before without at minimum Putin being gone.

Europe even still trades with Israel when what they have done is Gaza has been declared a genocide by everyone. At the same time Russia can't even take part in the Olympics or the Eurovision song contest.

The west has no moral ground to stand on and hopefully people in the west will start to see that.

[bamboozled]

My thinking is that, it's good when it works in your favor, but one day it night not, and if it doesn't well what recourse is available then?

[powerpcmac]

Fine, you got me. We will expedite another billion in aid to Israel to make up for it.

[cucumber3732842]

You can't see the french or Russians doing the same thing in Africa? Because I sure can. There's be some hand wringing and posturing but that's about it.

Not that it's ok for the US, or anyone else to do it.