Israel is openly committed [0] to seeing regime change in Iran; they were mowing down civilian and military leadership just last year. The US got involved. There is the history of western involvement [1] in overthrowing Iranian governments.
With that background I'm more worried about what the US's role here will be rather than what may or may not be taking place in Iran. My understanding is that the simulations around an invasion of the country were even more disastrous than the excursions in Afghanistan and Iraq and we really could use some signals of competence out of the US right now. We seem to be dangerously far into a WWI or WWII style environment internationally and we're already past the threshold of nuclear risk that sane actors would accept.
they were mowing down civilian and military leadership
Which 'civilians' were targets? Are we thinking of the employees of state television or Evin prison? It's unlikely the average Iranian shed tears over them.
For perspective, the Iranian protesters themselves have been burning down state television buildings this week, not to mention mosques, police stations, and other centers that the regime uses to control the people.
Nobody is talking seriously about sending foreign troops to rescue the protesters, but some strikes to take out regime targets would be welcome.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 27.0 ms ] threadhttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/protests-against-ice-plann...
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/us/ice-shooting-protests-...
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/11/us/ice-protests-shootings-min...
With that background I'm more worried about what the US's role here will be rather than what may or may not be taking place in Iran. My understanding is that the simulations around an invasion of the country were even more disastrous than the excursions in Afghanistan and Iraq and we really could use some signals of competence out of the US right now. We seem to be dangerously far into a WWI or WWII style environment internationally and we're already past the threshold of nuclear risk that sane actors would accept.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Israel_war
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran#Mosaddegh_and_the_Shah's_...
For perspective, the Iranian protesters themselves have been burning down state television buildings this week, not to mention mosques, police stations, and other centers that the regime uses to control the people.
Nobody is talking seriously about sending foreign troops to rescue the protesters, but some strikes to take out regime targets would be welcome.
I think it's about to kick off.
US: https://ir.usembassy.gov/iran-security-alert-land-border-cro...
AU: https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/middle-east/ir...