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I am very seriously concerned that overtly intervening will cause the protest movement to lose face and legitimacy. Merely offering verbal support to a revolutionary movement and or even arming it generates less risk of creating an appearance that it is merely an American puppet regime than airstrikes or a ground intervention. Now admittedly this is a position I hold from ignorance, but we have reliable evidence such as outside polling showing that e.g. a majority of Iranians support US airstrikes against the regime, then I have not heard of it.
The fact that they are calling for a return of the Shah with a straight face is a pretty big sign that they already have no legitimacy.
How many Iranians are old enough to actually remember life under the Shah? It's all Boomer fairytales to those young enough to fight, like the 50's suburbs are to American NEETs.
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