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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   20055 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026

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My apologies for not specifying the 13,000 pound elephant with a trunk the size of an NBA player reverberating the entire room with its trumpeting. Foreign Affairs 1979:

Americans must recognize two facts gov­erning the situation in Iran. One is the breadth of support for the Ayatollah Ruhol­lah Khomeini among politically sophisti­cated intellectuals as well as millions of urban and rural Iranians who never before partici­pated in the political process. The other is the complete absence among these same peo­ple of loyalty for Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who is regarded as a traitor, a crea­tion of American and British imperialism. In their view, the shah’s regime reflected American interests as faithfully as Vidkun Quisling’s puppet government in Norway reflected the interests of Nazi Germany in World War II. The shah’s defense program, his industrial and economic transactions, and his oil policy were all considered by most Iranians to be faithful executions of American instructions. Ultimately, the United States was blamed for the thousands killed during the last year by the Iranian army, which was trained, equipped, and seemingly controlled by Washington. Virtually every wall in Iran carried a slogan demanding the death of the "American shah."

Ok. If Iran thinks taking American hostages is sufficient deterrence from the US doing whatever it is you're accusing US of doing here, they're welcome to try that. And if I'm the US in this scenario and I don't like that my citizens are being taken as hostages, I'm going to make it clear that instead of being deterred from acting against them, I'd rather act against them in deterrence of taking American hostages.

I don't know what sort of proportionality you're talking about here. Others at least made the argument that you don't want the shoe to be on the other foot after you get too disproportionate - which is a reasonable argument (although it's too early to say whether USA miscalculated on this vs. Iran). But I don't see what kind of moral argument against disproportionality is there supposed to be between sovereign states. States don't have morality even if the underlying people do.

If you want a personal perspective then I consider taking hostages in response to funding a leader of your country that you don't like an escalation.

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