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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   1466 thread views

Transnational Thursday for March 19, 2026

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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https://nypost.com/2026/03/19/world-news/iran-executes-19-year-old-champion-wrestler-saleh-mohammadi-two-others/

Iran executes 19-year-old champion wrestler Saleh Mohammadi, two others in horrific public hangings

I personally think that once US has air domination - it would be good PR if they go after the judiciary. A good assignation campaign and couple of blown courthouses will actually win hearts and minds.

Probably not. I mean, if Iran is anything like any other country I am familiar with, most courts are relatively boring and very replaceable government buildings, and most judges are the "banality of evil" kind of functionaries, also entirely replaceable. They do not control the system, they do not influence how the system behaves (there's no independent judiciary with strong tradition of guarding its independence, AFAIK), they are just a cog in the machine. Sure, if you take out enough cogs, the machine may slow down or even break, but I don't think going individually after each one of 10000 judges is an efficient use of resources. If the regime falls, Iranians will take care of them by themselves, but killing some of them is not what would make it fall.

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