Iran demands Big Tech pay fees for undersea Internet cables in Strait of Hormuz

Iran's claim over subsea chokepoint pushes US tech companies to overland fiber.

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[Tonkaman]

Been tried and failed. Don't forget the EU+US had a nuclear agreement where Iran shutdown all centrifuge activity and sent all fuel to Russia, but the Bush administration said that wasn't good enough. So they sanctioned Iran, broke the agreement, and then threatened the EU to do the same or face the consequences. So the EU broke the agreement and when Iran started enriching again, they all pointed at Iran and said, "See, they broke the agreement!"

The fact is that Iran had a weapons oriented nuclear program until 2003, when they saw the US devastate Iraq with little effort. It was eye-opening for them and the Ayatollah (the one that was just assassinated) declared, via fatwa, an end to nuclear weapons research. Interestingly, fatwas apparently lose effectiveness when the person that issued them dies... Anyway, the Pentagon confirmed, and continues to do so to this very day, that Iran stopped nuclear weapons research in 2003. We had a perfect situation, but we wanted more. We wanted total capitulation. We wanted an American anointed leadership, totally compliant with US goals.

Iran has no motivation to stop enrichment outside of Trump's threat of genocide. They've been dealing with, and working around, sanctions for 50 years. They can outlast Trump. I'm watching gas rise to $4.50/gal in my area. Once the strategic reserves run dry in a few weeks we'll be pushing $6-7/gal. If Trump were smart he'd have waited until after the midterms to launch this illegal war.

And in addition to high gas prices, we're looking at shortages of lubricants. Get your oil changes done now. Autozone put out an internal memo to stores that they expect to run out of engine oil in a few months.

 

[Tonkaman]

Not sure what the point is of quoting the law when Iran is for intents and purposes an outlaw state.

So is the US for most of the last century. International law only applies to non superpowers.

 

[Tonkaman]

Uh. there has definitely been provokation. I'm not saying the US's hands are completely clean. Or that the US isn't taking advantage of the situation - of course they are. What I am saying iis that f you can't see that Iran's hands are dirty you're either blind or crazy. You don't have to be a Republican to recognize Iran has constantly pursued the capability to build nuclear weapons and only a political hack would ignore the threats they've made in the past.

https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/iranian-ticking-bomb
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024...ange-nuclear-doctrine-if-existence-threatened
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/iran-nuclear-doctrine-change-israel-hezbollah-rcna178406

Regardless of how you feel about Israel, the entire world's response to what would happen should it be targeted with a nuclear weapon would be devastating. Left, Right, Zionist, Extremist Muslim, Socialist, Capitalist, Fascist. It doesn't matter what you identify as that is the truth.

Given the history of the 20th and 21st centuries, Iran would be insane to NOT try to get a nuclear weapon. Having one is the only guaranteed way to not be invaded by the American Empire or agents of the American Empire (Israel). Israel is terrified of an Iranian bomb not because it's concerned about its survival (Iran isn't that stupid, Israel already has undeclared nukes) but rather Israel is worried it won't be able to dominate the region with impunity anymore. In the last 5 years Israel has bombed every country bordering it with little pushback.

However even knowing that, Iran stopped pursuing a nuclear weapon in 2003 as official inspections confirmed, and only restarted work when Trump ripped up the nuclear deal negotiated by Obama.

 

[Tonkaman]

Honest question, do you imagine Iran (and other regional powers) are more or less likely to pursue nuclear weapons now that their sovereignty has been continually and existentially threatened explicitly because they don’t possess them already?

Also, important to note, Iran is actually not the primary cause of the current global conflict.

In fact, Iran was complying 100% with the previous deal that Trump tore up. Inspections confirmed this repeatedly. The only countries involved here that can't be trusted are the US and Israel.

 

[Tonkaman]

I believe that our policies and tactics have deterred other countries from building nuclear weapons in the past.

For better or for worse, their best option is to play ball with the west. Not because it's fair, but because they will get steam rolled if they don't.

They DID play ball with the west. That was the JCPOA that Trump tore up. Trump is now bombing them anyway despite the fact that they complied with "the west."

The only logical conclusion to that is that "the west" cannot be trusted to hold any agreement, so they are best ignored and work on whatever is required to defend yourself from "the west."

 

[Tonkaman]

What was a "solved problem"?
Regime change in Iran has long been necessary.. but that's a very hard, unsolved (unsolvable?) problem.

Regime change was never neccessary. In fact, regime change is how we got to this point.

The US and UK decided on regime change in 1953 when the Iranian people had the gall to kick out British Petroleum who was ripping them off (seriously, BP was not paying the Iranians anything some years for the oil they were taking) and start selling their own oil themselves.

 

[Tonkaman]

Yes, Israel is committing genocide, but at least we can protest while our governments continue enabling the genocide. Unless you're in the UK, then you're considered to be in support of a terrorist group. Or in the US, where you lose your visa if you're a foreign national, colleges lose funding for allowing peaceful protests, risk being doxxed by Zionist groups, and if you're a politician you're sure to face an opponent backed by massive amounts of money.

In the meantime, the West Bank is disappearing one settlement at a time, and settler violence is just getting worse. The borders around Gaza and Lebanon keep moving, whole villages razed. With our weapons and support. Soon there won't be any Palestinians left in their native lands – but yes, eventually they'll be the top dog… somehow? From their unmarked, forgotten graves?

Iran violently suppressed protests, and frequently does so. Yes. But they're not committing genocide, nor actively supporting one.

Also Iran historically has allowed plenty of protests. They've even made changes because of a few of them. They just draw the line and bring out the heavy violence at protests aimed at overthrowing the government.

It's not good of course, but it's also not as bad as described.

 

[Tonkaman]

Um... why not? Iran was on-board with it, and by all legitimate accounts were upholding their end of the deal. If the problem being solved was Iran getting nukes, why didn't this solve it?



So, is the goal of this war to stop Iran's nuclear program or their terrorism?

The goal is to bomb Iran. Just like Trump, the justification is a moving target working back to the same conclusion.