they're a bunch of backwards ignoramuses.

now, that said, if there have recently been hypersonic weapons launched from iran (i think that's unverified), somebody in russia needs to explain how that happened.

eventually, images of iran's top secret nuclear program will be released, and they will look something like this:

oh, great allah

deliver bomb for us

to smite our enemies

the great and little satan

ooga booga booga ooh.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 24 Iranians across the country on Tuesday morning, bringing the toll since Friday’s surprise attack to at least 224 people dead and more than 1,400 injured, Iran’s health ministry said. 

in gaza, they exaggerate to make israel look bad and warp public opinion. it's well-established.

in iran, they under-report to make themselves look stronger than they are to sway domestic opinion.

i wouldn't be surprised if the death toll is 10x that.

guess they shouldn't have launched that missile attack on israel last year, huh?

hey, remember when iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at israel, and israel sent one strike and then assassinated one guy in response?

i'm just saying.

this is kind of overdue. iran kind of had it coming.

on the other hand, i'm happy to see india and canada normalize relations. that is a positive development.

from what i can ascertain, iranian scientific capabilities (in general) are pretty pathetic, and it's always been that way. iran has at times written some good poetry, and the kurds had their hey dey in the dark ages, but if the iranians had any science at all in antiquity it was utterly forgotten during the islamic invasion in the 7th century, which burned and destroyed everything. from what we can tell, iranian society from the 4th century bce to the 7th century ce was actually foundationally greek after alexander chased off the achaemenids. the achaemenids, themselves, were obsessed with the phoenecians and the jews, and they let these semitic groups take over the administration of their large empire. after the arabs came the mongols, who were worse, and the area has really never recovered from the mongols.

the persians/iranians were good at war, and they were good at economics, but all evidence we have tells us that they have always sucked at science.

i think the iranians would love to build a bomb, and they kind of clearly need one, too. they never will because they can't; they're not able to. this foray into fundamentalism and backwardsness isn't going to help them.

it's a red herring, anyways. their allies - china and russia - would never allow it. more realistic is that the chinese will station bombs in iran or central asia to protect the minerals, which are quite substantive.

i'm more interested in dismantling the iranian state and supporting groups fighting for that on the ground. this might be bullshit, but i'll take it as a way in.