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Posted on 03/10/2026 6:09:17 AM PDT by MtnClimber
For decades, Iran cultivated a myth of invincibility through terror and proxies—until war exposed the regime as weaker, poorer, and far more fragile than the world had feared.
Until last year, for some 46 years, Iran enjoyed a North Korea-like reputation in the heart of the Middle East: always unpredictable, reckless, dangerous, inevitably to be nuclear, self-destructive, and nihilistic.
All that said, was it really ever all that formidable?
The mullahs came into power after the removal of the Shah and, subsequently, the interim secular socialists. They did so by taking American hostages, murdering opponents, executing former supporters, and transforming the most secular and modern of the Middle East Muslim nations into the most medieval that routinely hung homosexuals, adulterers, and almost anyone who questioned the authority of the ayatollahs. In other words, these were gruesome people, but they didn’t necessarily have a competent military.
The theocracy’s only constant with the prior monarchical Iran was that it inherited near limitless oil and natural gas reserves, sophisticated arms, and the Shah’s modernized cities. It controlled the key strategic chokepoint at the Strait of Hormuz and enjoyed a geostrategically critical location between Asia and the Middle East. It fueled Iran’s historical chauvinism and pique that the millennia-long historical preeminence of Middle Eastern Persia was not fully appreciated by its Arab neighbors. So there were lots of natural advantages—and all for the most part squandered.
Under the camouflage of Shiite puritanism and otherworldliness, the ayatollahs proved even more corrupt (and far more incompetent) than the Shah’s entourage. They fought a destructive eight-year war with Saddam Hussein’s overrated Iraqi dictatorship and showed they were mostly just as militarily incompetent.
Over decades, they killed and wounded thousands of Americans by bombing U.S. embassies, barracks, and bases in the Middle East—without directly confronting the American military.
(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...
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VDH ping
Iran and Iraq were in a stalemate Saddam for whatever BS reason (not what he said it was) it left Iran without a natural predator next door to worry about anymore, and freed it to unleash it’s malice on the world without fear of attack from next door. So we did that. I think this war is cleaning that mess up.
Being beat by US power does not mean you were weak, Tyson opponents were not necessarily weak, just smashed by his power and capabilities
Sounds a lot like the former Soviet Union. For decades, our "leaders" insisted that they were invincible, that their military was bigger and better than ours. It wasn't, and it never was. It took Reagan and Thatcher to pull back the curtain on that lie, and end the Soviet Union without firing a shot. Trump is doing the same with Iran.
Jimmy Carter basically let a terrorist group have their own country. I guess he thought the shah was too mean, but the shah was just keeping the local terrorists down.
Reagan should have blown those guys off the map once the hostages were back. Maybe he was more worried about the Soviets, but he could’ve stopped this.
Bush had the Kuwait bit to deal with and his son wanted to wrap that up w/Iraq.
Clinton had the Balkans to deal with. He also managed to put a big damper on northern ireland w/the good friday agreement.
Obama, of course, loved the mullahs and wanted them to thrive as he hated the US cuz white colonizer.
Biden was just Obama’s third term.
I’m glad Trump is finally dealing w/this BS.
“For decades, our “leaders” insisted that they were invincible, that their military was bigger and better than ours. ”
Right. How else would the American people be convinced to spend so much tax money on defense. The Cold War lasted 45 years. “Remember kids, duck and cover”. What a cash cow!
In sum, no one apparently realized—with the exception of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu—that beneath its rough, ugly shell, theocratic Iran was rotten and decayed inside. Its corruption and the hatred of its own people ensured that even its huge revenues and sophisticated Chinese and Russian weapons could never translate into a modern, lethal military.
An excellent analysis from the Professor!
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Never, in Iran’s calculus, was the worry that a nuked Israel would fry every single Iranian city with a mushroom cloud.
They just didn’t care.
Because twelver shiism believes that some dude comes up out of a well to help them be ultimately victorious, but only after they create enough havoc to cause WWIII.
These people are nuts. The world could not accept nuts with nukes.
(I’m looking at you, Kim)
(I’m looking at you, Kim)
Don, we good right Bro.
” Shiite puritanism”—poor word coupling , smears a very postive Christian movement that went a long way to founding this country, a city on a hill. Shiite “fundamentalism” better, more generic.
lol!
Not enough fingers are pointing at Obama who is 100% responsible for enabling a nuclear armed Iran. We are so fortunate that snotty Obama humiliated Trump at the WH correspondent dinner. Obama almost succeeded. His deep state plot against Trump in 2016, the COVID pandemic, the stolen 2020 election and lawfare 1.0 under Biden were all designed to protect his masters in Teheran. Despicable.
Shame on you for the misspelling. “Obama’s” name is properly spelled as “Obola.”
Yup. I called him ObaMugabe. I knew there was a sinister character lurking under his black skin.
Ahmen! 75 years of these monsters is more than enough.
Or even 47 years of these monsters is enough. 😆
I visited The U.S.S.R. in 1976. Really said to anyone who would listen (once back home) - we are worried about these guys ? They are NOTHING compared to U.S.A. - and they knew it, too.
Protection from the evils of this world require young people to risk their lives and investing in being marginally ahead technologically to preserve your status quo. Costs money and comfort for some if us.
Betcha you never wore the uniform/ventured out into the world to see how things really are, did you?.
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