Comments on: To understand Iran’s calculations, you must understand their eschatological vision

By: Gregory Harper

Gregory Harper — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 04:00:20 +0000

Do the mullahs really seek martyrdom? Probably not. They’ve had their chances and have always declined. They like wealth and power and martyrdom is for the gullible little people. Do I want them to obtain a nuclear weapon to test the theory that they wouldn’t actually use it? Nope.

By: om

om — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 02:53:18 +0000

There aren’t enough cousins for those young, migratory, predatory males back home.

By: Geoffrey Britain

Geoffrey Britain — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 02:10:36 +0000

“Iran will therefore persist in waging this war because its leaders believe they are carrying out God’s work, and that only through Israel’s elimination will redemption arrive.” Tim Orr, Times of Israel

The elimination of Israel, “the Little Satan” is simply at the top of the list. A list that consists of every non-Muslim nation.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi sect are every bit as dedicated to the triumph of Islam as are the Twelver Mullahs. Not to mention Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS.
The ‘moderate’ Islamic regimes simply prefer soft jihad, along with hijrah ‘migratory jihad’. It’s hardly accidental that the vast majority of Muslim ‘refugees’ are young adult males.

By: Christopher B

Christopher B — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 01:58:34 +0000

While I understand the frustration with the fickleness of many prior administrations related to Iran (though the policies of the Obama administration go all the way to traitorous), I think it’s good to keep in mind the geopolitical situation has changed a lot since 1979. Iran is a big country with a lot of oil to sell and with smart people capable of handling sophisticated weapons. The Shah, IIRC, helped fund the development of the US Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter, and Iran was the only other country to fly them. They were capable of making a lot of trouble in the region, and when Europe and Japan were heavily dependent on oil shipments through the Straits of Hormuz, giving the Iranians reasons to get spicy was asking for big economic troubles world wide. With the development of alternate oil supplies in North America, South America, the North Atlantic, and Africa, as well as alternate shipping via pipelines to the Med and Red Seas, the cost of irritating the Iranians has gone down is likely being born mainly by the Chinese who are heavily dependent on Iran’s illicit shipments. Trump deserves credit for seizing the moment in a way neither Obama or Biden did due to their ideological blinders but he’s only able to do this due to the changes.

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 01:41:45 +0000

@ Jim Melcher > “are the IRGC all, or some, or most, ‘bitter-enders?’”

Watch what they do.
If they continue to “man the missile launchers” (many of which were apparently set by Khamenei on automatically determined missions in event of his death, which explains to some extent the counter-productive bombing of even some quasi-allies*), or if they take their money and run (the IRGC collectively owns most Iranian business and infrastructure), that will tell you which ones are what.

*Tom Lehrer’s “We’ll All Go Together When We Go” appears to be the mullahs’ theme song, although “they have to eschew personal martyrdom for the sake of guiding the poor benighted Islamic public” (they don’t say it, but that’s what their actions show).

By: om

om — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:08:05 +0000

The Bushido code didn’t work out in Burma/Malaya, the Phillipines, the other Pacific Islands, or with the Soviets. And after the Army Air Force and the US Navy were done with their cities and their waters it took two newer weapons to convince the Emporer that the Bushido code was not operable. So the Japanese people didn’t starve to death or die pointlessly.

I doubt that the “twelvers” have anything remotely similar to the 1945 Japanese cultural Bushido mindset. Thousands may be willing to be misted (HE effects) or overpressured, not hundred thousands, nor millions. I’ve read that Shia in Iraq aren’t to keen on dying for Iran.

Hop along mullah fellah.

By: Jim Melcher

Jim Melcher — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 23:43:23 +0000

There’s that lovely moment at the end of “The Wizard of Oz” where the Winkie Guards hand Dorothy the charred remnant of the witch’s broom and shout, “Hail to Dorothy! The wicked witch is dead!” Can we expect such a moment from the IRGC when the last of the mullahs is killed? Or are the IRGC all, or some, or most, ‘bitter-enders?’

If by some means we can destroy or capture all the enriched uranium, and eliminate all offensive military capabilities of the regime, it might not matter. At this moment, however, I don’t see how even that is done–not militarily, but politically.

Trump periodically signals that he expects this operation to be reasonably short, like Cornhead predicted yesterday. Is Trump prepared to do all that might be necessary to terminate this regime?

By: Sennacherib

Sennacherib — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 22:29:12 +0000

The Japanese had the bushido code and we won. We’re dealing with a similar group, they believe that to die in the furtherance of their religious beliefs means a promotion, they’ll be defeated also.

By: om

om — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 21:54:29 +0000

physicsguy:

We have been “othered” by the Ds/leftists. The “America” they love needs to be purged/cleansed of those deplorable, irredeemable others. Those subhuman “-ists.”

They want to start with the Susan Rice lawfare and escalate.

By: physicsguy

physicsguy — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 21:39:14 +0000

Steve at 1230pm:
“Or is their irrational hatred for their country so strong that they prefer its destruction even though it is also their own destruction..”

My take on the Ds/leftists I know is that they all claim to love the US and they are desperate to save the country from Trump and MAGA. Their hatred, white hot, is for Trump and us. That permeates all their thoughts.