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Just a reminder homelessness is at the highest it's been since the great depression, bridges are literally collapsing across the US, we still don't have universal health care despite already paying enough in healthcare taxes to fully cover all US citizens and residents, we still don't have free public college, minimum wage now cannot rent a 1 bedroom apartment anywhere in the country, and credit card debt is the highest it's ever been by any measure.
But Israel somehow comes before all of that because ...
Just a reminder, $18 billion is around $56 per US citizen.
And a second reminder, that a direct war against Iran (via Israel) or Russia (via Ukraine) would cost probably two orders of magnitude more money than fighting them via proxy like what's currently happening.
Proxy wars are cheap and do a lot of damage to our enemies.
I get your point on Russia but Iran? War with the US is the absolute last thing Iran wants, which is clear from their foreign policy decisions for the last... Forever, really. America has problems with Iran because they won't do what the US tells them to, not because there's any risk of Iran starting a war of any kind.
There is absolutely a major risk of Iran starting wars of several kinds. The difference between Russia and Iran is that the Russian government wishes to see the US cratered to give it and its allies free reign to do whatever horrific shite they please. They actively desire a diminished US on the world stage and domestically, both on ideological and strategic grounds.
Iran, on the other hand, just wants to play its shithead proxy war games in the Middle East against the Saudis and Israel. If the US had no interest in backing those two, Iran would be indifferent to the US except insofar as we can be used as a boogeyman to tamper down internal dissent (a technique that has become less effective in recent generations).
Regardless of whether we have any legitimate business in backing Israel or the Saudis, or in trying to prevent destabilization of the Middle East, Iran very much would be picking fights absent the US, just as it is with the US present in the region. The Islamic Republic is not some isolationist or benevolent state. They're as bad as the Saudis (who are constantly picking proxy war fights across the Middle East).
Oh shit I braintarted that sentence; I should have added "with the US". With that said, I agree with pretty much everything you said so allow me to nitpick a bit.
First, I don't see Iran starting any direct wars with anyone when their proxies are willing to do all the work for them. This is a common tactic in the region because it works, destabilizing effects on your surroundings aside.
Second, I don't think the US is trying to prevent the destabilization of anything. If anything an unstable Middle East is in their interests to the extent it doesn't cause a refugee crisis for Europe.
Third and last, while Iran is definitely pretty bad, I think they're one genocide and a few hundred thousand slaves short of being as bad as Saudi Arabia. Again, I'm no fan of them, and weaker Iranian influence would be good for the Middle East as a whole as long as it doesn't lead to (or be caused by) stronger US influence, but Saudi Arabia is just that evil. Iranian is a more typical dictatorship vying for local hegemony.
Don't know that they're actually short the genocide, considering Iran's backing of Syria, and the US definitely has an interest in a Middle East that is not in open war because of the effects of instability on international trade and the domestic political blowback from that, but otherwise I think we're in agreement.
Oh shit you might be right, but does Assad have any genocides under his belt? I thought the worst he did was gassing his own citizens.
I was thinking unstable as in unstable dictatorships dependent on US support to keep their citizens down ala Egypt. I agree they generally don't want open war in the region.
There is a very strong ethnic component to the ongoing civil war. There's been a lot of ethnic cleansing and massacres supported by both sides - but obviously, as we're discussing the Syrian government, Assad's government being the important genocidal actor in this conversation. Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias have been... particularly vigorous in this.
I see. Yeah that makes sense.