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In fairness, it's every 'great power' foreign policy. Throughout history the ones with power have manipulated, deceived and betrayed supposed allies when they saw fit. It's the way of the world. The UK just needs to keep its beak out, we are no longer an important power and just need to accept retirement. Hopefully meaning none of our young men needlessly dying.

Soleimani's not some new figure - he's been doing this for decades. The US, UK, and Israel have all had the opportunity to kill him at various times - they've all had restraint. Why? Really think long and hard about why even Israel, who've lost far more Israelis to Hezbollah attacks, would opt for restraint rather than go after this guy. Sun-Tsu once said, "if you're going to surround your enemy, leave them an escape route" - because when you've got someone feeling cornered, they'll react dangerously. I'd argue if Iran aren't cornered now, they're very fucking close to being cornered. The US-Iran tensions being ratcheted up like this started a few years back with a move from the US that did absolutely nothing for stability in the Middle East and has been consistently stoked by both sides. Both sides keep escalating, but this is an unprecedented move. And it's an option that other world leaders have had the opportunity to act on... but refrained because the risk of blowback from that move is too great. There's a reason why every world power involved in the Middle East is urging calm from Iran right now, while the orange guy is just saying "DON'T RETALIATE OR WE DO AGAIN" - Iran can't do anything meaningful to hurt the US, but Iran can do a lot to throw the region into even more chaos. Not wanting to go to war with Iran = hating Jews? In any case, this is bad for any Persian in the world who'd have hoped to see Iran open up to the rest of the world. Because what this ultimately does is tell Iran: get nukes ASAP. Iran only has to look at North Korea to see, a nuclear nation will not be bullied easily. The reformers in Iran are so badly politically damaged now, some are probably going to be barred from running for office by the Guardians Council. They're seen as the politicians that hurt Iran by sitting to the table to negotiate with the West, while the other side was saying "you can't trust the west, they'll break the deal." Hardliners are vindicated and political support for a nuclear Iran will be at an all time high. And a nuclear Iran means the Islamic Republic of Iran is here to stay for eternity.

I wonder what could have caused this increased threat...

It may fundamentally be the same old great power politics, but even in a proxy conflict there are unwritten rules and expectations. This is in at least that sense something new, an escalation. During the Cold War, it's not like the USA went out to assassinate Red Army commanders.

The news here was talking about how Iraqis would be happy about this. Yeah maybe the Sunni’s in Iraq. But Iran quite is popular with the Shia population of Iraq... and that’s why Iran’s had such influence in the country - especially after ISIS went through Iraq killing Shias for YouTube videos. So that’s about 60% of the population that liked this guy because he funded and trained militias with the Iranian military. And don’t forget Sunnis were a minority running the show before the US toppled Sadam. Which is why the current Iraqi government is pretty friendly to Iran. Sectarian shit is stupid, for sure, but it’s also an incredibly important part of why that part of the world is so fucking tense. And it’s not really thought about a lot by the west, despite them doing shite in the Middle East forever

I think Trump might invade Iran because no wartime president has ever lost an election tbh.

There's not going to be a nuclear war or even a major conventional war. The Iranian regime may be run by zealots, but they're not insane - in fact if either side can be accused of a religiously fanatical, apocalyptic worldview, it's the Americans. Any major conflict would result in hundreds of thousands of not millions of deaths, and they would overwhelmingly be Middle-Eastern. The Americans would be overjoyed with that result. The Iranians, not so much. The Iranians will have to respond somehow to save face, but they'll do so in a way which does not play directly into the Americans' hands. The Americans are throwing their weight around and needling their enemies into gestures of resistance, which they can then frame as aggression.

Got to halfway through season 2 so far. Couple of boring episodes but then it seems to rescue itself in the next. Finding out a lot about the Royal family and how it coped with matters internally and externally which I didn't know before. Like I had no idea what Princess Margaret was like with her behaviour and choices in life and how she was denied her marriage. And also how the Queen discusses things with the PM... And that makes me even less keen if Boris if she still has to deal with it in the same way

Of course Soleimani wasn't a sympathy piece, if you know anything about Middle Eastern Politics, you will know that Soleimani was infamous, the man was a brute! Abu Mahdi was similarly a nasty piece of work. But that is not the point, the point here is that by killing Soleimani, one of the significant figures in the Iranian regime, the US has really gone close to instigating something very serious with Iran. The Iranians are not going to take Soleimani's death lightly and the consequences could be far reaching.

America being across the Atlantic sheltered from the consequences of so many of its reckless actions is probably one of the primary reasons why American foreign policy is so fucked up. Iran will lose everything if this escalates into a war while US mainland won't even be effected.

I know we are desperate for a RW but not 80 million for Zaha desperate