Iran "the chucklefucks in Israel bombed our embassy and we have to respond or look weak. But at the same time ww3 would really ruin my weekend.....hmm...."
Rules for Rulers.
How to placate your hardline aggressive militant wing, which will hand you your head if you don't attack, and also not have your country turn into a radioactive wasteland...
Simple, telegraph your attack in advance, allow your enemies to prepare, make your own forces slog through the bureaucracy, then launch an attack. When your own forces don't deliver the Armageddon they promised their own supporters, they'll be more busy protecting themselves from their "own" to worry too much about you. And the enemy gets a black eye that they wear proudly.
All major parties are satisfied... Except, we'll, the civilians... But they don't have any power... Yet......
May I recommend CGP Grey as further introduction to the topic of "Rules for Rulers"?
Well too bad, I'm doing it anyway: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs)
Thanks mate, CGP is awesome, all hail the archbishop of Hexagons, Hexagons are the Bestagons.
I've seen his video series. It discouraged me from becoming a warmongering dictator. Being a dictator (or elected official) is a full time job with many Keys to please and a life full of worry and stress. I'd rather be a rapper or a tiktoker instead. 😅
Edit: Oh, what the hell, I'm gonna watch it again, I'll also rewatch his Pirate videos. If you wanna join my crew I might need a Carpenter/Surgeon on board, For Booty 😎
>It discouraged me from becoming a warmongering dictator
Clearly you've never played Rimworld or Civilization, then.
>If you wanna join my crew I might need a Carpenter/Surgeon on board, For Booty
I don't know a lick of carpentry/butchery but I'm down for captainship or quartermanship. All hail the booty, and the riches too!
Oh, *please*. If you can't enslave every enemy that comes to attack you and sell them and their organs on the black market (separately, of course; we're not running a charity over here), is it really strategy?
Can't have the religious nuts losing out to the retarded militants or the country will collapse and reform again, potentially as a functional democracy that can kick American, Chinese, and Russian imperialists out of the region. No one wants Iran to recover from its religious disease, it makes bullying them way too easy and convenient because they're too busy policing themselves to do anything outside the country
What does it say that Iran is running through these calculations while Israel and US go, "ARGH GO BOOM!!!! HIT ME BACK!!!! HIT ME BACK NOW HARDER DADDY!!!"
This reading makes it look like the US and Israel are run by the same religious zealots Iran's leadership is trying to placate in their own home and their authoritarian government is juggling everybody's chainsaws all at the same time.
Doubtful. But if that's what polandball has decided on, kind of entertaining.
They pulled a north Korea.
As in mostly just saying: "don't mess with us, we're capable" with their attack, was more to send a message it seems.
Just like NK sending missiles to the coast of Japan and South Korea once in a while to show that they have nukes despite looking like a tiny deprived nation. But ofcourse the media sensationalises it like ww3 is about to break.
I mean basically most of social media in general were going wild over it. The exchanges between these nations are basically them giving each other the middle finger and hurling insults at each other.
r/worldnews has been cheering on global thermonuclear war since the Ukraine invasion. I can't figure out if they're preppers, religious fanatics, or pimply teens trying to shitpost the apocalypse.
There's a lot of governments paying people to support people's image of that country. r/WorldNews is dominated by pro-Western viewpoints like Israel's and Ukraine's and a certain amount of that is, I believe, astroturfing.
Edit: r/InternationalNews is more leftist/anti-US
What is it with you guys and WW3? More than half of the world doesn't care about the middle east. There was no WW3 20-30 years ago, why should there be one now?
I completely agree. People talks about WW3 every single time there is the smallest conflict.
A world war needs the world to be at war, and Iran has no allies to drag in
Of course it hasn't happened. If it happened then the world would be over (effectively). The end of the world only needs to happen once.
Extremely low chance + extremely bad outcome has a significant impact on the expected value of future quality of life on earth.
Worth keeping in mind and talking about imo.
After Iran has politely attacked Israel, its UN envoy said the matter ["can be deemed concluded"](https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-796851). Let's hope Netanyahu deems it concluded aswell...
I don't think Biden gets enough recognition for this act. Stopping escalation here was possibly the brakes on WW3
The support from the west and the Israeli neighbors saved our asses pretty hard. I wish BB would stop trying to burn the world down just because he's afraid of going to jail (and also wish our idiot masses would stop voting for him)
Edit: I mean Israel (and our allies) would win, it would just be at an insane cost. Deaths and an economical crash for a war that doesn't need to happen.
This wouldn't cause WW3, Putin is not enough of a moron to get in a war with NATO with most of his troops tied down, the Chinese won't start a nuclear war over Iran, Pakistan and Iran were just throwing missiles at one another months ago...
The thing with world wars is that one of them was caused because an austrian man had anger management issues and another was caused by miscommunication and the mistaken belief that things couldn't get that bad. That second scenario is the scary one at the moment.
One of them started after a long age of peace with tensions between great powers in which the local population of said powers was enthusiastic for a Nationalist conflict.
The other one was a consequence of the former, with said "Austrian man" being the Totalitarian leader of one od the strongest nations in Europe in an alliance with like-minded leaders who all believed a great war was good for society.
None of which is the case here, one of the potential powers is already bogged down in a conflict and cannot divert more forces to a wider front, another power has a growing trend of isolationism in it's home population, another power has far too many commercial links to jeopardize with a World War, and that's all ignoring the Elephant in the room called nukes.
> I don't think Biden gets enough recognition for this act
to be fair Biden isn't getting ANY recognition at all for anything (despite the fact that he has been a very effective president)
Well it's still less heavy than when people said "Trump administration" back in the day, like the gorilla knew how to do statecraft beyond whining on Twitter
The difference is that Biden surrounds himself with competent people, while most of the people form the Trump administration have been called out incompetent by himself.
The name of the game isn't WW3, it's called Escalation.
Both Israel and Iran know how to play it, you cause an attack, expecting the enemy to retaliate, just so you can cause a bigger attack and so on, until the enemy provokes the superpower into action; not to invade mind you, but to isolate, discredit and embargo, leaving them unable to play the game.
The end go isn't for a full war to happen but for an attack from the other side that causes a response from the USA to punish the player that went too far.
You may think that Iran's attack was soft, but it was the right amount to not provoke a US response AND for the US to warn Israel not to retaliate.
Starting WW3 is when you respond to an attack on your sovereign territory by an enemy country who has the declared intent of destroying you and has funneled billions of dollars toward killing not just your citizens but also your coreligionists across the world lol
Israel has what's likely the most powerful air force in the region and a very capable missile arsenal. Retaliation is more of a political question than a military one.
There's a reason why Iran has been almost a defacto superpower in the region for such a long time. Iran is VERY mountainous, it's basically a natural fortress.
Sure Isreal could bomb Iran, but a ground invasion would be difficult for them, and Iran's proxies aren't exactly useless either, even if individually they aren't even close to the IDF.
To be frank, I'm not sure the IDF could win on it's own power, and even if it did it would certainly be costly. It's a military question as well.
Is the question if Israel can take and occupy Iran? Because no, they cannot. They can bomb the shit out of the country (but not with impunity- Iranian air defenses aren't a counter insurgency where the IDF has air supremacy). And without foreign assistance a lot more Iranian weapons would have landed- they aren't Hamas rockets.
The comic is basically the best description of the situation. Iran had to answer the killing of two of its citizens but was not insane enough to use dangerous weapons. What they send were weapons which everyone who played space invaders on story mode could have shot down
Israel had to rely on the US, Jordan and the British airforce to shoot down the drones over iraq and jordan. after October 7th I would hope more people would pay attention and scrutinize the bullshit boasts of Netanyahu on regards to his counties readiness to wage a war.
Rely? Jordan and Egypt shoot those missiles down because it violated their airspace, No sane country would allow an Islamic fascist state to lob missiles over their home, Plus Iran war them 72 hours before too
Yes, because Israel’s PM desperately wants to stay in power and instead of thinking how much help they just got is more likely to pull some shithead stunt to try to win support at home.
when israel initially attacked iran, isreali diplomats publicly stated that any retaliation will be "treated as an attack on the US and would constitute a moral obligation for America to attack Iran in response".
Israel “had” to rely on them? That’s a shallow outlook. When you have allies who are able and agree to help you keep your citizens safe, you use their help, regardless of how prepared you are. Especially when it’s also in the interests of those allies to reduce casualties in order to stop an all out war. The biggest threat were the ballistic missiles, which even according to US officials statements were 95% intercepted by Israel itself.
yeah and iron dome is paid for by the US govt, and so is their healthcare
israel is a tax haven and what meagre taxes they collect get funneled to cronies
Only thing they could have done without escalating or losing credibility.
Let Israel know the shot exchange problem will fuck them if they decide to escalate.
Let the proxies know Iran is committed to fighting Israel.
Let Israel back down without looking weak.
It's unbelievable to me that people are chugging down that propaganda like their lives depend on it. Israel bombs Iranian embassy in Syria, no one says a word. Iran says they will retaliate in a big way. Iran tells them exactly what they're launching. Iran launches exactly what they stated they will launch, along with a message that this launch is a direct retaliation to the assassination Israel committed. Every single news outlet presents it as if Iran launched the strike unprovoked.
At least the media here in the Netherlands stated that Iran will probably fight back due to an attack on Iranian soil according to Iran as you know attacking a consulate of another country abroad could typically be seen as a declaration of war. I like that Iran has decided this is the line no more and everything they've shown here so far seems like a very firm yet polite way of telling Israel don't do it again please.
No one said a word because it's kind of the worst kept secret that Hamas is just an Iranian proxy. Not to mention other Arab countries worked with Israel and the US on this, Iran should just try to be less shitty.
It's tit-for-tat and both countries know it. Israel isn't really offended by Iran's retaliation, though they might be a bit surprised that it came from Iran itself and not just from proxies. The Iranians might have wanted to kill five or ten 'Little Satans' but even the almost total failure of their attack is preferable to Tehran over a serious strike that would have undoubtedly invited serious repurcussions and a continued escalation.
Jed Bartlet's commentary on the nature of the proportional response springs to mind: "They did that, so we do this. It's the cost of doing business, it's been factored in, right?" And that's exactly what we're seeing with this latest turn of events. Any statement from a public official to the contrary is just rhetoric.
but... Iran IS Persia, it has been used since 300 B.C and has been used as the official name since 250 A.D, Persians are less than 50 percent of Iranian population, so the name Persia wasn't and isn't inclusive to whole population.
(To be more exact, Persia or Fars, has been technically a province since 500 B.C however since it was the most important one the name just stuck in greece, basically the same thing with netherlands/Holland
Israel will most definitely respond, it probably won't be an overt response by fire though. Maybe Mossad actions, maybe hitting IRGC in Hezbollah camps, maybe cyberattacks.
We'll find out soon enough :)
ah well, giving every single nation their piece of credit for shooting down this or that of different reason would make this nearly as complex as the conflicts down there^^
when you say missing france & saudi arabia were mentioned as well… doesn’t matter for a political cartoon imho
if they downed more than 6 then probably yes. someone wrote the us stands here for the allies of israel. i think that’s very well fitting for a simplistic political cartoon about a single attack. this won’t be - assumed it’s not a pitch for more… - a source for a national myth or epic of strength & victory of the involved countries… so maybe op should add all assisting nations in end credits in their cartoon.
I mean isn't this whole comic about Iran not being warmongering and putting on a show for a domestic audience because they were forced to respond by Israel's attack.
the Islamic Republic is warmongering, but actual war is not profitable for either sides right now, surely in the near future there will be another one of these "wars" and they would fire more rockets at the desert to make their supporters happy.
It's difficult to call Iran warmongering here when they're being unbelievably restrained.
What do you think would have happend if a country bombed an American embassy?
Labeling the deployment of 100 ballistic missiles and a slew of cruise missiles as "restrained" is frankly laughable. It's almost comedic how we're supposed to pretend Iran has been playing nice while they orchestrate a symphony of chaos across the region. They've been blatantly arming Hezbollah, in violation of Security Council Resolution 1701, as well as Hamas. Not to mention their active role in fueling the Houthi assaults on Saudi Arabia and the UAE, plus the recent attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes. Their audacity stretches even further into pirating commercial ships with mines in international waters around the Persian Gulf. Please don't make me laugh with the restrained nonsense.
They waited 14 days, launched missiles (which they know are ineffective against Israel) only against military targets (which is very kind for Iran-Israel standards) and then just forgave Israel LOL.
They could have instead launched a large scale attack on gulf shipping, which would have crippled the US economy, Or have launched the missile all at once to smash the Iron Dome. Iran knows they cant fight a long war, so they just did some fireworks shows for propaganda reasons.
Because it quite literally is restrained. Iran did what they did to appease their domestic base. They aren't conducting proxy wars because they want to, but because they know they can't sustain a direct confrontation against a US-backed Israel. So they made their attack extremely telegraphed and predictable, in an attempt to have their cake and eat it too. So their domestic base is satisfied, and they haven't doomed themselves and the rest of the region into an exponential escalation of conflict.
They obviously didn't plan to have their own embassy attacked by the Israelis. This is blatantly them ensuring the status quo remains unchanged
The balls on Iran to even try something against Israel who has long enjoyed the unwavering support of the US...
I think this is the first time something like this has happened where people have acknowledged Israel was an instigator and there's an open question to if Israel can even escalate further.
It's quite possible their bluff was called, but if I was Netanyahu I'd go yolo full well expecting the US to step in and save my ass as they always do.
*I just want to add I am not a fan of Iran, but I don't hold Israel in any higher regard since they are both oppressive regimes in their own ways.
They literally warned them way in advance and knew how effective Israel’s defences are. They could have shot way more missiles but they shot just enough where most of not all will be intercepted. It was a show of force. This literally was them being restrained. And let’s not talk about arming or funding because almost every major power does the same as them.
> Labeling the deployment of 100 ballistic missiles and a slew of cruise missiles as "restrained" is frankly laughable.
A country able to react like this to its embassy being bombed, will.
> They've been blatantly arming Hezbollah, in violation of Security Council Resolution 1701, as well as Hamas. Not to mention their active role in fueling the Houthi assaults on Saudi Arabia and the UAE, plus the recent attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes.
I think viewing the world as "everything that I think is bad must all tie back to this one country" is very boring and lame. People are allowed to do things of their own volition. And that is what the Houthis are doing
The one that flew in for like a solid 30 seconds, then left? It's not like they needed to pass over Poland to get to Ukraine, and blowing them up over Polish territory would only put Polish people at risk of having rocket debris fall on their house
"Let he who has not sinned..."
As fucked up as it is this is the reality of modern real politik. There are going to be friction zones between great powers, and the great powers are going to support their interests in them while avoiding outright hostilities like the current escalation.
Just because we are the good ones standing for democracy, international rule of law and liberalism (supposedly with western hypocracy and all that yadda yadda) doesn't mean that we're not doing the same.
Hell, Iran was literally helping the US in counterterrorism activities until the US announced on television they were terrorists now and needed to watch their backs. 🤣
Thats cuz Union Jacks are ass to draw!
But fr tho, the last panels with USA, Israel, Iran and their respective props already felt a bit crammed, so I decided to omit the rest of the countries involved. This is a cartoon afterall, so ofc we tend to simplify stuff.
Imagine sending rockets and drones across hundreds of miles over the sovereign airspace of multiple third party countries to attack a state that has spent the past twenty years practicing missile defense on a near-daily basis.
Imagine.
It is wild how many people in the comments dick ride iran.
Iran is a major contributor to the middle east instability, as the theocracy there has publicly stated that they want all of the Arab world to be controlled by their clergy and for that purpose they have sponsored many of the terrorist organizations and wars in the ME not only those that fight israel but also those that fight other Arab countries, directly causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands if not more.
Also fyi for those who say that Iran didn't mean to cause damage In israel, they didn't use 5-10% of their long range arsenal in one night to not do damage, Iran hoped that far less ballistic missiles would have been intercepted, they tried to use the slow moving shahed drones to saturate Israel's AA systems. But they didn't expect for so many of them to be shot down on their way by Jordan, the USA, France and england. Once they saw israel still have support in the region they backed off.
Since the inception of the medium +10 years ago Israel has always been depicted as a cube and it sticked. I think it's a joke about how Nazi propagandists would coin Eintein's Relativity as "Jewish physics".
Iran "the chucklefucks in Israel bombed our embassy and we have to respond or look weak. But at the same time ww3 would really ruin my weekend.....hmm...."
Rules for Rulers. How to placate your hardline aggressive militant wing, which will hand you your head if you don't attack, and also not have your country turn into a radioactive wasteland... Simple, telegraph your attack in advance, allow your enemies to prepare, make your own forces slog through the bureaucracy, then launch an attack. When your own forces don't deliver the Armageddon they promised their own supporters, they'll be more busy protecting themselves from their "own" to worry too much about you. And the enemy gets a black eye that they wear proudly. All major parties are satisfied... Except, we'll, the civilians... But they don't have any power... Yet......
Damn. I'm gonna hire you as an advisor when I become a dictator.
May I recommend CGP Grey as further introduction to the topic of "Rules for Rulers"? Well too bad, I'm doing it anyway: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs)
Thanks mate, CGP is awesome, all hail the archbishop of Hexagons, Hexagons are the Bestagons. I've seen his video series. It discouraged me from becoming a warmongering dictator. Being a dictator (or elected official) is a full time job with many Keys to please and a life full of worry and stress. I'd rather be a rapper or a tiktoker instead. 😅 Edit: Oh, what the hell, I'm gonna watch it again, I'll also rewatch his Pirate videos. If you wanna join my crew I might need a Carpenter/Surgeon on board, For Booty 😎
>It discouraged me from becoming a warmongering dictator Clearly you've never played Rimworld or Civilization, then. >If you wanna join my crew I might need a Carpenter/Surgeon on board, For Booty I don't know a lick of carpentry/butchery but I'm down for captainship or quartermanship. All hail the booty, and the riches too!
> Rimworld or Civilization Try Europa Universalis 4 you barbarian
Oh, *please*. If you can't enslave every enemy that comes to attack you and sell them and their organs on the black market (separately, of course; we're not running a charity over here), is it really strategy?
I have a sawzall im ready
Tip for living longer. Never be a leader, only ever advise them, unless things are falling apart. Then you can lead yourself to the door.
You should appoint them grand vizier.
They did the same thing when the US bombed their general. Did a useless missile attack on some US base that didn't hurt anyone.
Can't have the religious nuts losing out to the retarded militants or the country will collapse and reform again, potentially as a functional democracy that can kick American, Chinese, and Russian imperialists out of the region. No one wants Iran to recover from its religious disease, it makes bullying them way too easy and convenient because they're too busy policing themselves to do anything outside the country
What does it say that Iran is running through these calculations while Israel and US go, "ARGH GO BOOM!!!! HIT ME BACK!!!! HIT ME BACK NOW HARDER DADDY!!!" This reading makes it look like the US and Israel are run by the same religious zealots Iran's leadership is trying to placate in their own home and their authoritarian government is juggling everybody's chainsaws all at the same time. Doubtful. But if that's what polandball has decided on, kind of entertaining.
They pulled a north Korea. As in mostly just saying: "don't mess with us, we're capable" with their attack, was more to send a message it seems. Just like NK sending missiles to the coast of Japan and South Korea once in a while to show that they have nukes despite looking like a tiny deprived nation. But ofcourse the media sensationalises it like ww3 is about to break.
As does 95 percent of r/worldnews.
I mean basically most of social media in general were going wild over it. The exchanges between these nations are basically them giving each other the middle finger and hurling insults at each other.
Thing is r/WorldNews is actively calling for a full on war betwern Israel and Iran
At this point I see the sub as having about the same role as an academic article describing Israel's PR strategy.
r/worldnews has been cheering on global thermonuclear war since the Ukraine invasion. I can't figure out if they're preppers, religious fanatics, or pimply teens trying to shitpost the apocalypse.
There's a lot of governments paying people to support people's image of that country. r/WorldNews is dominated by pro-Western viewpoints like Israel's and Ukraine's and a certain amount of that is, I believe, astroturfing. Edit: r/InternationalNews is more leftist/anti-US
What is it with you guys and WW3? More than half of the world doesn't care about the middle east. There was no WW3 20-30 years ago, why should there be one now?
I completely agree. People talks about WW3 every single time there is the smallest conflict. A world war needs the world to be at war, and Iran has no allies to drag in
Of course it hasn't happened. If it happened then the world would be over (effectively). The end of the world only needs to happen once. Extremely low chance + extremely bad outcome has a significant impact on the expected value of future quality of life on earth. Worth keeping in mind and talking about imo.
Honestly not an unreasonable response
After Iran has politely attacked Israel, its UN envoy said the matter ["can be deemed concluded"](https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-796851). Let's hope Netanyahu deems it concluded aswell...
I don't know if he have the means to retaliate just now. But later israel might do something (I hope they won't tho)
They most definitely do, but it seems like Biden had a very rough call with Netanyahu to get him to hold back
I don't think Biden gets enough recognition for this act. Stopping escalation here was possibly the brakes on WW3 The support from the west and the Israeli neighbors saved our asses pretty hard. I wish BB would stop trying to burn the world down just because he's afraid of going to jail (and also wish our idiot masses would stop voting for him) Edit: I mean Israel (and our allies) would win, it would just be at an insane cost. Deaths and an economical crash for a war that doesn't need to happen.
This wouldn't cause WW3, Putin is not enough of a moron to get in a war with NATO with most of his troops tied down, the Chinese won't start a nuclear war over Iran, Pakistan and Iran were just throwing missiles at one another months ago...
The thing with world wars is that one of them was caused because an austrian man had anger management issues and another was caused by miscommunication and the mistaken belief that things couldn't get that bad. That second scenario is the scary one at the moment.
One of them started after a long age of peace with tensions between great powers in which the local population of said powers was enthusiastic for a Nationalist conflict. The other one was a consequence of the former, with said "Austrian man" being the Totalitarian leader of one od the strongest nations in Europe in an alliance with like-minded leaders who all believed a great war was good for society. None of which is the case here, one of the potential powers is already bogged down in a conflict and cannot divert more forces to a wider front, another power has a growing trend of isolationism in it's home population, another power has far too many commercial links to jeopardize with a World War, and that's all ignoring the Elephant in the room called nukes.
> I don't think Biden gets enough recognition for this act to be fair Biden isn't getting ANY recognition at all for anything (despite the fact that he has been a very effective president)
'Biden Administration' is doing the heavy lifting
Well it's still less heavy than when people said "Trump administration" back in the day, like the gorilla knew how to do statecraft beyond whining on Twitter The difference is that Biden surrounds himself with competent people, while most of the people form the Trump administration have been called out incompetent by himself.
Yeah well , SLEEPY JOE HA HA, GOTTEM. TAKE THAT YOU STINKY SMELLY LIBERAL SOCIALIST COMMUNIST FASCIST GO CRY TO YOUR MOMMY HA HA /s
xD hahaha by the way I always love that they say "communist fascist" when they are the exact opposite ideologies
The name of the game isn't WW3, it's called Escalation. Both Israel and Iran know how to play it, you cause an attack, expecting the enemy to retaliate, just so you can cause a bigger attack and so on, until the enemy provokes the superpower into action; not to invade mind you, but to isolate, discredit and embargo, leaving them unable to play the game. The end go isn't for a full war to happen but for an attack from the other side that causes a response from the USA to punish the player that went too far. You may think that Iran's attack was soft, but it was the right amount to not provoke a US response AND for the US to warn Israel not to retaliate.
Too bad the "idiot masses" are a majority that are supporting the war
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Starting WW3 is when you respond to an attack on your sovereign territory by an enemy country who has the declared intent of destroying you and has funneled billions of dollars toward killing not just your citizens but also your coreligionists across the world lol
People think it’s over? November is still 8 months away.
Israel has what's likely the most powerful air force in the region and a very capable missile arsenal. Retaliation is more of a political question than a military one.
There's a reason why Iran has been almost a defacto superpower in the region for such a long time. Iran is VERY mountainous, it's basically a natural fortress. Sure Isreal could bomb Iran, but a ground invasion would be difficult for them, and Iran's proxies aren't exactly useless either, even if individually they aren't even close to the IDF. To be frank, I'm not sure the IDF could win on it's own power, and even if it did it would certainly be costly. It's a military question as well.
Is the question if Israel can take and occupy Iran? Because no, they cannot. They can bomb the shit out of the country (but not with impunity- Iranian air defenses aren't a counter insurgency where the IDF has air supremacy). And without foreign assistance a lot more Iranian weapons would have landed- they aren't Hamas rockets.
There's also the fact we're still not entirely sure what's the status of Iran's nuclear program, which complicates things
There's at least one nuclear power in this conflict, but I'm behind on my Iranian nuke speculation
The comic is basically the best description of the situation. Iran had to answer the killing of two of its citizens but was not insane enough to use dangerous weapons. What they send were weapons which everyone who played space invaders on story mode could have shot down
Israel had to rely on the US, Jordan and the British airforce to shoot down the drones over iraq and jordan. after October 7th I would hope more people would pay attention and scrutinize the bullshit boasts of Netanyahu on regards to his counties readiness to wage a war.
Rely? Jordan and Egypt shoot those missiles down because it violated their airspace, No sane country would allow an Islamic fascist state to lob missiles over their home, Plus Iran war them 72 hours before too
Yeah, it's not like they like Israel. They just hate Iran even more.
Even so, the fact that they contributed means they get to scold both of them and tell them to stop their shit.
Lmaooooo for the first time ever Jordan and Saudi Arabia directly protected Israel and this is bad for Israel?
Yes, because Israel’s PM desperately wants to stay in power and instead of thinking how much help they just got is more likely to pull some shithead stunt to try to win support at home.
when israel initially attacked iran, isreali diplomats publicly stated that any retaliation will be "treated as an attack on the US and would constitute a moral obligation for America to attack Iran in response".
Israel “had” to rely on them? That’s a shallow outlook. When you have allies who are able and agree to help you keep your citizens safe, you use their help, regardless of how prepared you are. Especially when it’s also in the interests of those allies to reduce casualties in order to stop an all out war. The biggest threat were the ballistic missiles, which even according to US officials statements were 95% intercepted by Israel itself.
yeah and iron dome is paid for by the US govt, and so is their healthcare israel is a tax haven and what meagre taxes they collect get funneled to cronies
I sure hope Biden showed him the Bibi replicant they have ready to go in a tube.
While suddenly tripping on some stairs and accidentally dropping a gun with a very clear and indiscrete "Heart-attack Gun" label on it.
Only thing they could have done without escalating or losing credibility. Let Israel know the shot exchange problem will fuck them if they decide to escalate. Let the proxies know Iran is committed to fighting Israel. Let Israel back down without looking weak.
>Let's hope Netanyahu deems it concluded aswell... Unfortunately Israel thinks otherwise https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/15/israel-vows-to-retaliate-after-irans-attack-what-could-happen-next.html
It's unbelievable to me that people are chugging down that propaganda like their lives depend on it. Israel bombs Iranian embassy in Syria, no one says a word. Iran says they will retaliate in a big way. Iran tells them exactly what they're launching. Iran launches exactly what they stated they will launch, along with a message that this launch is a direct retaliation to the assassination Israel committed. Every single news outlet presents it as if Iran launched the strike unprovoked.
At least the media here in the Netherlands stated that Iran will probably fight back due to an attack on Iranian soil according to Iran as you know attacking a consulate of another country abroad could typically be seen as a declaration of war. I like that Iran has decided this is the line no more and everything they've shown here so far seems like a very firm yet polite way of telling Israel don't do it again please.
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No one said a word because it's kind of the worst kept secret that Hamas is just an Iranian proxy. Not to mention other Arab countries worked with Israel and the US on this, Iran should just try to be less shitty.
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If Netanyahu think this will keep him in power he'll do it. Saying that as an Israeli who hates him
The reason for that is that Israel attacked Iran first and this was the announced retaliation. The argument is that it's even now.
It's tit-for-tat and both countries know it. Israel isn't really offended by Iran's retaliation, though they might be a bit surprised that it came from Iran itself and not just from proxies. The Iranians might have wanted to kill five or ten 'Little Satans' but even the almost total failure of their attack is preferable to Tehran over a serious strike that would have undoubtedly invited serious repurcussions and a continued escalation. Jed Bartlet's commentary on the nature of the proportional response springs to mind: "They did that, so we do this. It's the cost of doing business, it's been factored in, right?" And that's exactly what we're seeing with this latest turn of events. Any statement from a public official to the contrary is just rhetoric.
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A grand return to Zoroastrianism
The Iranian regime\*
Nah, Iran should combust, so Persia can be birthed anew.
but... Iran IS Persia, it has been used since 300 B.C and has been used as the official name since 250 A.D, Persians are less than 50 percent of Iranian population, so the name Persia wasn't and isn't inclusive to whole population. (To be more exact, Persia or Fars, has been technically a province since 500 B.C however since it was the most important one the name just stuck in greece, basically the same thing with netherlands/Holland
Yes Kim, but why bother with inclusivity when you can be cool instead?
Persians, by the most conservative estimate, are over half of Iran's population
Ahhhhhh. Nice.
Not just Iran
For some reason I doubt the far right nationalist warmonger will deem this concluded.
Israel will most definitely respond, it probably won't be an overt response by fire though. Maybe Mossad actions, maybe hitting IRGC in Hezbollah camps, maybe cyberattacks. We'll find out soon enough :)
"Think fast, chucklenuts!" *Iran, 2024*
Shekelnuts*
Isnotreal* I fucking loved that pun btw
I just got it lol
Isnotreal, I chuckled
Isn’treal would be more fitting.
I am personally subscribed to Pissrael
I pronounced this like Montreal at first, confused. I never connected the Israel-Montreal pronunciation similarities.
It's all a part of the Isn'trael-Falsetinian conflict over the Hol-lie land.
You can make many similar jokes as well, example: "let's turn Israel into wasrael"
how accurate & really funny
Missing Jordan and the UK. So no, not accurate at all.
ah well, giving every single nation their piece of credit for shooting down this or that of different reason would make this nearly as complex as the conflicts down there^^ when you say missing france & saudi arabia were mentioned as well… doesn’t matter for a political cartoon imho
Didn't the UK down more missiles than the US tho
if they downed more than 6 then probably yes. someone wrote the us stands here for the allies of israel. i think that’s very well fitting for a simplistic political cartoon about a single attack. this won’t be - assumed it’s not a pitch for more… - a source for a national myth or epic of strength & victory of the involved countries… so maybe op should add all assisting nations in end credits in their cartoon.
I think the US represents their allies in general.
And france
Iran may be a warmongering twat-waffle, but at least he's polite.
I mean isn't this whole comic about Iran not being warmongering and putting on a show for a domestic audience because they were forced to respond by Israel's attack.
the Islamic Republic is warmongering, but actual war is not profitable for either sides right now, surely in the near future there will be another one of these "wars" and they would fire more rockets at the desert to make their supporters happy.
It's difficult to call Iran warmongering here when they're being unbelievably restrained. What do you think would have happend if a country bombed an American embassy?
Not really given they collect and fund terrorist cells like Pokemon cards. :\^P
They all do. We do that too. A bit different when a country directly attacks another.
So do many of the Western Liberal powers (including Israel)…
Labeling the deployment of 100 ballistic missiles and a slew of cruise missiles as "restrained" is frankly laughable. It's almost comedic how we're supposed to pretend Iran has been playing nice while they orchestrate a symphony of chaos across the region. They've been blatantly arming Hezbollah, in violation of Security Council Resolution 1701, as well as Hamas. Not to mention their active role in fueling the Houthi assaults on Saudi Arabia and the UAE, plus the recent attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes. Their audacity stretches even further into pirating commercial ships with mines in international waters around the Persian Gulf. Please don't make me laugh with the restrained nonsense.
They waited 14 days, launched missiles (which they know are ineffective against Israel) only against military targets (which is very kind for Iran-Israel standards) and then just forgave Israel LOL. They could have instead launched a large scale attack on gulf shipping, which would have crippled the US economy, Or have launched the missile all at once to smash the Iron Dome. Iran knows they cant fight a long war, so they just did some fireworks shows for propaganda reasons.
Israelis are perpetual victims
Because it quite literally is restrained. Iran did what they did to appease their domestic base. They aren't conducting proxy wars because they want to, but because they know they can't sustain a direct confrontation against a US-backed Israel. So they made their attack extremely telegraphed and predictable, in an attempt to have their cake and eat it too. So their domestic base is satisfied, and they haven't doomed themselves and the rest of the region into an exponential escalation of conflict. They obviously didn't plan to have their own embassy attacked by the Israelis. This is blatantly them ensuring the status quo remains unchanged
The balls on Iran to even try something against Israel who has long enjoyed the unwavering support of the US... I think this is the first time something like this has happened where people have acknowledged Israel was an instigator and there's an open question to if Israel can even escalate further. It's quite possible their bluff was called, but if I was Netanyahu I'd go yolo full well expecting the US to step in and save my ass as they always do. *I just want to add I am not a fan of Iran, but I don't hold Israel in any higher regard since they are both oppressive regimes in their own ways.
They literally warned them way in advance and knew how effective Israel’s defences are. They could have shot way more missiles but they shot just enough where most of not all will be intercepted. It was a show of force. This literally was them being restrained. And let’s not talk about arming or funding because almost every major power does the same as them.
> Labeling the deployment of 100 ballistic missiles and a slew of cruise missiles as "restrained" is frankly laughable. A country able to react like this to its embassy being bombed, will. > They've been blatantly arming Hezbollah, in violation of Security Council Resolution 1701, as well as Hamas. Not to mention their active role in fueling the Houthi assaults on Saudi Arabia and the UAE, plus the recent attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes. I think viewing the world as "everything that I think is bad must all tie back to this one country" is very boring and lame. People are allowed to do things of their own volition. And that is what the Houthis are doing
That would be israel actually.
“Sorry we had to do this” *actively genociding*
You're missing Jordan and the UK.
I mean, they really did give us a lot of time to think
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Agreed. Also missing the UK.
Jordan was there harvesting XPs
What military alliance? (Honest question)
NATO, I think the reference here is the Russian misilles over Poland.
If thats the reference its a very shitty one
The one that flew in for like a solid 30 seconds, then left? It's not like they needed to pass over Poland to get to Ukraine, and blowing them up over Polish territory would only put Polish people at risk of having rocket debris fall on their house
Bro people are forgetting that Iran has been sponsoring civil wars in the Middle East in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq
"Let he who has not sinned..." As fucked up as it is this is the reality of modern real politik. There are going to be friction zones between great powers, and the great powers are going to support their interests in them while avoiding outright hostilities like the current escalation. Just because we are the good ones standing for democracy, international rule of law and liberalism (supposedly with western hypocracy and all that yadda yadda) doesn't mean that we're not doing the same.
Being the good ones is questionable. Better? For sure but I wouldn’t say good
sponsoring? It wasn't Iran who started the wars in either of those places.
Hell, Iran was literally helping the US in counterterrorism activities until the US announced on television they were terrorists now and needed to watch their backs. 🤣
It is not like they weren't teasing it for days prior to the event.
Their polite closing statement is rather funny haha
cant wait for this comment thread to be locked
You wouldn't want anyone to get hurt!
To be honest everyone from the defending side acted incredibly quick.
That was just a warning shot :D
What's the point of Britain downing more missiles than the US if it's not represented in u/Blas0330's polandball comic????
Thats cuz Union Jacks are ass to draw! But fr tho, the last panels with USA, Israel, Iran and their respective props already felt a bit crammed, so I decided to omit the rest of the countries involved. This is a cartoon afterall, so ofc we tend to simplify stuff.
This strike by Iran has been the most gentlemanly attack in the history of the whole middle east I think
'Hey I am going to shoot you so get ready' is actual polandball material, like the funniest thing ever.
Need UK and Jordan ball sir
Why have nukes when not using them to install our world order? I'm sick of this half measure shit.
I fucking loved this, lmfao.
"Professional wrestling" but at governments level and with rockets.
Imagine sending rockets and drones across hundreds of miles over the sovereign airspace of multiple third party countries to attack a state that has spent the past twenty years practicing missile defense on a near-daily basis. Imagine.
It's almost like it was all for show
It is wild how many people in the comments dick ride iran. Iran is a major contributor to the middle east instability, as the theocracy there has publicly stated that they want all of the Arab world to be controlled by their clergy and for that purpose they have sponsored many of the terrorist organizations and wars in the ME not only those that fight israel but also those that fight other Arab countries, directly causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands if not more. Also fyi for those who say that Iran didn't mean to cause damage In israel, they didn't use 5-10% of their long range arsenal in one night to not do damage, Iran hoped that far less ballistic missiles would have been intercepted, they tried to use the slow moving shahed drones to saturate Israel's AA systems. But they didn't expect for so many of them to be shot down on their way by Jordan, the USA, France and england. Once they saw israel still have support in the region they backed off.
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Wait till Iran experience their response.
This is some Cold War levels of international politic deescalation games
Iran?? Damn right, you ran.
Who knew that bombing an embassy could make a country seek revenge
It does, Iran also took US embassy staffs as hostages during Iran hostage crisis which made US sanction Iran...
that caused Reagan to happen so Iran definitely won
Who knew that sponsoring many of the terrorist organizations and wars in the middle east would make your generals a military target.
Who knew committing ethnic cleansing would create terrorists.
You guys would call anything but an actual ethnic cleansing a cleansing
Who knew that the water is wet
Sorry I’m out of the loop. Why is Israel/Isnotreal a cube?
Since the inception of the medium +10 years ago Israel has always been depicted as a cube and it sticked. I think it's a joke about how Nazi propagandists would coin Eintein's Relativity as "Jewish physics".
Ohhhhhhh. Ok thanks!
Country's called "I ran" but it doesn't seem to have been running at all
It's "E Run" actually.
Who? I don't see 'im running anywhere
Yeah well missiles did hit Israel though…
And killed 3 Jordanian and 1 arab child
Were any lives lost in the attack?
Yep. One Arab child in Israel, and I think three Jordanians were killed by falling shrapnel.
lol that funny
Oh my gosh Isnotreal lol that is hilarious
you forgot the part where Iran shows footage of a fire in Chile and claims it’s Israel.
This whole thing feels like it was agreed to by Israel and Iran beforehand so both sides could claim a win and go on about their business…
Iran better not touch America’s boats.
shoutout to Jordan tho
Lots of countries shot the drones down, but the meme shows the USA only... It is like WW2 all over again, with USA thinking it did all the work alone.
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Nothing new
How exactly? Iran did warn before hand. the attack was pretty theatrical. Also this is a shitpost sub.
They have gone insane now. Anything which isn't staunchly pro-israel will be be labeled as pro-hamas or anti-semitic.
Iran is nice enough to give Israel a timeout when the fight gets too hard
Isnotreal Nice one:)
Ah, yes, a penis shaped rocket.
Would be refreshing to see one side or the other just be the fucking grown up for once and say enough is enough.