War Iran-United States Military Crisis of 2020 - US Baghdad embassy under siege, rocket fire in US Baghdad green zone, Ukrainian Airlines flight 752 crash, and more!

January 10th:
Exclusive: Informants in Iraq, Syria helped U.S. kill Iran's Soleimani - sources (archive)(post)
Iraqi Shia cleric whose militia killed American troops says crisis is over following Iran strike and Trump speech (archive)(post)
Iraqi PM tells US to decide mechanism for troop withdrawal (archive)(post)
Mike Pence says Congress might 'compromise sources and methods' if fully briefed on the Soleimani strike (archive)(post)
Unidentified planes hit Iraqi militiamen in Syria, killing 8 (archive)(post)
Iraq: The Master Of Mayhem Meets A Missile (archive)(post)
Eliminating Qasem Soleimani was Donald Trump’s Middle East farewell letter (archive)(post)
Iran uses BULLDOZERS to clear debris from plane crash site while accusing US of ‘big lie’ that they shot it down (archive)(post)
Swiss Back Channel Helped Defuse U.S.-Iran Crisis (post)

January 11th:
UKRAINIAN AIRCRAFT WAS BROUGHT DOWN IN IRAN DUE TO 'HUMAN ERROR' (archive)(post)
Iran minister says 'human error' caused by 'US adventurism' led to deadly crash of Ukrainian jetliner (archive)(post)
Ukrainian aircraft was brought down in Iran due to 'human error' (archive)(post)
Trump, at Ohio rally, says Democrats would have leaked Soleimani attack plans (archive)(post)
The Atlantic's David Frum blames Trump for downing of plane in Iran, deaths of 176 (archive)(post)
Associated Press changes ‘shockingly bad’ headline about Soleimani, Ukrainian plane crash after backlash (archive)(post)
GOP Rep. Doug Collins apologizes for saying Democrats are 'in love with terrorists' (archive)(post)
Iran demands West 'show findings' as new video reveals aircraft was struck before fiery crash (archive)(post)
Warren town hall interrupted by angry protester accusing her of ‘siding with terrorists’ (archive)(post)
Trump administration announces new sanctions on Iran (archive)(post)
Prepare For the Worst From Iran Cyber Attacks, As DHS Issues Warning: Experts (archive)(post)
Trump tells Fox News' Laura Ingraham 'four embassies' were targeted in imminent threat from Iran (archive)(post)
Trump tweets support for Iranian protesters as they demand Khamenei quit (archive)(post)
Trump warns Iran against ‘another massacre’ as protests flare over downed jet (archive)(post)

January 12th:
Trump tweet in Farsi 'the most liked Persian tweet' in history of Twitter (archive)(post)
Iraq warned to keep US troops or risk financial blow-WSJ (archive)(post)
Iran arrests UK ambassador in what Britain calls ‘flagrant violation of international law’ (archive)(post)

January 13th:
Trump authorized Soleimani's killing 7 months ago, with conditions (archive)(post)

edit: This is a WIP. All links are posted in the order they appear in the thread, not in chronological order of their publication.


---Original OP before the merge---
Iraqi supporters of Iran-backed militia attack US Embassy
https://apnews.com/75228a8a607a44863b57021ac33264dc (http://archive.vn/ljm9Y)

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA12 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (AP) — Dozens of angry Iraqi Shiite militia supporters broke into the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday after smashing a main door and setting fire to a reception area, prompting tear gas and sounds of gunfire.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw flames rising from inside the compound and at least three U.S. soldiers on the roof of the main building inside embassy. It was not clear what caused the fire at the reception area near the parking lot of the compound. A man on a loudspeaker urged the mob not to enter the compound, saying: “The message was delivered.”

The embassy attack followed deadly U.S. airstrikes on Sunday that killed 25 fighters of the Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Kataeb Hezbollah. The U.S. military said it was in retaliation for last week’s killing of an American contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base that it had blamed on the militia.

Dozens of protesters marched inside the compound after smashing the gate used by cars to enter the embassy. The protesters, many in militia uniform, stopped in a corridor after about 5 meters (16 feet), and were only about 200 meters away from the main building. Half a dozen U.S. soldiers were seen on the roof of the main building, their guns were pointed at the protesters.

Smoke from the tear gas rose in the area, and at least three of the protesters appeared to have difficulties breathing. It wasn’t immediately known whether the embassy staff had remained inside the main building.

The protesters hanged a poster on the wall: “America is an aggressor.”

Shouting “Down, Down USA,” the crowd tried to push inside the embassy grounds, hurling water and stones over its walls. They raised yellow militia flags and taunted the embassy’s security staff who remained behind the glass windows in the gates’ reception area. They sprayed graffiti on the wall and windows in red in support of the Kataeb Hezbollah militia: “Closed in the name of the resistance.”

Hundreds of angry protesters, some in militia uniforms, set up tents outside the embassy. As tempers rose, the mob set fire to three trailers used by security guards along the embassy wall.

No one was immediately reported hurt in the rampage and security staff had withdrawn to inside the embassy earlier, soon after protesters gathered outside.

The U.S. attack — the largest targeting an Iraqi state-sanctioned militia in recent years — and the subsequent calls by the militia for retaliation, represent a new escalation in the proxy war between the U.S. and Iran playing out in the Middle East.

Tuesday’s attempted embassy storming took place after mourners and supporters held funerals for the militia fighters killed in a Baghdad neighborhood, after which they marched on to the heavily fortified Green Zone and kept walking till they reached the sprawling U.S. Embassy there.

AP journalists then saw the crowd as they tried to scale the walls of the embassy, in what appeared to be an attempt to storm it, shouting “Down, down USA!” and “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday’s strikes send the message that the U.S. will not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardize American lives.

The Iranian-backed Iraqi militia had vowed Monday to retaliate for the U.S. military strikes. The attack and vows for revenge raised concerns of new attacks that could threaten American interests in the region.

The U.S. attack also outraged both the militias and the Iraqi government, which said it will reconsider its relationship with the U.S.-led coalition — the first time it has said it will do so since an agreement was struck to keep some U.S. troops in the country. It called the attack a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty.

In a partly televised meeting Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi told Cabinet members that he had tried to stop the U.S. operation “but there was insistence” from American officials.

The U.S. military said “precision defensive strikes” were conducted against five sites of Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq and Syria. The group, which is a separate force from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, operates under the umbrella of the state-sanctioned militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Many of them are supported by Iran.

.

 

[Coleslaw]

It’s very likely these protests won’t lead to anything, but on the other hand the Romanian Revolution started with people protesting one overreach too many by the authorities, causing a chain reaction until the entire system collapsed in on itself.

The Romanian Revolution was more of a true workers' revolution than communism ever was.

 

[sperginity]

I am feeling nostalgic for the years after 9/11 now that ive seen so much "just nuke em" talk in this thread. its the idiot's answer to any problem.

 

[Gustav Schuchardt]

That was sort of the point though, Sykes-Picot purposefully re-zoned the middle east so that it was a constant shit show and none of the factions could gain "power" it just backfired in that the entire area has been a shit show ruled by insane despots the entire time and they missed out on the entirety of the past 100 years of advancement.

People always go on about how the Sykes Picot agreement caused endless war and suffering in the Middle East, which it admittedly did. Few people know that all the bad parts of the agreement were written by François Georges-Picot, a horrible man whose hobby was stomping puppies on ether binges. All the good parts were written by Mark Sykes, a man whose fondness for and understanding of Middle Eastern culture was demonstrated by the way he hired an Armenian to build a 'Turkish Room' at his vast country mansion, Sledmere House, at a time when the Turks were blatantly exterminating Armenians. He was a hero of the Boer War who cunningly avoided blame for Boer civilians starving to death in British camps by being not leaving the well-supplied officer's mess until he was promoted to Captain, at which point he returned home.

I am feeling nostalgic for the years after 9/11 now that ive seen so much "just nuke em" talk in this thread. its the idiot's answer to any problem.

Well to be fair to them if nuclear weapons don't solve a problem, you're not using enough of them.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

People always go on about how the Sykes Picot agreement caused endless war and suffering in the Middle East, which it admittedly did. Few people know that all the bad parts of the agreement were written by François Georges-Picot, a horrible man whose hobby was stomping puppies on ether binges. All the good parts were written by Mark Sykes, a man whose fondness for and understanding of Middle Eastern culture was demonstrated by the way he hired an Armenian to build a 'Turkish Room' at his vast country mansion, Sledmere House, at a time when the Turks were blatantly exterminating Armenians. He was a hero of the Boer War who cunningly avoided blame for Boer civilians starving to death in British camps by being not leaving the well-supplied officer's mess until he was promoted to Captain, at which point he returned home.

Well that just makes Sykes an incompetent Faggot who should have told Picot to fuck a goat.

 

[Gustav Schuchardt]

Well that just makes Sykes an incompetent Faggot who should have told Picot to fuck a goat.

I made all that shit up for the purposes of humor. Apart from the bit with the Armenian Room, which actually happened.

 

[Ghostse]

How does trump do it? If you had told me the day we blew that fucker up this would be where we are I would have laughed. Praise the God Emperor.

Easy, he made it clear to the Iranian people that he has issues with their government which they themselves do not like, not the Iranian people. Turns out when the game changes and you are no longer the target of random drone strikes you start to turn on the people that you only tolerated because they protected you from that.

IF you'll forgive me a little glownig tinfoil autism
I wonder if roasting Salami was a message, a signal of some sort to the regular troops. He was their #1 protest troubleshooter, and he's gone. There was no response against Iranian targets - even ones staffed by the regular military.

I guess maybe more to the point, it wasn't the Revolutionary Guard who were in the human wave attacks during Iraq/Iraq, they were only directing them letting the normies do the dying.

It's amazing how much Muslim countries fight against each other.

Its not just Islam. Islam is the excuse. The entire human history of the region is shitty tribal infighting with very little interruption. If you got these fuckers on Rastafarianism, they'd be killing each other with the cover story being it was over Sativa vs Indica.

Glassing Iran is the easy answer. But ask yourself, if this were your country protesting their own government, would you be horrified at
the very idea of your country getting nuked into the stone age because of the people in charge?

Counter point -
A) going back to the stoneage is what they want.
B) Its not like this was a sudden overthrow. That's how its been for 50 years.

Also, I am advocating not just the removal of Iran, you need to glass everything east of the Mediterranean all the way to Afghanistan.[/

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

I made all that shit up for the purposes of humor. Apart from the bit with the Armenian Room, which actually happened.

Oh well....Picot should still have been told to go fuck a goat.

 

[Belligerent Monk]

I am feeling nostalgic for the years after 9/11 now that ive seen so much "just nuke em" talk in this thread. its the idiot's answer to any problem.

That's fair. In fact that was my first post in the thread was simply to glass them all.
But to be equally fair, it's not an option I'd prefer. It just seems like we've been pussyfooting around for decades with people who want us dead and our way of life destroyed. My mentality is it has been too God damned long. It's time to stop fucking around. Like, you can bark at an addict until the cows come home but if they wanna keep shooting up nothing you can do will help them. Better to just return to zero and start over.

At what point do we finally do a real cost-benefit analysis and accept that it's the bloody culture?

 

[Basil II]

This is a great and relevant book. It applies to Turks as well. Really any nation/peoples who would fall under the aegis of "sand nigger".

Does it though? Turks actually won wars in the 20th century.

 

[Gustav Schuchardt]

Oh well....Picot should still have been told to go fuck a goat.

Yeah, to be honest, he probably should. Apparently Sykes knew he'd gotten screwed

Mark Sykes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It was Sykes special role to hammer out an agreement – the Triple Entente – with Britain's most important ally, France, which was shouldering a disproportionate part of the effort against Germany in the First World War. His French counterpart was François Georges-Picot and it is generally accepted that Picot got a better deal than expected. (See the Sykes-Picot Agreement.) Sykes came to feel this as well and it bothered him.

It's like the Versailles Treaty where the French got almost everything they wanted but essentially set the scene for future wars.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

It's like the Versailles Treaty where the French got almost everything they wanted but essentially set the scene for future wars.

The Frogs and the Britbongs fuck everything up don't they?

 

[Spiteful Crow]

The Frogs and the Britbongs fuck everything up don't they?

That is why God saw fit to create the United States of America. Men of superior moral and intellectual character would be needed to lead humanity through the trying times ahead.

 

[Consenticles]

Counter point -
A) going back to the stoneage is what they want.
B) Its not like this was a sudden overthrow. That's how its been for 50 years.

Also, I am advocating not just the removal of Iran, you need to glass everything east of the Mediterranean all the way to Afghanistan.[/

These protestors, many of them very much want to go back to how things were before religion took over. There was a time that while religion was important, it did not dominate every aspect of life like it did after the revolution. Some of them dont even realize that their country was so progressive at one point.

You really need to go back to why the revolution happened, why they suddenly did this 180 turn and regressed back into desert people.

Long story short: the US destabilized the region and the Shah was overthrown by a group of radical religious millitants. The population followed suit because they felt like things would be better if they went back to life before the west took over. It was a lot of blaming the west and rejecting everything to do with those values.

Yes, this was 50+ years ago. It may not matter to us, as so much has happened elsewhere, but I promise you that each and every Iranian and Iraqi feels like this was a significant event, even if they were not alive to see it. To understand this conflict you really must think like them. There is no tool better than old historical clips!

Thames tv is one of my absolute favorite youtube channels. Among the archives (basically a bevy of old news clips,) they go around interviewing people in Iran, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Jordan, etc. Everywhere. They ask the sort of questions that MSM today would lose their jobs asking.

Like they went to Israel in the late 60s, early 70s, and asked a bunch of Jews "What on earth gives you the right to settle here when all these people you are forcing out called this home here for 2000 years?"

And the reply is

"Well 2000 years ago we were forced out of this land, but as Jews we pray everyday to return to our true home. No one has more of a right to this land than us"

So if that's your cup of tea, check out these vids on the Iran/Iraq conflict + the Iranian revolution. It doesnt have any modern skew to it, this is literally just raw footage. Which is so insanely rare... really helps one understand what each side was truly fighting for and why the middle east experienced a backwards sort of renessiace.

Iranian Revolution | Shah of Iran | Ayatollah Khomeini | TV Eye | 1979

TV EYE reports from Tehran. - the day the Ayatollah Khomeini returns home. Reporter Julian Manyon - who has been in the midst of the street violence over the...

youtu.be

Iran Iraq War | Iran | Conflict | TV Eye | 1980

Thames Televisions flagship factual programme 'TV Eye' heads to Iraq to investigate the impact the Iraq Iran war will have on the global oil industry.First t...

youtu.be

I hope you all enjoy watching these, each roughly 20 mins. You learn so much.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

It's still funny that the socialists and feminists actually thought they could just deal with the Ayatollahs after the dust cleared though.

 

[Gustav Schuchardt]

That is why God saw fit to create the United States of America. Men of superior moral and intellectual character would be needed to lead humanity through the trying times ahead.

US foreign policy of having alpha chad presidents like Reagan or Trump interspersed with beta cuck faggots like Carter or Obama could be considered an annealing process that will eventually make a nice Iran for the people who are still alive.

 

[Ghostse]

Does it though? Turks actually won wars in the 20th century.

Against Arabs & greeks though. And after they got a healthy dose of officer training from ze Germans.

And I don't know if I'd really call the results "winning".

These protestors, many of them very much want to go back to how things were before religion took over. There was a time that while religion was important, it did not dominate every aspect of life like it did after the revolution. Some of them dont even realize that their country was so progressive at one point.

You really need to go back to why the revolution happened, why they suddenly did this 180 turn and regressed back into desert people.

Long story short: the US destabilized the region and the Shah was overthrown by a group of radical religious millitants. The population followed suit because they felt like things would be better if they went back to life before the west took over. It was a lot of blaming the west and rejecting everything to do with those values.

Yes, this was 50+ years ago. It may not matter to us, as so much has happened elsewhere, but I promise you that each and every Iranian and Iraqi feels like this was a significant event, even if they were not alive to see it. To understand this conflict you really must think like them. There is no tool better than old historical clips!

Thames tv is one of my absolute favorite youtube channels. Among the archives (basically a bevy of old news clips,) they go around interviewing people in Iran, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Jordan, etc. Everywhere. They ask the sort of questions that MSM today would lose their jobs asking.

Like they went to Israel in the late 60s, early 70s, and asked a bunch of Jews "What on earth gives you the right to settle here when all these people you are forcing out called this home here for 2000 years?"

And the reply is

"Well 2000 years ago we were forced out of this land, but as Jews we pray everyday to return to our true home. No one has more of a right to this land than us"

So if that's your cup of tea, check out these vids on the Iran/Iraq conflict + the Iranian revolution. It doesnt have any modern skew to it, this is literally just raw footage. Which is so insanely rare... really helps one understand what each side was truly fighting for and why the middle east experienced a backwards sort of renessiace.

Iranian Revolution | Shah of Iran | Ayatollah Khomeini | TV Eye | 1979

TV EYE reports from Tehran. - the day the Ayatollah Khomeini returns home. Reporter Julian Manyon - who has been in the midst of the street violence over the...

youtu.be

Iran Iraq War | Iran | Conflict | TV Eye | 1980

Thames Televisions flagship factual programme 'TV Eye' heads to Iraq to investigate the impact the Iraq Iran war will have on the global oil industry.First t...

youtu.be

I hope you all enjoy watching these, each roughly 20 mins. You learn so much.

It was less about blaming the west and the fact Iran has so many disparate groups, the only thing that appealed accross the board to a majority was Islam. The clerics were able to use that control to expand their power and basically set up an "Islamic State-over-the-State" using lessons from socialist revolutions about the need for secret police and party-hardlines to keep the proles in line.

They didn't blame the west, they blamed the Shah's policies, because the Shah was also trying to reform the system and break up the old power blocs (not altruistically, mind you). The Shah wanted to rule a modern, western nation, and tried to make that happen autocratically, so people rejected his policies more out of spite and information control by the displaced & displeased previous power elite.
"The Shah reduced the power of the Clerical Illuminati, and look at all the oppression and shit! So we're going to reverse course."
"Oh well that sounds reasonable."



Also, EVERYONE destabilized the region. The British, the Soviets, the French, and the Americans. Pretty much everyone but the Chinese as they were too busy starving their peasants to worry about what the sand niggers were up to, so they trusted the USSR to handle it. And as previously mentioned, everyone assumes Islamic Socialism wouldn't have flamed out or turned into a Shi'ite Baath party.

 

[AnitaSarsleezian]

The Ukrainian protesters did this in 2014 and the government responded with mass arrests of the drivers and eventually shooting live ammunition at the protesters. Hopefully we don't see a repeat of that now in Iran.

They should be fine. Iran only kills Iranians when they're trying to kill Americans.

 

[RodgerDodger]

How long until the IRGC starts unintentionally gunning down protesters?

About 2 months ago. Soleimani himself brought in some of his Syrian and Lebanese Militia's to Iran to butcher about 1600 Iranian protesters right around Thanksgiving (US). If you notice some of the scenes today with Iranian University students refusing to step on or walk on the US flag? It's in part because the Iranian Government is quite willing to kill them. Whereas Trump just threatened repercussions if anymore protesters are killed.

 

[Spiteful Crow]

They should be fine. Iran only kills Iranians when they're trying to kill Americans.

I was actually wondering about that. We're calling it the Iran-United States crisis but the only ones in crisis are the Iranians.

 

[Consenticles]

Against Arabs & greeks though. And after they got a healthy dose of officer training from ze Germans.

And I don't know if I'd really call the results "winning".



It was less about blaming the west and the fact Iran has so many disparate groups, the only thing that appealed accross the board to a majority was Islam. The clerics were able to use that control to expand their power and basically set up an "Islamic State-over-the-State" using lessons from socialist revolutions about the need for secret police and party-hardlines to keep the proles in line.

They didn't blame the west, they blamed the Shah's policies, because the Shah was also trying to reform the system and break up the old power blocs (not altruistically, mind you). The Shah wanted to rule a modern, western nation, and tried to make that happen autocratically, so people rejected his policies more out of spite and information control by the displaced & displeased previous power elite.
"The Shah reduced the power of the Clerical Illuminati, and look at all the oppression and shit! So we're going to reverse course."
"Oh well that sounds reasonable."



Also, EVERYONE destabilized the region. The British, the Soviets, the French, and the Americans. Pretty much everyone but the Chinese as they were too busy starving their peasants to worry about what the sand niggers were up to, so they trusted the USSR to handle it. And as previously mentioned, everyone assumes Islamic Socialism wouldn't have flamed out or turned into a Shi'ite Baath party.

I appreciate the clarification and reply.

Agree completely with your point that everyone destabilized the region. It was kind of dumb of me to just blame the US, but I guess I was more thinking of the current conflict at hand and why they had such a hard on for "Death to America".

From what I have gathered, the Shah was actually well liked by a portion of the population. To your point, he was removing the old powers that be, but I think the methods used by those powers to gain the hearts and minds of the people are what interests me the most.

Because of the rise of what was effectively a wave populism (in a religious sense), a lot of groups were pissed that they had to share the sunshine and wealth with people who had effectively been their enemies for centuries. And even today in America we know how effective reminiscing about the "good ol days" can be, especially when it seems like all of these other groups are benefitting from modern ideals while your group gets left behind.

If you want to put on your tinfoil hat, you could say that the very methods the west used to destabilize Iran are being used in America.

Think about it: a majority (whites) are feeling left behind, singled out, or silenced, and that makes that portion of the population want to go back to better times. Instead of a full blown revolution, this majority elects Trump - because the unique feel he has to him was refreshing in a sea of career politicians. Especially when the other choice is Hillary Clinton.

But the point isn't that other countries helped elect trump. I think that every country in the world has a horse in the presidential race, and if they aren't working toward their own interests by promoting that horse they are naive and stupid.

The point is that the US is divided along lines that have never been more visible. When that happened to Iran, they went full panic and rejected everything that the other side had offered. We see this with the left rejecting anything and everything with even a hint of right, and vice versa. The ability to be a moderate has been destroyed and people are demanding everyone pick teams.