
US Government Publishing Office Website Defaced - suresh70
https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/us-government-publishing-office-website-defaced/d/d-id/1336723
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mirimir
Amusing.

But Iran's options for substantive retaliation are obviously limited. Anything
overt would just lead to disaster for them. And indeed, it's arguable that
Qasem Soleimani's assassination was a calculated provacation.

So any substantive retaliation will very likely be delayed, and deniable.

~~~
curiousgal
Although I agree with your statement, I disagree with the bullying undertone
it conveys.

I think it's high time the American people realized how shitty their rulers'
foreign policy has been and that it's time to change it.

~~~
vorpalhex
It's not bullying to take out someone who has repeatedly and consistently
attacked you and your troops while hiding behind thinly veiled militias. Do
stupid things, win stupid prizes.

Given that the rate of attacks was increasing and provocations were growing
more brazen, a punch on the nose to back off hardly seems an unfair response.

~~~
curiousgal
I wasn't reffering to the assassination as much as the constant escalation and
the targeting of cultural sites.

Whatever mess is happening in the Middle East, it's hard to deny the U.S.'
role in creating it so it's not really as simple as "We're good, they're bad".
In fact one could argue that it's the opposite of that.

~~~
vorpalhex
Anytime we're discussing geopolitical issues, "Good" and "bad" are right out
the window. As the old saying goes, "One man's terrorist is another man's
freedom fighter".

Iran views us as a foreign power meddling in their backyard and neighborhood,
and would like us to stop so they can continue their plan of instituting their
customs and government structure on their neighbors through unconventional
means (what we call terrorism).

We view Iran as a constant threat whose goal is to wage proxy wars on our
allies, control their immediate neighbors and generally attack Democracy and
replace it with religious rule which isn't super pro-human rights.

That doesn't mean every conflict the US has waged is "good". Yes, the 1953
coup was generally best described as naked self interest amongst the UK and
the US. Likewise, the US targeting cultural sites would be abhorrent behavior.
However given the choice between the US sometimes doing stupid things and Iran
being unchecked, I'll take the occasional stupidity.

~~~
mirimir
> Iran views us as a foreign power meddling in their backyard and
> neighborhood, and would like us to stop so they can continue their plan of
> instituting their customs and government structure on their neighbors
> through unconventional means (what we call terrorism).

Which neighbors?

~~~
vorpalhex
Iraq, UAE and Saudi Arabia are the ones I'm aware of, with the situation
between Iran and Iraq being complicated but not directly hostile.

~~~
mirimir
It's all complicated.

Iran is the remnant of the Persian Empire, and Turkey is the remnant of its
ancient rival, the Ottoman Empire. Much of the northern Middle East (along
with a decent chunk of Europe) was part of the Ottoman Empire until ~1900. And
countries there were largely fictions of European conquest and ~colonization.

As I understand it, the Persian vs Ottoman conflict survives more or less as
Shia vs Sunni. But all of them hate intervention by outsiders.

There's aren't that many Shia in UAE and Saudi Arabia, and I doubt that Iran
plans their conquest. However, Iran does work with groups throughout the
Middle East who are fighting against outside intervention. Even Sunni groups.
But not, I gather, ISIS.

Anyway, this seems a decent overview:

[https://thehill.com/opinion/international/472657-beyond-
the-...](https://thehill.com/opinion/international/472657-beyond-the-myth-of-
sunni-shia-wars-in-the-middle-east)

Israel

US-USSR

~~~
mirimir
Oops, I left some artifacts there.

