Sad that my comment got flagged, this is a major problem with hacker news - censorship of comments that prevent people from hearing all perspectives.

The point of my comment was to give a first-hand conversation with an actual Iranian.

You can react to it any way you want, but the point of my comment was to show how some Iranians are actually thinking. And yes, many Iranians want regime change and they see the supporters of the regime as the enemy.

The regime hangs protestors by the way.

“War crime” is all but meaningless. They happen in every war and the only side that gets prosecuted for them seems to be the losers.

My impression is that people don’t take Trump‘s words literally. Trump often exaggerates and plays word games. If you take every statement from Trump literally you’re going to be constantly triggered.

But even so, I think the response you’ll get from most anti-regime Iranians is “go for it, if it may let us get our country back”.

Iranians who wants the regime overthrown are very conflicted right now. They see their country being destroyed, but they also hate the regime and want a revolution.

They literally feel that their country was hijacked by an Islamic theocracy. They want that destroyed, so they’re thankful that Trump is attacking it.

How far should Trump go? I just saw news reports that Iranian expats and anti-regime Iranians were disappointed with the cease-fire. That aligns with the initial reaction from my family and the Iranian expats that I know.

So it’s a complicated answer… Do Iranians want all their infrastructure destroyed? If it would guarantee the regime was defeated I think most would say yes.

I think that makes sense.

My impression is that Iran is much closer to a civil war than Russia is. It’s very polarized.

You have to put yourself in the mindset of someone against the regime. They feel that their country was hijacked by an islamic theocracy.

This is a regime that forces little girls to cover their body. Dancing and singing in public is illegal. Protesters are hanged.

My wife was sent home from school as a kid because her headband didn’t properly cover her forehead. At the age of 30 my wife still has trouble wearing shorts because she is self-conscious about showing her legs.

This is the kind of mental trauma that women have to recover from after leaving Iran. And I’ve only skimmed the surface.

There is zero sympathy from the anti-regime side for those who support the theocracy.

The other side (regime) publicly state “execute them all” and the response is “bomb them all”. To be clear, I’m not agreeing with the sentiments and agree that bombing the infrastructure is awful, just stating my observation of the state media vs opposition voices.

My in-laws all live in Iran. My wife has many aunts, uncles, and cousins. I don’t even know how many people - it’s probably 20 to 30 people at least. All in Tehran.

My mother-in-law is the most anti-regime person I’ve met.

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