Links - 13th March 2026 (2 - Iran War [including Khamenei's Death, Ramadan War])

Ζoë Booth on X - "In his 1996 book, The Clash of Civilisations, Samuel Huntington argued that post-Cold War conflict would be driven not by ideology or economics but by culture - specifically, by the irreconcilable differences between Western civilisation and Islam. Huntington would've viewed Shia Muslims publicly mourning Khamenei in Australia as a textbook case of civilisational fault lines playing out on Western soil. That is, a minority group asserting loyalty to a figure and a theology that are explicitly hostile to the society hosting them. So, can you follow Khamenei's teaching and uphold Australian values simultaneously? I don't see how. The Shia doctrine of velayat-e faqih holds that divine law must govern all of society and that the supreme leader is its earthly custodian. In other words, this is not a private faith that can be quietly compartmentalised. It is an explicitly political theology. Mourning Khamenei is a public statement. Australia is built on the premise that women, gays, atheists, Jews, Christians and Muslims are all equal, a premise Khamenei spent his life trying to destroy. You cannot venerate the man and honour the country at the same time. Pick one."

NSW Premier slams ‘atrocious’ vigils for Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei | The Australian - "you can always rely on one group to take the side of those who have been subjugated: progressive white women, for whom no cognitive dissonance is too great and no irony too glaring... Western Sydney Women chief executive Amanda Rose devoted her Channel 7 appearance to defending the legacy of a man whose regime imprisoned, tortured and executed women for the crime of showing their hair. Her organisation is a non-profit, built on the mission of helping women achieve economic independence and freedom. Despite the whitewashing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps crimes, Rose did make one valid point: it is unreasonable to ask a religious organisation not to mourn their spiritual leader... The tolerance we’re asked to extend to those mourning Khamenei is itself a product of a civilisa­tion he despised: liberal plural­ism. It is a specifically Western concept, with Judaeo-Christian roots. It grew, haltingly and imperfectly, from the Hebrew prophets who insisted the king was answerable to God; from Christ’s injunction to render unto Caesar only what was Caesar’s; from the long and painful Christian argument about the limits of temporal power. Islam, in its Khomeinist iteration, gave the world the opposite: the absolute fusion of religious and political authority, with no gap between God’s law and the state’s. Of course, some Muslim-majority societies are more pluralistic. Dubai has synagogues and lights its malls at Christmas. But tolerance dispensed from the top by an absolute monarch is a different thing entirely from pluralism baked into the foundations of a civilisation. The West did not arrive at this pluralism by royal decree. It argued and fought its way there across centuries. These values are completely antithetical to what Khamenei preached. Friends of mine who grew up in Iran remember being made to chant “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” at school. Khamenei’s terror was not confined to the Middle East; he orchestrated attacks on Australian soil. In August 2025, ASIO attributed the December 2024 firebombing of Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue to IRGC-directed operatives. In October 2024, my local kosher delicatessen, Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, was set alight in a related operation. Yet the dictator who orchestrated attacks on Australian soil had the audacity to lecture us on human rights. His official website cited the treatment of Aboriginal Australians as a “sanitised genocide”. He cited Nauru detention centres as “intentional torture”."

Meme - murk @peltolamentum: "former elizabeth warren aide btw"
calla @CallaWalsh: "The only real justice for Imam Khamenei and for all the martyrs will be the total and complete dismantling of the US and "Israel." Anything less is a capitulation."
Left wingers like Calla Walsh want to destroy the US and Israel. But of course if you say that you're a crazy far right conspiracy theorist spreading misinformation

Saul Sadka on X<.a> - "The Economist, in its “fighting back the tears” obituary for Khamenei, salivates with true depravity over Trump’s future death in grisly, if ecstatic, terms: “...when Mr. Trump’s body was ashes, eaten by worms and ants.” It makes the Washington Post and its infamous “Austere Islamic Scholar” obituary for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seem very quaint indeed. But I read the whole thing so you don’t have to. The key takeaways:
1. The USA is the Great Satan—no scare quotes.
2. For readers who don’t know what “Israel” is, the Economist helpfully translates it in parentheses as “the little Satan.”
3. Khamenei, otherwise known as “God’s Dictator,” had “divine right on his side” and had “countless reasons to hate the West,” which is an America-led “phalanx of morally corrupt countries.”
4. Khamenei was a sainted and humble man, dragged to power against his will, selfless and “heroically flexible” and unassailable—a “humble cleric from Mashhad who inherited the earth.”
5. Honourable in life, but perfect in death: what could be sweeter than delicious martyrdom? What could be “more deserving of paradise-to-come than to drink the pure draught of a martyr’s end”?!
6. According to the Economist, “Freedom, human rights, dress codes for women” are “tiresome Western tropes.” Yes, really.
7. All his troubles were economic: he was tormented by the West and by foreign enemies. All the crimes he ordered—beatings, killings, and so on—were, naturally, merely “a response” to those Western crimes.
8. He “rules by divine authority,” and “his tongue could channel God.”
9. He was just a ”mild-mannered cleric” gazed benignly from billboards and was a great teacher of forgiveness”.
We have now surely reached the apogee of the decay of the legacy media in the West. Surely it can't sink lower than this?"
One claim is that this is how the Economist always writes its obituaries. But the contrast with Silvio Berlusconi's and Rush Limgaugh's (not officially an obituary, but written like one) is telling. Those incorporates some of their worldviews, but are also pretty critical of them and their legacies ("Silvio Berlusconi duped Italians for years" and he was "perpetually dogged by scandal")

Meme - Drew Holden @DrewHolden360: "I'm merely asking NY Times to treat the passing of a known terrorist with the same invective as they gave Rush Limbaugh."
"AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, HARD-LINE CLERIC WHO MADE IRAN A REGIONAL POWER, DIES AT 86"
"Rush Limbaugh Dies at 70; Turned Talk Radio Into a Right-Wing Attack Machine. With a following of 15 million and a divisive style of mockery, grievance and denigrating language, he was a force in reshaping American conservatism."

Meme - End Wokeness @EndWokeness: "Dilbert creator vs Ayatollah of Iran"
"People: Scott Adams, Disgraced "Dilbert" Creator, Dies at 68
The New York Times: AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, HARD-LINE CLERIC WHO MADE IRAN A REGIONAL POWER, DIES AT 86"

Meme - Matt Forney @mattforney: "This is the Reddit version of pistols at dawn"
"No. We need to have reliable sources confirming his death."
"I would say the sources stating he died are pretty reliable"
"this is Wikipedia, not reddit"
"Not an objective fact, if you wanna say this go onto Twitter or Reddit. Wikipedia talk page isn't meant for people"
"still not confirmed"
"I believe the only ones who have said he's dead babe been the American and israel governments, the news sites saying he's dead only have their statements as evidence"
"Even CBS news is reporting He is dead. This really needs to be updated! It is becoming shameful that Wikipedia is blocking this accurate reporting!!!!!"
Eudaimonia @eudaimoniaEsq: "Wikipedia mods are mad and refusing to say Khamenei is dead. Go look at the "talk" section of his Wikipedia page lol"

Meme - Piyush: "> dedicated his entire life to a war against Israel and America.
> died on the first day."

Meme - Khamenei.ir: "The US President has said that for 47 years, the United States hasn't been able to eliminate the Islamic Republic. That is a good confession. I say, " You, too, will not be able to do this."
The Americans constantly say that they've sent a warship toward Iran. Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware. However, more dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea.
The US President keeps saying that they have the strongest military force in the world. The strongest military force in the world may at times be struck so hard that it cannot get up again."

Meme - "Khamenei spent 35 years funding militias that killed thousands of Americans across the world. Yet, the left calls his death an unprovoked attack. Khamenei hanged gay men from cranes in public squares. Yet, LGBTQ activists call his death an unprovoked attack. Khamenei's morality police beat women to death for showing their hair. Yet, Western feminists call his death an unprovoked attack. The world has less dictator today, one who had the blood of millions of people on his hand. Yet some people are upset about it, think about what that tells you."

Meme - "SO THE PROTESTERS THAT PROTESTED THE DEATH OF 2 PROTESTORS ARE NOW PROTESTING THE DEATH OF A GUY WHO KILLED 30,000 PROTESTERS"

Meme - Ilhan Omar @IlhanMN: "Iraq was attacked by the US during Ramadan and it sickening to know that the US is again going to attack Iran during Ramadan. The US apparently loves to strike Muslim countries during Ramadan and I am convinced it isn’t what these countries have done to violate international law but about who they worship."
Readers added context they thought people might want to know: "None of the Persian Gulf wars started in Ramadan. First Persian Gulf: 02/08/1990 which is 10th of Moharram 1411 of Islamic Lunar calendar. second Persian Gulf war: 20/03/2003 which is 16 of Moharram 1424 of Islamic Lunar calendar."

Brother Rachid الأخ رشيد on X - "Muhammad attacked a caravan during Ramadan, (Battle of Badr). He marched on Mecca in Ramadan. Muslim armies invaded Spain in Ramadan. And now Pakistan has attacked Afghanistan in Ramadan. Any comments on that?"

i/o on X - "Two things: (1) The Islamic Republic of Pakistan attacked and declared war on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan yesterday. (2) Iranians are the least religious Muslims in the region (according to prayer service attendance data), and would be far less "sickened" than Omar."

Adam Fisher on X - "Her ignorance is shocking.
1. It was during Ramadan that Muhammad led his army to victory in The Battle of Badr (Islam's first military victory) and later in the Conquest of Mecca. This created the precedent.
2. In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched their surprise attack on Israel during Ramadan (and on Yom Kippur). Egyptians still refer to the war as the "Ramadan War."
3. In 1983, Iran launched a major offensive against Iraq during Ramadan called the "Ramadan Offensive" that included human wave attacks with children.
4. In 1988, on the first day of Ramadan, Iraq launched a surprise offensive against Iran called "Operation Ramadan Mubarak."
5. In 2010, during Ramadan, the Somali al-Shabab terrorist group launched what it called a "Ramadan Offensive" against the Mogadishu government.
6. Islamic State (ISIS) launched annual Ramadan offensives and called on its followers to attack during the holy month.
7. On Oct 7, 2023, Hamas with Iranian support, launched its invasion of Israel on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. No one outside of Israel saw the evil in choosing that date.
The US has never launched a war against any Islamic country during Ramadan, but Islamic nations and terrorist groups have done so repeatedly."

Meme - Gene Parmesan @dsonoiki: "lawyer here. bombing a Muslim country during Ramadan is illegal under international law. in a matter of hours, Trump WILL be arrested by international police"
Nerpho: "It was not an illegal strike, just undocumented. No strikes are illegal on stolen land."

Meme - ""Trump Has Spent Billions Striking Iran. California Could Have Built Zero Miles of High-Speed Rail With All That Money!" -Gavin Newsom"

Meme - Baldwin IV from Kingdom of Heaven: "SILENCE, IRANIAN A WHITE LIBERAL is talking"

Meme - Venezuela: "I consent"
Iran: "I consent" *Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby being touchy*
Soyjak Communist: "I DON'T!"

Meme - "Hard to swallow pills
Donald Trump has done more for oppressed people in the last 2 months than the entire global left has done in the last 30 years."

Pistachio 🇮🇷 🇵🇸 on X - "Iran has not attacked a country unprovoked in it's 5000 year old history. Israel has attacked six in one year. Who is the threat here?"
Ankit M (Currently Inactive) on X - "Nadir Shah attacked Delhi 270 years ago, reduced its population by a third and went back with a loot so great that he forgave collection of all taxes in Iran for a decade."
Shashank Shekhar Jha on X - "Nadir Shah attacked India. His army killed Hindus, Infact 30000 in a single day & took over 10000 women as slave. He looted Peacock Throne, Kohinoor, Daryaenoor diamonds as well as others which took 700 elephants, 4000 camels and 12000 horses to carry. All this was unprovoked!!!"
Haviv Rettig Gur on X - "Funny story: Most of the never ending expansions of the Roman Empire were carried out in what the Roman Empire was always careful to characterize as defensive wars. Every conquest. Every genocide. Rome always pretended to be provoked. Iran is one of the most brutal rampagers through this region, as most Arabs will tell you. And like the Romans, it is never not “provoked.” It was one of Hamas’s biggest early supporters, not to help the Palestinians, but to undermine the PLO and the peace process in order to ensure, over the bodies of dead Palestinians, Israel’s eventual annihilation. Iran won’t stop declaring its intention to murder my kids and my people. It has committed and enabled vast brutalities, the deaths of hundreds of thousands in the region, the slow demolition of nations through the building of non-state proxies — all because it is perpetually “provoked.” Well now I’m provoked. And a regime that has murdered and oppressed for 47 years, declared itself at war with the West and America constantly and repeatedly, from its founding ideologues to its present-day rulers, mass-murdered Marines in Lebanon and also Jewish civilians in Argentina — no longer gets to play the “provoked” game. You reap what you sow."

Meme - Rachel Moiselle: "This is an excellent point by Jonathan. Soral is France's most prominent anti-Jewish 'intellectual'. In 2025 it was discovered he was in fact an Islamic Regime asset and mere days ago he was sentenced for this crime. When the Iranian regime falls (for it is now only a matter of when), and the archives are opened, it will be fascinating to see how many people were on their payroll. They will all be held accountable."
Conspiracy Watch: "Antisemitic polemicist #AlainSoral was sentenced today to 2 years in prison without parole, with an arrest warrant, for criminal conspiracy due to his ties with agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran"
Jonathan Eric Lewis @LewisJonathanE: "The odious regime in Tehran will fall. The archives will open. And we will find out just who in the UK, USA, and Ireland have been on the..."

Meme - Kane: ""Survive the horrors of war"? Ilhan Omar's family was the one doing the horrors ffs"
"Nur Omar Mohamed was the father of U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar... Career in Somalia: Before fleeing to the United States, he was a teacher trainer and a high ranking officer (colonel) in the Somali National Army under the Siad Barre regime"
Ilhan Omar @IlhanMN: "Trump has launched an illegal regime change war. As someone who has survived the horrors of war, I know military strikes will not make us safer; they will inflame tensions and push the region further into chaos...."

Sovey on X - "It Was Never About Iran or Venezuela: It’s About Weakening China, and It’s Brilliant
China’s economic ascent is tethered to a critical vulnerability: its reliance on foreign oil. Importing over 70% of its oil, China depends heavily on a few key suppliers. This reliance creates a strategic opportunity for the U.S. By influencing Iran and Venezuela, two of the world’s top holders of oil reserves, the U.S. can exert direct or indirect influence over their trade partnerships, thereby tightening China’s energy supply.
Key Points:
• Venezuela: Ranked 1st globally, holding around 17–18% of the world’s proven oil reserves.
• Saudi Arabia: Ranked 2nd, holding about 15–16% of global reserves. Although an ally, their reserves are pivotal.
• Iran: Ranked 3rd, holding around 12% of the world’s proven oil reserves.
Combined, these three countries hold ~45% of the world’s proven oil reserves.
Strategic Moves with a Broader Aim
While the public narrative focuses on removing dictators, curbing drug trafficking, and neutralizing Iran’s nuclear threat, the overarching strategy is clear. Ensuring these nations are not under the influence of U.S. adversaries limits China’s ability to secure its energy needs. Take Venezuela. Yes, drug trafficking into the United States is a serious issue. But Mexico remains the primary corridor for narcotics entering America, and China has played a documented role in supplying precursor chemicals that fuel the fentanyl crisis. Neither country faced comparable military intervention. If drugs were the sole driver, the strategic map would look very different. Now consider Iran. Stopping nuclear proliferation is a legitimate national security objective. Yet North Korea already possesses nuclear weapons and continues advancing its missile capabilities. The United States has not pursued direct regime removal there. The difference is not the level of authoritarianism or even the nuclear threat. The difference is strategic energy leverage. This strategic foresight is what makes the move consequential. By focusing on two nations that sit atop massive oil reserves and that have served as energy lifelines to China, the U.S. does more than remove hostile regimes. It reshapes global energy influence. The effect is subtle but powerful. Direct control is not required. Influence over leadership, trade policy, or export alignment can be enough to alter who benefits from nearly half of the world’s proven oil reserves. While the world debates the immediate justifications for U.S. actions in Iran and Venezuela, the broader picture reveals a calculated effort to weaken America’s primary competitor. Removing dictators matters. Stopping drug pipelines matters. Containing nuclear threats matters. But the main plot is strategic pressure on China. And seen through that lens, the move is not reckless. It is deliberate. And it is brilliant."

Richard Hanania on X - "The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan discredited interventionism in the eyes of the American public. What the last few years have done in contrast is discredit anti-interventionism, or the idea that American power cannot be used for good. First came the Abraham Accords, where contrary to every prediction made by practically every Middle East expert, Israel signed peace treaties with several of its neighbors without taking care of the Palestinian issue first. Throughout the first Trump administration, the maximum pressure campaign had Israel, the Arabs, and the US all on the same side against Iran. The Syrian regime falls, the new leader in Damascus is pro-Western. We ended up fighting both Assad and ISIS, and defeated them both. Then you had the Venezuela operation. Without losing any American soldiers, we removed the Maduro regime, and replaced it with a government that has been freeing political prisoners and opening up the oil industry to American companies. Cuba will probably be overthrown without any cost next, ending the over half-century nightmare there. Now, after taking a detour during the Hamas war and wiping out Hezbollah's leadership, Israel along with the US slaughter the entire upper echelon of the Iranian regime. What's next in Iran? Who knows? But isn't there at least a chance it'll be better than the old theocrats? Why would anyone dismiss the possibility? People deny this is possible just because they want America and the West to fail. Russia and China remain problems and North Korea is an exception. But when it comes to weaker enemies around the world, we can just kill them and everything will be fine. As it turns out, we misunderstood the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan. The lesson wasn't "never do regime change" or "never kill bad people." The lesson we should've taken was "don't do social engineering through war." Killing bad people and removing bad government is fine, both in terms of American interests and from a humanitarian perspective. Now that we've seen how easy it is, we arguably have a moral obligation to keep doing it. There is a lot to be gained by just removing the worst of the worst. Going from Stalin to Khrushchev and Mao to Deng made things much better. Same with going from Maduro to Delcy, and the same is likely to be true with regard to whatever comes next in Iran and Cuba. Don't waste your time on micromanaging the country and having feminist art exhibitions like we did in Afghanistan. Just remove regime you don't like first, and then be pragmatic with the next steps. America is powerful and good. We just need to understand that it is ok to admit it."

Wilfred Reilly on X - "There are no ultimate rules. Humans are smart predatory apes. Order comes from power. It's good to try to civilize that reality a bit, but making up entire ridiculous moral systems that deny it and define weakness as a form of strength - from critical race theory and radical feminism to "demand making, post-colonial, International law" - is just a waste of everyone's time. A key point here: Iran or Hamas or the Taliban - or, for that matter, Black activists or separatist feminists - who had USA-level power would do far far worse things with it than the US leadership has. Seeing these people as GOOD because they are currently WEAK is delusion."i

Jay Fivekiller on X - "This whole war with Iran is Jimmy Carter's fault. He should have nuked Tehran a few days after they seized the embassy in 1979. The moral weakness of that simpering Holy Joe has caused America nearly 50 years of heartache and death."
Will Tanner on X - "Jimmy Carter was a Third Worldist. Whether the religious fanatics in Iran, the Central Americans demanding our canal, Mugabe and Nkomo in their war on Western civilization in Rhodesia, or the Weather Underground/Black Pathers/Black Liberation Army/FALN insurgency that wrecked America, he aided them in their fight against the West in the name of equality. He was by far one of America's worst presidents, and by far one of the most evil men to ever sit in the Oval Office"

Councilwoman Vickie Paladino on X - "There's a reason the leftist activist class goes into hysterics every time Iran is threatened -- a significant portion of their money and organizational support flows from or through Iran. Iran is a key node in leftist organizing, and they stand to lose a LOT with Iran off the table."

Clare Daly on X - "Physically sick at the diabolical attack on Iran by the US and Israeli terror regimes. Inexpressible contempt for fork-tongued EU "leaders", pretending in recent weeks to give a damn about civilians in Iran, now openly or tacitly endorsing their slaughter, but what's new? Deep shame that so many from the so-called "left" in Europe lent their voices to the propaganda spectacle last month, which was so obviously aimed at legitimising this hideous war of aggression. Do better. This is the world that was made in the hellfire in Gaza. Organise NOW to end impunity, restore international law and bring the criminals in Israel, Europe and America to justice, or all is lost."
Alan Shatter on X - "Strangely Clare Daly wasn’t “ physically sick” when her regime friends in Tehran executed 1,922 prisoners in 2025, hanged some in public, murdered thousands demanding an end to the regime’s oppression, imprisoned, tortured & sexually assaulted many arrested for protesting against the regime, beat up & blinded women who stopped wearing a hijab, praised Hamas’s barbaric Oct 7 atrocities, when Iranian sponsored Hamas terrorist murdered 22year old Irish citizen Kim Damti at the Nova Music festival & abducted then 8 year old Emily Hand from Kibbutz Be’eri, nor when she & Mick Wallace received the Ismail Haniyeh ( terrorist remembrance) award in Tehran. The sickness is strangely selective!"

Visegrád 24 on X - "🇪🇸 Spain's far-left PM Sánchez spoke against Israel and the U.S. military operation in Iran: “We have enjoyed decades of peace and prosperity that are suddenly being undermined. How is it possible to intervene by bombing hospitals or schools?”"
Aɴᴛ on X - ""We have enjoyed decades of peace..." Is the fucking cretin aware that the Iranian regime has backed terror cells across Europe and that in the UK alone MI5 has foiled over 20 IRGC backed terror plots? Seriously, once they're done with the operation in Iran, the US should seriously consider removing European leaders the way they did with Maduro. Sánchez is most definitely in the top three."

Bushra Shaikh on X - "I'd fully support Pakistan giving Iran a nuke right now."
Chris Rose on X - "Remember, British MSM present this woman as a “moderate” Muslim."