Usually, when a foreign power tries to "liberate" another country, they don't go and bomb civilian installations indiscriminately on the literal first day of conflict. Also, dealing with your own government is one thing: dealing with a foreign government who's much bigger and stronger as a regular civilian is pretty much impossible. Iranians do not like their government, but they don't want someone else to change it - they want to do it themselves, and you can't really do that if a foreign government is bombing you to smithereens as much as they're bombing your government.

[–] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It is inherently authoritarian to think you can "liberate" another country on your terms without regard for the ordinary folk there. This is what America gets wrong time and time again. America may (and may is doing a lot of heavy lifting here) be a democracy but it's foreign policy track record shows that it doesn't actually care to support democracy around the world. It cares to support its national interests and that's all. The rest is blowing hot air and virtue signalling.

[–] SalamenceFury@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago

Hence why I put it in quotes. Trying to use force doesn't work most of the time.