u/Throwthat84756

As many on this sub have pointed out, there were many Iranians who strongly opposed the Islamic Republic when it came to power, and there were many protests and revolts against the new regime.

However, the outbreak of the Iran Iraq war clearly complicated things signficantly. That war would go on to last 8 years and become one of the bloodiest wars since WW2.

We know that Iranians who supported Ruhollah Khomeini and the revolution quickly got behind the new regime and fought against Iraq. However, what I want to know is how Iranians who were anti Islamic republic feel about this war? How did they respond during this period?

Did they put aside their dislike of the regime and fight for the country against Saddam and his army? Or did they sit back and let the regime and its supporters fight Saddam and his army?

As you are all aware, this month last year Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, killing scores of high level IRGC officials and decapitating the leadership of the IRGC. What followed was 12 days of fighting involving the bombing of nuclear sites, missile launchers and other key facilities.

In comparing last year's war to this year's war, I noticed something interesting. At no point did the islamic republic ever close the strait of hormuz in last year's fighting, despite the scale of the attacks. That stands in stark contrast to this year's war when Iran closed the strait almost immediately after the opening strikes. Overall, it looked like the islamic republic was completely unprepared for last year's war and was caught off guard, putting Israel and the US in an advantageous position.

Yet despite this, the US only briefly intervened to bomb the nuclear facilities at Fordow before putting pressure on Israel to end the war after only 12 days. As a result, the islamic Republic survived and it appears that they learnt some lessons from that war and were somewhat better prepared in this year's war, to the point that they managed to close the strait despite their leadership being decapitated, indicating a greater decentralization of authority in the IRGC to junior commanders.

With that in mind, I was curious; do you think in hindsight that it was a serious mistake by the US (specifically the Trump administration) to have pressured Israel into a ceasefire last year when the Islamic Republic was on the backfoot? Do you think it would have been better for the US to have prepared beforehand and joined that war, taking advantage of better conditions (no hormuz closure) to degrade and even undermine the regime itself? Or do you think it wouldn't have mattered in the end?