We don't need to exterminate all of them. Just enough of them to convince them they cannot win and Allah has failed them.
I understand the intent behind what you’re saying, but it still doesn’t hold up as a workable or logical strategy.
First, the idea of “just enough of them to convince them” assumes a level of control over human psychology and political behavior that doesn’t exist in real-world conflict. Violence doesn’t reliably produce submission. In many cases, it produces the opposite: hardening resistance, retaliation, and long-term escalation.
Second, this still runs into the same core issue: you’re talking about targeting people based on their identity as religious clerics rather than their individual actions or specific roles in government or military decision-making. That crosses into collective punishment and religious targeting, which is both ethically and legally indefensible under modern rules of war.
Third, the assumption that this would demonstrate “Allah has failed them” misunderstands how belief systems work under pressure. History shows that when religious or ideological groups are attacked, it rarely produces loss of faith. More often, it produces martyr narratives, deeper conviction, and recruitment gains. External force does not typically “disprove” belief—it usually reinforces it for those already committed.
Fourth, even if you set morality aside and look purely at outcomes, the strategy still doesn’t solve the underlying problem. Iran’s governance structure, military command, intelligence services, and political institutions don’t disappear because a subset of clerics is intimidated or removed. You’re still left with a functioning state apparatus and likely a more radicalized environment.
Fifth, there’s no measurable stopping point. “Just enough” is not a strategy variable—it’s an open-ended escalation. How is “enough” defined, and who decides when that threshold is reached?
If the goal is to change Iran’s behavior or reduce conflict, then the debate has to stay in the realm of achievable political and military objectives. Once it moves into “break their belief system through selective killing,” it stops being strategy and becomes something that is neither controllable nor likely to produce the outcome you’re describing.
You can argue hard against the Iranian regime without turning the discussion into a theory of coercion through religious intimidation. Those are very different things.
Topic: Live Thread: War With Iran Continues #5 (Read 27740 times)
