What has been done other than killing people so far?
I'm not sure how you measure this weeks into a conflict in any direction?
Stuxnet, the assassination of nuclear physicists [0], and the expansion of the DGSE's presence in Tehran [1] and various other actions that haven't been publicized or can't be announced have been going on for a reason.
[0] - https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2020/dec/02/part-5-assassin...
[1] - https://www.intelligenceonline.fr/europe-russie/2023/11/24/a...
The US even destroyed its nuclear installations last year. lol
This is worse than a TV series.
And that’s aside from the fact that US intelligence is historically anything but, when it comes to WMD claims.
We have literally had like 5 headlines from major news agencies over the past few days confirming that Iran is exporting its own oil with what looks like close to 0 problems.
Qatar used to be pro-Iran until Iran started striking them 2 weeks ago.
Back when the entire Gulf blockaded Qatar from 2017-21, Qatar depended on Iran [0] for food. Qatar and Iran also had a gentleman's agreement to collaborate with each other to export LNG [1]. Both Qatar and Iran also collaborated with each other to support Hamas [2] and the Houthis [3].
The fact that a Qatari national employed by a think tank that is patronized by the Qatari royal family [4] has published this piece in Qatar's state-owned media is a massive about face and signals how livid Qatari policymakers are.
Heck, Qatar's interior ministry has begun arresting Iranian sympathizers [5], forced Hamas to denounce Iran [6], and taken control of Qatar's subreddit: "You might be anonymous but we aren’t, the mod team is known to the authorities and we’re trying our best to cooperate with them and comply with all the guidelines." [7].
Qatar was Iran's last friend in the Gulf.
[0] - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/6/25/iran-hassan-rouhani...
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pars/North_Dome_Gas-Cond...
[2] - https://www.dw.com/en/who-is-hamas/a-57537872
[3] - https://sites.bu.edu/pardeeatlas/research-and-policy/back2sc...
[4] - https://www.dohainstitute.edu.qa/EN/About/Pages/default.aspx
[5] - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/3/qatar-announces-arre...
[6] - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg3xk6xgyzo
[7] - https://www.reddit.com/r/qatar/comments/1rt2fth/timeout/
International politics are messy, as there are too many actors with their own agendas. You try to avoid taking sides and to stay out of trouble, but sometimes you end up in trouble anyway due to the choices others made.
Who on earth uses consumer phones at this level (which was the case among their elites till last year)?
Why do they walk in open streets and reside in residential buildings now, and all gather in single location?
While the Global South currently sympathises with Iran, prolonged warfare will disrupt the economies of many a country (due to the high energy prices), and sympathies and value-based politics will invariably be tossed in favour of increasing pressure on the weaker party - Iran - to end the conflict (possibly on politically unfavourable terms). Its neighbours will also become increasingly hostile and less tolerable to attacks on their soil. Moreover, prolonged warfare is also likely to degrade Iran's economic and military infrastructure further.
True that despite facing a militarily superior force, Iran has the ability to hurt its opponents, and has displayed great resilience in bearing hurts to itself too. However, such "scorched earth" policy needs to be matched with wise political pragmatism to not become a self-defeatist policy - after all, the strength of the genocidal regime of Netanyahu and the imperialist administration of Trump is their wanton disregard for international laws, human lives, human rights and the ability to feed of these kind of warfare and destruction to build-up their political reputation. A politically hassled Netanyahu and Trump are both also desperate politicians trying to avoid possible loss of power and jail time with this war, which means that they may increasingly resort to bombing of civilians and civilians infrastructure too to spin it as as a "win" against "muslim terrorists".
All that said, prolonged warfare against Iran will also hurt both the US and Israel.
The Americans needs to be mindful of their history with Iran - it is their political meddling in Iran that turned Iran hostile towards them and Trump isn't the first US president to try and salvage his presidency by attacking Iran. Jimmy Carter's Operation Eagle Claw (a military operation to rescue Americans captured by Iranian revolutionaries) was a failure that cost Carter his Presidency. Ronald Reagan, who replaced him, also initiated a military operation against Iran, through Iraq - the Iraq-Iran-Contra affair became Reagan's largest political scandal and severely damaged his reputation. The US invasion of Iraq strengthened Iranian influence in the region, and weakened the policy of dual containment of both Iran and Iraq. Any goal of militarily "defeating" Iran will have to keep the post-war Iraq scenario in mind. Iran is a highly educated society with women even outnumbering men in colleges. During the Bangladesh Liberation wars, one of the reasons the indian military was able to subdue the Pakistani army there so quickly was due to the educated Bangladeshi youths who formed the guerilla force of the resistance. Indian Generals observed that these educated youngsters were quick learners and thus easier to militarily train for intelligence gathering, resistance and saboteuring. Iran has a population of around 90 million. If Iran is "defeated" (occupied or not), even if 1% of their population turn to "terrorism" to defend themselves and continue the fight, we are talking about nearly 1 million highly-educated "terrorists" in the middle-east region.
For Israel too, the stakes are high. Nentahyahu's attack on his own country's democracy to become a Jewish Ayatollah -like dictator, and his genocidal warfare in Gaza has caused great damage to Israel's reputation internationally. Historic support for Israel amongst Americans is the lowest. The Iran war is not popular in the US - the more the American military gets involved and prolongs the Iran war and the more American soldiers die, Israel's reputation in America will suffer. Gallup notes that sympathy for Israel amongst the Democrats has dropped drastically, so much so that more Democrats (65%) support Palestinians than Israel today (Israelis No Longer Ahead in Americans' Middle East Sympathies - https://news.gallup.com/poll/702440/israelis-no-longer-ahead... ). While support for Israel amongst Republicans remain high, Republicans youths are increasingly distrusting and less sympathetic of Israel and more sympathetic towards Palestinians today (National Poll: Younger Republicans Are Diverging From Party Leadership On Israel - https://www.imeupolicyproject.org/polls/gop-israel-2025 ). So there is a real danger of Israel losing support amongst the Republicans too, thus curbing Israel's political influence in American politics. Without American political and military support, Israel will never be able to effectively defend itself. Everyone (including Trump), blames Israel for this war. Nobody in the world wants a prolonged war that will make oil and gas costlier and hurt their economy. Considering all this, seeking a military defeat of Iran may offer short-term gains but could be strategically short-sighted in the long run for Israel.
A prolonged war thus benefits no one. The war now hinges on the political egos of Trump, Netanyahu and Khamenie.
All it took is two weeks of reality of what happens when you support the most extreme elements in the area, it all comes back hitting you in the face.
You also have to willfully ignore what's going on to not notice the relation to Iran attacking Qatar for two weeks
I wish there was a browser extension to tag such obvious sockpuppet accounts.
It very well may be - state of Israel has employed people to control online narrative for around 20 years.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/internet-users-paid-s...
That on contrast with many in this site that are obsessed with the conflict with little knowledge apart from a sports-like team cheering
Generally hacker news as a site due to moderation choices is quite the political site with disproportionate interest in Jews in the Middle East and their problems, with a few of the AI slop blog posts thrown in.