🇮🇷🇺🇸 Clifford May challenged me on something I probably deserved to be challenged on. I said I’m “not a fan” of the IRGC. His response was basically: that’s far too soft. “The IRGC kills thousands of people. Shouldn’t you be more than not a fan?” And I understand his point. My hesitation comes from trying to apply the same standard everywhere. Iran’s crackdown on protesters was wrong. So were America’s wars in Iraq and Libya. So is what multiple regional powers have done across Yemen, Sudan and elsewhere. The more I cover geopolitics, the harder I find it to divide the world neatly into good actors and bad ones. Sometimes moral clarity is necessary. But consistency matters too. @Clifford

🇮🇷🇺🇸 Clifford May challenged me on something I probably deserved to be challenged on.

I said I’m “not a fan” of the IRGC.

His response was basically: that’s far too soft.

“The IRGC kills thousands of people. Shouldn’t you be more than not a fan?”

And I understand his point.

My hesitation comes from trying to apply the same standard everywhere.

Iran’s crackdown on protesters was wrong. So were America’s wars in Iraq and Libya. So is what multiple regional powers have done across Yemen, Sudan and elsewhere.

The more I cover geopolitics, the harder I find it to divide the world neatly into good actors and bad ones.

Sometimes moral clarity is necessary.

But consistency matters too.

@CliffordDMay
Video
  Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal)🇺🇸🇮🇷 Clifford May thinks the biggest mistake is treating the Iran conflict as something that began with the latest round of strikes.

To him, it started in 1979.

He argues the Islamic Republic has spent decades building the capabilities to confront the United States and Israel, with nuclear weapons, missiles and drones all part of that longer trajectory.

“This conflict is by no means over.”

May doesn’t pretend to know whether Trump will strike again.

But his view is that the underlying confrontation never really stopped, and that Washington is now dealing with the consequences of a conflict that has been building for nearly half a century.

@CliffordDMay
Video
  —  https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2112277606414406001