the right is not what it was

Seen on Instapundit:

FASTER, PLEASE: Why Regime Change in Iran Is Becoming Inevitable. “Iran’s growing internal unrest and external failures present a strategic opportunity for the United States and its allies. The West should begin planning for a future without the Islamic Republic.  The Islamic Republic’s foundational pillars—religious legitimacy, economic governance, and regional power—are in collapse. Though the regime still holds coercive control through its security forces, it has lost its societal foundation. Regime change in Iran is no longer a distant hope—it is an increasingly likely outcome. The question for Western leaders is not if it will happen, but how to help shape a peaceful, stable, and democratic transition.”

The comments are almost entirely negative because MAGA rightie/conservatives have utterly abandoned any neocon notions of nation-building. Look:

● People have been confidently predicting the imminent demise of the Iranian thugocracy for 46 years. Color me skeptical. Until the Persian people get angry enough to slaughter the mullahs (losing a lot of civilian revolutionaries in the process), instead of sitting around like typical Muslim lumps mumbling "inshallah," nothing will change. Shıthòle Muslim countries tend to remain shıthòle Muslim countries because their dysfunctional religion spawns a dysfunctional society.*

● I’m fine with regime change…so long as the United States don’t got nothing to do with it. Besides the enormous costs, regime change imposed by the West is an absolutely guaranteed way to ensure that the next regime will be even worse.

● Yes, the West must become deeply involved in the transition to peace and democracy. We can use our stunning successes in Iraq and Afghanistan as inspiration.

● How could anyone with even the slightest clue read that and not die laughing? Our culture and way of life are on the brink, and yet here, the usual suspects are still trotting out the Holden Bloodfeast neocon dreams of Iran in flames and "nation building." No, no, and hell, no! [link added]

● Very well said. “We'll be the heroes who liberate Iran” as they fight Trump's deportation of illegals and as fentanyl ravages hollowed-out American towns. Neocon scumbags destroy everything they come near, and yet they are completely incapable of any self-reflection on what they've done. The author of this particular article is an Iranian globalist feminist who, if given the power, would screw up Iran as badly as the mullahs have, just in a different way.

● Regime change in Iran has been "inevitable" for what, 25 years now?

● Because we have such a great track record with managing regime change.

And the one somewhat contrarian, not-quite-neocon voice:

● As I have told you since before the election, Trump is going to stop Iran from going nuclear, and the result of that will be to demolish the mullahs and their power. Their end is near, and anyone that loves freedom and liberty should rejoice. No boots on the ground, no massive investment in propping up a corrupt government, just let the Iranians work it out. That is how it will go down.

I don't share the final commenter's confidence. We haven't stopped North Korea, and I'd actually agree that countries have a right to defend themselves however they please. North Korea knows that its nuclear weapons, if used, will signify the end of that country, period. Not to mention, in all likelihood, the end of the whole peninsula.

Meanwhile, to all the liberal Democrats who thought, during the Dubya era, that rightie neocon adventurism was a bad thing, and that starting wars to spread "freedomquakes" throughout the Middle East was a stupid idea: you were right—even if today's righties have trouble admitting that to your face. I personally have no trouble conceding this point: I was loudly against Bush II's Iraq War from the beginning. It was misguided, had a poorly articulated purpose, no defined endpoint, and the wrong enemy. Quagmire, mission creep, all that. Neocon theocrats have never sat well with me.

But we live in an age of reversed polarities: the US left are now the humorless, "Screw your freedom" schoolmarms and warmongers, advocating for aggressive moves against Israel and more fighting in Ukraine while trying desperately not to offend anyone (liberal) at home.

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*Do you find this bigoted? Show me a smoothly running, non-dysfunctional Muslim country, then. The rich and prosperous UAE? Ask the women there, especially the foreign women, what life is like. The same goes for north African Muslim countries; they're all great for guys like me who don't drink or fuck around, but if you're a woman or a drug-using, orange-and-purple-haired Westerner, what're your chances of enjoying life there? How about Qatar? Yemen? These are bases for terrorism and covers for anti-West hate. Indonesia? Well, Indonesia might be less dysfunctional than its Middle Eastern counterparts, but God seems to have a special hatred for the country given its mudslides and earthquakes. And it's got human-rights issues of its own thanks to a very strict police force (to the extent that the law is strictly and consistently enforced, I'm not against the strictness per se). Or maybe you'd prefer to flip the argument against the West: America has no human-rights issues, no all-encompassing social problems, no corporate or governmental corruption? I'd agree with anyone who accuses America of being rife with problems. But explain why everyone wants to immigrate to America, then. Maybe they've all been deluded by propaganda. No, frankly, I don't see the bigotry in this comment. If you think Muslim countries are a paradise to live in, then go live in one for a year and tell me what your experience was like.