this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
204 points (97.7% liked)

World News

48092 readers
2174 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They would if it was only their moral integrity stopping them, but they wouldn't because doing such a thing would destroy their international standing and immediately start a regional war with generous Western involvement if not outright belligerency. In other words: They wouldn't use a nuke against a regional adversary for the same reason North Korea hasn't nuked South Korea. There's a limit to how far you can push nukes and, counterintuitively, actually using them goes beyond that limit. If anything, it's countries with actual muscle like China, US and its allies and to a lesser extent Russia that could actually use a nuke and (comparatively) get away with it.

[–] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not against q regional adversary. But against their own population, they would.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 2 points 1 week ago

Oh that's what you meant. In that case I see what you mean, but I'm not convinced. First, doing such a thing would destroy their own seat of power, as most revolts tend to start in the capital or reach it pretty quickly. Second, it would immediately spark a coup, civil war or intensify the revolution, for the same reason Assad's gassing didn't stop the Syrian revolution. The level of destruction a nuke can cause can be more or less replicated using conventional means, using a nuke means dealing with nuclear fallout which even the most maniacal governments wouldn't put themselves through and using drastic violence tends to push people towards militancy rather than compliance. Third, it'd destroy their international legitimacy, give Western countries an excuse for drastic intervention and discourage their allies from helping them defend against such an intervention. Iran's government is certainly evil, but they're rationally evil, and nuking one's own people is very much not rational.