Ukraine was used as fodder and been annihilated as a nation because of how many men they've lost. Libya is already destroyed, it has no central government and is in perpetual civil war.
Ukraine was attacked and its sovereignty was violated by Russia. It's not the first time that Russia does this. They have done that to Iran multiple times in the past.
US loves radical Islam, they paved the way for its rise during the Cold War. Their issue of radical Islam is not as big as they say, most of the time their interests align with these groups.
The US loves to use radical Islam when it suits them but they see radical Islam as a problem. This is why they are asking Arab countries like Saudi Arabia to move towards secularism. Islam is inherently a dangerous ideology for countries like the US.
I'm not sure how you plan to run a country without resources to extract and sell. Iran isn't exactly a service or manufacturing powerhouse.
Quite contrary to what you think, Iran is a heaven for the service sector. We have highly educated people that are willing to work for minimum wage. In the scenario we were talking about, Iran will have access to international markets.
As I said, the Shah in the 70s had a stronger economy than today's Ayatollahs. This is not some theory. This is a fact.
No if your forced to give obscene concessions to another nation, I'd rather give it to China than the US. Countries like Cuba have gotten worse since the fall of the USSR sure, but the rest I wouldn't qualify as puppets.
You have already given concessions to both Russia and China and they have shown you the middle finger each and every time.
Yeah, well, good luck becoming like Syria, Venezuela, Saddam's Iraq, Somalia, Cuba, North Korea, and other highly modernized Eastern puppets that you count as independent nations.
If they hold a referendum, I'm sure over 80% of the Iranians would prefer to give concessions to the US than China.
I think we will ultimately disagree on this, these nations were built up in the post-WW2 order, again, so they wouldn't become communist. I don't think their examples can be repeated.
Germany and Japan were built-up post-WW2 order? lol
Whether you guys like it or not, Western puppets have always been prosperous free countries and Eastern puppets like Iran have always been shit holes where people were oppressed and could hardly make their ends meet even for basic needs.