Specifically, the US federal government. Just like most Americans don’t hate the people of Russia or Iran any more than the folks the next town over, I’ve never met someone from Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, or pretty much anywhere else who hates all Americans. I’m sure they exist, but probably as a small minority. There’s plenty of reason to hate our government though, especially if it has threatened to destroy your entire civilization.

I don't know about the percentage of the population, but everyone who leaves Iran and learns English (or German) is much less likely to be a fan of the Iranian regime than those who never left Iran in the first place, so you'll definitely have a sampling bias.

That doesn’t mean they will become fan of either the U.S. or Israeli regimes.

Growing up in the Southern US, I met plenty "Let's bomb all the savages in the Middle Easy and take their oil" types. Some of them grew up to be self-proclaimed Nazis.

That's ignorance on top of brainwashing. If they had met the people from those countries they would drop such mindset in 30 seconds.

I'm not sure I agree. Given that the area in question here is the southern United States, and considering that racism is alive and well there, indeed with people groups they have met (and who speak English), I'm not convinced that exposure to non-whites speaking Farsi will somehow fix their attitude.

These people are racist against non-whites living in their own communities, whom they have spent their entire lives with. Meeting a dark-skinned stranger in a turban is a chance for them to confirm and bolster their biases, not to reduce them.

And even if they go through some kind of traumatic experience with a stranger from the Middle East and call them friend, it wouldn't stop the racism. I know plenty of racists with "black friends" who will tell you all about how "there are black people, and then there are n**rs". Some of their black friends will even parrot this kind of propaganda.

That’s not the majority of the population of the country, though, is it?

What about the Iranians being targeted by drone with Russian help?

The same Russia that Trump can’t get enough of.

US government is invoking religion in its justification, US military command has prayer meetings, they call the attack on Iran “part of gods plan”

God's angels typically don't bomb your little girl's school.

All I'm saying is, I could see how someone who believes Satan influences the world would come to that idea.

God is documented as being rather keen on genocidal smiting. That is part of the exact problem. I googled two relevant examples:

  1: God commands King Saul: attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants

  2: When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they were often commanded to carry out total destruction against the Canaanite nations. "they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass"

I'm not into religion, but it has had a massive influence on my culture (NZ) so I pay some attention to it.

Holy books seem to be buffets that people just pick their favorite dishes from, for the most part. At least, in the western world. I can't speak to elsewhere.

The historical and religious context:

1. While approaching the land, the Amalekites had attacked them, preying on the weak. God had said that they would be destroyed. Now, probably partly as a test for their first king (he failed, didn’t eradicate them), God said, get on and do it.

2. God had promised the land to Abraham and his descendants, but said they’d only get it in four hundred years’ time, because “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete”—they still had time to choose God’s ways. Only once they were irredeemable were they to be destroyed.

That's from the old covenant. If you believe in Christianism the new covenant changes everything.

Lots of people who claim to be Christian still quote Leviticus as justification.

Not all of it, banning mixed fabrics (19:19) and having land ownership revert every 50 years including houses outside walled cities (25:31) and animal sacrifice (all of chapters 1 and 3) would reveal how disconnected such people are, possibly even to the speakers themselves, so it has to be selective.

Are you aware of what the US regime has done to Iran? There's a reason they say that.

Literally the devil. Not metaphorically a bunch of bastards, the actual devil. And not as performed by Tom Ellis.

There's a reason why I asked the guy.

And I asked him a few years ago now, so "what the US did" that the regime found objectionable has more to do with the US support for Israel and all the consequences of that than it has to do with any direct attacks by the USA against Iran; for direct action I think you might need to look at the 1979 revolution to undo the 1953 CIA- and MI6-backed coup?

Just because someone hates you and calls you the devil (or loves you and calls you an angel) doesn't mean they think you're literally the physical embodiment. Especially when you're not even a living being but a country or a government. I'm pretty darn sure you can assume it's a metaphor and that your coworker doesn't have evidence to the contrary.

What is more important than proclaimed words is to evaluate actions of the said government.

The Iranians have been pragmatic and relatively restrained, while USA and Israel have repeatedly escalated.

Iran has been helping USA dealing with Al Qaida in Afghanistan and Isis in Iraq. As a payback, they have been included into the 'Axis of Evil' and subjected to heavy sanctions. Just one of the cases...

Trust me, we, Ukrainians do mean that in relation to _anything_ that is to north-east of our country.

A good rule of thumb is to always say for yourself.

> Trust me, we, Ukrainians do mean that in relation to _anything_ that is to north-east of our country. A good rule of thumb is to always say for yourself.

Leaving aside that I am skeptical millions of Ukrainians sincerely believe the devil has been launching missiles at them from the northeast (regardless of what you write here)... it's rather hypocritical to speak for millions of Ukrainians and then tell me to only speak for myself, don't you think?

I think the issue is about our not believing what religious people themselves tell us about their reasoning

Hegseth reasons? I don’t see it.