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Kragdar

@kragdar.bsky.social

Lawyer & observer of the Middle East / West Asia. فارسی بلدم; biraz Azərbaycanca.

1,566 Followers  |  814 Following  |  2,242 Posts  |  Joined: 07.02.2025  |  2.5913

Latest posts by kragdar.bsky.social on Bluesky


اینجا راحت‌تر می‌تونم حرف بزنم. بابت همین حرف زدن تو جنگ یک سری از دوستامو از دست دادم والان هم یک سری دیگه. قلبم خیلی سنگینه. از فکر اینکه اونا اونجا دارن اماده می‌شن برای جنگ، برای بی ‌آبی و بی‌برقی و قطع ارتباط، برای بمب و مرگ... الهی بمیرم. کاش حداقل بتوم پیشتون باشم.

27.02.2026 22:34 — 👍 20    🔁 1    💬 2    📌 0

Can we have him instead of RP

27.02.2026 18:59 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

This is a beautiful project that helps kids who definitely need it. Please give what you can if you can

27.02.2026 13:44 — 👍 5    🔁 5    💬 1    📌 0
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At the same time, I can’t stand to think of the many thousands killed in cold blood. I don’t know what the answer is. How do we even begin to address it? I fear the only response the “international community“ is capable of is more blood and sacrifice, with no plausible end.

25.02.2026 14:23 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I have mixed feelings about sharing it because the primary conclusion of the piece is a call for vague support from the international community—a call I know is heard as a call for bombs. And certainly, many in Iran are so hopeless they’re willing to risk it.

25.02.2026 14:23 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Roxana Saberi and Fatemeh Jamalpour, Iranian journalists who’ve been held prisoner in Iran, have a piece in the NYT today surveying dozens Iranian doctors and nurses about what they saw the weekend of Jan. 9-11. Young men, elderly people, children among those blinded, wounded, and killed.

25.02.2026 14:23 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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They literally suggest it could be Al Qaeda, I almost didn’t believe it either

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/22/u...

23.02.2026 03:18 — 👍 19    🔁 2    💬 4    📌 0

“Nasrallah Abu Siyam is at least the seventh American killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers in the West Bank since October 7. No one has been arrested in any of the cases. No one has been held accountable.”

23.02.2026 00:54 — 👍 63    🔁 33    💬 0    📌 0

Thinking about when I was a refugee caseworker and nice liberal folks would call us asking if they could host a Ukrainian family. When told there weren't any available for rent, but they could host a Congolese or Afghan family instead, we never heard from them again. This happened a lot! Like, A LOT

22.02.2026 19:44 — 👍 189    🔁 37    💬 0    📌 1

As always I am talking to myself and an audience of maybe 4 other people. This is mostly self-soothing diaspora nonsense. People in Iran are dealing with real problems.

21.02.2026 20:25 — 👍 8    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

What seems hard for Iranians to accept is that some of us are in fact quite conservative, religious, and Muslim. Is it a majority—especially now—and should this majority impose their personal beliefs through violence? Obviously not. But denying their existence is not a path forward for Iran.

21.02.2026 20:23 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

I think it makes a lot of Iranians feel better to blame foreigners. Iran has been subject to repeated foreign intervention, after all. But the people in charge of us are Iranians, backed by various foreign powers at various points in time.

21.02.2026 20:23 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

There is a long history of Iranians pretending the Islamic Republic is some kind of foreign force. My grandma used to say that Khomeini came from India. Others say ‘79 was Russia or the CIA. It is true France sheltered him and he flew in on Air France. But the IRI is Iranian!

21.02.2026 20:23 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

هموطن های عزیز
The foreign intervention you want to sign up for will likely mean decades of foreigners controlling and commenting on your affairs. It will not be limited to foreigners who agree with you.

21.02.2026 20:16 — 👍 8    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Iranians inviting foreign intervention and then getting mad when foreigners comment on their affairs <<<<<

20.02.2026 21:21 — 👍 17    🔁 1    💬 2    📌 1

I am in the position of having family in Iran and family in the military and I do not find this article particularly sympathetic.

21.02.2026 17:55 — 👍 8    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
Preview
Missed Funerals and Blocked Toilets: Iran Deployment Takes a Toll on U.S. Sailors The lengthy mission of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is causing strains for the crew members and their families.

Not sure this country is ready for a war if people in the military are upset about missing trips to Disney World and Busch Gardens

21.02.2026 17:54 — 👍 7    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
Preview
What if it works? The Trump administration has been steadily assembling a vast armada of airpower in the Gulf, ostensibly to apply pressure on Iran during negotiations.  While the administration has been urging Iranian...

“I would like to not see the region dragged further into the hellmouth…After the videos for the administration's social media has been posted and victory declared, Trump will move on to the next thing. But [we] will be living with the carnage for years.”

abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/what-if-it-w...

20.02.2026 19:11 — 👍 6    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 1

🔴 NEW: Citing sources in direct contact with military planners, Jeremy Scahill told Democracy Now the U.S. is weighing two  military scenarios for Iran: a “Libya scenario,” using U.S. airpower for regime change and allowing chaos and civil war to follow, or a “Venezuela scenario,” seeking to decapitate Iran’s leadership and make deals with lower echelons within the Iranian state.

Scahill also discussed how Trump, who is amassing major naval and air power in striking distance, including the USS Gerald Ford joining the USS Abraham Lincoln, is pressing Iran toward sweeping concessions on its missile program and regional alliances. 

Iranian officials are signaling retaliation would no longer be calibrated, with tens of thousands of U.S. troops in the region potentially within range.

@jeremyscahill
 | 
@democracynow

🔴 NEW: Citing sources in direct contact with military planners, Jeremy Scahill told Democracy Now the U.S. is weighing two military scenarios for Iran: a “Libya scenario,” using U.S. airpower for regime change and allowing chaos and civil war to follow, or a “Venezuela scenario,” seeking to decapitate Iran’s leadership and make deals with lower echelons within the Iranian state. Scahill also discussed how Trump, who is amassing major naval and air power in striking distance, including the USS Gerald Ford joining the USS Abraham Lincoln, is pressing Iran toward sweeping concessions on its missile program and regional alliances. Iranian officials are signaling retaliation would no longer be calibrated, with tens of thousands of U.S. troops in the region potentially within range. @jeremyscahill | @democracynow

🔴 NEW: Citing sources in direct contact w/ military planners, Jeremy Scahill told Democracy Now the US is weighing 2 military scenarios for Iran: a “Libya scenario,” using US airpower for regime change & allowing chaos & civil war to follow, or a “Venezuela scenario,” seeking to decapite Iran's...

20.02.2026 23:23 — 👍 54    🔁 36    💬 3    📌 6

“why do you lock replies” people don’t realize that the kind of entitlement they have towards interacting with a stranger is a new phenomenon and the internet incentivizes a certain level of anti social behavior one should have the agency to spare oneself from

20.02.2026 18:48 — 👍 2732    🔁 587    💬 82    📌 1
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خانم مونه از قلب آمریکا معتقده بعد از نجات ایران از راه دور، مادر داغدار دانیال برکتی دیگه در اون سرزمین جایی نداره. همین‌قدر پلشت…
کاش پای هیچکدوم‌تون هیچ وقت به ایران نرسه. کاش این آرزوهای کثیف‌تون رو با خودتون به گور ببرید.

20.02.2026 19:21 — 👍 21    🔁 2    💬 2    📌 1

وضعیت مردم ایران: پدر صدرا سلطانی می‌گه هفت ماه پیش خونه‌شون رو اسراییل زده و صدرا به طرز معجزه‌واری خونه نبوده و نجات پیدا کرده ولی در اعتراضات دی ماه توسط جمهوری اسلامی کشته شده‌. اینها رو اگه در کتاب می‌خواندیم می‌گفتیم اینهمه ستم ممکن نیست و تخیلیه‌.

20.02.2026 16:32 — 👍 78    🔁 10    💬 0    📌 0

Why am I on Bluesky when I could just talk to my uncle. It’s too bad they banned the other Iranian voices on here, but luckily I have other uncles with clashing perspectives so I get to hear it all in real life too.

20.02.2026 21:49 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The predictable Iranian diaspora responses to the original post so far have been personal insults, accusing them of being an Islamic Republic agent, and claims the IRI is not even Iranian anyways so destroying refineries, which are also worthless (?), doesn’t matter.

20.02.2026 21:47 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

I agree most non-Iranians won’t have Iranian interests at heart, that’s why I don’t want them there in the first place

20.02.2026 21:24 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Beast mode as @diplomatofnight.com would say

20.02.2026 21:21 — 👍 12    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

Iranians inviting foreign intervention and then getting mad when foreigners comment on their affairs <<<<<

20.02.2026 21:21 — 👍 17    🔁 1    💬 2    📌 1

I wish as Iranians we had a better understanding of our neighbors if only for self-interest to understand how similarly they felt to us now in 2001-2003.

20.02.2026 21:04 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Worse, it's really SMART.
When/if Trump gets knocked out of power, the tech billionaires behind him will still keep theirs. Because they are also bankrolling Trump's opposition. In early 2026, they have the California Democratic Party on retainer.

17.02.2026 23:18 — 👍 426    🔁 83    💬 12    📌 7

I only listen to his MENA/foreign policy episodes so idk. But it also strikes me that he seems to have a genuine moral belief about the whole matter and people being killed, a fear of hell, that sets him apart. At least he is good at pretending he does. Don’t see that on the left or right either.

20.02.2026 19:52 — 👍 8    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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