The endgame is just around the corner, the grand finale to the decades long squeeze which accelerated post October 7. Courtesy to the gerontocratic and highly corrupted mouthbreathers in Tehran as they ran their country in purely reactive and indolent sleepyhead modus for years - slacking in every sector and expecting adversaries to be as retarded to boot. Especially the Israelis just ran circles around them and here we are.
The ayatollahs managed to simultaneously squander Iran's geostrategic deterrence, run its resource rich economy into the ground, have its ideology rot away, alienate its young and talented, and mismanage diplomacy to such an extent that Iran is now isolated on world stage. That last achievement is a feat noteworthy even on this list, because due to its geostrategic location Iran is vital in the national security of several regional and global powers yet noone in Tehran has thought about working these vulnerabilities hence they ended up thrown around like a ragdoll with noone willing to step up.
The Islamic Republic's fate is now in the hands of outsiders and adversaries, a conclusion which directly translates to the total failure of the 55 year Khomeinist project and its contemporary stewards. Shoutout to the cranks who forecasted the opposite, 'strategic patience all the way bro if you let your enemies dissect you you will win bro, just wait for da West to collapse bro, 9D chess 'n shiii'. That section of slopmerchants is currently back with a vigor in all information spheres - including CiK, pushing the next hopium laced tranquilizers for likes and short term feel good vibes.
This round is going to end similarly to those before, aka with either a strategic or total defeat of the ayatollahs. Obviously that also means that many lowbrow and emotionally invested kooks will reactivate to gaslight their low info readership into believing the opposite. Yet Iran's clerical and military ruling class can't budge much more, meaning that this is a battle for its survival and potentially the end of the line. Judging by Tehran's past and current unwillingness and inability to mend ties, overhaul its diplomatic focal points, drop the Palestine/ Road to al Qods LARP, and impose social+ economic reforms domestically, there are two scenarios possible for the IR. Neither is positive.
In the first scenario the ayatollahs manage to survive the coming onslaught and ride out in skeleton mode for another 3-5-7 years. In this timeframe Tehran's ideology and economy will rot away further, after which it eventually collapse due to a legitimacy and economic crisis anyway. The second scenario is an immediate collapse within the next 6 months, stirred up by both internal and external forces and culminating in the ayatollahs fleeing and Iran doing a 180 degree turn in diplomatic standing, and potentially entering a period of internal warfare.
