CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Several Truths at Once

Photograph Source: Tasnim News Agency – CC BY 4.0

Ask what ordinary Iranians think about the recent escalation and you’ll find little reliable information. Even a young Iranian in London may lower their voice and glance around.

The difficulty is that many Iranians appear to hold several truths at once: they oppose the Islamic Republic, fear foreign military intervention, resent sanctions, and long for ordinary lives. These positions are not contradictory. Outside Iran, they are often treated as though they are.

Whether Tehran closes not just one but two of the world’s most important maritime choke points is, for many ordinary Iranians, beside the point. Their own world has been narrowing for years.

Whether Iran really is working on a plan to assassinate Donald Trump, as Israel has alleged, is also of no immediate concern to most ordinary Iranians.

Whether a Chinese spy ship tails the USS Abraham Lincoln near Iran or not will mean little to most ordinary Iranians.

Researchers and journalists warn that even restricted social media has now become a battlefield, with coordinated propaganda, automated accounts, AI-generated images, fabricated videos, verbal lies, and impersonation campaigns making it impossible to know what is really going on there.

Yet beneath the fog, one refrain remains.

“It’s the people who are paying the price—whether our people or theirs.”

Reuters has recorded versions of this refrain again and again whenever it has been able to report from the country.

As one mother, returning to her home despite the danger, told the news organisation, “Even if there’s another attack, I’d rather die in my own home.”

Years of sanctions may have fostered a sense of resignation reminiscent of Iranian poet and filmmaker Forough Farrokhzad’s quiet lament: “I feel sad for the little garden.”

Imagine endless years of sanctions, soaring inflation, economic uncertainty, and recurring military crises.

Imagine the accompanying tyrannies of silence, torture, and the enduring presence of the bully as your adversary. Now........

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