I have to ask something that should not be controversial, but somehow is.

If we take the lower end of the estimates—around 4,000 Iranians killed since January 2026 for opposing their own government—and place that in proportion to population, the number becomes something else entirely.

Iran has roughly 90 million people. The United States has about 340 million. Adjust for scale, and we are looking at the equivalent of roughly 15,000 Americans deliberately killed by their own government for having the wrong opinion.

(Scaled to Israel, that same conservative estimate would mean roughly 350–400 Israelis killed by your own government for dissent.)

Just imagine that for a moment. Fifteen thousand people!

Not in a distant war. Not in some ambiguous fog of conflict. Not as unintended casualties. But singled out—tracked, detained, executed or killed in custody—for dissent.

That is the scale we are talking about, even using the most conservative numbers.

And this likely understates reality. Estimates vary. Some are significantly higher. Documentation in such environments is always incomplete, always contested,........

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