I find myself for want of words regarding the unknown unknowns in Iran, but there are some known unknowns. For example: how much attrition of his “popularity”will Trump tolerate before changing course.
If anything, the bombing is reinforcing the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy because of not- so-latent Iranian nationalism. As a friend Mateo Farzaneh says on You Tube, the regime has long been planning on this turn of events. Garden variety Iranians, not speaking here about Iranian-Americans, will bear the brunt of the attacks. This is a population which is desperate but, apart from a small group of insubordinates, culturally inclined to slavishness anyway. All that charming politeness is a sham, a cover for conformity.(Here I admit I am trespassing onto treacherous grounds of “national character.” But so be it.)
Another known unknown is that the Islamic Republic, however “barbaric,” is as “legitimate”’ as the American one, currently anyway. It is predicated on and defends a powerful current of Iranian life, Shiism. Iran, Like the US, is a deeply divided country. Many of those in exile or in migration tend to forget that fact, just as many of those in the US resistance like to forget that 30 % or so of Americans are religious, racist, what have you.
Add to this the proclivity of Shiism for martyrdom (also reflected in the self-sacrifice of the Iranian resisters), the savvy and experience and intelligenceof Iran’s regime (which has enabled it to prepare for twqhis war for decades) and you have the making of a genuine conflict, one which the forces of Good are not likely to win.
When Trump decides he has had enough,he may not be able to end this war. The Iranians have to agree. They won’t, or so I predict.
So I find myself, with regret — to echo Carney — not really pulling for the Islamic Republic, but respecting it. This makes me fearful for what will come.
As I age I find myself increasingly inclined
to conservative positions, though not
In the least attracted to the GOP, and indeed repelled by MAGA. All the more reason to follow DropSitenews https://www.dropsitenews.com.
One thing I know I don’t to conserve is willful ignorance of uncomfortable, unpleasant, awful even horrific fact.
Social truth is by definition false.
A writer, not an inditer.
Over the symphony of deep breaths and light snore composed by Nasrin and our cat floats my own bated respiration, as I lie awake contemplating the wonder of my own nervous system, running from the soggy lobes of my brain through the central and the autonomous and pyramidal skein of fibrius nenbranes all rge way to the tips of my fingers and toes. actually consisting of nexi of electrochemical reactions….
Nouvellle adresse en langue française, par occasion en d’autres. Fait suite à geogeoplots en Twitter / X.
It is a natural enough reaction for poets to command attention as special creatures, sensitive, etc…. But what if everyone was a poet. No special claims.