Baffled by a lack of results from their first attempt at delivering a crippling blow against Iran, Washington-based pro-war think tanks are again advocating for another war and are still hanging onto illusions that led to the failures of the 12-day war.

Upon attacking Tehran in June, the Israeli media immediately began bragging about achieving a blow against the Islamic Republic in 6-minutes that took a week to achieve against Hezbollah. From there, they almost immediately moved to weaponize their puppet who they brand a “Crown Prince,” the son of the deposed Iranian Shah.

While the major assassination campaign against the senior leadership of Lebanese Hezbollah managed to inflict an undeniable blow on the resistance Party, changing power dynamics within Lebanon and achieving a series of tactical victories, when the Israelis attempted the same strategy with Iran it fell completely flat. Assassinating generals and nuclear scientists, many of them in densely populated civilian neighbourhoods, actually achieved the very opposite of their intended goals.

Losing such scientists and military officials is always going to be a blow to any nation, in Iran’s case in particular to the nuclear program, but it is by no means an irreparable one. In fact, within hours the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) replaced its leaders and began working to get their air defenses back online, while preparing a military response to the Zionist aggression.

Without spending too much time on the details of what transpired during the 12-day war, what was clear was the Israeli-US intent to trigger civil unrest inside of Iran, a plot that failed spectacularly. One of the pillars of this plan was to trigger protests using the speeches of the deposed Shah’s son, yet nothing happened, as the offspring of the Monarch grew more and more frustrated in each speech he released. The effort, which we now know was promoted by Israeli paid bots and fake accounts on social media, ended up embarrassing the aspiring puppet opposition leader.

As if they have learned nothing, the Washington-based think tanks are again advocating more war, but appear to be so consumed by their own bubble worlds that they are again claiming the Iranian public assume positions that there is simply no basis for us to believe.

Take for example a recent piece published by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank website, entitled “Iranians Are Not Rallying Behind the Islamic Republic”. The article provides an analysis of Iranian public opinion that simply draws on biased conclusions, not citing authoritative data, polls, nor facts on the ground that have demonstrated what is being communicated. It is as if the entire article is written in a fantasy land.

Meanwhile, the likes of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and others have been pushing the line that another attack on Iran’s nuclear program is preferable, yet this must be done with the intention of it being a last war, at least for the foreseeable future, one that achieves the desired goals of the Zionist Entity.

See, when it comes to Iran, a very specific echo chamber has taken shape— one built over decades of lies and a lack of any critical nuance. It has shaped the minds of many analysts to the point where orientalist and colonial slave-master-style thinking has clouded judgement. This kind of arrogance now appears to be in overdrive, especially with the Trump administration in power. 

We saw their mistakes stemming from this tendency to undermine regional players and populations, however, perhaps the most glaringly obvious case was when they were caught with their pants down by Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, naively believing they could permanently sideline the rights of Palestinians.

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In Lebanon, US envoy Tom Barrack has recently made rather revealing comments about how he views the nature of the region, Arabs in general, what he describes as their lack of an ability to comply, labelling reporters as animalistic and urging them to be civilized, while also jokingly stating that Washington arms the Lebanese Army to fight its own people. In neighboring Syria, he also gets to behave however he wants, due to the current regime being led by political amateurs who are total puppets.

This arrogance is born out of dealing with the lowest forms of Arab leaders and Arab collaborators who possess IQ’s in the double digits. It is also due to the fact that large portions of the Arab nations populations have in fact been manipulated into fighting each other, or are effectively distracted by material goods granted to them by their Western overlords. The US-EU-UK-Zionist alliance has also succeeded in their agenda to allow the spread of Takfiri ideology that has polluted the minds of Muslims.

In addition to this, the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance has indeed made mistakes and suffered significant setbacks since October 7, 2023. All of this combined has driven a vengeful and damaged Israeli leadership, to the point of seeking to fast track strategies which it previously sought to achieve over decades. On the other hand, the US and their Western allies appear to be getting carried away with the successes they have achieved.

Specifically, when it comes to the Western-Israeli takes on Iran, there is also another key element that contributes to their current way of thinking: The Iranian diaspora. These Iranians, many of whom also still have relatives in Iran, who are themselves part of very specific bubbles, are helping to shape the US-Israeli understanding of Iranian society. Yet, their views are often shaped largely by Voice of America, BBC Persian or Iran International.

In essence, the Israelis and the Western governments fund propaganda that educates a portion of the Iranian population to their desired way of thinking, then they turn around and receive their “on the ground” and “Iranian public” understanding from the views that originated in “Tel Aviv” and Washington to begin with. 

This is not to say that when they speak of the “Iranian people”, these descriptions don’t represent a portion of them, they most certainly do, as is the case when these think tanks and politicians speak of the “Lebanese people”. Yes, there are many people who have been effectively brainwashed, but this is not an accurate assessment representing the entire society, nor an indicator of how they may react when you commit military action against their country.

What ends up happening is that the racism and orientalist discourse of these Western-Israeli elites, dictates their policy decisions. Just look at the ridiculous plots against Gaza and how they consistently pump money into projects that almost immediately fail, or are destined to collapse, as a prime example of this.

All of this is to pose the question: What do they think they are going to achieve exactly? Short of a permanent occupation and oppression of the peoples of the entire region, how are their actions sustainable and even if they were to succeed in their goals, how long is it until the people stand up and resist once again? Even in the case of Syria, where it will likely take years for that broken nation to revive itself, do they truly believe that the people who are rooted in such an ancient civilization and rich culture will never stand up?

In the case of Iran… Sure, the Israelis may succeed in carrying out more assassinations, using agents to carry out intelligence operations, acts of sabotage, causing unrest and utilizing hybrid warfare tactics. But what exactly is the end goal here? 

In one breath, the Israeli and American leaderships are bragging about destroying Iran’s nuclear program and taking out its ability to produce missiles, then in the next breath stress the need to strike these targets again; a tacit admission that they failed at both achieving objectives last time. So let’s say they carry out more assassinations, strike more nuclear sites and missile facilities, the results will mirror the last war, which Iran managed to finish by delivering the final blows.

Will they now adopt a strategy of seeking to destroy Iran’s oil, water and electrical infrastructure, desperately hoping that the damage will create a “perfect storm”, along with sanctions, which will achieve a Syria style regime change? If they attempt this, the results would be catastrophic for them. In reality, the Israelis failed to defeat Hezbollah and the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, they failed to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme and cripple the Islamic Republic, both the Americans and the Israelis also failed against Ansarallah in Yemen.

It is true that blows have been dealt to this Axis of Resistance, that much is undeniable, but this is a prolonged regional war, during which such blows are expected. Yet, this long desired “total victory” that Benjamin Netanyahu speaks of, is nowhere to be seen. Morale has indeed been damaged amongst the supporters of the resistance, but this is not a reflection of a total defeat. This war is very much ongoing and will eventually lead to the strategic defeat of one side. The arrogance of the Israelis and the US appears to indicate that they are once again overstepping.