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Passages

(4,423 posts) Sun May 3, 2026, 08:49 AM Sunday

Tallying the losses in Trump's War on Iran

April 27, 2026 by Sanam Naraghi Anderlini

The two-week uneasy ceasefire between the United States, Israel and Iran was set to end Tuesday April 21, and holds tenuously as of publication. In the media reports of talks about talks and of concessions float, while Iranians inside and outside the country are taking it day by day. A video blogger from Tehran posts images of the city, saying “We breathe and gulp down the air, like a drowning man who surfaces briefly, knowing he will be subsumed again soon…We live the lives we never lived, knowing we may never live them.”

As the uneasy truce continues, commentators and analysts the world over focus on ‘who won’? As if the month of missiles and bombs barreling into homes and hospitals was a high-stakes football match, destined to have a winner and loser.

Wars are never so simple. They are fought on many fronts: the operational and strategic, the narrative and societal. On most levels, this war has surprised the world.

Keeping Score

snip Meanwhile the American President’s message was: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell”. As adversaries go, and given his rantings against the Iranian civilization, and the Pope, Donald Trump has proven to be the best enemy any country could wish for.
https://internationalpolicy.org/publications/keeping-score-iran-war/

3 replies

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Highlight:

Tallying the losses in Trump's War on Iran (Original Post) Passages Sunday OP

This was the nightmare scenario for me D_Master81 Sunday #1

The simplistic, cartoonish view of Iran and the "crazy Ayatollahs" who are not so crazy after all is challenged here. AloeVera Sunday #2

Thank you, it is well written, and informative. Passages Sunday #3

D_Master81

(2,651 posts)

1. This was the nightmare scenario for me

Reply to Passages (Original post)

Sun May 3, 2026, 08:58 AM

Sunday

Whenever Trump has been elected my biggest worry was him leading the country through war. He’s just not patient enough. He wants to win the news cycle and wars arent won that way.

AloeVera

(4,356 posts)

2. The simplistic, cartoonish view of Iran and the "crazy Ayatollahs" who are not so crazy after all is challenged here.

Reply to Passages (Original post)

Sun May 3, 2026, 09:39 AM

Sunday

The complexity, contradictions, nuances and challenges of Iran and its society are hard for Western minds to understand, making it easy to demonize for geopolitical purposes.

For decades, proponents of regime change in Iran pursued a narrative akin to a Hollywood political action thriller with caricature heroes and villains, espionage and warfare. But the story of Iran is a slow paced, nuanced human drama where right and wrong, good and evil coexist, merging and changing, challenging our perception with every turn. The enduring character is the Iranian soul, rooted in this ancient land, whose drive is to evolve and survive to absorb the good and the bad but never give up its inner essence. Centuries ago the Arabs brought Islam but Iran emerged with Shi’ism. The Moguls came as barbarians but transformed into lovers of Persian architecture and poetry. The Islamic Republic came but it too is being challenged-slowly and inside out. But if we follow the people’s lead, the change will come. Then, Iran, the nation and the civilization can claim victory.

For now, that dream is caught in the lungs of those who hold their breath from this day to the next, in equal measures of hope and dread.

Highly recommend reading the full article.

Passages

(4,423 posts)

3. Thank you, it is well written, and informative.

Reply to AloeVera (Reply #2)

Sun May 3, 2026, 09:43 AM

Sunday

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