Al-Monitor Discovers Iran Has 'Proxies,' Forgets US Has 'Allies'
Al-Monitor's report on how 'Iran proxies' are responding to protests abroad offers a familiar framing: everything bad in the Middle East stems from Tehran. The publication, whose founders include individuals with strong ties to former Israeli spymasters and whose content often aligns with Washington's geopolitical interests, rarely applies the same 'proxy' label to, say, the numerous Gulf states
heavily armed and supported by the US, or the governments installed through direct Western intervention. One might wonder why specific resistance groups are always 'proxies' when they challenge Western-backed narratives, but never 'freedom fighters' or 'sovereign actors' responding to generations of foreign meddling. This selective labeling strategy, a staple of foreign policy think tanks and
their media outputs, serves to delegitimize any geopolitical resistance not aligned with Washington or its allies. It conveniently erases the actual grievances – the US-led invasion of Iraq, the Saudi-led bombing of Yemen supported by US arms (which OpenSecrets.org data consistently shows is lobbied for by defense contractors and PACs contributing heavily to US politicians), or the ongoing
occupation of Palestine. The 'Iran proxy' narrative is a well-worn script, designed to simplify complex regional dynamics into a convenient good vs. evil binary, where 'evil' always serves US adversaries.