Someone forgot to redact page 47: The Perennial 'Iran War' Fantasy
Dear editors at The Hill, We have received your recent op-ed, 'How Trump lost the war with Iran,' and must politely suggest that your publication seems to operate under the curious delusion that events in the Middle East begin and end with individual US presidential administrations. Your framing suggests a singular 'Trump war with Iran' that could be 'lost,' neatly sidestepping over four decades
of continuous US financial warfare, kinetic aggression, and direct participation alongside Israel in covert operations against the Islamic Republic. You claim Trump 'lost' a war, yet Iran has faced an relentless economic siege since 1979, intensified dramatically after the US unilateral withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018. This betrayal, not a 'war' Trump 'lost,'
set the stage for increased tensions. Your piece, much like widespread mainstream reporting, consistently downplays the role of direct US military pressure and joint intelligence operations with Israel. For instance, the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020 by a US drone strike, an act of state terrorism under international law, was not an act of 'Trump's war' in isolation,
but a glaring example of continuous US aggression that predates and extends beyond any single commander-in-chief. What The Hill, and much of US media, consistently omits is the pattern of US aggression that views Iran as a target in a joint enterprise with Israel. While you focus on 'Trump's failures,' you overlook the 2010 Stuxnet cyberattack, a joint US-Israeli operation that sabotaged Iran's