A Sense of Nationalism Grows in Iran in Defiance of Deadly US-Israeli Attacks |
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“This is all being read inside of Iran as a war on the Iranian people.” As oil prices threaten to spike to $200 a barrel amid Iran’s pressure campaign against the U.S. and its allies, professor Narges Bajoghli returns to Democracy Now! with an update on the war on Iran and its place in the modern history of U.S.-Iran relations. Bajoghli explains how the combination of harsh sanctions and an insidious propaganda campaign has created a deep political divide within Iran and its diaspora, as Iranians are stuck between theocratic governance and the prospective return of the U.S.-backed monarchy.
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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
As the U.S. and Israel war on Iran enters its 13th day, the war is escalating on a number of fronts. Iran has accused the U.S. and Israel of targeting civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals. Attacks have reportedly forced 12 Iranian hospitals to halt services. Earlier today, Israel announced it had hit a nuclear site outside of Tehran that Iran has long claimed was used for civilian purposes.
Meanwhile, a preliminary Pentagon report confirms the U.S. was responsible for last week’s missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed 168 children and 14 teachers. The Pentagon said outdated data from the Defense Intelligence Agency likely led to the strike. The Pentagon is also investigating whether the mistake was connected to the military’s use of artificial intelligence. The Washington Post recently revealed the military is relying heavily on a system created by Palantir designed to help with real-time targeting and target prioritization. The system, known as Maven, using the AI tool Claude made by Anthropic.
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On Wednesday, President Trump was asked about the school strike.
REPORTER: A new report says that the military investigation has found that the United States struck the school in Iran. As commander-in-chief, do you take responsibility for that? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That is what? What did you — REPORTER: As commander-in-chief, do you — PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: For what? REPORTER: For the strike on the school in Iran. A new report says the military investigation has found it was the United States that struck the school. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know about it.
REPORTER: A new report says that the military investigation has found that the United States struck the school in Iran. As commander-in-chief, do you take responsibility for that?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That is what? What did you —
REPORTER: As commander-in-chief, do you —
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: For what?
REPORTER: For the strike on the school in Iran. A new report says the military investigation has found it was the United States that struck the school.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know about it.
AMY GOODMAN: Later on Wednesday, President Trump held a rally in Kentucky in the district of Republican Congressmember Thomas Massie, a vocal Trump critic. Trump claimed the U.S. has already won the war in Iran.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And we’ve won. Let me say, we’ve won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the bet — in the first hour, it was over.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And we’ve won. Let me say, we’ve won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the bet — in the first hour, it was over.
AMY GOODMAN: Despite Trump’s victory claim, Iran has attacked three more ships in the Gulf, including two tankers off the coast of Iraq. Iran has also targeted fuel tanks at a facility in Bahrain. The attacks sent the cost of oil back over $100 a barrel, up over 30% since the war began.
We’re joined now by Narges Bajoghli, associate professor of anthropology and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, or SAIS. She’s the co-author of How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare. Professor Bajoghli is also the author of Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic.
Thanks so much, Professor, for coming back on to Democracy Now! Why don’t you start off by talking about your latest New York Magazine piece, in which you talk about the new divisions among Iranians that no longer fall along the old political lines of monarchist versus leftist?
NARGES BAJOGHLI: Yeah, so, what has been happening among........