As our president threatens to erase civilizations, tells the Pope what Christianity is about, and shares AI images of himself as Jesus, it’s important to remember what’s happening in Iran is a real war with real victims, something easy to lose sight of amid all the absurdity.
A first-person account in al Jazeera reminds us of the human and animal suffering caused by war. Even when people aren’t physically impacted, the mental strain of living in a city under attack is considerable, and their poor animals have no idea what’s going on.
One thing you’ll rarely see on American networks is an acknowledgement that the vast majority of Iranians are just like us.
Before the war, they had open access to an uncensored internet. Despite the oppressive theocratic government, it’s easy for Iranians to get TV networks from outside their country. The Iranian regime was never as adept at controlling information as some of its contemporaries.
The people of Iran are overwhelmingly secular, fully aware of what’s happening, and they have long been sick of their government.
For them it must be a Farenheit 451 moment, watching footage of the bombing while explosions rumble around them. Survival is down to luck. The missile you see streaking toward your city on TV could be the one that hits your apartment building.
To remind us of what’s happening where the bombs are landing, here’s Sana, a 27-year-old woman from Tehran, describing the first night of the war:
“Seven or eight more explosions followed. They were bombing near Mehrabad airport, close to us. I genuinely thought I was going to die.
When I finally went back upstairs, my cat was hiding in the wardrobe, trembling. My family and boyfriend had been calling and texting, without response, for hours, watching the news reports about strikes near the airport and imagining the worst.“
I recommend reading the rest, if for nothing else than to be reminded that Sana is so normal, so much like us.
Header image of Tehran under attack at night via Wikimedia Commons
Pain In The Bud 
The “like” of course, is for your coverage of the story. I never “like”, or approve of any attacks, anywhere.
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I would never think that of you, Leah.
As for this story, it humanizes the people our “leaders” write off as collateral damage. We need more of that.
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I have been unhappy with bombing Iran. Americans will now have a terrible reputation as warlike people who enjoy killing innocent civilians. I feel sick about the 120 schoolgirls who died in the bombing of their school. I wish we’d just try to negotiate with Iranian leaders. At some point there may be retaliation. This war is what my 7th grade teacher called “actin’ ugly”. I wish we would just end the war now before there’s more death and destruction.
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Our Founding Fathers would be rolling over in their graves if they could see what a grotesque society of warmongers and ideological lemmings we’ve become, to the detriment of the world.
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The orange savior did not do this to help the people of Iran. Let’s get that straight. And like i said before, no one thinks about animals in the times of war. Nor do they care about children. You just have to look at the past. Nothing has changed. I was looking at that vile human Oppenheimer saying he did not care if his bomb hurt or killed innocent victims. Him saying that in a documentary.
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