On the 26th of October last month, at 2:30 am, Israel launched an attack on Iran, an event that had been widely anticipated around the world. I had predicted this attack in my previous column for the last days of October, and it unfolded exactly as expected. Iran had launched an attack on Israel on October 1st. Following this, the retaliatory strike by Israel logically fell on October 26, if five days were subtracted from the 31 days of October. Israel conducted this attack on Tehran and two other Iranian cities, with the assaults continuing from 2:30 am until 5 am. According to Iranian media, the Israeli attack was thwarted with a prompt counter-response.
A few hours after this attack, the calmness among the citizens of Tehran was evident as an elderly man was seen sitting by a wall playing the violin. The imperialist media and their followers have long propagated that Iran is under severe religious oppression, so how could such open and public violin-playing exist? This kind of freedom is common in places like Isfahan and other Iranian cities. The daily life in Tehran remained undisturbed following the Israeli attack. The common people were not anxious or panicked; life went on as usual. This is indeed an astonishing reality, as both Iranian leadership and the public firmly believe that resistance is the most powerful weapon a nation or people can wield.
A Jewish journalist, Mr. Moshe, remarked on social media that the attack proved Iran’s defense was strong. The imperialist propaganda was so intense that following Iran’s attack on Israel, news spread that Ayatollah Khamenei had moved to a secure location to avoid an Israeli strike. In response, Ayatollah Khamenei announced that he would lead Friday prayers at the historic Tehran University. Imagine, in just two days’ notice, between 1 to 1.2 million people gathered at this historic site without any fear, where Khamenei led the Friday prayers after five years, effectively ending this piece of propaganda.
The question here is, how does the Iranian nation remain so strong and united despite 45 years of severe economic and other sanctions? Why has the Iranian nation not succumbed despite such severe external and internal attacks from American imperialism and its allies? At the onset of the Iranian revolution, the U.S. tried to sabotage it through its agents, even bombing the entire Iranian Parliament. A nation whose leadership has the full support of its people cannot be defeated by any imperialist power. When justice prevails, miracles begin to happen. The developed nations of the West have understood this secret and have granted their citizens all sorts of rights.
Conversely, to keep other nations backward and enslaved, American imperialism imposed rulers on these nations who, to protect their interests and those of the imperialists, created a system where the people felt unsafe not just outside but even inside their homes. Under such conditions, a nation falls prey to chaos and division. In such circumstances, the principle of “might is right,” akin to the law of the jungle, takes over. The collective immune system of such a society becomes so weak that it succumbs to sectarianism, racial, ethnic, and linguistic prejudices, leading to its demise.
When such a situation arises, it produces a significant number of intellectuals who take pride in turning their pens into tools for submission. Transforming truth into lies and vice versa becomes second nature for them. This severe malady spreads from the ruling classes down to the lower classes, causing the collective conscience of the nation to perish.
Eventually, such a nation becomes a complete slave to internal and external imperialist forces, leading to an end marked by terrorism and civil war. The Pakistani nation has also gone through all these stages and is now at the final phase, which began with the assassinations of Quaid-e-Azam, Liaquat Ali Khan, Fatima Jinnah, Bhutto, and Benazir. Instead of acknowledging the legitimate demands of the Bengalis, they were subjected to oppression, forcing them to secede. Breaking Pakistan thus laid the first stone of transformation in the Middle East.
Why was this done? It was all aimed at taking control of the Middle East. This was a victory for American imperialism and the capitalist system, achieved after over seventy years of continuous scheming. However, as soon as the Soviet Union fell, another formidable challenge emerged that American imperialism has been unable to overcome despite 45 years of relentless effort. Otherwise, the region from the Middle East to Pakistan would have been transformed beyond recognition long ago.