Trump's framing of war as Iran's barbarism vs civilised West is a huge lie
Two conceptual fallacies lie at the heart of the illegal American-Israeli assault on Iran.
The first is the idea that Iran is a barbaric country, stuck in the Middle Ages, and incapable of fitting in with the modern world. As Trump put it when asked why striking Iranian bridges and power plants would not be a war crime. He replied: “They’re animals.”
The second mistake concerns the belief that the United States represents western civilisation.
In this article we subject these basic assumptions to scrutiny by examining the intellectual accomplishments and capacity of leading figures on both sides.
We show that Iran’s leadership is far more sophisticated, intelligent, literate and accomplished than Trump’s United States.
Let’s start with a comparison between Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s former supreme leader who was assassinated by the United States in the early hours of the war, and US President Donald Trump.
Khamenei was a Marja - an expert in Islamic jurisprudence in Twelver Shi’a Islam. The nearest British comparison might be king’s counsel or a high court judge.
The late supreme leader was also a superb linguist, fluent not just in his native Persian but also Arabic, Azeri and Turkish. He also knew a fair amount of English.
He was an enthusiast of Persian poetry but also read widely across western literature: Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, Dante Alighieri, John Steinbeck and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
In an interview he gave to Iran’s state-run television network in 2004, he stated: “In my opinion, Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables is the best novel that has been written.” Pretty good judgment.
Stark contrast
The contrast between Khamenei and the man who ordered his assassination is telling. Tony Schwartz, who ghostwrote Trump: The Art of the Deal, speculated that Trump had never read a single book in his adult life.
In Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Trump’s biographer, Michael Wolff, stated: “Some believed [during his first term in office] that for all practical purposes he was no more than semi-literate.”
The comparison between Dr Ali Larijani, Iran’s assassinated secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and his closest US counterpart, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is very telling. Hegseth did study at Princeton, one of the most celebrated universities. But his academic record simply does not match up to Larijan
Larijani obtained his PhD on Kantian mathematics and subsequently wrote three books on Kant.
Here’s Israeli journalist Gideon Lev on Larijani: "Even while serving in government over decades, he has never abandoned what appears to be his greatest passion: philosophy."
Lev called him "a brilliant thinker who combines, in an unusual way, a life of contemplation with a life of action - no small feat. In his writings, Larijani tries to defend the basic premises of his extreme religious worldview using the rules of western philosophy, and he often advances arguments that are genuinely thought-provoking."
The comparison between Larijani and the former Fox News presenter, drunkard and bigot Pete Hegseth is simply embarrassing.
Dr Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, got his PhD in political thought from the University of Kent. His doctoral thesis examines the intersection of western-style liberal democracy and Islamic governance. Intellectually he operates on a higher plane than his US counterpart, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is a denier of man-made climate change.
We now turn to an examination of the delinquent crop of White House or Trumpian publicists: Karoline Leavitt, Stephen Miller and Senator Lindsey Graham.
The nearest to an Iranian equivalent is Seyed Mohammad Marandi. Marandi, who one of us has known for nearly two decades, completed his doctorate on the poet Byron at the University of Birmingham, and now teaches English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran.
Unlike so many of the trivial people who flourish at the Trump White House, Professor Marandi has real-life experience, serving his country in the terrible Iran-Iraq War, during which he survived two chemical weapons attacks.
He has consistently offered far more coherent and accurate analysis of the likely course of the war on Iran than Trump's spokespeople.
The high intellectual calibre of the Iranian political leadership is a reflection on the Iranian education system.
Intellectual colossus
Educational standards were dreadful under the US-backed Shah. Since the Islamic revolution they have improved prodigiously. For example, the percentage of female STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) graduates exceeds the United States, according to figures from Unesco.
The Islamic Revolution in Iran led to a huge increase in women in higher education. Before the Islamic Revolution, most Iranian women and men were illiterate, whereas now, the vast majority can read and write. The youth female literacy rate rose from 42 percent before the revolution to 90.6 percent in 1996, according to Unesco.
Norman Finkelstein taught John Stuart Mill at the Imam Sadiq University in Iran, in 2014. He said: “It was a very satisfying teaching experience… The religious scholars were definitely very smart, and very serious.
"It was kind of Plato’s Republic, and this is the guardian Philosopher Kings, and you had a sense that these people took ideas very seriously, and you can have a good conversation with them."
Finkelstein recalled a conversation with a student who did not have a mobile phone: “I asked ‘why don't you own a cell phone?’, and he says, ‘why do you need a cell phone? All it enables you to do is to talk to people horizontally all around you, whereas if you read a book you can have a direct connection to God.’ And I thought that was pretty impressive. I don't hear young people saying things like that. It was […] a special moment.”
Of course, there are massive human rights violations in Iran, but it’s not the haven of backwardness that the US loves to depict.
Flawed analysis
Trump has called Iran “a nation of terror and hate”, and has said: “You're talking about a country that's been evil for 47 years.”
Asked about reports that the US had bombed a desalination plant in Iran, he responded: “They [the Iranians] are among the most evil people ever on earth."
In US and Israeli discourse, Iran is a monolithically evil country that represents the antithesis of civilisation.
We suggest that this flawed analysis helps to explain why the United States has been out-thought, outmanoevred and outclassed by the Iranians ever since the US and Israel launched their barbaric assault five weeks ago.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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