Commentary: Iranians, facing war, repression, and ruin, are not defined by their leaders
Regional stability hinges on credible deterrence and strategic partnerships with key allies.
The guest commentary leans hard on a comforting distinction: Iranians are not their leaders, so U. S. and Israeli pressure must be the real source of suffering.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
Guest Commentary Pegah Banihashemi More than a month into the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, ordinary Iranians are living under a double siege: external bombardment and internal repression. For some, this war has brought only fear — fear of what comes next, fear of whether basic life can continue, fear of how much more cities and families can [...] The post Commentary: Iranians, facing war, repression, and ruin, are not defined by their leaders appeared first on Itemlive .
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
The guest commentary leans hard on a comforting distinction: Iranians are not their leaders, so U.S. and Israeli pressure must be the real source of suffering. That framing tugs at the heart, but it skips past the central fact that Tehran built this crisis by exporting violence and betting its own people’s welfare on confrontation.
Conservatives can recognize the tragedy for ordinary Iranians while refusing to blur regime accountability. The Islamic Republic uses repression at home and proxies abroad because it believes the West will absorb the moral guilt and back off. That is not compassion. It is a strategy.
Policy should protect national security, uphold the rule of law, and keep public trust by targeting the regime’s capacity to threaten, not laundering its choices through sympathetic portraits. The principle at stake is simple: solidarity with a people does not require indulgence toward their rulers.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.