“The new leaders are establishment actors: pragmatic, hardened nationalists operating with a clear-eyed assessment of Iran’s capabilities and vulnerabilities.”
Such write “professors”
@vali_nasr and
@nargesbajoghli about the new leadership of the Islamic Republic in their new propaganda… sorry… “article” in
@ForeignAffairs.
It couldn’t be further from the truth.
First of all, using the term “nationalist” to describe I.R. leaders is completely misleading. The regime leaders have continuously shown that the only thing they don’t care about is the national interests of Iran. They have consistently put their own interests above those of the country and have created an extraction economy that uses Iran’s vast resources—material and human—to fill their own pockets.
This is not nationalism.
This is oligarchic thievery and ideological colonialism imposed on Iran by a ruling class that sees the country not as a nation to be developed, but as a territory to be exploited.
A nationalist government seeks to maximize the prosperity, security, dignity, and power of its people.
What exactly has the Islamic Republic done?
- It presided over one of the largest brain drains in modern history.
- It turned one of the most resource-rich nations on earth into an economic basket case.
- It squandered hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign adventures while millions of Iranians struggled to afford meat, medicine, and housing.
- It destroyed Iran’s currency.
- It destroyed Iran’s environment.
- It destroyed trust between state and society.
- And it has systematically driven away many of the very people most capable of building the country.
Furthermore, to call these thieves “pragmatic” requires a breathtaking disregard for the historical record.
Pragmatic leaders do not spend decades pursuing ideological projects that leave their country isolated, sanctioned, poorer, weaker, and increasingly dependent on foreign powers.
Pragmatic leaders do not antagonize much of the world while simultaneously claiming victimhood for the consequences.
Pragmatic leaders do not sacrifice generations of economic development to preserve the privileges of a small ruling elite.
The I.R. has often been tactical…
It has often been ruthless…
It has often been adaptive...
But adaptive is not the same as pragmatic.
A bank robber who changes getaway cars is adaptive. He is not pragmatic.
The regime’s leadership has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice Iran’s long-term national interests whenever those interests conflict with the preservation of the system itself.
And that is the central deception embedded in sentences like the one above.
By describing regime insiders as “pragmatic nationalists,” the authors attempt to present the Islamic Republic as merely another state pursuing ordinary national interests.
It is not.
The central political struggle in Iran today is precisely that the interests of the regime and the interests of the Iranian nation have diverged.
The freedom movement led by
@PahlaviReza and
@NoorPahlavi is not confronting a group of misunderstood nationalists... no!
It is confronting an entrenched ruling class whose survival depends on preventing the emergence of a normal, prosperous, accountable nation-state.
The Iranian people are the nationalists.
The regime is what stands in their way.
@vali_nasr I challenge you to a debate on this matter... name the time and place.