Not many are sure of it being an Armageddon, but the war underway between Iran and Israel has led to a psychological divide. World public opinion has split for all times to come, and the Israel-US duo has blundered by attacking a sovereign state merely on the accusation that it is not ready for a deal on its uranium enrichment that was anyway far away from the standards of going lethal.
The ramifications that the Western interests shall face from pro-Iranian elements might be a telling tale to register in all adversity. This aggression and warmongering has also raised critical questions on Westphalian statehood as well as on the credibility of International Law in the 21st century, especially as diplomacy and alignment power politics takes a backseat.
The Iranian bluff is called. It is strategically unacceptable to believe that its military gear and command, supposed to be one of the best in the Middle East, collapsed like a house of cards, and that too on the premise of Israeli penetration into its edifice. The early few hours of death and destruction were directly stage-managed by pro-Zionist agents entrenched inside the Islamic Republic, and it is no less than a mortification.
The killing of Hamas chief, a state guest, inside Tehran in 2024; the blanket extermination of Hezbollah; and the mysterious assassination of President Ebrahim Raisi in a copter downing should have altered the clergy-dominated ruling elite. Perhaps there was a lack of introspection, and the convention as usual was to yell from the pulpit that the Jewish state is not worth a salt, and the Republic can crumble it down anytime.
A question that Iranian citizens and sympathisers are worthy of asking is: where is the so-called Al-Quds Force, and the massive galvanisation of IRGC for 'walking over' the occupied territories, if need be? What was the need for mass conscription of people from Pakistan and Arab states to fight the 'other's war' in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Syria, in in the name of annihilating Israel, as they all ended as fodder and the regular army too had to face a Pearl Harbour moment and literally capitulate?
Iran is a civilisation par-excellence, and its industrious people have braved everything to stand tall in their resilience. Their faux pas moment has been the repressive rule under which they have lived for the last four decades. The segregative rule — wherein the elected representatives were mere scapegoats and the real power rested with the unelected and controversial clergy, which is no more now a source of admiration for many — is at the root cause of all ills.
All indigenous movements for reforms, human rights and opening up to the world at large were dubbed as 'foreign ploys' and cornered. This is where power mechanics tilted extremely in the favour of IRGC Inc and a few unanswerable bigots should now take the blame.
Notwithstanding how Iran comes out of this existential crisis — as it fights on an enemy that is only 1.33% of its size, and whose entire geography is less than its Hamadan province — the point is Tehran is no longer immune. Iran's military might is checkmated, the people are in a quandary, and the ruling clergy-cum-IRGC elite is obsessed with sticking to power.
With escalation leading to a major transnational catastrophe as Iran closes the Hormuz, and Tel Aviv dismantling the nuclear sites as it did with Iraq and Libya, a progressive nation will be on the verge of extinction in terms of its sovereignty, geopolitical vitality and its very national identity.
This madness in governance solicits some intervention and that too from the people of Iran only. It's time for the Iranians to have a national government with all feathers of opinions in it. The clergy must take a backseat and let the sovereigns lead from the front. It would be more appropriate for the Supreme Leader to abdicate his authority to a council of wise men, and let the great nation win this moment for itself and the future of 90 million Iranians.
Iran truly needs a change from within, and the regime's deceit is now proven beyond doubt. It could not walk the talk. Iranians have shown great tenacity in this episode of Israeli aggression, and it's time they won on the home front too that is in a crisscross of decades.
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