Who will stand up for the Iranian people as death rains on them from the skies? | Nasrin Parvaz

"When Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu conspired to launch their war, it was not out of a desire to free the Iranian people from the tyranny of the regime. Netanyahu said on the second day of the war: This coalition of forces allows us to do what I have yearned to do for 40 years. He has named this operation Lion's Roar."

"If he were truly Iranian, he would express sorrow for the thousands of Iranian civilians who have died in this latest attack, including more than 150 schoolgirls who are now believed to have been killed by a US strike. He is more American than Iranian."

"We cannot judge the people in Iran raising the monarchist flag the same as those doing so outside the country. Some diaspora monarchists were once Islamic guards, and the US-Israeli war may bring them into power. Those in Iran experienced eight years of war with Iraq and know very well that war brings horror and death."

An Iranian survivor of regime imprisonment expresses anguish over US-Israeli military strikes on Iran, rejecting the notion that these attacks aim to liberate Iranians from authoritarian rule. Netanyahu's stated 40-year ambition and the operation's name reveal strategic interests rather than humanitarian concerns. The author criticizes Iranian monarchists celebrating the violence and exiled figures like Reza Pahlavi, who prioritizes American casualties over thousands of Iranian civilian deaths, including over 150 schoolgirls. The distinction between diaspora monarchists and those within Iran reflects different war experiences. The author emphasizes that Iranians who endured the Iraq-Iran war understand war's devastating consequences and cannot be equated with external actors pursuing regime change agendas.

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