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Is this real?
Yikes.
Why Yikes?
Where truth can be and is still spoken to the insane evil despot(s) in power, there is still hope.
Just shocked to see such vile be tweeted.
The border
The Debt
The Forever Wars
Was the calling card for the MAGA movement.
All three are a failure
I wouldn’t call the border a failure at all…. illegal immigration is as low as possible.
The debt is going to take time particularly because so much waste has occurred that critical things still have to be upgraded. There have been steps taken but more are still needed to lock in the future cost savings.
It’s too soon to call this a forever war. We have left Syria so that is ended and frankly we are addressing the Houthi issue through eliminating the source of their money and weapons. Iran has turned to actions that destroy whatever credibility they had in the region. All they have done are ramp up attacks on civilian infrastructure meanwhile the U.S. has held off for the most part.
Donna Miles is an Iranian-Kiwi columnist and writer based in Christchurch, and a regular opinion contributor.
OPINION: The day after addressing the nation, repeating his false claim of victory over Iran and threatening to bomb the country “back to the stone age”, Trump posted a photo of a bombed Iranian bridge on Truth Social, promising more destruction if Iran did not make a deal.
The newly completed Karaj highway bridge – approximately 140m high and the tallest in the Middle East – was designed to cut travel time from Tehran to the northern city of Karaj from about one hour to just 10 minutes. It now lies damaged, a stark symbol of the broader US-Israeli assault on the country.
This bridge was one of roughly 90,000 civilian sites in Iran hit by US-Israeli strikes. Much of the damage has struck residential buildings (nearly half in Tehran), killing more than 2000 people. Targets have also included schools, universities, sports facilities, steel plants, and pharmaceutical factories. Widespread collateral harm has affected more than 140 cultural heritage sites too, including historic landmarks and Unesco World Heritage properties.
Read more:
- A war with no winners, only generations of hatred to come
- The reckless, unjustifiable war we must have nothing to do with
- Easy to advocate from outside, but those at the heart of situations suffer
Many in the West remain unaware of Iran’s remarkable self-sufficiency and its advanced infrastructure. These gains emerged largely in response to years of “maximum pressure” sanctions, which forced the country to harness its own resources, including a deep pool of highly educated Iranian women and men committed to national progress.
My late father, Dr Faraj Mojab, was among those patriots. Under the Shah, who encouraged overseas academic scholarships, he became the first in Iran to earn a doctorate in metallurgy – the science of metals and materials. Post-revolution, rather than emigrate, he chose to stay and contribute to his country’s academic advancement.
About 30 years ago, during a visit from the UK to Tehran, my father asked me to meet him at his office to discuss something important. On my way there, a young Basiji man (internal security police) stopped me on the street. He insulted and berated me over my painted nails and “bad hijab”. Frightened and intimidated, I apologised just to avoid arrest – a humiliating encounter that left me shaken and irate.
The timing was especially unfortunate, because what Dad wanted to ask was whether I would consider returning to Iran. The state had funded my early healthcare and education, he explained, and it was my patriotic duty to return and help the country and its people flourish.
Living in Glasgow at the time, I told him that Scotland had treated me far better than my own country had – and that I felt a stronger affinity with Western values and culture than with post-revolutionary Iran.
My father gently cautioned me against an orientalist perspective – one that assumes the West is inherently superior and the East backward or irrational. He stressed the value of academic work and expressed confidence that Iran’s millennia-old civilisational heritage would ultimately overcome the ideological excesses of the new regime.
Ironically, the very next day, morality police raided his offices. They inspected female employees’ hijab and checked for any alcohol on the premises. At the time, I could not understand how my father could live and work under such an oppressive system.
Today, I admire his dedication to his country. I now see that he was right about the skin-deep nature of certain Western values, which are so readily abandoned by most European leaders in the face of genocide and naked colonial aggression.
Thanks in large part to the dedication and sacrifices of people like my father, Iran has made impressive strides in engineering, medicine, technology, and even cinema – not to mention its advancements in military and nuclear capabilities. Though highly contentious, these two fields have now proven essential for defending the nation against blatant imperialist ambitions to control the country and take over its resources. (I believe the war is about Iran’s oil and protecting the petrodollar, but that’s another column).
Today, Iran has developed its own versions of Uber, Netflix, and Amazon. Its ride-hailing service, Snapp, also delivers food and has been integrated into the national network services, allowing it to keep functioning in reduced capacity despite the war and internet blackout.
Walking the streets of Tehran these days reveals many women without hijab. This everyday reality belies the Western portrayal of Iran as a cesspool of radical Shia Islamism – an image clearly crafted to justify bombing the country “back to the stone age”.
Of course, none of this is meant to present a rosy picture of pre-war Iran. The economic hardships that sparked the January deadly protests remain painfully real. Deep corruption, state mismanagement of the economy, and environmental neglect persist. But it must be said that many of these problems are linked to US-imposed maximum sanctions and their consequences.
As my father said, governments come and go, but what endures is Iran itself – its civilisational greatness rooted in reverence for spirituality and wisdom rather than materialism and greed. Trump can destroy bridges and factories, but he cannot erase the will and know-how of a great nation.
Donna Miles
The Press
Christchurch
New Zealand
Thanks in large part to the dedication and sacrifices of people like my father, Iran has made impressive strides in engineering, medicine, technology, and even cinema.
This reminded me that I went through a Persian movie phase, I've watched a several of them, local and international productions, and enjoyed every single one of them. They've left such a lasting impression on me, that I still remember today, more than 15 years later.
I'm not necessarily the expert in Persian culture or history but hearing Trump say Rumi's culture belongs to the stone age, it didn't just feel wrong and offensive, I recognised pure ignorance and misplaced arrogance, which is how most people outside of the US, especially in Europe, tend to think of Americans. I mean, just look at the Persian diaspora, mostly high IQ people...
This is exactly what the father was warning against
My father gently cautioned me against an orientalist perspective – one that assumes the West is inherently superior and the East backward or irrational.
Soon as dems get control the border will open right back up again.
ICE reeled back deportations
The republicans who claim to be debt hawks punted on DOGE and now are on pace to run the biggest deficit ever
MAGA didnt want any wars/conflicts/ ect. 13 Americans have died with this conflict with Iran and for what? The American people did not want war or any military campaigns in Iran.
Trump has become neocon! All the actions are those of a raging neocon. Some folks on the right are trying to save face but it’s an absolute failure of MAGA policy.
This is why MTG jump ship!
[Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene![🇺🇸]
FmrRepMTG
On Easter morning, this is what President Trump posted.
Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness.
I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.
I’m not defending Iran but let’s be honest about all of this.
The Strait is closed because the US and Israel started the unprovoked war against Iran based on the same nuclear lies they’ve been telling for decades, that any moment Iran would develop a nuclear weapon.
You know who has nuclear weapons? Israel.
They are more than capable of defending themselves without the US having to fight their wars, kill innocent people and children, and pay for it. Trump threatening to bomb power plants and bridges hurts the Iranian people, the very people Trump claimed he was freeing.
On Easter, of all days, we as Christians should be reminded that the son of God died and rose from the grave so that we can be forgiven once and for all of our sins. Jesus commanded us to love one another and forgive one another.
Even our enemies.
Our President is not a Christian and his words and actions should not be supported by Christians. Christians in the administration should be pursuing peace. Urging the President to make peace. Not escalating war that is hurting people.
This NOT what we promised the American people when they overwhelmingly voted in 2024, I know, I was there more than most.
This is not making America great again, this is evil.