The first casualty of war is always the truth. Here we share just a two of the ruling class’s lies—both from the White House and bourgeois press—about US imperialism’s war on Iran.

Will Iranians Revolt?

One look at US and Israeli media and you’d think that the Iranian masses are one bomb away from rising up against their government.

The Jerusalem Post, the world’s leading English-language Zionist rag, described Iranians dancing in the streets after an Israeli airstrike: “Celebrations were fueled by news of the elimination of Iran’s top security chief, Ali Larijani.” Nowhere in the article do they provide even a shred of evidence as to that being the case.

The New York Times quoted an Israeli general saying: “The internal collapse of the regime, which has already started, will be accelerated if these suppression forces are weakened.”

According to the imperialists’ logic, the sole reason why Iranian masses have not risen up in revolt is because of the regime’s “suppression forces.” On March 13, Trump told a Fox News reporter, “[The Iranians] say ‘if anybody protests, we’re going to kill you in the streets.’”

The Iranian state, like any other bourgeois state, represses dissent—particularly during war time. But to hear this coming from the imperialists is the height of hypocrisy. It is the US imperialists who are currently killing Iranians “in the street” through their bloody bombing campaign. And in January, it was the US government that was killing protesters in the streets of Minneapolis.

The US and Israel are targeting schools, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure. At time of writing they’ve killed at least 2000 Iranian civilians—and that number will only climb.

A liberal “Iran expert” warned The Guardian that these methods were “not an approach that produces Jeffersonian democrats but hardened resistance fighters.” But the US has never been interested in producing “Jeffersonian democrats” in Iran. They want to force the Iranian masses to submit to the will of US and Israeli imperialism. If they cannot do this, they will not hesitate to plunge the country into barbarism.

In reality, the scenes on the ground in Iran are very different from what the imperialist media reports. The bombing campaign has bolstered support for the government. In every major Iranian city, there are nightly rallies of tens of thousands of people, often amid US and Israeli airstrikes. These mass demonstrations are not against the regime, but against the imperialist attack on their country. There certainly are millions who oppose the regime of the mullahs, but they are not so naïve as to think that the imperialists raining down terror on their cities will be their saviors.

As an Iranian commentator told Al-Jazeera: “Iranians understand the American government is an imperialist, vicious government that attacks other countries and kills little children. They understand they are fighting the Epstein Class, which either rapes little girls, or bombs little girls.”

Are the US and Israel Winning the War?

According to Trump, the war is “very complete, pretty much.” Iran’s “navy is gone,” its air force “is no longer,” and its military is “100% destroyed.”

It’s true that the US and Israeli campaign has resulted in widespread death and destruction. After all, the US imperialists have the most powerful and well-funded military on the planet. The US and its Israeli proxies can terrorize the Iranian population, pummeling schools, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure. They can hit missile launch sites and use decapitation strikes against the Iranian leadership.

But on an unequal playing field, the US and Israel need to achieve a total victory. Above all, they must take control of the Strait of Hormuz and get oil, natural gas, fertilizer, and other critical commodities produced in the Gulf States back onto the world market. In contrast, all Iran needs to do is not lose. As long as the Iranians can maintain control of the Strait and keep wearing down expensive US and Israeli air defenses with cheap drones and missiles, they are winning the war.

A reporter, channeling the capitalists’ concern about the Strait, recently asked Trump last month, “What’s your timeframe, Mr. President, for when cargo ships can safely go through the Strait of Hormuz?”

Trump assuaged his fears with a confident and decisive statement: “Uhh, it won’t be, I don’t believe, too long. We’re knocking the hell out of the coast. It’s basically the coast and the water.”

The ruling class must be relieved that the man leading the most powerful imperialist country on earth understands the basic geographical components of a strait. But what is their plan for re-opening it?

Pete Hegseth had some confidence-imbuing words: “Don’t worry about it!” The Secretary of War reassured the world that, in fact, the Strait is already open: ​​“The only thing prohibiting transit in the Straits [sic] right now is Iran shooting at shipping. It is open for transit should Iran not do that.”

Trump and Hegseth’s ridiculous statements are merely a reflection of the fact that the US and Israel are completely unable to seize control of the Strait by force. Meanwhile, Iran is inflicting serious damage, not only to the world economy, but also to American forces and interests in the Gulf.

As The New York Times reported last month, Iranian attacks on US bases in the Gulf have forced “many American troops to relocate to hotels and office spaces throughout the region.” According to the Times, only fighter jet pilots and maintenance crews remain on the bases. The rest of the American troops are “in essence, fighting the war while working remotely.”

Iran has also knocked out high-end radar systems, including three $1 billion THAAD batteries. Much of the US imperialists’ lost equipment cannot be readily replaced, because it requires rare-earth minerals which the US military can no longer source from China.

During the first week of the war, three F-15 jets were downed in what the US dubbed “friendly fire incidents.” Later last month, a KC-135 refueling plane “crashed in midair,” killing 6 US soldiers. How exactly the plane “crashed” while at 17,000 feet in a combat zone they do not say.

While Trump and co. boast that the war is already won, the US Embassy in Iraq has been hit by multiple drone strikes. After the first strike, the embassy issued a panicked message to US citizens: “Leave Iraq now.” In the days that follow, all “non-emergency” US personnel fled the largest, best-equipped embassy of the most powerful imperialist country in history. This disorganized retreat from a key strategic stronghold is not exactly the hallmark of combat victory.