Today’s Tehran Times is once again hiding the ongoing mass protests in Iran. At the moment they don’t seem to be appearing in the mullahs‘ propaganda. On the front page, however, they are showing off a new missile to demonstrate how strong the regime is. Not a word about the Iranian drones in the Ukraine, with which Russia is waging war in Europe, especially since it was first claimed that this was a CIA hoax and US propaganda, but now, in view of the numerous drone shot down by the Ukrainians, it can no longer be denied and the Iranian regime has now also admitted the drone deliveries  although it claimed that there are only a few drones, which Selensky also debunked as a lie given the sheer and undeniable quantity.

https://www.tehrantimes.com/service/international

Yesterday, however, the Anne Will talk show had an important and interesting discussion about Iran, including Omnipour and Röttgen, both of whom criticized the previous Iran policy of the German governments, including the traffic light coalition, even if Ominipour, as part of the government, had to do the balancing act to defend Scholz and the SPD, while Röttgen could speak openly. This is very important, since there has been almost no media coverage of Iran in the last few days. The flaw is that the supporters of the Iranian opposition mostly do not specify their demands and do not make it explicit what severe sanctions are actually needed. Up to now, only the listing of the IRCG as a terrorist organization remains as the maximum demand.

The propaganda of the Iranian opposition and its supporters focuses too much on the issues of women, youth, minorities and freedom to get Western support. Not that one shouldn’t do it, but Afghanistan shows how unsustainable this kind of media hype, symbolic hair cutting and solidarity is. It is just as important to make it clear to the Europeans and Germans that the Islamofascist regime is above all a threat to Europe, especially if it should become a nuclear power, especially since it is already waging war in Europe alongside Russia with its drones and that can also be increased by the progressive further development of carrier weapons such as medium-range missiles and ICBMs, which can also be equipped with weapons of mass destruction against Germany and Europe, especially since this is not part of an Iran deal. In addition to emancipatory aspects, it is important to make security policy arguments, to highlight the direct threat to Europeans and not just to Israel and women’s rights. A fall of the mullahs‘ regime means in fact the removal of the direct military threat and terrorist threat ( Iranian sleepers and Hisbollah in Europe and Germany) for Germans and Europeans and also for the West. That is missing at the moment. Most people are not so altruistic that they would stand up for others when it comes to „other“ interests, but especially when they feel threatened and perceive and see this as their “own interest”. And as Putin’s Ukraine war shows, broad support can then be established very quickly, if it is perceived as a threat. Also as a broad interest and not like the Frankfurt School and Marcuse’s „The one-dimensional man“, the subcultures and minorities, even if you see them as a catalyst of revolutionary or emancipatory processes. They can serve as a spark, but without a broad critical mass of the population, they remain non-existent. The Islamofascist regime must therefore be seen as a direct, military and security threat to Europe and Germany, otherwise there will only be symbolic protests, declarations of solidarity, haircuts with no consequences and, in an emergency, lip service. And most people think  as Goethe and the Goethe-Institutes: What do I care if foreign peoples bang their heads in the far distance? Although you can quickly score verbal points in terms of freedom, in an emergency most Germans care about their own freedom, which they already have anyway, but the freedom of „others“ including democracy and human rights is not their “own interest” and these freedom hype is forgotten so quickly afterwards as  they are hyped by the media and politicans before . See Afghanistan, see Iraq, see Syria, see Hong Kong, see Myanmar. Especially since states also have other interests, often of  geopolitical, military or economic nature, which often collide with the noble ideals of democracy, human rights and freedom, which is then also called realpolitik, especially since the West like George W. Bush’s Iraq war in 2003, which should turn Iraq into a „beacon for democracy in the Greater Middle East“, but produced a  failed states, mass misery, millions of refugee waves, a destabilization of the Greater Middle East, the rise of the Islamic State and Iran to regional powers, along with the Afghanistan fiasco was a mess and now measured against his propaganda ideal and with Trump is not particularly credible or even successful, even if Fukuyama, in view of the Ukraine war, now sees the end of history coming again and his opinion being confirmed.