Why the Case for Ceasefire Stands
Podcast UN Secretary-General António Guterres receives the Ataturk International Peace Prize from President Erdogan of Türkiye in Ankara. Responding to Critics with Analysis, Not Ideology The critics demand evidence, baselines, cost accounting, enforcement mechanisms. Fair enough. Here are the direct answers that prove the ceasefire argument stands on analysis, not wishful thinking. What would invalidate… — read more
Every Additional Week of Conflict Benefits Iran Strategically
Podcast Image credit: Majid Asgaripour / WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS Why an Immediate Ceasefire Is the Only Viable Option The most plausible trajectory of the US-Israel war with Iran is not rapid victory but a grinding stalemate with growing escalation risks. Early expectations in Washington assumed that superior air power, intelligence coordination,… — read more
The Depth Illusion: How Philosophical Scaffolding Disguises the Banality of War Apologism
Podcast Image credit: Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash A Diagnostic Framework for Identifying Logical Fallacies in the Rhetoric of Humanitarian Intervention For S. S. and M. M. who steered the direction of this essay into a more constructive one. Introduction There is a genre of argumentation—increasingly prominent in debates over military intervention—that… — read more
The Elegy They Earned
PodcastOn the Destruction of Humanities in Iran — First by the Republic, Now by Those Who Claim to Oppose It One of the defining legacies of Ali Khamenei — the second supreme leader of the Islamic Republic — was his obsessive, decades-long campaign against the humanities and social sciences. Much of this is recorded in… — read more
The Pen Against the Bomb
PodcastHacking War with the Only Weapon We Have Left For S. S. who planted the seed of this essay in my mind. The Ominous Timing of War It is ominous—and it should unsettle every thinking person—that both times Iran came under invasion, Iran and the United States were in the midst of diplomatic negotiations. The… — read more
The Aryan Ghost: What the War on Iran Should Teach the Arab World
PodcastThe Slogan That Should Alarm Everyone There is a slogan circulating with increasing confidence among a visible segment of the Iranian monarchist diaspora — chanted at rallies, printed on banners, amplified across social media with the fervour of a creed: “We are Aryans, not Arabs.” It is not a whisper. It is a declaration. And… — read more
Civilisational Katharsis or Resurgence of Fascism
PodcastIt is now pretty established that the most dominant voice on the social media belongs to an increasingly visible faction of the supports of monarchy restoration. They most prominent quality is vulgarity in language, speech, behaviour and actions. These are all abundantly recored in voice and video. The major line of defence among the monarchist… — read more
Self-Amputation as Liberation
PodcastSomething broke in Iran after 2009 — not in the corridors of power, where repression merely recalibrated, but in the interior of a society that had maintained a fragile compact with the state. The Green Movement did not fail because it was crushed. It failed because the crushing proved, beyond evasion, that the Islamic Republic… — read more
Civilisation and Its Arsonists
PodcastA Nawruz Reflection on War, Hypocrisy, and the Promise of Renewal Before I begin, allow me to share a simple thought—one expressed beautifully by the poet Pablo Neruda: you may cut all the flowers, but you cannot stop the spring from coming (“Podrán cortar todas las flores, pero no podrán detener la primavera”). In the… — read more
The Iran We Still Refuse to See: A Response to The Economist
PodcastThis essay is a response to The Economist article, “Why Ali Khamenei May Have Welcomed the Nature of His Death,” published on 3 March 2026. This analysis of Khamenei’s death as a masterwork of martyrdom theatre is seductive in its neatness, but it is precisely this neatness that should give us pause. The article constructs… — read more
