There is little doubt that U.S. and Israeli strikes on military targets inside Iran have dealt a severe blow to the country’s capacity to wage war. The campaign has eliminated the first and second tiers of Iran’s leadership, destroyed more than 60 naval vessels, degraded its weapons stockpiles, and dismantled key air-defense systems — leaving large portions of the regime’s political and command infrastructure in disarray.
Yet despite the devastation, Iran’s leadership shows no sign of capitulation. Instead, it remains defiantly entrenched. As the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps exhausts its remaining military options, it has increasingly turned to another weapon: a coordinated propaganda campaign waged through its state-controlled media. And, as so often happens, the anti-American foot soldiers of the U.S. legacy press have proven more than willing to amplify it.
If the Israeli-Gaza war demonstrated anything, it was the extraordinary power of information warfare. The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel were unspeakably barbaric — atrocities no rational person could excuse.
But through a coordinated disinformation campaign involving large swaths of the media, international institutions such as the United Nations, nongovernmental organizations, political leaders, and pro-Palestinian activists, Israel was quickly recast as the villain in the court of public opinion. Astonishingly, rather than Hamas’s savagery, Israel’s response to the massacre became the primary target of global condemnation.
A similar dynamic is already beginning to take shape in the war with Iran. Setting aside the regime’s 47-year record of repression and murder — and the pleas of millions of Iranian citizens who have called on President Donald Trump to help topple the despots responsible for the execution of roughly 35,000 protesters during a two-day crackdown in January — a new narrative is taking hold: that Trump lacked the authority to strike Iran, that the war itself is unlawful, and that the United States has once again been recklessly drawn into a Middle Eastern quagmire.
Instead of supporting the commander in chief’s decision to confront a brutal and dangerous regime — one responsible for the deaths of countless citizens, the killing of American soldiers, and decades of instability throughout the Middle East — Democratic politicians, joined by a handful of Republicans who reflexively oppose the president, moved to shut down the war effort. They drafted a war powers resolution and forced votes in both the House and the Senate. But even with the full-throated support of sympathetic media outlets, the measure failed in both chambers.
The reaction from the U.N. followed a familiar script. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres quickly condemned the U.S. and Israel for the strikes on Iran. Yet according to UN Watch, a watchdog organization that monitors the body’s conduct, Guterres remained largely silent during much of the Iranian regime’s brutal crackdown on protesters — “even after authorities imposed a nationwide internet blackout on Jan. 8, 2026, widely seen as preparation for a mass killing.”
The secretary-general finally broke his silence on Jan. 11, after reports emerged that tens of thousands of protesters had been executed over a two-day period. Even then, “his statement was notably restrained.” As UN Watch observed, it did not include the words “condemn,” “kill,” or “murder.”
Meanwhile, Iranian state media has shifted into full propaganda mode. Many of its claims are repeated in Western outlets before they can be verified — and often before they are debunked. NewsGuard’s Reality Check, a newsletter that tracks media disinformation, recently identified 18 “provably false claims pushed by Iran” during the first week of the war. By comparison, only five such claims were recorded during the two weeks before the strikes began.
According to NewsGuard, much of the disinformation involves fabricated battlefield victories supported by manipulated or recycled images. For example, citing an Islamic Royal Guard Corps statement, Iranian media outlet Mehr reported that four ballistic missiles had struck the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. U.S. Central Command quickly dismissed the claim, stating on March 1: “The Lincoln was not hit. The missiles launched didn’t even come close.”
Another viral video purported to show a U.S. F-15 fighter jet being shot down over Tehran on March 4. NewsGuard later determined the footage had been misrepresented. The video, originally released by the Israeli air force, actually “showed an Iranian Yak-130 being shot down over Tehran” by an Israeli F-35.
Yet both claims and others like them circulated widely in American media before they were exposed as false.
Remarkably, The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg suggested that Trump ordered the strikes to distract from the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie and the Epstein files controversy. Co-host Sunny Hostin agreed, saying the situation had a “wag-the-dog” feel.
One might reasonably ask which political party has been most affected by the release of the Epstein files. As for why Trump would supposedly want to draw attention away from the Guthrie case, I haven’t a clue.
This is not merely propaganda — it is strategy. The flood of disinformation, the political maneuvering in Washington, and the amplification by sympathetic media outlets all serve the same purpose: eroding public support and pressuring the Trump administration to abandon the fight before its objectives are achieved.
IN FOCUS: IN IRAN, HEAVY IS THE HEAD THAT WEARS THE CROWN
That outcome would hand the Iranian regime a victory it cannot secure on the battlefield. Tehran understands that if it can weaken the resolve of the political establishment in Washington, the war may end on terms favorable to the regime.
Trump must not allow that to happen. Iran may still have weapons and propaganda at its disposal, but its ability to wage war is collapsing. The worst possible outcome now would be to stop short of finishing the job.