Patterns of deception

The United States has been attacking Iran for almost six months. These attacks are unjustified and violate all standards of decency. They are the consequences of men in authority who think that violence brings strength. Increasingly, these men are learning that physical force is limited. 

Regardless of pronouncements from the White House, Iran is not going to be bombed into submission. It is not going to allow the US to walk away from this war and declare victory. No matter how many times Trump claims “the oil will flow,” the Straits of Hormuz remain closed and the global economy imperiled.

Iran has consistently made clear its terms for ending this war. The United States must lift its naval blockade and sanctions, withdraw the U.S. military from around the country, pay war reparations and release frozen Iranian assets. It also demanded an end to attacks on Iranian allies in the region and to threats against the country.

In response to the inability to impose its will by force, the Trump regime is trying to shift our understanding of the human and ecological toll of this unprovoked assault. They are consciously distorting information about the extent of the death and destruction they are creating.

Earlier this week, the Department of Defense delivered its annual report to Congress accounting for civilian casualties in military engagements in 2025. The intent of the legally required document, known as the 1057 report, is to provide Congress and the public with data on civilian harm, mitigation steps, and assessments. 

This report does not cover anything about the War in Iran and is not likely to. The civilian harm “team” charged with the responsibilities of investigating civilian harm has been reduced to one person. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has slashed measures to prevent civilian casualties, including firing top military lawyers who advise leaders on international law during armed conflicts. Currently, the only incident of civilian harm that the Pentagon admits is the attack on the elementary school in Minab that killed more than 150 people, most of them children.

The report for 2025 has been greeted by some members of Congress as a “joke” and “whitewash.” For example, the report claims no civilians were killed in the campaign to destroy small boats carrying so-called “narcoterrorists.” This claim comes in spite of widespread documentation that now more than 220 people have been killed “in attacks that experts call extrajudicial killings or outright murder.”

There is little faith that there will be any real accounting by this government of the magnitude of death it is spreading in Iran.

The disregard for human beings is not limited to the victims of military attacks. It extends to those who serve in our U.S. military.  

Toward the end of this week, in yet another pronouncement of the use of force, Pete Hegseth said the US could maintain a naval blockade ​of Iran indefinitely and would ratchet up economic pressure on Tehran as ceasefire talks have floundered, global oil supply is dropping, and regional tensions are rising.

Hegseth made these comments while denying credible concerns about the impact of extended naval deployments on sailors. This week, a group of Democrats raised concerns publicly. In a letter to Hegseth, Senator Richard Blumenthal said, “There have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages in route to the ship to be lost in transit for months.” 

Hegseth’s response was “We ​make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide ​them at every single moment.”

It is obvious that the well-being of people matters little to this government. As the death toll mounts, they simply no longer count it.  As people suffer conditions that drive them to suicide, they deny them.  As wars spin out of control, they claim they are in charge of the next deal.

Such patterns of deceit are collapsing. The impact of these actions is finding its way into our consciousness and daily lives. Reality cannot be contained. Some truths are self-evident.