A country launches an unprovoked war of imperialist aggression against another, much smaller, less powerful country that posed no immediate or direct threat to it. The larger, more powerful country kills thousands, wounds tens of thousands more, and does billions in damage. When it can’t defeat its intended victim militarily, it shifts to waging crippling economic warfare. 

How does the major media of this country, which prides itself on its so-called “free press,” cover this new turn in the war? How are they training people to see and understand it?

They call it a mistake, a miscalculation—but not a crime. And they mainly point the finger of blame at the victim!

Take a guess at which media in which country we’re talking about—that’s right, the good old U.S.A., its war on Iran, and its “liberal” imperialist media! 

We’re going to get into the real nature of this war and the current “stalemate” between the U.S. and Iran in a minute, but to frame and understand this, the following point from the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian is crucial: 

In confronting and moving to prevent [the consolidation of Trump fascism and other injustices], one of the biggest obstacles standing in the way, and weighing people down, is American chauvinism—the disgusting notion that America and Americans are better and more important than everybody else. This is a poison infecting people broadly in this country, even among the bitterly oppressed, and there is a great need for people to break with this American chauvinism. Free yourself from the GTF!—the Great Tautological Fallacy. A fallacy: an idea, or a way of thinking, that is false, wrong. A tautology: a round-in-a-circle way of reasoning that asserts something and then claims to prove it by merely asserting the same thing again. So, the Great Tautological Fallacy to which I am referring is the notion that America is a force for good in the world, and therefore whatever it does is good (or at least done with “good intentions”), even if the same thing when done by other forces, especially forces opposed to “us,” is bad, is evil—because... because America is a force for good in the world. 

Bob Avakian, THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In the Name of Humanity We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible, November 1, 2017

Stalemated, U.S Declares Economic Warfare

Before we get into the U.S. media’s coverage of this war and Trump’s threats of economic annihilation, let’s set the stage: 

On February 28, the U.S. and Israel launched a massive surprise attack, while negotiations between the U.S. and Iran were underway. Israeli airstrikes, aided by U.S. intelligence, assassinated some 40 of Iran’s top leaders that first day. Their goal: to decapitate Iran’s ruling Islamic Republic and replace it with a hand-picked successor—one who was just as reactionary as the current regime but more pliant to U.S. interests.

That same day, a U.S. missile hit an elementary school in Minab, Iran, during morning classes on the first day of the school week. Over 150 (and perhaps as many as 175) people were slaughtered, mostly young girls aged 7 to 12. To this day the fascist Trump regime refuses to take any responsibility for this blood-soaked massacre of children.

Instead, it’s tried to justify its war of aggression—with help from the U.S. media—by pointing to the reactionary character of Iran’s Islamic fundamentalist regime. That regime, among its many crimes, shot down thousands of protesters this past January. Those crimes are truly heinous and we revcoms have supported and continue to support those progressives and revolutionaries within Iran opposing them. But when it comes to shedding blood, wreaking devastation, and committing savage crimes around the world, Iran’s rulers do not hold a candle to the U.S. record—from slavery and genocide, to Hiroshima, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and much, much more.¹

The U.S. and Israel hit Iran with over 23,000 missile and bomb strikes, yet have so far been unable to defeat Iran militarily. The Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, stressing the global capitalist economy. Trump did little to whip up the public for this war, which is profoundly unpopular. The Trump regime itself was ill-prepared for how the war has unfolded, including how it’s seriously damaged the U.S.’s ability to project power around the world while its forces are tied down in the Middle East. And there is no “easy way” for the U.S. to actually defeat Iran’s regime.

So this past week, Trump announced his regime was preparing to impose the “most crushing economic operation ever” against Iran. “This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” he warned. His treasury secretary Scott Bessent claimed the U.S. would impose the toughest sanctions in history and that every country that trades with Iran had better go along with this U.S. assault: “You are either with us or against us,” Bessent threatened.

Sanctions—U.S. Economic Terrorism 

The U.S. has imposed crippling economic and political sanctions against Iran for the past 47 years—over 1,200 individual sanction actions, designations, and restrictions since 2018 alone. According to the Library of Congress these are “the most extensive and comprehensive set of sanctions that the United States maintains on any country.”

Over these decades they’ve exacted a terrible toll—mainly on Iran’s civilian population—severely damaging Iran's economy and people’s everyday lives, including:

• Stoking rampant inflation which drives up the price of food and other basic goods
• Causing many businesses to close, shrinking production nationwide and fueling unemployment
• Endangering patients suffering from rare or chronic illnesses such as hemophilia and cancer by creating severe shortages of life-saving imported drugs
• Blocking medical equipment thereby hindering Iran’s ability to respond to public health emergencies, such as pandemic outbreaks

It is estimated that the direct and indirect costs of these decades of sanctions can only be calculated in terms of multiple hundreds of billions of dollars. And now the criminal, unprovoked U.S.-Israeli war alone has done some $270 billion more in damage to Iran, its people, and infrastructure.²

All this hasn’t been done for any just or noble purpose. It’s been done to advance the unjust, predatory interests of U.S. imperialism, specifically to maintain its stranglehold on the countries and peoples of the Middle East and its vast energy reserves, crucial trade routes, and strategic location. 

And now the fascist Trump regime is promising more crimes, and even greater suffering. 

The New York Times Blames “Miscalculations, by Each Side” 

So how is the liberal imperialist media—which has criticized Trump’s Iran war for being reckless, unplanned and hurting U.S. interests—covered and analyzed this new turn in the war? 

One New York Times news analysis, As Iran and U.S. Settle Into an Uneasy Standoff, Who Will Blink First? begins by stating: 

“At the core of this unresolved status [the stalemate between the U.S. and Iran] are calculations, perhaps miscalculations, by each side.”

Stop and think about this: the Times is arguing that the U.S. and Iran have come to this impasse due to “calculations, perhaps miscalculations, by each side.” 

No! The fundamental nature of this or any war is not determined by “calculations and miscalculations;” it’s determined by the political and military objectives of the combatants and the means used to carry them out. In this case the U.S. objectives are maintaining and strengthening its outmoded, oppressive system of capitalism-imperialism which is driven to dominate, exploit, and plunder the earth. And the nature of the war is also defined by the fact that the U.S. (and Israel) violated international law and committed war crimes by launching an unprovoked war of aggression against Iran—again, a country that posed no direct or immediate threat—and waged this war by murdering civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure. 

That is what’s at the “core” of this war, not calculations and miscalculations.

By framing things this way, the New York Times lets the U.S. off the hook, blaming it at most for “miscalculating,” not committing war crimes. This serves to preserve and reinforce what the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian has identified as “the Great Tautological Fallacy”:

“the notion that America is a force for good in the world, and therefore whatever it does is good (or at least done with ‘good intentions’), even if the same thing when done by other forces, especially forces opposed to ‘us,’ is bad, is evil—because... because America is a force for good in the world.” 

This notion runs through the Times coverage. For instance, listen to this:

“For weeks, Iran has been negotiating with Oman over future management of the strait, but the list of demands [it announced this past week] suggested that, even in the event of a deal, Iranian forces would continue to threaten and attack transiting marine traffic. At least two ships have been attacked in the strait in recent days.”

Here, the Times makes no mention of the fact that the Trump regime had signed a memorandum of understanding basically ratifying Iran’s demands. This included its demands concerning the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran sees as crucial to deterring further U.S. and Israeli attacks—which both the U.S. and Israel continue to threaten. Nor does the Times mention that the U.S. immediately proceeded to undermine the memo it had just signed, including by launching a naval blockade of Iran’s ports.³

Yet reading the Times, one would think that Iran is the aggressor and the U.S.—the country that started the war in the first place—is acting reasonably!

Who’s to Blame for Weaponizing the Strait, “Hard-Line” Bargaining, and Transferring Economic Pain onto the Iranian People? According to the New York Times, It’s Iran… Of Course

The Times analysis goes on to quote a Missouri University professor who decries Iran’s “weaponization of the Strait of Hormuz” and its “hard-line bargaining.” Then the Times argues that “the immediate cost of sanctions will most likely be borne by the Iranian people, who are already contending with sky-high inflation and struggling to afford basic goods.” The good professor agrees: In the face of American sanctions, Iran “will try to transfer the resulting economic pain onto its population for as long as possible,” he says. 

Where is the analysis of the toll U.S. sanctions have taken on Iran for over four decades now? Where is the visceral depiction of what those sanctions have done to families, children, or the sick? Where is the condemnation of the deaths and the $270 billion—yes, billion!—in damages that this war has meant for Iran.

Nowhere to be found. Why? Because the Times and the U.S. media’s message—drummed into people daily and hourly—is that the U.S. are the “good guys,” and the Iranians are the “bad guys.”

The New York Times—A Major Propaganda Instrument of This U.S. Imperialism

So why does the New York Times go through such contortions to obscure the imperialist character and the overall criminality and ongoing horror of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran? In The New York Times Insists on Support for War Crimes—When They Are “Our” War Crimes (May 11, 2026), Bob Avakian explains:

A New York Times that is a major propaganda instrument of this U.S. imperialism—a representative of the “mainstream” section of the capitalist-imperialist ruling class—which, after all, shares much in common with, and even echoes the trumpeting of, the fascist Trump regime about the awesome destructive power of the U.S. military, and the need for it to be even more powerfully destructive.

Free yourself from the GTF!—the Great Tautological Fallacy

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has not ended, and could explode once again, potentially igniting the cauldron of contradictions that is today’s Middle East—with horrific consequences. 

As Bob Avakian said in THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! :

[A]ll this underlines the crucial importance of casting off the blinders of the Great Tautological Fallacy and breaking with American chauvinism. We need to think about humanity, first and above all.