How Liberals Support Trump's War Against Iran

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist

04 Mar 2026

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A photo of children at the funeral for students killed by the U.S./Israeli bombing in Minab, Iran. Image: Anadolu

“I don’t like Trump but Iran is bad,” is the siren song of feckless liberals. This moment calls for condemnation of the U.S. and unreserved support for the Iranian people and for their state.

The plan to destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran has been the settled U.S. policy ever since that state was founded in 1979. In the U.S., democrats and republicans alike have embarked on plans for assassinations, crushing sanctions, frozen funds, cyber war, and military attack. Even the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), popularly known as the “Iran deal” signed by Barack Obama in 2015, was an effort to strengthen those Iranians who were more amenable to being within the U.S. orbit. Its signing was followed by military assistance for Iran’s enemies in Saudi Arabia to carry out a war against Yemen and a regime change effort against Iran’s ally, Syria, which ultimately succeeded in 2024.

The so-called 12-Day War of June 2025 between Israel and Iran was a dress rehearsal for what the U.S. and Israel hope will be a successful regime change operation. It was clear from the recent increased presence of U.S. warships and fighter jets in the region that the Donald Trump administration and its Israeli allies would strike and so they did on February 28, 2026.

But there was another attack on Iran after the 12-Day War. It took place in January 2026, when what the U.S. admits was a sabotage of the value of the Iranian currency, created economic chaos and popular anger. Trump administration officials openly bragged about creating the crisis and confirmed the presence of Mossad agents who joined Iranian agent provocateurs in setting fires to schools, killing police officers, and taking part in other acts of violence. U.S.-backed NGOs provided unsubstantiated death tolls of up to 30,000 people.

The truth was not difficult to find for anyone who was truly interested in getting the facts. While the New York Times claimed that “ragtag” groups of activists communicated via the Starlink system, the Wall Street Journal exposed what was obvious to anyone who was really paying attention. The U.S. smuggled 6,000 Starlink kits into the country, which aided the provocateurs in spreading war propaganda.

Iran has been demonized so thoroughly that only a small number of the most staunch anti-imperialists are willing to discuss the revelations about external sabotage efforts, or will defend the right of the state to defend itself. Liberals who erroneously think of themselves as leftists are as bad as the most devoted regime change cheerleaders in their equivocations, which in the final analysis lead to support for war crimes.

War propaganda has worked very well in depicting Iranian leadership as evil incarnate, theocrats who oppress women and torture opponents. Even as U.S. sabotage created an economic crisis, the state permitted protest and met with labor unions and shopkeepers impacted by the manufactured currency crash, making commitments to address the crisis.

While westerners judge societies based upon whether women wear short skirts and don’t have to cover their hair, according to a United Nations report, Iranian women make up more than half of all university students, and literacy rates for women have more than doubled since the 1979 revolution. These facts don’t count when people who think of themselves as being well-informed instead choose to follow war propaganda inculcated by their political leadership.

Liberals engage in endless examinations of Iran that always find it wanting, yet find it difficult to speak up when Israeli drones and bombs killed at least 170 students and staff at a girls’ school in the city of Minab. Despite claims that an Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) rocket misfired, all evidence shows that the bombing was deliberately carried out by the U.S. and the zionist entity. Equally false were assertions that a military installation was located nearby and was the actual target. There hasn’t been such a facility near the site for at least 10 years, and in any case a school is protected during wartime, as are hospitals. Yet the Gandhi Hospital in Tehran was also struck by the U.S. and or Israel, just as hospitals in Gaza were targeted. The “I support the Iranian people but not their government” crowd didn’t have much to say.

Islamophobia and Orientalism make it easy for liberal westerners to pretend to oppose war as they condemn Congress for not demanding approval for the military action. Yet they also feel obliged to add their uninformed opinions that Iran is a terrible and backward country in need of salvation from liberal keyboard warriors who, in fact, know little about that country. They are uninformed precisely because they consume nothing but state-sponsored corporate media reporting. Decades of war propaganda depicting Iran as the home of a cruel and irredeemable “regime” have done their job. Liberals can pat themselves on the back for criticizing Trump while also backpedaling and condemning a state that poses no threat to the people of this country. They cling to disinformation from Western-funded NGOs that work in collusion with state-sponsored corporate media and make unproven claims about death tolls.

While Iran is condemned, even as it fights against nations committed to destroying it, there is very little condemnation of the attackers. Does Iran bomb hospitals and schools? Is Iran committing genocide by starving thousands of people? Has the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for its leaders? Does Iran assassinate Israeli leaders? Does Iran have immigrant children locked away in detention?

Iran has done none of those things, but its enemy is powerful militarily, controls the global media, and is home to monarchists who want to return with the Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, in power. Pahlavi publicly proclaims that he is willing to do trillions of dollars in business with the U.S. The media give him attention and promote monarchists living in Europe and the U.S. who will get rich along with him and who are not at risk of being bombed. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians turned out in Minab to mourn the children killed by the U.S. while a handful of anti-government operatives are treated as if they are the majority population.

Unfortunately, while Iran has lived on to fight another day and has successfully struck Israel and U.S. assets in the region, their enemies are strong militarily. The “decapitation” strike assassinations of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other officials were intended to be the end of the state. Instead, Iran has undertaken strikes of its own, targeting puppet states such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.

While thousands of people in Pakistan not only took to the streets against U.S. and Israeli aggression but actually fired back at Marines in U.S. consulates and the embassy, liberals in the U.S. worry endlessly about whether women do or don’t have to cover their hair. As always, millions of people may object somewhat when witnessing the criminal acts of U.S. presidential administrations but many others also indulge in thinking that ignorance is bliss, or that their nation is exceptionally good, or that Muslims are undeserving of life, liberty, or the pursuit of any happiness. The end result is outright support or passive silence.

A 2009 Brookings Institute paper entitled, “Which Path to Persia, Options for a New American Strategy Toward Iran,” spells out the continuity of the U.S. agenda from administration to administration: “The best way to minimize international opprobrium and maximize support (however, grudging or covert) is to strike only when there is a widespread conviction that the Iranians were given but then rejected a superb offer—one so good that only a regime determined to acquire nuclear weapons and acquire them for the wrong reasons would turn it down.”

Hence, the fake negotiations were meant to convince the public that Iran cannot be trusted. Given the animus already existing against that country, there is little real opposition to Trump or any other president. There are few who are willing to assert that Iran has a right to exist and to defend itself and that its people have a right to live free of the fear of being killed. While the number of true anti-imperialists remains small, their role is of great importance. People in the U.S. must not only defend the lives and the rights of Iranians but must also defend that state, too, lest they also succumb and in the process, collaborate with the war criminals.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.