by M. Burhanuddin Qasmi 

There are moments in history when false narratives collapse under their own weight, when the masks worn by power slip, and when ordinary people—across nations, cultures, and continents—begin to see reality with unsettling clarity. We are living through such a moment today.

The recent so-called “protests” in Iran must be understood not as an isolated domestic event, nor as an organic democratic movement romanticized by Western media, but as part of a familiar and deeply cynical imperial script. This script has been rehearsed repeatedly since the end of World War II: identify a sovereign state that refuses submission, weaken it economically, demonize it politically, destabilize it internally, and finally present intervention as a moral obligation.
Iran is merely the latest chapter in this long, bloodstained book.

Manufacturing Consent in the Age of Information

What distinguishes today from the post–World War II era, however, is something Western power elites did not anticipate: the information bonanza. In the 1950s and 1960s, imperial narratives traveled largely unchallenged. Today, they collide instantly with alternative facts, lived experiences, leaked documents, and historical memory.

The people of the world are no longer passive consumers of Western propaganda.
This is why the empire appears anxious, aggressive, and increasingly unhinged.

When a private tech billionaire—Elon Musk—feels entitled to manipulate or promote the alteration of a national flag of a UN-member sovereign state on a global digital platform, it is not an act of free expression—it is an assertion of imperial privilege. When Western governments, as in the United Kingdom, permit mobs to desecrate Iranian embassies by replacing the official national flag and their pride with the disgraced insignia of a Western-installed monarchy, it is not democracy—it is diplomatic hooliganism sanctified by power.

International law is invoked selectively, respected only when it serves Western interests and discarded when it does not.

The Pahlavi Lie and Imperial Amnesia

The resurrection of the disgraced prince in exile—Reza Pahlavi—in Western discourse is both insulting and revealing. It insults the intelligence of Iranians who lived under that regime and reveals the moral bankruptcy of those who promote it. It demonizes democracy in the very hearts of those Westerners who cry to “endure democracy” in the Middle East.

The Pahlavi monarchism before the Iranian Revolution of 1979 was not democratic; it was a Western intelligence project sustained through repression, torture, and dependency.
To parade it today as an alternative for Iran is not historical ignorance—it is deliberate deception.
This deception thrives because Western policy has never been about democracy. It has always been about obedience.

Trump, Netanyahu, and the Collapse of Pretence

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu did not create imperial arrogance; they merely stripped it of hypocrisy.
Trump normalized economic warfare as policy. Sanctions were no longer diplomatic tools; they became instruments of mass suffering. Iran, Venezuela, Cuba—entire populations were punished for the crime of independence. Attempts to overthrow governments, recognize self-appointed leaders, and even entertain the abduction of a sitting president—Nicolás Maduro—were shamelessly crowned.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, perfected the politics of permanent aggression—Gaza is being continuously attacked even after a so-called all-inclusive agreement between Hamas and Israel. Iran was framed endlessly as an existential threat, while Israel enjoyed absolute impunity. Assassinations, cyberattacks, violations of sovereignty—none invited consequences.

The message was unmistakable: some states are above the law, others exist beneath it.
Together, Trump and Netanyahu represent the raw, unfiltered face of Western hegemony—arrogant, coercive, and increasingly detached from moral legitimacy.

Venezuela and Cuba: The Crime of Defiance

Venezuela’s suffering was not accidental; it was engineered. Sanctions devastated its economy, then Western media blamed the victims. When efforts were made to delegitimize or physically remove its leadership, these actions were sanitized as democratic concern. But nobody dared question the explicit American lust for oil that Trump kept repeating over and over again.

Cuba’s case is even more obscene. Over sixty years of embargo—condemned repeatedly by the United Nations—have failed to break Cuban sovereignty but succeeded in exposing Western cruelty. The embargo persists not because it works, but because it satisfies imperial ego.

Africa: The Open Wound of Imperialism

Africa stands as living evidence that colonialism never truly ended—it merely changed form. Resource extraction continues. Puppet rulers replace colonial administrators. Poverty and instability are blamed on Africans themselves, while Western corporations and military bases remain invisible in the narrative.
Africa’s tragedy is not incompetence; it is exploitation.

Even Allies Are Not Safe

Recent rhetoric surrounding Canada and Greenland has unintentionally revealed a dangerous truth: in the imperial mindset, sovereignty is conditional—even for allies. Territories are discussed as assets, resources as entitlements, peoples as afterthoughts.

Greenland’s strategic importance has made it a target of casual imperial desire, with little regard for its inhabitants’ will. Such conversations expose the rot beneath the rhetoric of a “rules-based order.”

Iran, China, Russia—and the Fear of a New World

What truly terrifies Western power today is not Iran alone, but the convergence of resistance. Iran, China, and Russia—despite their differences—represent a shared refusal to bow before Western dominance. Alongside much of the Global South, they are shaping a multipolar world that the West can neither control nor fully comprehend.

This is not 1945

The world is no longer colonially illiterate. People now recognize sanctions as economic warfare, media narratives as political tools, and “human rights” campaigns as instruments of pressure. The monopoly over truth has been broken.
Western unjust exploitation and hegemonic power are being outclassed—not merely by military strength or economic alliances, but by global awareness.

The Empire’s Greatest Fear

The greatest threat to imperialism is not missiles or armies—it is consciousness. A world that understands its history cannot be ruled by lies. A people who recognize manipulation cannot be permanently deceived.

Iran’s resistance is therefore not merely political; it is symbolic. It represents the refusal of the Global South to remain silent, submissive, or expendable.

Sovereignty Is Not Negotiable

Let it be stated without ambiguity: sovereignty is not negotiable. It is not a Western favor, not a conditional privilege, and not a bargaining chip. It is the natural right of every nation and every people.

The age of uncontested Western hegemony is ending—not because power has vanished, but because legitimacy has. The future belongs to a world where no single empire dictates truth, where nations rise without permission, and where dignity is not rationed by power.

Iran, China, and Russia will not “win” because they seek domination, but because the old order is collapsing under the weight of its own injustice.

History is turning. And this time, the world is watching—with open eyes. 

(The author is the Editor of Eastern Crescent, Mumbai)