Daily Podcasts Video Research

The Biggest Lie About Iran

JL;DR SUMMARY Lucy Tabrizi's guest essay argues against the common perception of the Islamic regime of Iran as a non-belligerent actor by detailing its history of aggression since the 1979 revolution. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

United StatesHezbollahIranIslamic RegimeIdeological ConflictMiddle East StabilityProxy WarfareWestern AlliesKhomeini

Places mentioned

Tehran, Fars, Iran
"It began in November 4, 1979, when Islamist students loyal to Khomeini seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding American diplomats hostage for 444 days."
Beirut, Lebanon
"In the early 1980s, the regimes allies in Lebanon carried out a suicide car bombing against the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people, including Americans."
Argentina
"In 1994, Hezbollah operatives carried out a truck bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre in Argentina, killing 85 people."
London, England, United Kingdom
"In 2015, British security services uncovered a Hezbollah explosives cache in North London containing three tonnes of ammonium nitrate, enough material for a major bombing campaign."
Syria
"Since then, the pattern has intensified: arming Hezbollah and Hamas to attack Israel, cultivating militias in Iraq and Syria, backing the Houthis in Yemen, striking Gulf oil infrastructure, harassing and mining commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, launching ballistic missiles at U.S. bases, plotting assassinations in Europe and North America, and abducting foreign and dual nationals to use as political hostages."
Yemen
"Since then, the pattern has intensified: arming Hezbollah and Hamas to attack Israel, cultivating militias in Iraq and Syria, backing the Houthis in Yemen, striking Gulf oil infrastructure, harassing and mining commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, launching ballistic missiles at U.S. bases, plotting assassinations in Europe and North America, and abducting foreign and dual nationals to use as political hostages."
China
"The confrontation with China over Taiwan will come to a head eventually."
Israel
"If missiles and militias targeted physical security, this front targeted legitimacy, working to convince audiences abroad that the regimes enemies were the true aggressors."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 84381
Cairo Source ID 36
Retrieved 2026-06-09 05:31:22 UTC
Curated 2026-06-09 08:30:34 UTC