April 28, 2026
Salam Dear Phil & Ana
Why the United States and Israel Have Failed Culturally in Iran and Are Now in Retreat
As I’ve mentioned before, on Sundays I teach two online classes on report writing for cinema students at the University of Art. The very first lesson I try to teach my students is the habit of pausing and doubting every idea — especially those that the majority, or any intellectual faction whether dominant or marginal, agrees upon.
I tell them that in our teacher–student relationship, whoever can present the strongest logical criticism of my own views during class will receive the highest grade at the end of the term. I want to strengthen in them the self‑confidence to say “no” logically and respectfully.
This week in class, we discussed the story of Rostam and Sohrab from the Shahnameh, alongside a video of a poem by a contemporary Iranian poet living abroad. I posed the question: Why does Sohrab — the young hero who was unknowingly Rostam’s son — come from Turan with an army to conquer Iran, aiming to meet his father and place him on the throne, yet ends up fighting that very father due to the schemes of a foreigner, Afrasiab, the ruler of Turan?
For two hours my students debated the topic intensely, and most came to understand more deeply the role of this foreign manipulator — Afrasiab — in turning father and son against each other.
A nation whose people have read the Shahnameh and understood its mythical lessons, and whose civilization stretches back thousands of years expressed in poetry, prose, mathematics, algebra, and astronomy, possesses far richer stories for the moral education of its youth — and for the world — than a civilization only two hundred and fifty years old, which, lacking true heroes, has had to invent superheroes like Superman and Batman for its children.
That is why, when the American soldier faces reality on the battlefield, stripped of those false legends, his morale collapses — and the U.S. army, in truth, loses the war before it even begins.
For you, my friends, and to help you understand my classroom discussion better, I have shared the YouTube link to that poem. Read its subtitles carefully; and if you wish, search through artificial intelligence for the hidden meaning behind the battle between Rostam and Sohrab. You’ll come to know the Iranian people far more deeply.
This war has already revealed something important: understanding Iran is beyond the intellectual capacity of figures such as Netanyahu, Trump, and their advisers
Peace Habib
