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Iranians Can Survive a Total War that Lasts a Long Time

(Wall Street Journal) Sudarsan Raghavan - The brutal war fought four decades ago between Iran and Iraq "really looms large in terms of the entire way in which [the Iranians] see themselves under siege, permanently under threat," said Vali Nasr, an Iran expert at Johns Hopkins University. "The mindset of the country now is that it dodged a bullet and that it still has to contend with a long-term danger." Iran's leaders have a genuine confidence in their ability to hold out against foreign threats. "They know that they can survive a total war that lasts a long time," said Afshon Ostovar, an Iran military expert and associate professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. "They know they can tolerate a lot more than maybe the Israelis can tolerate."
2025-07-06 00:00:00
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