Opinion: Why Iran appears strong even as its foundations erode; the power of illusion, language and perception in shaping global narratives; and why the real battle lies far beyond what the eye can seeRami Simani|All that remains of Iran is the comb, and that, at best. The head is already severed from the body. The body still runs, but without direction. There is no army. No economy. Hardly even a state. Iran is fading. It will collapse. So why do so many seasoned commentators insist that Iran is winning?Because they see only the comb. And the Iranians have perfected, more than any nation, the art of appearances. They polish the comb. Masters of illusion, deception, and fraud. Persian is one of the richest languages in the world; in a single sentence, they can deliver opposing messages to everyone in the room—without provoking resistance. Each listener hears what they wish. It is all wrapped in elegant discourse, laced with musical cadence, like a sonata at dusk. But in truth, you’ve been sealed inside an airtight chamber, where only Shiite Iranians are allowed to breathe. And the rest of the world? Let it suffocate.1 View gallery Smoke rises after strike on petrochemical complex (Photo: Social Media/Reuters)Vance, an intellectual and a man of manners, spoke firmly and eloquently at the press conference following the latest round of talks. But somewhere along the way, he lost control. Hollywood will one day tell the story of the 21 hours he spent, one of the administration’s most prominent anti-war voices, a representative of isolationism, locked in a room with seasoned Iranian deceivers. Carpet merchants in a shop with no prices. His delegation fled Islamabad in haste. That genius Trump, no doubt already arranging new delegations to meet the Iranians. Perhaps he’ll ask France’s President Macron or Britain’s Prime Minister Starmer to lead them next.I am no critic of the Israeli media, not at all. It does not side with our enemies. Rather, the average Western mind, trained in basic assumptions of trust and human decency—simply cannot grasp this reality. And to the conservative right in Israel, a word of advice: calm down. When explaining, there is no need for insult or rage. The facts speak clearly enough. Let’s lay them out.Donald Trump emerges as the most effective statesman since World War II. I listen at length to the refined voices of the East Coast elite, clucking in disapproval—alarmed by his bluntness, his unpredictability, his inconsistency. They are right about the facts. But wrong in their conclusions. They are living in yesterday’s world.Trump acts according to circumstance. You enter a boxing match with fists, not feathers. He is the only Western leader who, with remarkable assistance from Israel, has managed to outmaneuver the Iranians—to throw them off balance. At every turn, they falter. After years of paralyzing fear of Iran, “the two best air forces in the world,” as U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth put it, brought the coun