The War Nobody Voted For

See All News by Ravish Kumar
<<< Previously

Ravish Kumar  |  Analysis & Commentary Iran–Israel War Week 5 No Kings Protest

Eight Million People, No Kings, and the War That Won't End

While Washington wages war and New Delhi preaches unity, the streets of America ask the question that governments have stopped answering: who benefits when bombs keep falling?

---

Namaskar. I am Ravish Kumar. We are now into the fifth week of this war. Every week, a new hope is manufactured — a ceasefire rumour, a backchannel whisper, a diplomatic deadline — and every week, the war grows more savage. The hope is the real weapon of mass distraction. The bombs are just the punctuation.

Let us begin where the powerful least expected it: with the people.

The Streets Answered Back

On 28 March, in all 50 states, across 3,300 locations, more than eight million Americans walked out into the streets to say: not in our name. This was not a fringe gathering of activists in coastal cities. Organisers reported that nearly half the protest sites were in areas considered Republican strongholds — Trump country, if you will. Journalists, retired military officers, film stars, and ordinary working people marched shoulder to shoulder. Even some of Trump's own voters showed up, holding signs against a war their president chose without asking them.

8M+

Americans protested

3,300

Locations, all 50 states

+60%

Larger than June's No Kings protest

~50%

Events in Republican areas

This movement began as No Kings — a protest against Trump's crackdowns on immigrants. But Iran changed everything. When American missiles began falling on Iranian universities, the protest absorbed a new fury. The numbers jumped sixty percent compared to June's demonstration. The message expanded from "stop the deportations" to "stop the war."

"I am tired of old men dreaming up wars for young men to fight." — U.S. Senator, during the Vietnam War era

Trump is 80 years old. He is not dreaming of one war. He is dreaming of several. And now, once again, it is American soldiers being sent to the front.

The White House's response? Press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the entire protest as "Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions." In other words, if you object to your president's war, you are mentally unwell. The protester is the patient. The government is the doctor. This is the language of autocracy, dressed in a press briefing.

The Monarch Butterfly and What It Knows

🦋   The Monarch butterfly migrates 5,000 kilometres. Grandmother begins the journey. Daughter continues. Granddaughter completes it. They navigate by watching the sun.   🦋

In the Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas — land that borders Mexico, land where ICE agents have been making arrests — protesters did something remarkable. At every spot where an immigrant had been detained, they put up a banner bearing the image of the Monarch butterfly. The butterfly whose migration route is now disrupted by Trump's border wall.

This is what political imagination looks like. No banner of outrage, no slogan of fury — just a butterfly. A creature that crosses borders by nature, that cannot be stopped by walls, that carries the journey of its ancestors in its wings. Without this kind of imagination, there is no public. Without a public, there is no democracy.

Think of this when you are told that dissent is anti-national. Think of the butterfly.

And since we are speaking of things destroyed: in Gaza, Israel has bombed millions of olive trees. Not by accident. The olive tree is the Palestinian economy, culture, and memory condensed into bark and root. Destroying the tree is destroying the continuity of a people. This too is a kind of war — slower, quieter, and almost never on the front page.

The Economy Is Already a Casualty

While the military counts its missiles, let us count what the rest of us are losing.

Crude oil has crossed $115 per barrel, up three percent in a single news cycle, after Yemen's Houthis declared they would fight on Iran's side — meaning disruption not only at the Strait of Hormuz but also at the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. Two chokepoints. One war. Every country that imports oil is now paying the price of this conflict in its petrol pumps and grocery bills.

$115

Crude oil per barrel

$200

Possible peak (Goldman Sachs)

10,000

US jobs lost monthly (Goldman Sachs)

$3B+

Estimated US aircraft losses

Bloomberg and The Economist have both published analyses warning of two to three years of global economic disruption. Goldman Sachs estimates the war is costing the United States 10,000 jobs every month. Israel has separately proposed an additional $10 billion in its defence budget — a signal, analysts say, that it is preparing for a long war, not a short one.

For India, the numbers are equally grim. Foreign investors have been withdrawing more capital than they invest for the past five months. The rupee is under pressure. Banks are strained from dollar sales. Eight Indian nationals have already lost their lives in this conflict. And yet, in much of India's media, the question being asked is not "what does this cost us?" — but "how do we stay united behind the narrative?"

Iran's Mathematics of War

Iran's strategy is neither reckless nor irrational. It is methodical. Iran has struck Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Iraq, and Jordan — simultaneously. Kuwait's water plant, which reportedly supplies forty percent of the country's water, was targeted. Kuwait's airport has been hit twice in one week: once in a tanker explosion, once with damage to radar systems.

In Saudi Arabia, at Prince Sultan Air Base, Iran destroyed what is reported to be an E-3 Sentry aircraft — the "flying radar" worth approximately $300 million, capable of detecting aircraft across vast distances. America deployed six such aircraft to the Gulf before the war began. The Pentagon has not confirmed the loss. But multiple news organisations and weapons analysts have reported it. Pentagon press briefings have been suspended for several days now. The same Pentagon that, during Vietnam, was proven to have systematically concealed the truth from the American public.

Iran has also struck the UAE's aluminium infrastructure, reportedly tied to American aerospace contracts. Emirates Global Aluminium acknowledged significant damage to its Al-Tabila site. UAE stock markets have shed $120 billion in value since the war began. The Dubai index has fallen sixteen percent. Over 18,400 flights have been cancelled.

And yet: Iran's own economy is not unscathed. A temporary lifting of oil sanctions has doubled its daily oil revenues. But its steel sector — shut down amid the conflict — could cost it $7 billion. US-Israeli airstrikes have struck two Iranian universities — Tehran University of Science and Technology and Isfahan University of Technology. In retaliation, Iran has threatened to target American university campuses across the Middle East.

Inside Iran's parliament, a bill has been tabled to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The head of the National Security Commission, Ibrahim Rezaei, has publicly written that remaining in the NPT has brought Iran no benefit. If this escalates to nuclear posturing, every calculus changes — for everyone.

The Vietnam Lesson No One Wants to Learn

During the Vietnam War, American citizens were told for months that their country was winning. The media obliged. Then journalists like Walter Cronkite, Gloria Emerson, David Halberstam, Frances FitzGerald, and Seymour Hersh began reporting what they actually saw. The public learned the government had been lying. People filled the streets. President Lyndon B. Johnson ultimately chose not to seek re-election.

Those who protested the Vietnam War were called traitors. History proved they were the more patriotic ones.

Hersh is the subject of an excellent documentary on Netflix — worth watching, especially now.

Today, Trump attacks the press for reporting on the war's failures, threatens to revoke broadcast licences, and calls journalists enemies of the state. His Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, rather than holding a press briefing, led a prayer session at the Pentagon — asking, reportedly, for divine sanction against those who deserve no mercy. The Pope, meanwhile, has been speaking plainly: those who start wars have blood on their hands, and Jesus does not hear their prayers. Whether or not one is religious, the moral clarity is striking.

The Unity Trap

In India, as this war unfolds, a familiar argument is being deployed: this is not the time for questions. Stay united. Do not rock the boat. Trust the government. The media is obligingly falling into line — channels shut, Twitter accounts suspended, YouTube channels taken down. No one knows whose platform will disappear next.

Eight million people marched in America while their government threatened them, surveilled them, and dismissed them as mentally ill. They marched anyway. In India, the mere imagination of such a protest — carrying banners against a government's war on public streets — is becoming difficult. If you cannot even imagine it, you have already separated yourself from the democratic imagination. A democracy without imagination is just a schedule of elections.

"Unity" is being used here to mean silence. "Patience" is being used to mean: absorb the crisis without complaint. This is not unity. This is managed consent.

I will say again to the people of this country: let us face this crisis with calm minds, with solidarity, with care for one another. But not with closed eyes. The crisis is real. The cost is real. You deserve to know, and you deserve to speak.

---

Facts

1. Over 8 million Americans protested across 3,300 locations in all 50 states on 28 March, with participation in the "No Kings" protest rising more than 60% compared to June's demonstrations. Approximately half of all protest events occurred in Republican-leaning areas.
2. Crude oil has risen approximately 3% to $115 per barrel, driven by Houthi entry into the conflict and threats to both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.
3. Goldman Sachs estimates the war is costing the US economy 10,000 jobs per month, with oil potentially reaching $200 per barrel under worst-case scenarios.
4. Israel has proposed an additional $10 billion in its defence budget, signalling preparations for a prolonged war.
5. Iran struck an E-3 Sentry "flying radar" aircraft (valued at approximately $300 million) at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Multiple weapons analysts corroborate the strike; the Pentagon has not confirmed it.
6. UAE markets have lost approximately $120 billion in value; the Dubai index is down 16%; over 18,400 flights have been cancelled. In one month, UAE intercepted 429 missiles and 1,914 drones.
7. Kuwait's water treatment plant — reportedly supplying 40% of the country's water — was targeted; one Indian national was killed in the attack.
8. Iran struck Tehran University and Isfahan University of Technology. The Iranian parliament is considering a bill to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
9. Iran's temporary oil sanction relief has doubled its daily oil revenues, though steel plant shutdowns may cost it around $7 billion.
10. Emirates Global Aluminium confirmed significant damage to its Al-Tabila site following Iranian missile strikes on UAE infrastructure.
11. During the Vietnam War, journalists including Walter Cronkite, Seymour Hersh, and Gloria Emerson exposed government deception, contributing to the reversal of public opinion. President Johnson declined to seek re-election.
12. Foreign institutional investors have been withdrawing more capital from India than they are investing for five consecutive months.

Criticisms

• The Trump administration's characterisation of the 28 March protest as "Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions" is a deliberate attempt to pathologise democratic dissent — to reframe political opposition as mental illness and delegitimise it before it can be taken seriously.
• The Pentagon's suspension of press briefings during an active war, combined with its refusal to confirm or deny losses of American aircraft, follows the same pattern of institutional deception that was proven during the Vietnam War. The public is being managed, not informed.
• Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth holding a prayer session at the Pentagon — calling for ferocious violence against those "deserving no mercy" — while refusing to hold a press briefing is a substitution of religious theatre for democratic accountability.
• Trump's threats to revoke television broadcast licences and his routine attacks on the press as enemies of the state are direct assaults on the free press infrastructure that made Vietnam-era accountability possible in the first place.
• Israel's systematic targeting of Palestinian olive trees — millions of them — is not collateral damage. It is an economic and cultural siege designed to sever a people from their land, livelihood, and memory. It barely registers in mainstream coverage.
• The Indian government's repeated invocation of "national unity" as a reason to suppress questions about the war's economic consequences — falling markets, straining banks, dead citizens — is a misuse of patriotism to avoid accountability.
• India's media ecosystem — channels shut, social media accounts suspended, YouTube pages taken down — has created a climate where citizens cannot access critical information about a war that directly affects their economy and their countrymen's lives abroad.
• The framing of "unity" in India as meaning silence, and "patience" as meaning unquestioning endurance, inverts the democratic function of both concepts. Unity built on suppressed dissent is not unity — it is compliance enforced by fear of consequence.
• Governments and media that reduce war coverage to missile counts and military hardware systematically obscure the human and economic cost borne by citizens who had no say in starting the war. The economy is a front line too — and it is largely invisible in dominant coverage.
• Trump's construction of a $300 million ballroom and an adjacent drone-proof bunker — while American jobs are lost to a war his administration chose — exemplifies how power insulates itself from consequence while manufacturing spectacle to distract attention from it.

Namaskar.  —  Ravish Kumar

One Million Soldiers & A Loosened Necktie

See All News by Ravish Kumar
<<< Previously    Next >>>

WAR DIARY · MARCH 27, 2026 · DAY 28

Iran Is Recruiting One Million Soldiers.
Trump Just Changed His Deadline.

While missiles rain on cities and markets bleed, the man ordering the strikes is worried about when his statue will be unveiled in Venezuela.

By Ravish Kumar

The Most Relaxed Man in the Room

Watch how a president conducts himself in a cabinet meeting while bombs fall on other people's homes, while hospital machines run out of helium and go silent, while families queue for cooking gas cylinders that may never arrive. Donald Trump sits there, cracking jokes, swapping one-liners with his cabinet. Someone mentions that a statue of Trump is about to be unveiled in Venezuela — and the man lights up. "Tell me about the statue first," he says, waving off any talk of oil prices. Everyone laughs.

That laughter tells you everything. On a map, many countries call themselves sovereign. But on this earth, if anyone is truly free — free to bomb, to sanction, to extend deadlines and revoke them by breakfast — it is one man. And that man is wearing a different tie every day, its knot freshly knotted, perfectly tight. His statements, like those knots, change just as easily.

Trump himself announced that energy plants would not be targeted until March 27. Then, in the same breath, said Iran had "requested" this pause — a claim Iran has not confirmed. As the poet Prakaash Mehra once wrote: "Apni toh jaise taise kat jaayegi — aapka kya hoga, Janaabe-e-Aali?" His tie will keep changing. His days will keep passing. Yours, well — that depends on where you live.

"On a map, every country calls itself free. On this earth, if anyone is truly free — free to bomb, to sanction, to move deadlines at will — it is one man."

What the Numbers Actually Say

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported that Iran has breached Israel's protective shield — its interceptors are thinning, their effectiveness diminishing with each wave of fire. In twenty-five days, Iran fired over 400 missiles at Israel. There was a brief lull, but the tempo has returned with a vengeance. The IDF itself has reported that 35 cluster missiles broke through Israeli air defenses entirely, with 190 urban zones affected by these strikes. Israel has reported more than 5,000 people wounded.

The Times of Israel has reported something even more telling: Israel's own military chief has warned the cabinet that manpower is running dangerously low. If things continue at this pace, the army will be unable to complete its missions — it will, in the chief's own words, hollow out from within. This is not the Iranian military saying this. This is Israel's own Army Chief, warning his own government, in a cabinet briefing.

The website Drop Site has reported that Iran struck a white phosphorus weapons manufacturing unit in the Negev desert. The use of white phosphorus in warfare is prohibited. Israel has used it in Gaza and Lebanon. That inconvenient detail tends to get buried under other headlines.

Iran has also confirmed — though without an official statement — the death of IRGC Naval Commander Ali Reza Tangsiri. The New York Times reported that Tangsiri was leading the planning to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. With his death, a critical node in Iran's naval strategy has gone dark. Israel claimed responsibility. The United States confirmed it.

400+ Missiles fired at Israel in 25 days

35 Missiles that broke through Israeli air defenses

5,000+ Reported wounded in Israel

600 Schools attacked in Iran

One Million Soldiers — And a Mountain War

Reports across media suggest that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is now actively recruiting up to one million soldiers. This is not a rhetorical gesture. It is preparation. Several videos released by Iran show its forces announcing: "We are ready. We are waiting for the American soldiers to arrive." Iran's Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf said on March 25 that he has intelligence that there are plans to seize Iranian islands. He warned that if any line is crossed, all the infrastructure of the region will be destroyed — and the attacks will be relentless.

American members of Congress have said they will not support a ground operation. But that has not stopped the flow of reports — some of them, Iran claims, deliberately planted by Israel — that a strike could come at any moment, keeping Iran on edge, keeping troop deployments active, keeping the psychological pressure high. Iran has already been encircled for months. Whether the deployment is real or a pressure tactic, the effect is the same: Iran must stay mobilized. And a mobilized Iran, dug into its mountain geography, means any ground war would be extraordinarily long.

The Gulf Fractures: UAE Picks a Side, Qatar Steps Back

The United Arab Emirates is no longer hiding its position. On March 25, the UAE Ambassador to the United States published a piece in the Wall Street Journal making the country's intentions explicit: the war must end in a way that permanently eliminates Iran's nuclear program, drone capability, missile networks, terror proxies, and blockade threat. The ambassador wrote that the UAE had intercepted 2,180 Iranian missiles and drones, absorbing attacks on its airports, seaports, energy infrastructure, theme parks, and fertilizer shipments. Australia has already sent air defense systems to help UAE. The UAE's own navy is preparing to deploy.

Turkey's President Erdoğan issued a sharp warning: UAE must not enter this war. After it is over, he said, America will simply leave you to be Iran's punching bag and walk away. It is a warning with historical weight — and one the UAE ambassador's WSJ piece seemed to deliberately dismiss.

Qatar has taken a starkly different position. Its foreign ministry spokesperson said clearly: Qatar wants an immediate ceasefire but will not be part of any US-Iran negotiations. Since 2023, Qatar has been warning that if regional tensions are not de-escalated, the entire Gulf will be engulfed. Today, that is exactly what is happening. The contrast is sharp: Qatar has distanced itself from the mediation table entirely — a decision that surprised many observers, given Qatar's central role in previous ceasefires. Analysts recall that the last time Qatar pushed for talks, Israel struck Doha during the negotiations.

Iran's Foreign Minister Araghchi has issued a warning to Gulf states: hotels in the Gulf will now be targeted because they are sheltering American soldiers — and using ordinary civilians as human shields. Kuwait's Mubarak Al Kabeer Port was hit by drones and missiles. The Shuwaikh Port was struck. Al Jazeera reported six missiles landing near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capital. The war is no longer contained. It is spreading like water through cracks.

"The war is no longer contained. It is spreading like water through cracks — Riyadh, Kuwait, Beirut. The Gulf is no longer a spectator."

India's Silent Stake: ₹33 Lakh Crore and Counting

In the early days of this conflict, the argument offered for India's silence was strategic autonomy — India sees all sides, tells none of them what to do, and minds its own interests. Very well. Then let us ask: what are India's interests, and how are they being served?

Since the war began, Indian investors have lost ₹33 lakh crore. On the morning of March 27 alone, ₹8 lakh crore evaporated within a few hours of trading. Mid-cap shares have fallen between 25 and 45 percent. The rupee has fallen to ₹94.80 to the dollar — with analysts predicting it could slide to ₹98. Every rupee the currency loses means more expensive imports, a heavier burden on the government treasury, and eventually — inevitably — the weight lands on ordinary people.

Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has acknowledged that Indian oil companies are losing ₹24 per litre on petrol and ₹30 per litre on diesel. He has assured the public that prices will not be raised — the government will absorb the loss. He even praised the government for not raising prices for four years. What the Minister did not mention is that during those same four years, the crude oil price had also fallen sharply — and India bought Russian oil at steep discounts. The windfall was not passed to the consumer. Now that there is a loss, the government's restraint is being packaged as generosity.

The Minister also quietly reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel by ₹10 each. The reduction, however, will not make fuel cheaper at the pump. It will only provide marginal relief to oil marketing companies. Rating agencies have already begun forecasting a drop in India's GDP. A one-percentage-point fall in GDP means thousands of jobs lost, lakhs without work, and three to four years of recovery. And still, India has not said loudly: this war is hurting our people, stop it.

Why? Perhaps because five states — West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry — are in the middle of elections, and no government wants to be seen raising fuel prices before a vote. The crisis is real. The response is electoral.

The Silence of the Powerful — And the Few Who Spoke

When Israel bombed Gaza, the streets of London and Berlin filled with protesters. This time — with Iran under sustained attack, schools and hospitals bombed, 600 educational institutions struck, water and oil infrastructure destroyed — those same streets are quiet. The silence of the people is perhaps understandable. But the silence of governments is deliberate.

European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde has warned that an economic shock larger than anything currently anticipated is on its way. Russia's President Putin said plainly that this war is not happening in West Asia — it has arrived in everyone's home. The Philippines has warned it has only 30 to 40 days of petroleum reserves left.

In this landscape of averted eyes, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez — a name that does not appear on any list of "world leaders" crafted in Delhi or Washington — refused to allow American forces to use Spanish military bases for strikes on Iran. He condemned the attack. He does not have India's GDP, nor America's nuclear arsenal. But he said what needed to be said. Brazil's President Lula was blunt: "I am angry. Whoever has power thinks they own the world."

Meanwhile, the American Embassy in India tweeted an old photograph — Trump and Modi, smiling, a year-old image with an old quote about India being an "important friend." Why now? Is it to compensate for the attention being showered on Pakistan as a diplomatic interlocutor in the Iran-US channel? If so, it treats ordinary Indians as people too unsophisticated to notice the difference between a year-old photo and present-day policy.

A small group of people — with ties that change every day and statements that change with the ties — is herding the world's population like sheep. Religion and nationalism serve one purpose in this arrangement: to win elections. The real business of war, the real calculus of power, speaks an entirely different language. Some countries still speak the language of resistance. Most have chosen the comfort of silence.

The question is: for how long?

FACTS

• Iran fired over 400 missiles at Israel in 25 days, with the pace accelerating after a brief lull, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
• 35 cluster missiles broke through Israeli air defenses entirely; 190 urban zones have been affected, per IDF reports.
• Israel's military chief warned the cabinet that ground manpower is critically low and that the army risks failure to complete its missions if the situation continues.
• Iran is reportedly recruiting up to one million soldiers into the IRGC, according to multiple media reports.
• IRGC Naval Commander Ali Reza Tangsiri was killed; he was leading planning to close the Strait of Hormuz. The US confirmed his death.
• Iran struck a white phosphorus weapons manufacturing unit in the Negev. White phosphorus use in warfare is prohibited under international law.
• The UAE intercepted 2,180 Iranian drones and missiles, according to the UAE Ambassador's Wall Street Journal op-ed dated March 25.
• Kuwait's ports and Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh were struck by missiles and drones during this period.
• Indian investors have lost ₹33 lakh crore since the war began; ₹8 lakh crore was wiped out on March 27 morning alone.
• Indian oil companies are losing ₹24/litre on petrol and ₹30/litre on diesel, as confirmed by Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.
• The central excise duty on petrol in India rose from ₹9.48/litre in 2014 to ₹19.90/litre currently — a near-doubling under the present government.
• Spain's PM Pedro Sánchez refused to allow US military use of Spanish bases for strikes on Iran and publicly condemned the attack.
• The Philippines has warned it has only 30–40 days of petroleum reserves remaining and has declared a state of emergency.
• ECB Chief Christine Lagarde warned that an economic shock far larger than current forecasts is imminent.
• Iran's Foreign Minister Araghchi stated before a UN Human Rights Committee that the US and Israel are conducting a war of genocide against Iran, with 600 schools, hospitals, water infrastructure, and oil sites attacked.

CRITICISMS

Donald Trump / United States

• Trump announced a pause on energy plant strikes, attributing it to an Iranian "request" — a claim Iran never confirmed, illustrating the pattern of issuing statements with no factual basis.
• The cabinet meeting footage reveals a president entirely unbothered by civilian suffering, laughing about commodity markets and statues while his military strikes hospitals and schools.
• Trump claimed Iran was two to four weeks away from a nuclear bomb — a claim contradicted by his own National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and Counter-Terrorism Director Joe Kent, who testified Iran had no nuclear weapon.
• The US is actively working with Israel on plans to assassinate Iranian political leadership — including the foreign minister and parliament speaker — in violation of international law.
• US military bases across the Gulf are being used to coordinate and support strikes, while the administration portrays the war as a self-defense operation rather than a coordinated aggression.

Israel

• Israel used white phosphorus in Gaza and Lebanon — a chemical weapon banned in warfare — and its manufacturing facility in the Negev remained active until recently targeted.
• Israel's military spokesperson openly stated that assassinations of Iranian leaders will continue, a declaration that constitutes a public endorsement of targeted killings in violation of international humanitarian law.
• Israel has sabotaged multiple ceasefire attempts, including one in Doha where it struck the city during active negotiations.
• Spreading fabricated reports that an attack on Iran is imminent serves as a psychological pressure tactic — a form of information warfare designed to keep Iran militarily destabilized without bearing diplomatic consequences.

Indian Government / Modi Administration

• India has chosen silence while its citizens lose ₹33 lakh crore, the rupee collapses, and fuel subsidies bleed the treasury — calling this "strategic autonomy" is a euphemism for indifference to the public.
• The central excise duty on petrol nearly doubled between 2014 and today — from ₹9.48 to ₹19.90 per litre — yet the government presents its decision not to raise prices further as extraordinary largesse.
• When crude prices fell and India bought discounted Russian oil, the savings were absorbed by the government rather than passed on to consumers. Now that costs are rising, the government calls its restraint a favor.
• The excise duty reduction of ₹10 per litre will not reduce pump prices — it only partially covers the losses of oil marketing companies. Framing this as "relief to the public" is deliberately misleading.
• The decision to keep fuel prices unchanged through five state elections makes the motivation transparent: electoral management, not public welfare.

Mainstream Media / Global Information Environment

• The near-absence of mass street protests in London, Berlin, and other Western cities — unlike during the Gaza bombings — suggests that the same populations are selectively engaged, mobilized by media framing rather than consistent moral principle.
• The planting of false intelligence — that an attack on Iran is coming at any moment — goes largely uncritiqued by mainstream media, which amplifies the pressure without interrogating its manufactured nature.

UAE

• The UAE's Wall Street Journal op-ed by its US Ambassador is a lobbying document for war continuation, not peace — framed as self-defense but functionally calling for the permanent dismantlement of the Iranian state.
• The UAE's decision to deploy its navy while claiming civilian neutrality exposes the gap between Dubai's carefully cultivated cosmopolitan image and the geopolitical role it is actively choosing to play.

The War Everyone Unsees

See All News by Ravish Kumar
<<< Previously    Next >>>

War & Media  ·  March 28, 2025

The Face of War Has Gone Missing

Over 2,000 people died in Iran. More than 250 journalists were killed in Gaza. And yet, on your screen, there were only missile launchers, fighter jets, and defence ministers giving press conferences. Somewhere along the way, the human being quietly vanished from the war.

Ravish Kumar  |  Translated & Adapted

Where Did the People Go?

On February 28, America and Israel launched strikes on Iran. In the days and weeks that followed, you could find no shortage of footage — fighter jets taking off from carriers, warships cutting through oceans, missile systems painting streaks across night skies. Armies pressed their own videos into the world's news feeds, and those videos became the accepted truth of the war.

But here is what you did not see: the places where those jets dropped their bombs. The people underneath. The screaming. The running. The faces of mothers outside a school that no longer existed.

One month into the conflict, it is worth pausing to ask why. Was it an accident of logistics? A failure of access? Or was it a deliberate, systematic effort to make sure you felt nothing — that you remained unmoved, uninvested, unbothered — even as thousands of lives were being shattered in a country far away?

"A careful effort was made so that, no matter what else you worried about — the cost of cooking gas, the queue at the ration office — you would feel no sympathy for those being killed."

250 Journalists Killed. Most of Their Names You Never Heard.

Before talking about the faceless dead in Iran, it is worth remembering another category of the missing: the journalists of Gaza. The Guardian newspaper built a dedicated page on its website for them — every name, every photograph. Where there was no photograph, a bullet-proof press vest stood in its place. A press vest as gravestone.

Source: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) — over 250 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began. Between 2023 and 2025, CPJ documented 203 journalist killings attributed to Israel. cpj.org

These were the people who stood among Gaza's unarmed civilians and reported what was happening. They were the only reason the world knew anything at all — knew the names of families wiped out in a single strike, recognised the faces of children who would not see another week. They reported until bombs fell on them too.

Ansal Sharif  ·  Hamza Mustafa  ·  Thuraya Fatima  ·  Husam al-Masri  ·  Maryam Abu Daqqa  ·  Muhammad Salama  ·  and 244 more.

Israel barred international journalists from entering Gaza from the very beginning. Those who were inside — local, Palestinian, freelance — were the only witnesses. And then they were killed too. Not one by one, but two hundred and fifty times over. And still, none of their photographs was shown repeatedly, insistently, the way the face of a single soldier from one side tends to be.

Iran's 2,000 Dead, and the Names We Were Never Given

Iran released photographs of the girls killed in Minab. It made posters. The incident was genuinely horrific. But those images — and the deaths of nine sailors — were made to stand in for the entire Iranian civilian toll. A nation-sized tragedy reduced to a handful of photographs.

Over 2,000 people were killed in Iran during this conflict. Their stories, their names, the neighbourhoods they lived in — none of it reached us. The families of the Minab girls were not permitted to speak publicly. No journalist walked through the rubble of their homes. Instead, Iran's own state media repeatedly released AI-generated videos depicting how Trump might attack, how devastation would unfold — synthetic grief in place of documented grief.

Iran struck a steel plant. Iran's food supply chain was attacked — a vegetable market in Larestan was bombed, reportedly to starve the population into rebellion. Medical services in cities like Mashhad and Shiraz were reportedly disrupted. We do not know the true scale. There is no ground report. There is almost no image.

Iran is the world's tenth-largest steel producer. Targeting its industrial and food infrastructure alongside military sites is a documented tactic of economic warfare. No independent media verification of civilian casualty figures has been possible due to access restrictions.

Humanize. Dehumanize. The Oldest Game in War.

There are two words that define how war is communicated to the public: humanize and dehumanize. In every conflict, the side with greater media power works to dehumanize those being bombed — to ensure that viewers feel no connection to the people dying, feel no instinct to oppose the war. And a handful of courageous journalists work to humanize — to bring back the human stories that states want erased.

During the Vietnam War, media scholar Daniel Hallin documented in his book The Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam how American television coverage actively promoted the war effort. Enemies were called "vermin," described in terms that stripped them of human identity. The purpose was precisely this: to prevent the television audience from forming any emotional bond with those being killed — and to instead breed the appetite for their killing.

Daniel C. Hallin, The Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam (1986). Hallin's research analysed network scripts and broadcasts to show systematic dehumanisation of Vietnamese civilians and the enemy in American TV news.

One exception stands out: in August 1965, CBS correspondent Morley Safer travelled with American marines to Cam Ne village. What he broadcast — soldiers setting fire to thatched homes while elderly villagers and children remained inside — became a landmark in war journalism. "Burning of Cam Ne" is still available on YouTube. It was almost singular in its honesty. A later comprehensive analysis of all major US network coverage found that while hundreds of South Vietnamese villages were destroyed, almost none had their stories reported.

When the public is dehumanized enough, it stops being citizens and becomes a crowd — willing to cheer for bombing runs the way it cheers for a cricket match.

The Embedded Journalist and the Asset Balance Sheet

During the Iraq War, the Pentagon's "embedded journalist" programme placed reporters inside military units, riding tanks to the front lines. Television news from inside those tanks turned war into spectacle — America's firepower showcased like product advertising. That war was waged on the premise that Saddam Hussein possessed chemical weapons. That premise was never proven. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed. The embedded journalists were reporting military prowess while the foundational lie went largely unchallenged.

A journalist from the Boston Herald, writing about his experience embedded with a US unit, described identifying three Iraqi soldiers who were then shot dead by a sniper nearby. The account raised a question that has never been satisfactorily answered: can a journalist embedded with one side of a war report that war with any neutrality at all?

Source: Nieman Lab, Harvard University — analysis of embedded journalism ethics and the Pentagon Embed Program (2003–2004). niemanlab.org

On March 26, the Wall Street Journal published a report on American military assets damaged or destroyed in the conflict — billions of dollars of equipment catalogued with concern. The human beings at the other end of those assets did not receive a comparable accounting. When Fox News asked Trump whether Iranians had food and water, he responded by telling the anchor she was beautiful and reminiscing about a lunch they once shared. That exchange, too, became news.

The Missing Ground Report

What are people eating in Tehran, in Beirut, in the cities of southern Iran right now? What do the streets of Mashhad look like today? How overwhelmed are the hospitals? Which neighbourhoods have lost power, or water, or both? Is there a ground report — any ground report — answering these questions? There is not.

In Gaza, when children began dying of malnutrition and starvation, the press was denied entry. The world learned of it through the same Palestinian journalists who were being killed one by one. At Harvard University, students knelt in the cold and read aloud the names of dead Gazan children onto plastic sheets. That act of naming — that insistence on the human — generated global sympathy and protests across dozens of cities. That is precisely why the naming is withheld. Naming is dangerous to those who are bombing.

In Gulf states hosting American military bases, people who filmed the aftermath of strikes were arrested. Meanwhile, the American Secretary of Defense stood before cameras to teach journalists how to write headlines. "Be patriotic press," he said. "Take pride in your country."

India's Press: A Study in Voluntary Silence

In 2024, American journalist Tucker Carlson — an unlikely figure in this story — released a documentary called The Bibi Files, directed by Alexis Bloom. Originally produced inside Israel, the film investigates corruption allegations against Prime Minister Netanyahu and raises pointed questions about how Hamas managed to breach one of the world's most surveilled borders on October 7. Carlson, hardly a progressive voice, nonetheless asked the questions.

No Indian news channel would broadcast this film. Even if Carlson offered it for free. There would not be the courage. In a country of 1.4 billion people, with one of the largest and most historically vibrant press traditions in the world, the media's role in covering this war — in documenting war crimes, civilian casualties, or even asking basic questions — has been negligible. Turn the pages of any mainstream Indian newspaper from the past month. Count how many ground reports there are. Count how many names of Iranian dead appear.

What you will find instead is wall-to-wall coverage of leaders: Trump on the aeroplane steps, Trump before boarding, Trump after landing. A defence secretary. A foreign minister. An analysis of geopolitical implications. The Indian press has become a kirtan recital — devotional performance for those in power, with no room for the voices underneath the bombs.

The press abandoned its purpose. And so the public abandoned the press. Both now serve someone other than the truth.

The Question We Must Sit With

Many people who consume war coverage daily consider themselves compassionate. Sensitive. They feel sorrow at personal losses, tenderness toward animals, outrage at individual cruelty. And yet, when it comes to the bombing of a country they cannot locate on a map — 2,000 dead, 5,000 wounded — they feel nothing. They discuss it with the detachment of a stock market bulletin.

This is not a failure of character. It is the outcome of a system — media and state together — that has very carefully ensured you never saw a face, never heard a name, never had the chance to feel anything. The dehumanization was not accidental. It was administered.

Animals, for all the contempt the word carries when applied to humans in war, do not drop bombs. In that specific sense, they remain more humane than we have allowed ourselves to become.

---

Facts

The United States and Israel conducted strikes on Iran beginning February 28, 2025. This article was written one month into the conflict, on March 28, 2025.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), more than 250 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began. CPJ documented 203 of those killings as attributable to Israel between 2023 and 2025.

The Guardian newspaper built a dedicated memorial page on its website for journalists killed in Gaza, listing names and photographs. Where no photograph existed, a bullet-proof press vest was used as a placeholder.

Israel did not permit international journalists to enter Gaza from the outset of the conflict, leaving local Palestinian journalists as the primary — and most endangered — witnesses.

Iran reported over 2,000 civilian deaths as a result of American and Israeli strikes. Independent verification of this figure has not been possible due to media access restrictions inside Iran.

Iran is the world's tenth-largest steel producer. Strikes reportedly targeted its steel plant and a food-supply market in Larestan, alongside military infrastructure.

Daniel Hallin's 1986 academic work The Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam documented how American TV news systematically dehumanised the Vietnamese enemy and civilian population during the Vietnam War.

Morley Safer's 1965 CBS report "The Burning of Cam Ne" — showing US marines setting fire to Vietnamese village homes while elderly residents remained inside — remains one of the few honest ground reports from that conflict. A subsequent comprehensive network study found that hundreds of destroyed South Vietnamese villages received no coverage.

The Pentagon's embedded journalist programme during the 2003 Iraq War placed reporters inside military units. The war's stated justification — Iraqi chemical weapons — was never verified.

On March 26, 2025, the Wall Street Journal published a report cataloguing American military assets destroyed or damaged in the Iran conflict, framing losses in billions of dollars of equipment.

The Bibi Files (2024), directed by Alexis Bloom and released on Tucker Carlson's platform, investigates corruption allegations against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and questions the security lapses of October 7.

Criticisms

Israeli government and military: Over 250 journalists were killed in Gaza — a toll that defies the logic of accident. Barring international press from entering Gaza from the start ensured that the scale of civilian destruction would remain invisible to the world. This was not a policy of caution; it was a policy of concealment.

The Iranian government: In January 2023, the Iranian state killed thousands of its own citizens during popular protests and systematically hid the death toll. Today, the same government presents itself as a victim of unjust bombardment — and it is right to do so — but its credibility is fatally compromised by its own record of silencing families who lost children in state violence.

The American government and Trump administration: Bombs funded by American taxpayers are destroying Iranian homes and Iranian lives. When a journalist asked President Trump whether Iranians had access to food and water, he responded with a compliment about her appearance. This is not eccentricity. It is the studied contempt of a leader who has concluded that human consequences carry no political cost.

Western mainstream media: A month of coverage produced almost no ground reports from inside Iran, no sustained accounting of the 2,000 dead, no hospital photographs, no footage from destroyed neighbourhoods. The same outlets that loudly championed civil liberties inside Iran during the 2022 protests went largely silent once Western bombs started falling. The hypocrisy is structural, not incidental.

Indian news media: In a country of 1.4 billion people, not a single mainstream television channel or major newspaper produced meaningful ground reporting on civilian casualties in this war. Coverage consisted almost entirely of government statements and geopolitical commentary. The Indian press has traded independent journalism for proximity to power, and in doing so has rendered itself useless to its audience on the most consequential stories of the era.

Military and state information apparatus broadly: Military officials from multiple countries walked through bombed sites performing the role of journalists — naming cities, describing threats, drawing comparisons — while actual journalists were barred from those same locations. This is not press management. This is the state replacing the press.