Iran Can’t Afford to Avenge the Death of Qassem Soleimani
The regime’s own overheated rhetoric has set the bar for retribution against the U.S. too high.
Iraqi demonstrators commemorate Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (C) and Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani (L) and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R).
Photographer: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP
When it comes to the propaganda of fallen heroes, the Islamic Republic is in a league of its own. But its capacity to squeeze blood from headstones is coming up against the law of diminishing returns.
Four decades after its war with Iraq, giant murals of Iran’s “martyred” soldiers still dominate its urban landscapes and their names mark streets, buildings, schools, parks and bridges. Their ranks are constantly topped up with the more recently deceased — even, on occasion, with the victims of the regime itself.