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Dear John,
Tragedy has piled upon tragedy for the people of Iran. After yet another wave of mass demonstrations this month, thousands of Iranians have been killed. The pain, grief, and anger are raw, and many inside and outside Iran are rightfully desperate for justice.
In moments like this, a familiar demand resurfaces in Washington and online: that the United States must “do more.”
But here’s the truth: the U.S. has already done far too much of the wrong thing.
Years of crushing sanctions, diplomatic isolation, and constant threats of war have not weakened authoritarian rule in Iran, they’ve weakened Iranian society. And, as we have been warning now since broad “crippling sanctions” first passed under Obama, this was a pathway to immiserating ordinary Iranians, solidifying corruption and autocracy, and taking every option off the table until all that would be left is war. The U.S. has now exhausted every coercive tool available and now many who claimed they were against war are openly calling for U.S. military intervention.
NIAC Policy Director Ryan Costello’s latest piece [[link removed]] lays this out clearly: bombing Iran or further impoverishing its people will not produce democracy. War would almost certainly lead to chaos, mass civilian death, regional escalation, or a new authoritarian order rising from the rubble. Anyone promising otherwise is selling a fantasy, one paid for with Iranian lives.
At the same time, the online environment around Iran has become completely unhinged. Iranian journalists, activists, scholars, and anti-war voices are being spammed, harassed, and threatened for insisting on a basic truth: opposing war is not supporting repression.
See our latest overview [[link removed]] to dispel false accusations and demonstrate all that NIAC does in support of our community and in solidarity with the Iranian people.
This hostile climate is deliberately suffocating political discourse and erasing real, actionable ways to support Iranians.
That’s why clarity matters. And why action matters.
There is a better path:
1. Oppose U.S. military intervention or threats of war with Iran, and support Congress asserting its constitutional authority over war decisions, including through War Powers legislation.


2. Support a reputable, independent international investigation into human rights violations in Iran to establish facts and accountability.


3. Halt deportations to Iran and push for the immediate resumption of Iranian refugee, asylum, and visa processing.


4. Advance policies that meaningfully support the Iranian people, including pressing Iranian authorities to comply with international human rights obligations and providing sanctions relief that benefits ordinary civilians.


Iran’s future must be led by Iranians themselves.
👉 Take action now: Demand Congress support Iranians – not war. [[link removed]]
👉 Subscribe to NIAC Insights on Substack to receive timely and relevant analyses from NIAC experts [[link removed]]
👉 Use our Social Media Toolkit [[link removed]] to combat disinformation, support the Iranian people, and prevent war. Available in English [[link removed]] and Farsi [[link removed]] .
Solidarity means protecting life, resisting imperialist shortcuts, and refusing the lie that liberation can be delivered via bombs and death.
In Solidarity,
Team NIACunsubscribe: [link removed]