Communication Breakdown Between US and Iran

The fundamental problem of the war in Iran is the inability of Washington to engage in meaningful communication with Tehran. By this, I do not mean a lack of messages exchanged between the two capitals. The main issue is the lack of understanding between the two cultures. Iranians view time in terms of decades, while Americans, and Israelis, see it measured in days or at most weeks. The Eastern culture embodies patience, endurance, and resilience in the face of hardship or martyrdom. In contrast, the Western mindset expects rapid developments, impatience, quick rewards, and guaranteed success and comfort.

At the same time, the strategic thinking of the two sides is completely different. Iranian leaders generally mean what they say and follow their words with concrete actions. They are chess players. Americans usually do not do what they say, and their threats are not backed by corresponding actions. They rarely say what they eventually do. They are poker players, often bluffing with weak hands. According to the true father of strategy, the Chinese Sun Tzu, who taught such ideas millennia ago, the image you create of yourself should correspond as closely as possible to reality. Something the American leadership has yet to understand. According to Sun Tzu: “If you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not your enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither your enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Knowledge is everything then. Along with patience, endurance, and perseverance. Without these, there is no real prospect of success. This is a good lesson for everyone.

According to the conclusion of the well-known Substack analyst Fin Andreen, who promotes this reasoning, the inability of the United States and Israel to crush Iran and their failure to anticipate the decisive global economic consequences of their aggressive actions may lead to tragic outcomes for the attackers. Especially when the country they attack has such a profoundly different worldview and approach to life than their own. The culture we know is being tested. And we would not want it to be wounded. The culture expressed by the mullahs may have very ancient roots but is anachronistic today. The Americans became involved in a reckless initiative. However, for our civilization, they owe it to emerge victorious.

P.S. The elections in Hungary led to Orbán’s exit from power. What the Greek media failed to note, however, is that the Left has completely disappeared from the political scene. There are now only three parties in Parliament: a small far-right party, Orbán’s Fidesz, and the equally conservative Tisza, led by the new Magyar leader.

(Andreas Andrianopoulos’s book, War in Iran: Europe’s Tragic Miscalculations. Epikentro, 2026) is available in bookstores.