04/13/2026
If you call this a victory, then what would defeat be?
Questions from the editor-in-chief of the Egyptian newspaper alMesryoon, Gamal Sultan:
If America and its ally, over forty days of war, completely eliminated Iran’s ruling elite — religious, military, political, and intelligence: the Supreme Leader, his successor, the Minister of Defense, the Chief of the General Staff, the Director of Intelligence, the Secretary of the Security Council, the commander of the IRGC, the commanders of the ground and naval forces, the military advisor to the Supreme Leader, all first- and second-tier officers — while you failed to strike a single enemy commander, not one high-ranking figure; and if the American-Israeli coalition condescended to leave only two or three of your officials alive — among them the foreign minister and the speaker of parliament — so that there would be at least someone left to negotiate — then what is defeat, if this is called victory?
If your navy has been completely destroyed and its ships lie at the bottom, your air defense system has turned into scrap metal, your air force is buried, your entire defense industry has been burned to the ground, half of your missile positions have been wiped off the face of the earth — and you still speak of victory — then what does the word “defeat” even mean to you?
If enemy aircraft operate around the clock with impunity over your entire country — from the northern borders to the southern ones, from east to west — effectively taking up residence in the skies over Tehran, Tabriz, Mashhad, Isfahan, and Bandar Abbas — while you merely watch their sorties, unable to do anything — then if this is not military defeat, what is your definition of the term?
If the enemy has penetrated you completely with intelligence, knows the contents of your negotiations and the routes of your entire command, has full knowledge of the daily routines in your capital — as if reading an open book — and eliminates the required commanders every day like sparrows — then if you call this victory, what is defeat?
If your economy has been practically destroyed, factories wiped out, universities and research centers devastated, missile arsenals exposed, and even the most conservative estimates of damage reach about $400 billion over forty days of fighting — then if this is victory, what is defeat?
If the only aircraft shot down over your territory crashed directly among your own troops, Revolutionary Guards, and civilians, and its crew ended up in your hands — yet you failed to capture a single pilot; if enemy forces flew in from afar, carried out a landing operation on your soil, established an armed perimeter that you did not dare approach, and calmly evacuated their personnel beyond Iran’s borders along with the entire group, while you watched from the sidelines — then if this is not defeat and humiliation, what do these words even mean?