At the beginning of the conflict, much was made of the need to free the Iranian people from their oppressive government. But, as some intelligent pundits warned, making war on a hardline regime can solidify its control over the people by legitimizing its claims that the “world is against them.” This appears to have happened in Iran, where Michael Day explains in The Spectator that extremist generals from the IRGC now appear to be running the show in a brutal manner. He writes:

America’s war on Iran was supposed to give Iranians their freedom. But even in February, at the start of the conflict, the prospects for regime change seemed doubtful. Now hardline IRGC generals appear to be calling the shots. They’ve used the war as a pretext to go after opponents and increase the Islamic Republic’s repression to horrific new levels. More than 6,000 people, including protesters, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, dissidents and members of ethnic and religious minorities have been detained under the guise of national security. Many are executed after being dragged through kangaroo courts.

As the world focuses on the dithering and blunders in Washington, the horrors being visited on the long-suffering Iranian people are rarely mentioned. Amnesty International has noted: “To maintain their grip on power, the authorities have unleashed an all-out assault on people in Iran.” An internet shutdown lasting 88 days (partial online access was only restored on May 26) prevented reporting of human rights violations and allowed the authorities to act with even greater impunity.

It’s important to put names to the endless statistics. One such is 17-year-old Matin Mohammadi who is awaiting execution in a Tehran jail, along with two other teenage boys. All three had confessions beaten out of them in a torture cell, ­according to human rights activists, after rigged charges in relation to the deaths of pro-government paramilitaries.

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