From Hope of Uprising to Unity in Destruction: How "Culture of Resistance" Derailed US Regime Change Plans
For weeks, the Trump administration sold the American public a narrative of inevitability: precision airstrikes would shatter Iran’s military infrastructure, and the Iranian people—finally liberated from the mullahs—would rise up in a popular insurrection. It was a script borrowed from the playbook of regime change, promising a swift victory akin to the "Venezuela scenario."
But after spending a week embedded with civilians in Tehran, veteran journalist Dominic Waghorn, International Affairs Editor for Sky News, has filed a dispatch that shatters that illusion. Describing himself as the first British journalist to cover the conflict from inside Iran since the war began, Waghorn presents a reality that the White House seems incapable of seeing: the United States is losing this war, and it does not have a backup plan.
In a detailed interview with Ib-Paper (Source: Ib-Paper), Waghorn outlines a catastrophic miscalculation by the US administration. President Donald Trump, he argues, "launched a war on Iran that he cannot win" by grossly underestimating the nation’s resilience. The "precision" strikes, rather than sparking an uprising, have forged a grim unity between the Iranian people and the political system they once critiqued.
Waghorn describes a population living in a state of "constant terror." Yet, contrary to Washington’s hopes, the civilians bearing the brunt of the destruction are not blaming Tehran. "I saw what weeks of bombing can do to an entire population," Waghorn said. "If you are an ordinary Iranian, not knowing if the building next to you will be a target, it is terrifying." The result, he notes, is that Iranians now overwhelmingly blame the "direct enemy"—the United States—for the death and destruction surrounding them, rather than their internal leadership.
This shift in sentiment is fueled by harrowing realities. Waghorn recounts witnessing a four-year-old girl with severe head injuries from a missile strike and a general atmosphere of fear regarding food shortages and the safety of children.
Perhaps the most profound revelation in Waghorn’s reporting is the West’s failure to understand what he calls the "culture of resistance." He argues that Washington completely underestimated this trait, which is a "historical and fundamental part of Persian culture." Faced with external aggression, Iranians resist any change imposed from the outside. The Trump administration expected the regime to collapse; instead, Waghorn reports that the leadership was prepared for a long conflict. "Every official who is killed is replaced by a new one," he notes, highlighting the system’s surprising durability.
On the strategic level, Waghorn points out that while American analysts predicted a short war, Iran holds the stronger cards. By leveraging oil prices and threatening the strategic Strait of Hormuz, Tehran has secured a powerful bargaining chip. Meanwhile, the American leadership appears rudderless. Waghorn notes that Trump’s statements are contradictory—alternately claiming the war is a victory while also vowing to change the regime. The only "change" achieved so far, Waghorn contends, is the consolidation of a "more hardline" system in Tehran.
Despite Iran cutting the internet and controlling state media, Waghorn reported with relative freedom, adhering to permit requirements from the Ministry of Culture to cover sensitive sites like hospitals and funerals. He described ordinary Iranians as cooperative and polite, though hesitant to speak critically on camera—a natural caution in a war zone.
Ultimately, Waghorn concludes that the United States has entered a quagmire. With no clear exit strategy and a resilient opponent that has turned national trauma into a unifying force, any semblance of an American victory remains elusive.
As the bombs continue to fall, the reality on the ground, as witnessed by Waghorn, is simple: a nation under fire has rallied against its attacker. The hoped-for insurrection has not come. Instead, the United States finds itself locked in a war of attrition against a culture built on resistance—a war it was never equipped to win.
Source: Based on the reporting of Dominic Waghorn, International Affairs Editor for Sky News, as published in Ib-Paper.