Why America Is Like A Teenager Who Refuses To Grow Up

NDTV

4 hours ago

Iran, it seems, has been bombed into temporary submission. The Islamic Republic, battered but not broken, was allowed a symbolic, face-saving retaliation - its missile strike on a US military base in Qatar, avenging, at least on paper, the decimation of its nuclear facilities.
Ironically, this brief gesture of defiance may have bolstered the unpopular clerical regime at home. Though its people bore the brunt of the suffering, including scientists, military officials and ordinary citizens, it seems the leadership has emerged with a renewed grip on power. For now, a talk of regime change has receded into the background.
Ancient Civilisations, Modern Blows
As a fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel - brokered, or rather imposed, by US President Donald Trump - holds, it's time to step back and reflect. What was achieved in the 12-day war? Israel insists its objectives were met. Washington proclaims that Iran's nuclear ambitions have been permanently neutralised. But even within the US government, there is growing scepticism. The CIA has reportedly cast doubt on Trump's claim that all three targeted nuclear sites were 'completely obliterated'.
What's beyond dispute, however, is this: for the first time in decades, one of the world's oldest civilisations has come under sustained aerial assault, and it is the people of Iran, not its theocratic elite, who have paid the highest price.
In living memory, we have not witnessed such heavy pounding of Iran's beautiful capital, Tehran. Israel was the tormentor-in-chief over the past fortnight, while the United States seems to have delivered the sucker punch. Amid the rubble and rhetoric, a deeper question emerges: how do ancient civilisations absorb modern blows?
Youthful America And a Sense of History
Is there any point in holding on to ancient glories? For countries like Iran, India or China, history runs deep, and with it comes a strong sense of identity. But there's always a risk. Too much pride in the past can lead to complacency, even denial, about the present. At the same time, forgetting or dismissing history altogether can create its own problems - arrogance, short-term thinking, a loss of perspective. The real challenge for any old civilisation is to strike a balance: to learn from its past without getting stuck in it.
America, not yet 250 years old, is acting once again like the self-appointed global ' daroga ', especially of a region it barely understands. Iran, the modern inheritor of ancient Persia, bears the burden of the past - a culture that predates the US Declaration of Independence by nearly five millennia.
This isn't about judging one country's morals over another. It's about how nations remember their past and use it to shape their actions. The United States is still a young power, armed with technology and confidence. Iran, by contrast, is an ancient civilisation -- worn down in places, but with a deep and rich history. Its story goes back thousands of years, to the time of Cyrus the Great and the grand cities of Persepolis and Isfahan. For Americans, 1776 feels like distant history. For Iranians, it's barely yesterday compared to the long arc of dynasties like the Achaemenids, Parthians, Sassanids and Safavids.
Fraternity of Ancient Civilisation
Iran, of course, is not alone in this deep civilisational lineage. India, with its Indus Valley roots and uninterrupted philosophical, spiritual, and political traditions, remains one of the oldest living civilisations. From the Vedas and Ashoka to Gandhi and Ambedkar, India's civilisational dialogue has always been self-reflective and adaptive. China, too, boasts over 4,000 years of continuous history. Dynasties rose and fell, but the Middle Kingdom maintained its Confucian spine, reinventing itself repeatedly - from the Han and Tang to the Ming and the modern Chinese state. These nations have endured invasions, colonisations and revolutions, but their cultural DNA persists. When Iran is bombed, it's not just one nation attacked; it's a gesture of disregard towards a fraternity of ancient wisdoms.
The problem with teenagers, especially those with nukes and no sense of limits, is that they often act before they reflect (Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki?). American foreign policy in West Asia is a textbook example of adolescent overreach: short attention spans, cyclical memory, a belief in shortcuts to regime change, and an almost allergic reaction to complexity. Iran, meanwhile, is complex by definition. No regime, whether monarchic or clerical, can erase the layers of Persian civilisation. In fact, some of the deepest anti-clerical critiques in Iran are couched in the language of cultural reclamation, not Western liberalism.
Let's rewind the clock. It's widely believed that by the time the Greeks were learning to spell democracy, Persian kings had already drafted the first known charter of human rights. The Cyrus Cylinder, dating back to 539 BCE, speaks of religious freedom and humane governance. Darius I standardised coinage, built roads, and governed a vast empire through a sophisticated administrative system. What does America have in comparison? A civil war it barely understands, a Constitution its politicians selectively quote, and a capital city with Roman facades but little Roman endurance.
Old vs New
Even America's soft power - Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Wall Street - is somewhat brittle. It lacks civilisational roots. Its stories are constantly rebooted, its billionaires chase immortality in the cloud, and its idea of global leadership is inseparable from surveillance and sanctions. Iran, for all its censorship and theocracy, still reveres poets. The tombs of Hafez and Saadi attract pilgrims, not influencers. Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the Persian epic written over three decades, remains a touchstone of national identity and historical consciousness. In contrast, the US has TikTok trends that vanish in a week.
Now, to be clear: Iran is no utopia. The current regime has its authoritarian tendencies. The morality police, the repression of dissent, the arrests of journalists and students, crimes against women, these are all serious issues. But to bomb a country for its flaws while ignoring one's own is hypocrisy. America's own racial, judicial and economic injustices should be enough to disqualify it from any self-appointed role as global disciplinarian. If Iran's theocracy is medieval, what of America's gun culture, school shootings, mass incarceration and militarised policing?
Clash Of Temporalities
Civilisations rise and fall, but empires often repeat the same mistakes. The British thought they could rule India forever until Gandhi's salt march showed otherwise. The Soviets believed Afghanistan could be tamed by tanks. And America thought shock and awe in Iraq would usher in a democratic sunrise. History laughed. Civilisational Iran endured them all. And all indications are that it will endure American airstrikes, too. But what kind of world are we building when the powerful measure their might not by restraint, but by the tonnage of explosives?
The US should remember how many short-lived superpowers litter the pages of history. Persia fought Alexander and survived. It absorbed Mongols and was reborn. It was ruled by Caliphs and rose again. It had its Renaissance during Europe's Dark Ages. All through history, Iran has been a picture of fortitude. America, by contrast, is already cracking under its own weight - politically polarised, socially fragmented and struggling to project credibility abroad.
What we are witnessing is not just geopolitical conflict but a deeper clash of temporalities. America thinks in news cycles; Iran thinks in centuries. America invades; Iran waits. Even Machiavelli, the patron saint of political cynics, warned that power without legitimacy is brittle. You can silence an enemy with missiles. You cannot erase their memory with drones.
The Persian Identity
Iran's intellectual lineage is impressive. Avicenna, whose Canon of Medicine was taught in European universities until the 17th century, was Persian. So was Al-Farabi, one of the early architects of Islamic philosophy. The Islamic Golden Age, from Baghdad to Bukhara, owed much to Persian scholars. The Safavid dynasty (16th-18th century) fused Shiism into Persian identity, creating a theocratic-political structure far more enduring than any ideology cooked up in Washington think tanks. Even in decline, Persia exports ideas. Its cinema, literature, art, and even resistance politics ripple across the region.
India's Enduring Philosophy
India, too, shows us what resilience looks like. Despite colonial looting, Partition trauma and post-colonial chaos, it has preserved its philosophical heritage - from the Upanishads to Tagore, from the Bhakti movement to contemporary thinkers. India gave the world zero, yoga, and Gandhi. It also gave dissent, pluralism and the idea that unity doesn't mean uniformity. China, for its part, has weathered dynastic collapses, colonial incursions and cultural revolutions, only to emerge as a global economic powerhouse - its Confucian and Taoist roots still pulsing beneath the skyscrapers of Shanghai.
So what does it mean when a heavily armed young boy bombs an ancestor? It means we are in an age where history is ignored and memory is disposable. But nations, like people, need roots to endure. Iran has those roots. India and China have them too. America, increasingly, lives on borrowed time and borrowed wisdom.
If American policymakers want to understand Iran, they should start by reading the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, not just satellite imagery. If they want to influence West Asia, they should study Shahnameh, not just sanctions. Because the legacy of the empire is not measured by firepower. Bombing Iran may win a news cycle. But it loses the arc of history.
Empires that fail to listen to history end up becoming footnotes in it. Ask Rome. Ask Britain. America still has a choice. But first, it must decide: does it want to be remembered as a fleeting power that barked orders or a mature civilisation that earned respect?
Iran, wounded but enduring, knows its answer. It has known it for 5,000 years.
(Syed Zubair Ahmed is a London-based senior Indian journalist with three decades of experience with the Western media)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author