3 March 2026
Chicago 12, Melborne City, USA
Economy

Jon Stewart returns to “Mess O’Potamia” for Iran War

Here we go again. After kidnapping the president of Venezuela and unleashing the military in American streets, President Trump entered March like a cowardly lion and got back to what America does best: Destabilizing the Middle East through the murder of innocent civilians. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump joined Israel in an unprovoked military action against Iran, killing more than 200 people, including 165 people, mostly children, in the bombing of a primary school, per the BBC. The U.S. and Israel have injured 700 across the nation and killed the country’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as the three successors the U.S. lined up to replace him. 

In one of those “do not adjust your TV set” moments, which has become all too common in recent years, Jon Stewart found himself in a familiar position. Like in 2003, when he rose to prominence as one of television’s most influential satirists, Stewart dusted off the old “Mess O’Potamia” title card and returned to wondering, loudly and angrily, what exactly we’re doing here. Seeing as the Trump administration announced the war under the cover of night and would rather speak to statues about his gold drapes than explain to the American people why another indefinite armed conflict was necessary, it’s safe to assume this will go on for the foreseeable future without reason. They won’t even do us the dignity of lying to us about WMDs. Sadly, it was up to Stewart to clutch his support monkey and pine for the days when the president announced his useless, unnecessary war in primetime. 

As if to help put this war in perspective, Stewart hosted director Jafar Panahi, who’s been arrested numerous times by the Iranian government for making movies that dared question the regime. His latest, the Palme d’Or-winning, Oscar-nominated It Was Just An Accident, follows four people dealing with the lasting effects of the Iranian government’s oppression when they kidnap a man they believe to be their torturer. In their conversation, Panahi discusses what it’s like to make movies in Iran, what it was like in prison, and why he plans to return despite threats from the regime. 

“We only have two types of filmmakers in the world. 95% are filmmakers who are after what the audience wants, meaning they adapt their taste to the audience and give the audience what it wants,” Panahi said through a translator. “But the other 5% says, ‘This is how I look, and now it’s on the audience to come and find me.’ And where you’re not going with the taste of the audience, and you’re just going according to your own taste, you will not allow anything to dictate you. You will not allow anyone to tell you what to make. That’s when you will make reality, and in that reality, everyone is a human being. There is no purely good or purely evil person. We only have dysfunctional systems that have divided people. This is a characteristic of a socially engaged cinema. A humanistic look at everybody, and to a future in which the cycle of violence comes to an end.”


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