The March 1 front-page obituary “Supreme leader wielded ultimate political, religious authority” described Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as an “avuncular figure” with a “bushy white beard and easy smile” and a fondness for Persian poetry.
Khamenei did not rule through poetry. He ruled through executions, torture, censorship and fear. Millions of Iranians fled the country because of the brutality of the system he led. Women were beaten, jailed and killed for refusing to wear a hijab. Children were shot in the streets during protests. Political prisoners were tortured and executed in silence. Families were destroyed. These are not footnotes; they are the defining features of his leadership.
The obituary noted that though he was a fan of “classic Western novels, especially Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Misérables,’” Khamenei “opposed moderates’ efforts to promote political and social reforms.” This phrasing sanitizes the reality: He crushed reform, imprisoned reformists and ordered violent crackdowns on anyone who dared to demand basic rights. This selective framing is not harmless. It shapes public understanding, influences policy attitudes and obscures the suffering of millions. There is nothing poetic about a regime that hangs protesters from cranes.
Mojgan Darian, New York
The obituary for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei highlighted the supreme leader’s “easy smile.” He recently killed 30,000 people in the streets. During his decades-long reign, he imprisoned and tortured an untold number of his own citizens. He killed countless citizens of the United States and other countries. There was blood dripping from that “easy smile.”
Forrest Wooldridge, Golden, Colorado
Regarding the March 4 front-page article “President and aides have offered varying justifications for the attack”:
The Trump administration changes the rationale for this immoral, criminal war every day.
The most preposterous comes from the damaged soul of supreme American warmonger Marco Rubio. “It was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone, the United States or Israel or anyone, they were going to respond and respond against the United States,” the secretary of state said Monday. “If we stood and waited for that attack to come first before we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties. And so the president made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces.”
Simply playing defense, eh? Sounds like the administration’s attempts to fend off criticism. Rubio’s logic would be hilarious if not for the U.S. body bags coming home.
Walt Zlotow, Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Americans are perpetual slaves of our own ignorance. Today, we debate whether President Donald Trump’s reason for the Iran war is regime change, oil or to preempt an attack on America.
Anyone who has studied the history of the modern presidency knows that the real reason for most of America’s international wars is to avoid regime change at home rather than abroad.
Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross, Utah
Walk out and walk on
Regarding the Feb. 27 online news article “D.C. students walk out of school and fill the city’s streets to protest ICE”:
The students, holding signs with messages such as “We are skipping our lessons to teach you one,” are following a long, honorable tradition. I remember in 1968 or so wanting to cut high school to go to a protest downtown, against the Vietnam War. My mother said no, but my friends and I went anyway. We were caught — because my mother was also there protesting! We got scolded but at least didn’t have to take the bus home again; and Mom bought us doughnuts as well. Walk on, students, walk on.
Coryn Weigle, Alexandria
In my experience and according to my research, the main factor in senseless shootings by law enforcement officers is who answers the call for these jobs. For instance, veterans make great candidates for law enforcement jobs, but many have significant problems related to post-traumatic stress disorder. All too often, applicants aren’t evaluated for PTSD or offered mental health services. This might result in an individual who cannot assess a situation objectively instead seeing it as a reminder of a previous altercation in which their life was at risk.
A journalist reported that the Department of Homeland Security offered her a job last year after a six-minute interview. If law enforcement agencies aspire to hire competent officers, they must do a better job of identifying and helping individuals who harbor PTSD. It is a service not only to the officers but also to society.
Juan Orellana, Wake Forest, North Carolina
The author, a physician who has worked at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Fayetteville, North Carolina, is author of “Veterans Healthcare: The Essentials for Improving the Veterans Health Administration.”
As machines thrive, people break down
The Feb. 18 editorial “Why the AI jobs panic is misplaced” got the big picture right: Artificial intelligence will automate tasks, not eliminate professions, and the Luddite panic is overblown. Fair enough.
But the piece glided past something important. It assumed that once drudgery disappears, workers simply move on to focusing on judgment and strategy. That is a comforting story, but it almost never works that way. In Brazil, more than 546,000 workers went on medical leave for mental health reasons in 2025. They weren’t laid off by algorithms. They broke down. Brazil just happens to track the numbers. Most countries don’t bother.
The Editorial Board wants us to choose between catastrophism and optimism. I’d rather ask a more boring question: What does the transition cost, and who picks up the tab? Asking this out loud isn’t doom and gloom. It’s the bare minimum before we start talking policy.
Julio Moraes, São Paulo, Brazil
The top on top of the world
The March 4 online Weather article “Where it’s suddenly going to feel like spring or summer this week” reported: “Forecasters are eyeing a unique climate driver — called a sudden stratospheric warming — that may threaten to cause another blast of frigid conditions later in March. It’s the same phenomenon that caused a polar vortex disruption in December, sending winter weather patterns into a tailspin and contributing to the coldest and snowiest winter in years across the East.”
Our recent and future weather in the United States is presenting a great opportunity to explain the polar vortex incursions caused by climate change. If you spin a heavy metal top and a light plastic top on a table, the light plastic top will start wobbling first. Back when the Arctic had consistent dense cold heavy air, it would stay up there more consistently with the spin of the Earth’s rotation. Now warm air infiltrates the Arctic and results in the weakened cold air coming down to us.
It seems the administration is aggressively ignoring climate change to protect one person’s ego.
Paul Beaumont, Bennington, Vermont
Following Neal Katyal’s Feb. 25 op-ed, “Tariffs were illegal. Now Trump wants to delay refunds.,” Post Opinions wants to know: If you run a business, what opportunities did your company lose because capital was redirected to tariffs? Send us your response, and it might be published as a letter to the editor. wapo.st/tariff_costs
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