Iran's Revolutionary Guard has sent a 26-page open letter to Americans arguing the two peoples share an enemy in their own elites — a propaganda move, but one that lands because much of it is verifiable.

• The letter says the war has killed more than 3,600 Iranians, mostly civilians, including hundreds of children, and that schools, hospitals and universities were bombed.
• It claims the US and Israel got nothing out of the war, and that one goal was to pull attention away from Gaza and the West Bank.
• The land grab continued while attention was on Iran: Israel moved into southern Lebanon and its ministers say they intend to keep it, with almost no US coverage.
• The letter insists "death to America" targets US leaders, not ordinary Americans — a message Washington never sent Vietnam, Cambodia or Iraq before bombing them.
• Iran's own record undercuts its claim of never harming civilians: verified deaths from the January protest crackdown top 6,800, though Israeli intelligence also worked inside those protests to inflame them.

Outlook: US media will likely bury the letter rather than engage with it, and the letter's apparent hope that American midterms will change US foreign policy is almost certainly misplaced.