Parenting & Family Quote by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

It lands like a backhanded benediction: you can be born of America without belonging to it, and you can pay in blood while still being judged disloyal. Rafsanjani’s phrasing is doing two things at once. “Children of the United States” is not a compliment; it’s a way of assigning parentage, and with it, responsibility. America becomes the author of a story that later pretends it was only a bystander. If these people are America’s “children,” then their violence, choices, and tragedies are downstream of US power.

The next line tightens the moral vise. “They sacrificed their children” evokes a grim, almost biblical economy: the ordinary pay the price so “others” can benefit. It’s hard not to hear an indictment of proxy wars and client politics, where local families absorb the losses while distant strategists count gains. Rafsanjani is also speaking to his own audience, reminding them that the pain isn’t abstract or noble; it’s familial, intimate, and politically produced.

Then comes the twist: “not very devoted children.” That’s the real intent. He’s diagnosing the limits of American patronage: it demands loyalty, but it rarely inspires it. In one sentence, Rafsanjani reframes “allies” as dependents and then questions their affection for the parent that used them. The subtext is both accusatory and strategic: the US creates instruments, spends them, and is shocked when they don’t love the hand that held the strings.