LISA DAFTARI: Trump didn’t start a war, he ended one. And Iranians are celebrating

There is so much to say as an Iranian-American who has devoted my entire career to the promise of a moment like this. And now, it is finally here. 

Watching Iranians pour into the streets waving the lion‑and‑sun flag, singing old freedom songs and crying tears of disbelief feels surreal. These are people who have literally buried their children for a chance at freedom. Their joy is over a day they never thought they’d experience after 47 years of suffocation.

It is hard to fathom a people so desperate for justice, so hungry for liberty, that they are cheering military strikes on their own soil as the price of liberation. They know the cost of freedom better than anyone. Yet while Iranians dance and pray for a nation reborn, too many voices here in the United States are dismissing this moment as "another war for oil," a favor to Israel, or a boon for defense contractors.

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That type of cynicism misunderstands both the stakes and the strategy. What we’re witnessing is a deliberate, calculated intervention designed to end an almost five-decade war with the Islamic Republic. The Trump administration’s strategic imperative has never been "regime change" for its own sake. It has been to ensure that Iran's regime never possesses a nuclear weapon and does not continue to terrorize its neighbors or Americans abroad.

But in delivering those strikes and dismantling the regime’s military infrastructure, President Trump has effectively done what past presidents feared. He has pushed the Islamic Republic to the point of collapse. And in his remarks to the Iranian people, he made it very clear that the onus is now on them to reclaim their own destiny. America will not send troops to occupy Tehran or rebuild Iran from the outside. The U.S. will stand with the Iranian people morally, politically and technologically, but it will stop short of boots on the ground.

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Iran is not Iraq. It is not Afghanistan. The Iranian people are not fractured tribes held together by foreign intervention. They are a proud, educated and deeply patriotic nation that remembers a time before the Islamic Republic. Decades of repression, censorship and brutality have not broken their spirit. Tens of thousands have been imprisoned, tortured or executed. Women have risked their lives to remove their hijabs in public. Journalists have vanished for printing the truth. Students have been shot or hanged for chanting "death to the dictator." These people are ready, and in many ways, they have already begun their revolution.

Let me be very clear: America did not start a war with the Islamic Republic. The regime declared war on us in 1979, when militants stormed our embassy in Tehran, seized 52 American diplomats, and held them hostage for 444 days. Since then, its leaders and proxies have attacked our troops, our allies and even civilians through terrorism and assassinations across the Middle East. Their strategy from day one has been to  export terror to preserve power at home.

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For decades, successive administrations chose to tolerate or appease that aggression. President Donald Trump, together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, chose to confront it head‑on. In doing so, he has not only neutralized one of the world’s most dangerous regimes but also given the Iranian people their first real window for freedom in two generations.

Yes, this campaign is strategic, and yes, it serves U.S. interests. A non‑nuclear, post‑theocratic Iran means greater stability in the Middle East, a reduced threat to American forces and a powerful blow to global terrorism.

As celebrations stretch from Tehran to Los Angeles, one truth is unmistakable: this time is different. The Iranian people are not waiting for America to bring them democracy; they are seizing it themselves. And the world, finally, is no longer looking away. Let’s celebrate together.