‘This war is long overdue’: Killing the ‘Great Satan’

The United States, Israel and Qatar have now attacked the Islamic Republic of Iran along with several other countries providing defensive coordination. News across the U.S. has been about the success of the military operation, congressional approval or lack thereof, the cost of the war in gross numbers and to Americans individually, and whether this war is justified.

As an Iranian-born American who was arrested and sentenced to death by hanging because of my faith in Jesus, let me assure you it is not only justified, but necessary. I spent most of my life living under the brutal misogynist regime that has killed tens of thousands of Iranians in the past two months alone, let alone the hundreds of thousands slaughtered in the name of their demonic god in Iran and around the world in the past 47 years. This war is not only justified, it’s long overdue.

It is also necessary for America. Growing up, tens of millions of Iranians over nearly five decades were indoctrinated to chant “Death to America” at every occasion. It’s not just a cute chant like at a pep rally. It’s a literal goal of this demonic regime. They indoctrinate and force people to chant it because they mean it. To the Islamic Republic, America is the “Great Satan.” A cancer that must be killed.

Iranians were brainwashed to think that these were legitimate goals, but it always struck me that we were never raised on pride of being Iranians. Our Persian culture was erased by the regime, replaced by an evil extremist Islam and the worshipping of their god of anger and punishment through threats and consequences. We were never aware of all the attacks on Americans in our name, but since immigrating to the U.S. and becoming an American citizen, I have learned that there were many. I am ashamed by these actions from the regime that hijacked the country of my birth, and fearful for Americans who don’t really understand the evil threat that must be eliminated.

Since 1979, the Islamic Republic has been responsible for untold death and suffering of Americans. These make up just a partial list:

• November 1979: Iranian students, backed by the regime, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran – taking 66 Americans hostages for 444 days.
• April 1983: Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terrorist group, carried out a suicide car bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 17 Americans.
• October 1983: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 241 U.S. military – including 220 Marines.
• March 1984: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorists kidnapped and executed CIA station chief William Buckley in Beirut.
• September 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 23 people – including two American service members – in a car bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
• December 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists hijacked Kuwait Airways Flight 221, diverting it to Tehran – brutally torturing and killing two American officials.
• June 1985: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists hijacked TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome, torturing a U.S. Navy diver, shooting him in the head, and tossing his body onto the Beirut airport tarmac.
• July 1989: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed U.S. Marine Col. William Higgins after kidnapping him while serving with a United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
• June 1996: Iran-backed Hezbollah Al-Hijaz terrorists killed 19 U.S. Airmen and wounded nearly 500 others in a truck bombing at a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia.
• August 1998: Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, facilitated by Iran-backed Hezbollah, simultaneously bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people – including a dozen American citizens.
• August 2001: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a Jerusalem pizzeria, killing three Americans.
• July 2002: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist killed five Americans in a bombing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
• October 2003: Iran-backed Popular Resistance Committees terrorists killed three U.S. diplomats in a bombing in Gaza.
• Between 2003 and 2011: Iran-backed militias killed at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq – “one in every six American combat fatalities in Iraq.”
• August 2003: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing five Americans and wounding one other American.
• January 2007: A dozen men affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force killed five U.S. soldiers and wounded three others in Karbala, Iraq, after disguising themselves as U.S. soldiers.
• March 2007: Former FBI Agent Robert Levinson disappeared in Iran, likely dying in an Iranian prison.
• December 2019: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed an American contractor and wounded several U.S. service members in a rocket attack at K1 Air Base in Kirkuk, Iraq.
• January 2020: 109 U.S. troops suffered traumatic brain injuries in an Iranian ballistic missile attack on the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq.
• February 2021: An Iran-backed militia fired a rocket at coalition forces in Erbil, Iraq, wounding a U.S. service member and four U.S. civilian contractors.
• July 2021: Iranian-backed militias wounded two U.S. service members in a series of rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.
• September 2022: An Iranian rocket attack killed an American in Iraqi Kurdistan.
• November 2022: An IRGC captain orchestrated the killing of an American citizen in Baghdad.
• March 2023: An Iranian drone attack killed an American contractor and wounded five U.S. service members and another contractor in Syria.
• October 2023: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed 46 Americans and kidnapped at least 12 Americans in the October 7 massacre.
• December 2023: Iran-backed militias wounded three U.S. service members in an attack on Erbil Air Base in Iraq.
• January 2024: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed three U.S. service members and wounded more than 40 other service members in a drone attack against the Tower 22 military base in Jordan.
• October 2003 – November 2024: Iran and its proxies conducted more than 180 attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East, wounding more than 180 U.S. service members and killing three service members.
• November 2024: An Iranian national and IRGC asset was charged for plotting to assassinate President Trump.
• June 2025: Iran-backed militias attacked at least three U.S. bases in Syria and two U.S. bases in Iraq.

Some critics say the U.S. is fighting Israel’s war. This is nonsense. Of course, Israel (targeted repeatedly by the regime and branded the “Little Satan”) has similar interests to the U.S. But this is a war for Western, Judeo-Christian civilization with which radical Islam is incompatible. Indeed, Israel has suffered the brunt of Islamic Republic attacks, with its goal to destroy Israel. In the process, over the decades, Iranian funded and trained terrorists have undertaken countless attacks on and in Israel, killing thousands and wounding many thousands more. Hundreds of these victims have also been American citizens.

Today people are concerned that American taxes are funding this war. However, these people did not protest, or even raise an eyebrow, over billions of American taxpayers’ dollars channeled directly to the Islamic Republic specifically under the Obama and Biden administrations.

America basically paid to strengthen the enemy that has always been out to destroy it.

I know Americans are concerned about the price of gas and other things going up. But trust me. If this war didn’t happen now, finally, the price to America and all Americans would have been much higher, and with much longer-term consequences. Even risking our freedom. Accepting and turning a blind eye to this reality and these threats is against American national security interests and not the way to begin another 250 years of independence.