Why the U.S. Needs to Attack Iran

January 14, 2026 10:10pm

The Human Rights Activists News Agency reports that protests have occurred in 614 locations in 187 cities across all 31 Iranian provinces. It is a massive uprising that could end the Islamic Republic of Iran's theocratic government. The United States has expressed support for those protests with President Trump saying he would use force if the Iranian government violently cracked down on protesters.

But Trump has done more than merely state his support. He has encouraged the protesters with promises of help. Yesterday, he posted to social media, "Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price." This came after he earlier told the protesters "HELP IS ON ITS WAY" without defining what that would entail. But he clearly implied that help would come from the United States.

I hope he means it, and he intends to follow through with the threat because sitting on the sidelines is not an option. The Iranians protesting in the streets know that the President of the United States made those statements. What they don't know, however, is exactly what he meant by them. I doubt anyone knows what he meant. Perhaps Donald Trump himself probably doesn't know what he meant.

That ambiguity is a double-edged sword. America has a policy of strategic ambiguity vis a vis Taiwan (in which we express enough support for the defense of Taiwan that China won't invade, but not so much support that it emboldens the Taiwanese to take aggressive action towards independence and force an invasion by China). We need to make our intentions clear to the protesters in Iran.

Somewhere between 2000 and 20,000 Iranians have already been killed on the direct orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 2000 is the count confirmed by the Government of Iran. 12,000 dead is the number given by the exiled Crown Prince, Reza Pahlavi. Others claim 20,000 deaths. But regardless of what the actual number is, the United States needs to take action. We must support the Iranians protesting against the mad mullahs who rule them.

What form of aid should that be? I don't know exactly. Whatever it is, it must not involve American military personnel overtly on the ground, but it may need to involve covert forces in country. And it probably would require airstrikes by U.S. military aircraft. We are not the world's policeman, and I do not advocate American military action solely to defend the lives of the protesters. I say it because the Islamic theocracy that rules Iran must be destroyed.

If the Islamic regime can be replaced by a secular, pro-western government, it would almost certainly result in a complete dismantling of Iran's nuclear weapons program. Permanently ending Iran's nuclear ambitions needs to be the top priority of the United States and the entire Western world. That is critical because the threat posed by a nuclear-armed Iran would extend far beyond Israel and the Middle East. It would threaten the entire planet.

Not only are the fundamentalist Muslim clerics who run Iran crazy enough to think that using nuclear weapons would please Allah, they are on the record saying that losing 60 million Muslims in a nuclear counterstrike would be a small price to pay if it meant killing 6 million Jews.

Iran's clerics believe in Shia Islam's end times prophecy of the 12th Imam. Iran's leaders believe that if they create enough death and destruction, it will usher in the return of the 12th Imam who would kill all the infidels and establish Islam to reign for eternity as the sole religion on the planet. Consequently, Iran's nuclear ambitions must be terminated at all costs.

So, while I would love to see the Iranian people topple the theocratic rulers who have subjugated them for the past 47 years, the reason I support military action against the regime is to permanently end Iran's nuclear ambitions. The freedom that Iranians would subsequently enjoy is not, in and of itself, sufficient reason for the United States to take military action against the Iranian regime. It would be a nice secondary benefit, however.

Another reason the United States must support the protesters is because we said we would. If we have encouraged the uprising by promising to assist them with more than just words of support, we need to do it. This is not to say that the United States military should be used to back up every statement ever uttered by the President. God knows if that was the case, the military would be vacillating back-and-forth between extreme positions every time Donald Trump says something that counters his previously stated policies.

Donald Trump has a bad habit of speaking, posting, tweeting, or otherwise communicating his thoughts with varying degrees of actual intent to follow through. It is impossible for us to know where things stand with him. But if the Iranian people have risen up against the mad mullahs who have ruled their nation since the 1979 Islamic Revolution because Donald Trump promised he'd defend them, we cannot morally fail to follow through with that promised support.

If Donald Trump is able to facilitate regime change in Iran, he will have achieved a foreign policy objective that every president since Jimmy Carter has supported. I think it is necessary to remind you that Jimmy Carter is the godfather of Islamic terrorism. He is the reason the mad mullahs run Iran. Carter was warned that the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini would be a violent and oppressive theocrat. But Jimmy Carter very foolishly ignored that advice and vocalized his support for Khomeini because Khomeini was "a religious man, a man of peace." So Carter supported Khomeini's return to Iran from exile in Paris. Well, we all know how that worked out. Carter was rewarded with 52 Americans being held hostage for 444 days at the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

Those hostages were held until January 20, 1981. Iran released those hostages during Ronald Reagan's inaugural address. Why such timing? Because the Iranians feared President Reagan would take military action against Iran if they continued to hold those hostages. Islamic cultures only respect strength. They perceive any weakness as something to be exploited. Carter was weak. Reagan was not.

Last June, President Trump took action against the Iranian regime with Operation Midnight Hammer when American B-2 bombers and other military assets attacked Iran's nuclear weapons facilities. Between that and Israel's destruction of Iran's air defenses in Operation Rising Lion nine days before, it should be extremely easy for America to strike government targets in Iran unchallenged. If such strikes would help topple the regime, we need to do it.

Unlike past street demonstrations sponsored by the regime, the current protesters are not chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel." They are demanding the death of the theocratic government that has forced Sharia Law upon them for nearly half a century.

Another reason the United States needs to militarily aid the protesters is because if we help overthrow the Islamic government, we'll have more influence upon the secular government that would take over.

Given the severity of the crackdown on these protesters by the Iranian regime, it's likely there is a very narrow window for the United States to help topple the terrorism-supporting, theocratic government of Iran. We should take advantage of it. And all decent Americans should support it. I know the deranged Left opposes everything Donald Trump does. But they need to put aside their irrational hatred of Trump and support the national security of the United States and the betterment of the entire world.

Historically, Democrats have put the interests of the Muslim extremists who govern Iran over the interests of the United States even when the Democrats controlled the U.S. government. It is now time for them to put America first for a change.