The 46-year reign of the mad mullahs has devastated a once proud, modern and relatively secular country

One of my core childhood memories is being forced to line up at my school in Tehran and chant “death to America” over and over again. The regime’s hatred for the US has only intensified in the decades since.

One of my core childhood memories is being forced to line up at my school in Tehran and chant “death to America” over and over again.

That was part of life in post-Islamic Revolution Iran and the regime’s hatred for the “great satan” America has only intensified in the decades since.

My tiny act of resistance was to mouth the words and not shout them; I was never going to be indoctrinated to hate the country of my birth.

The 46-year reign of the mad mullahs has devastated a once proud, modern and relatively secular country.

Iran’s people have grown increasingly fed up with a regime that prioritises terror in the region rather than economic prosperity at home.

The regime prioritises terror in the region. Picture: AP

An Islamist regime that denies its citizens basic human rights, systematically subjugates women and minorities and cracks down brutally on any hint of dissent.

That’s why there are plenty of Iranians, home and abroad, who want to see the Iranian government demoralised, devastated and denied any nuclear capacity.

Indeed, many are dreaming of regime change and they don’t care one bit if it’s facilitated by Israel and the US.

Of course, no one wants to see innocent lives lost in a prolonged war but the opportunity to rid Iran of the cancer of Islamism is profound and cannot be ignored.

The Islamist regime denies its citizens basic human rights. Picture: AFP

President Donald Trump was elected on an America First platform and there exists a small but loud band of his supporters who are dead-set against any US involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict.

They argue America’s interests are not served by standing with Israel to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, let alone becoming an active participant in a war.

But that is frankly a shortsighted and deeply naive position.

America will have to deal with the Iranian problem at some point, and it’s in the country’s best interests to do it before Iran acquires nuclear weapons.

This is a point Trump has made for a decade; he has been entirely consistent in arguing that Iran cannot be allowed to acquire or develop nuclear weapons.

He understands perfectly well that it would not just be Israel that would be in the firing line.

Iran has been given plenty of chances to sign a new nuclear deal with the US, one that would firmly constrain its ability to enrich uranium.

But Iran has consistently refused to play by the rules and failed to come to a new agreement after five rounds of talks since April.

Donald Trump has been entirely consistent in arguing that Iran cannot be allowed to acquire or develop nuclear weapons. Picture: AP

A week ago the International Atomic Energy Agency formally declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years.

It was a motion backed strongly by Western powers and only opposed by Russia, China and Burkina Faso.

The IAEA slammed Iran for its “general lack of co-operation” and found the country had sufficient uranium enriched to near “weapons grade” to potentially make nine nuclear bombs. It shouldn’t need to be said that it’s not in the free world’s interests for Iran’s mullahs to get their grubby hands on nuclear weaponry.

And yet it does need to be said given the predictably unhinged manner many in this country, the US and elsewhere in the West have reacted to the strikes against Iran.

It’s one thing to be anti-war but to carry water for a backward and brutal Islamist government is a new low for the modern Left, and it follows a trend we’ve seen since October 7 when the “progressive” activist class decided it was fashionable to be virulently anti-Semitic.

It has also been sickening to watch the backflips from some who just three years ago said they stood with the women of Iran as they fought against the country’s oppressive hijab laws.

The “Woman Life Freedom” uprising has long been forgotten by the Left who would rather rail against Trump and Israel than be honest about the threat a nuclear Iran poses to the region and to the world.

Originally published as The 46-year reign of the mad mullahs has devastated a once proud, modern and relatively secular country