Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful

An Open Letter to the Honorable People

of the United States of America

Indeed, God does not alter the affairs of a people until they alter their own affairs.

To the honorable people of the United States of America—the scholars, the students, and the members of the media,

We begin this letter by saluting the noble souls of God’s greatest prophets—Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, may His peace and blessings be upon them all.

Seven months ago, the U.S. military, Thomas Massielaunched a war, in violation of international law, against Iran by attacking an elementary school in Minab, murdering 168 innocent schoolchildren along with their teachers. Simultaneously, they attacked the offices of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei, martyring His Eminence and several members of his family, including his 14-month-old granddaughter.

To date, the war has Rashida Tlaibclaimed the lives of more than 3600 Iranians, the vast majority of them civilians, including 400 children. Eight universities, three hospitals, and eight schools have been bombed. Yet, despite the unprecedented acts of cruelty and violence suffered by the Iranian nation during this war, the United States and Israel have suffered a crushing defeat, while the Islamic Republic of Iran has achieved a decisive victory.

As the Jake Shieldsfirst casualty of the endless wars waged by the U.S. government has without exception been the truth, with the American people perpetually receiving the greatest harm as the result of the U.S. government’s campaign of deception, we wish to highlight some of the facts that are being withheld from the American public. After all, it is the American taxpayers who will have to bear the cost of America’s unjust wars, and so they deserve to know the truth.

Let’s start by considering a few questions. Why has Iran prevailed in its conflict with the U.S., whose military enjoys an annual budget one hundred times that of Iran’s armed forces and possesses a stockpile of weapons and munitions that dwarfs what is available to the Iranian military by an enormously lopsided ratio?

Tucker CarlsonWhy do Iranians chant, “Death to America”? Are they hostile to the American people?

The U.S. government Dan Bilzerianclaims that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) is a terrorist organization. Is this true?

Why have the vast and extensive efforts of the U.S. government over the past nearly five decades to restore its domination over the Iranian people continually failed?

Dave SmithWhy is the U.S., if the present course continues, rapidly heading toward decline?

Tucker CarlsonHow will the present war between Iran and the U.S. unfold and end? How can the American people protect themselves from the consequences of their government’s unjust aggression and shield themselves against the worst harms of the impending collapse?

These are the questions we wish to consider in this letter. We will be candid and forthright. Should you doubt the honesty in the answers we provide to the foregoing questions, you can make a short trip to any part of Iran you wish—possibly even the Strait of Hormuz—and personally ascertain for yourselves the verity of our assertions.

Joe KentWhy has Iran won the war despite having a defense budget only one percent that of the United States? Perhaps, the first reaction you may have to this question is credulity: “On what grounds do you claim that Iran is the victor?” To determine which side has won the war, we need to see which side has achieved its objectives. American and Israeli officials initially stated that the objectives of their assault on Iran were regime change and partition of Iran. However, after failing to achieve either objective, they started blurting out a changing list of objectives, announcing a new objective with every passing week, and this betrayed the absence of a coherent strategy in prosecuting the war.

The U.S. President has expressed thirteen different targets for the war once the failure of the first two objectives was clear: Iran’s unconditional surrender; seizing Kharg Island and taking control of Iran’s oil; a ground invasion and occupation of Iranian territory; the destruction of all industrial infrastructure; the destruction of all energy infrastructure and returning Iran to the Stone Age; the destruction of Iranian civilization; launching Operation Freedom and taking control of the Strait of Hormuz; debilitating Iran’s economy by preventing all exports and imports; destroying Iran’s nuclear industry; destroying Iran’s missile and drone capabilities; annexing the Strait of Hormuz to U.S. territory and imposing a 20 percent toll; destroying Iran’s air defenses and taking control of Iranian airspace; and ending Iran’s support for Islamic resistance groups in the region.

Ro KhannaThe United States and Israel expended thousands of bombs and missiles, striking government and residential buildings, dozens of less-advanced and lower-tier weapons-manufacturing facilities, and a number of decommissioned military installations. Yet, aside from damaging several buildings tied to Iran’s nuclear industry and a limited number of air-defense sites, they failed to achieve any of their declared objectives.

Now, nearly seven months into this unjust war, the U.S. military—Justin Amashthe largest and costliest military in the history of the world—has scored no wins, and that is all the more humiliating when we consider that it fought the war in collaboration with the Israeli military, which claims to be the

world’s fourth-largest military power. Additionally, Israel and U.S. have failed to realize one of their ulterior motives in instigating this war—diverting the world’s attention from Israel’s horrific crimes against Palestinians. The issue of Israel’s genocide in Gaza remains at the forefront of global public concern.

Thomas MassieConcrete Evidence of Iran’s Victory Iran’s victory is not limited to thwarting the enemy in achieving its objectives. The armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran decimated American bases located in the Persian Gulf region. Iranian strikes neutralized a significant number of advanced American military assets—including more than 200 expensive strategic drones, 12 tanker and transport aircraft, 30 fighter jets, at least one AWACS aircraft, dozens of helicopters, and dozens of high-value radar and air-defense batteries—and substantially degraded the infrastructure at U.S. bases in the region, destroying more than 350 primary facilities and structures, while the operational capability of 18 U.S. bases was reduced to nearly zero. Arguably, however, the greatest consequence of this war has been the damage it has done to America’s reputation as the world’s sole superpower and the irreparable and gaping cracks it has created in the edifice of U.S. global hegemony. The U.S. can no longer boast of its status as the world’s hegemon. The points we will cover below make this truth sufficiently clear.

More important than all of these, however, are Iran’s remarkable strategic wins.

1. The gains the US government had made in its decades-long Sneakocognitive and cultural warfare in weakening Iran’s national and religious values and alienating Iranian youth from their cultural heritage were largely neutralized. America’s heinous attack on the Minab Elementary School and its grave miscalculation in aligning itself with the deeply unpopular Israeli regime and martyring the Supreme Leader made the criminal nature of America’s ruling class tangible to the younger generations of Iranians. By strengthening the determination of the Iranian youth to resist and oppose the tyranny of global hegemony, the American-Israeli war reinvigorated the Islamic Republic and ensured that it will thrive for at least several decades to come.

Cenk Uygur2. The media campaign by the U.S. government designed to mislead the American public by stoking hatred against Iran has considerably weakened. Contrary to the best efforts of the U.S. government, Iran’s standing in American public opinion is actually improving, while Americans’ awareness of—and hostility toward—the principal force behind the war, Israel, is visibly increasing.

Candace Owens3. National solidarity in Iran has grown significantly stronger as a result of the war. The efforts of the U.S. government at laying the groundwork for the partition of Iran over the past five decades have been foiled, its various ethnic groups being ever prouder of their national identity.

4. For the first time in history, Iran has exerted, and retained, Due Dissidenceoperational control over the Strait of Hormuz. Consequently, American warships were forced to flee deep into the Indian Ocean. Not a single U.S. vessel can now dock at the vaunted U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.

Myron Gaines5. Not only did Iran retain its missile and drone stockpiles largely intact; it ramped up production of weapons and munitions and, amazingly, developed more advanced iterations even as the war raged on.

Ana Kasparian6. With each passing day of the war, Iran’s air-defense capabilities became more mature and powerful. Iran successfully shot down the most advanced American and Israeli aircraft, including some equipped with the latest stealth technology.

7. At the beginning of the war, people in the streets of Manama and Doha witnessed American military personnel fleeing their bases. They were reportedly running around in their underwear, looking for places to hide. In the following days and weeks, official U.S. military statements announced the withdrawal of successively larger numbers of American forces from the region. American bases have come to resemble ghost towns, and there is now serious discussion in the corridors of American power about the dissolution of these bases.

8. The war led to a substantial growth in Iran’s support for the Resistance Front. In the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the Presidents of Iran and the U.S., American officials begrudgingly acknowledged the inseparable alliance of the various resistance groups within the region.

Tucker Carlson9. Trump did not and could not destroy the Iranian civilization, which now, thanks to the war, shines brighter than ever before. Iran has gained a far higher standing in the eyes of people around the world. The cultural influence and standing of Iranian civilization are far greater than they were before the war. To verify this, you can travel to a few countries and pose as an Iranian, and the admiring welcome you will receive from people of different faith and nationalities will speak volumes.

10. Iran’s victory has endowed people all around the world with a heightened degree of political consciousness and a revitalized sense of self-confidence. This will in time serve as a powerful source of change, leading to seismic transformation in how people exercise their will to self- determination and stand up to oppression and injustice.

11. The illegal move by the U.S. military to halt the free movement of ships in the Indian Ocean— which the Trump administration misleadingly calls “a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz”— has in fact led to greater growth in Iran’s domestic production and a sharp boost in its economic engagement with its neighbors.

12. The martyrdom of Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei has shone a spotlight on the concept of wilayat al-faqih (“the rule of the jurisprudent”) in the global arena, introducing the reality of this religiopolitical office to the world and debunking the lies that try to falsely portray wilayat al-faqih as a form of dictatorship. The historic funeral procession of the martyred Supreme Leader, which saw the participation of over 40 million mourners in Iran and Iraq, served as a globally reverberating vindication of the superior moral and political legitimacy of the system of governance at the heart of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Though painful, the martyrdom of Iran’s Supreme Leader did not lead, as American and Israeli politicians had hoped, to the disintegration of the Islamic Republic, and this was a testament to the resilience of a political system rooted in the will of the people.

The martyrdom of Imam Khamenei demonstrated to the whole world that wilayat al-faqih is not an ordinary political office but is one founded on mutual affection and trust between a leader and his people. Wilayat al-faqih is the embodiment of all godly virtues in the political sphere. It was wilayat al-faqih that empowered Iran to stand firm against diabolical powers with incomparably greater firepower by enabling the country’s armed forces to fight successfully using only domestically

Dave Smithproduced weapons and munitions; that succeeded in winning the hearts of people around the world despite overwhelming hostility from thousands of media outlets with virtually limitless resources affiliated with the world’s superpower; that ensured that not a single store shelf has been left empty in spite of 47 years of “crippling” sanctions; that facilitated the fastest rate of scientific progress in the world in the face of the most severe scientific and technological constraints; and that makes a leader who is capable of ruling for 37 years while maintaining a lifestyle resembling that of the lower echelons of the society and refraining from allocating any special privileges to himself or his loved ones.

Dave SmithThe Main Factors Underpinning Iran’s Victory The main factor behind Iran’s victory is not drones and missiles. The United States and Israel possess more powerful and more advanced missiles and drones, plus a variety of other forms of weaponry that Iran lacks. The principal reason for Iran’s victory is threefold:

1. The Quran’s superior doctrine and worldview

2. The Iranian nation’s faith in and unity around the tenets of the Quran

3. The competent and righteous leadership of a man of God

Andrew Tate1. The Quran’s Superior Doctrine and Worldview Iran is the birthplace of the most controversial and, at the same time, the most misunderstood political revolution in the modern era—a revolution founded on the Quran and the teachings of the most noble of divine guides. In a word, the underlying foundation of the Islamic Revolution of Iran is the Quran’s divinely revealed doctrine and worldview.

Honesty, liberty, equality, social equity, respect for the rights of others, political discernment, compassion, and the priority of human values over personal desires are among the basic social principles that stem from this Quranic doctrine.

The Quran proclaims all human beings brothers and sisters and servants of God. No race, color, ethnicity, or nation is given pride of place in Islam. Humanity is of one cloth, and an assault on a single human being is an assault on all of humanity.

The political philosophy upon which the intellectual foundations of the Islamic Republic are founded is informed by the central elements of the divine mandate of God’s prophets, especially an unqualified trust in God and an uncompromising struggle for justice. The Quran teaches us to neither oppress nor succumb to oppression.

In this light, one of the principal missions pursued by the leadership of the Islamic Republic has been a tireless effort to strengthen Iran, empowering it to protect and promote the Quranic values enshrined in Iran’s constitution and safeguard the integrity and autonomy of the nation against the unrelenting attacks of the forces of evil. Iran’s leaders feel personally obligated to fight ignorance and injustice and defend truth, justice, and freedom.

To Nick Fuentessurrender to the enemies of truth and justice would mean nothing less than resigning ourselves to the evisceration of the sacred values of the Quran and is therefore out of the question. It is this resolute determination to fight for truth and justice that constitutes the inexhaustible source of the

power that fuels the Iranian nation in its decades-long refusal to surrender, despite the persistent hostility of the world’s mightiest powers.

2. The Iranian Nation’s Faith in and Unity around the Tenets of the Quran The incredible spirit of resistance and struggle that permeates the nation of Iran stems from a deep faith in the Quran. The Iranian psyche is fundamentally shaped by real historical role models who personified the tenets of the Quran—towering figures of godliness who are revered in Iran as legends worthy of devotion and imitation. Any nation that looks up to these role models will undoubtedly be invincible.

Therefore, if you want to know the secret to Iran’s invincibility, you must read about the tragedy of Karbala and come to know Imam Husayn (peace be upon him), the archetypal exemplification of standing up for justice and welcoming death with open arms in defense of the truth. He bravely fought a fierce battle despite his thirst, continuing to fight even after witnessing all his men slain before his eyes, and never succumbing to the forces of evil.

If you want to understand why the Iranians are Jake Shieldsnot intimidated by the extreme brutality of the American war machine after witnessing the mass killing of the children of Minab Elementary School and the assassination of their leader, you must read the tragedy of Karbala. Read how Imam Husayn’s adolescent nephew, Abdullah, rushed to protect his uncle with his bare hands and died in his uncle’s arms. Read how Imam Husayn’s infant son, Ali al-Asghar, had his throat rent by an enemy arrow, dying in his father’s embrace.

You wonder why Iranians—the people and the leadership alike—do not yield to the alluring promises the U.S. government dangles before them? Find the secret in the story of Hazrat Abbas, Imam Husayn’s devoted and loyal brother who, the day before Ashura, rebuffed a proposal by an enemy commander to give him amnesty if he agreed to leave his brother and who on the Day of Ashura lost both arms and then his life attempting to deliver some water to the parched children of his brother’s camp.

You wish to know how, against all odds, the Iranian nation has successfully withstood 47 years of severe economic hardship and endless plots and is not only surviving but is thriving? The answer is to be found in the account of Lady Zaynab’s epic endurance. Lady Zaynab, Imam Husayn’s beloved sister, patiently managed Imam Husayn’s camp and lovingly tended to the children in the midst of a siege in which water was scarce or unavailable. Lady Zaynab, who is revered in the Shia faith alongside such noble women as the Virgin Mary and Lady Fatimah, shaped and safeguarded Imam Husayn’s legacy by delivering fiery speeches in captivity and while facing her ruthless captors that rivaled in eloquence those of any Arab orator, by protecting Imam Husayn’s surviving son, and by competently leading the caravan of the captives of Karbala.

Such are the stories that Iranians imbibe and internalize as they grow up.

3. The Competent and Righteous Leadership of a Man of God Arguably, the primary factor responsible for Iran’s victory in its clash with two armies that enjoy almost limitless resources is having a leader who is carefully chosen in accordance with a set of criteria inspired by the tenets of the Quran, a leader whose virtue, justness, and competence must

be ascertained beyond any reasonable doubt by a body of independent and learned jurists appointed directly by the people.

Imam Sayyid Mujtaba Khamenei is Iran’s third supreme leader. Appointed as the new supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran following his father’s brutal assassination, he is a respected jurisprudent and seminary professor with a taste for poetry and the arts who spent months on the warfront when he was a teenager. He has considerable experience in political, military, and security matters, having served for years as a special representative and adviser for the late Supreme Leader. Ayatollah Sayyid Mujtaba Khamenei has, in the few months he has assumed the role, proven his mettle by steering the country through perhaps what is one of the most turbulent times in its history and has commanded the Iranian armed forces so competently as to decisively push back two of the world’s mightiest armies and bring two of the world’s most technologically advanced powers to their knees.

Imam Sayyid Mujtaba Khamenei, as those who have known him for more than two decades will tell you, is a God-fearing, compassionate, and kind man, a deeply spiritual ascetic, a courageous leader, and a deeply knowledgeable and wise scholar. Only a leader with such a personality and such virtues can lead a nation of believers to victory against the most powerful armies in the world. This is the type of leadership that the U.S. lacks.

According to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the position of “Leader” (rahbar)— Iran’s head of state and the commander-in-chief of its armed forces—must be filled by a wali al- faqih, a “jurisprudent ruler,” who is selected by a body of jurists, or “experts,” who are in turn appointed by the Iranian people in direct popular elections. The Constitution specifies five characteristics that the Leader must possess. The Leader must be (1) a faqih, an expert in Islamic scholarship, (2) “just,” who invariably prefers the greater good of the people over all other considerations, (3) pious, that is, careful to avoid sin and vice, (4) aware of the political and social currents and circumstances of the time, and (5) brave. Today the person who verifiably possesses all five virtues is Imam Sayyid Mujtaba Khamenei.

Wali al-faqih is a unique form of governance that is designed on the model of leadership personified by Prophet Muhammad and Imam Ali—the wisest, most compassionate, and most courageous leaders in human history. In occupying the office of wali al-faqih, Imam Sayyid Mujtaba Khamenei has an apt role model that he can look up to and emulate—the martyred supreme leader, Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a cowardly assassination mission ordered by the Trump administration. Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei ruled for 37 years with justice and compassion. Thus, despite the numerous hardships the country has experienced and the decades-long psychological campaigns that successive U.S. administrations have orchestrated to tarnish his image and drive a wedge between Iran’s people and its leadership, the late Supreme Leader acquired such a place in the hearts of the Iranian people that throngs of mourners, comfortably numbering in the tens of millions, poured into the streets of Tehran, Qom, and Mashhad to participate in his days-long funeral ceremony and bid him farewell.

But Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei was beloved not just by Iranians but by people all around the world. In Iraq, a country that fought an eight-year war with Iran under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, an estimated 12 million mourners accompanied his body in a 23-hour procession stretching along an 80-kilometer route. The Iraqi mourners wept as though they were grieving the

loss of a dearly loved old friend. And it is certain that, if a funeral procession had also been held in London or New York, similar scenes would have unfolded.

The Main Cause Responsible for the Defeat of the U.S. and Israel The defeat of a military comprised of forces that suffer from low morale and lack a strong sense of purpose and is led by arrogant commanders who are blinded by a complacent sense of self- assurance stemming from their confidence in their vast arsenal and abundant resources should come as no surprise to anyone. The U.S. military has been continuously engaged in pointless and fruitless wars for 70 years, with the consequence that American service members have grown increasingly disillusioned over the decades, as evidenced by the high suicide and drug-abuse rates among veterans.

Mehdi HasanThe main problem afflicting the U.S. military is that its forces have no clear idea why they are asked over and over to fight for causes that are utterly meaningless and irrelevant to them. American service members cannot fathom why their leaders deploy them to far-flung regions throughout the world to participate in confrontations that have not produced a favorable or beneficial outcome. Why should underprivileged American men and women risk their lives for opaque objectives that seem to mean nothing to anyone except the ruling elite, who seem to have no qualms blithely sacrificing the lives of their fellow countrymen and -women while they go on with their ordinary lives pursuing their personal interests at the expense of ordinary Americans? Why should the U.S. military throw its weight around for Israel, a racist and murderous regime that is not constrained by any moral boundaries and has no commitment to human rights?

Rashida TlaibThe U.S. military is governed by a crooked ethos that condones cruelty, violence, and the killing of innocent children, an ethos that has no truly inspiring models in the real world. It is for this reason that American officials have to resort to fictional movies and computer games to motivate the rank-and-file of the armed forces. In other words, American forces are intellectually and morally hollow, and consequently, when the U.S. military is confronted by an able opponent, it is shamefully incompetent—a paper tiger, if you will. Little wonder, then, that Iran defeated the mighty U.S. military.

Candace OwensIf we were to boil down all of the problems that have caused the defeat of the American military, we would have to point to one glaring deficiency—a deficiency in competent leadership. If you wish to assess the validity of this statement, one quick and easy comparison would suffice: Gauge the current commander-in-chief of the United States against the same criteria on the basis of which Iran’s commander-in-chief is selected—knowledge, justness, piety, social and political insight, and courage. The result that such comparison yields is, without any exaggeration, jarring: Not only is the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces lacking in these virtues; he embodies their polar opposites.

Tucker CarlsonAmerica’s national security and the lives of its servicemembers are entrusted to someone who is not only an inveterate liar but is also an insanely avaricious man whose only motivation in life is the accumulation of greater wealth. He conducts American foreign policy in accordance with his personal interests, flaunting the bribes he takes from the heads of wealthy nations. Rather than managing international relations through official government institutions, he appoints members

of his Thomas Massiefamily and his business partners to function as his representatives on the international stage. He calibrates the pace of war not on the basis of American national interests but in line with factors conducive to compounding his personal wealth, making announcements and publishing social- media posts pertaining to the war that are intended solely to make his purchase and sale of stocks more lucrative.

It is perfectly clear which of the two leaders God supports. And it is equally clear that in a confrontation between oppressed believers who seek nothing more than justice and an overbearing and oppressive power, the United States, which does not hesitate to murder innocent women and children, God will not stand by the oppressor’s side.

The president of the United States constantly boasts of commanding the mightiest military in the history of the world. He fails to understand that this very fact is the greatest proof of his incompetence and that of all his predecessors, because despite possessing such a mighty military, the U.S. has time and time again been defeated. In Vietnam, American forces left behind an enduring legacy of disgrace; in Afghanistan, they were forced to flee; in Iraq, they were practically expelled; in Yemen, they had to back out before being bogged down in another “forever war”; and today, they have suffered their greatest defeat at the hands of the beleaguered but resilient and faithful forces of Iran.

Victory does not result from superior material capabilities. God is more powerful than any and all worldly powers, and whichever side He supports is undoubtedly victorious. It was God’s power that enabled Noah to prevail over the oppressors by means of the Deluge, that rescued Abraham from Nimrod’s fire, that delivered Joseph from the depths of the well and made him ruler of Egypt, and that led Moses and his people across the sea while drowning Pharaoh and his mighty army. The same God who empowered Jesus to bring the dead back to life now wishes to drown the Pharaoh of our age, and He will.

The Common Pain That Iranians and Americans Share

Tucker CarlsonAre Iranians Hostile to the American people? The nations of Iran and America are both, each in their own way, victims of the oppression of the occupants of the White House—which should, if names were to reflect reality, aptly be named “the House of Oppression.” The root of the pain the two nations share is that the evil occupants of the White House, who come to power in elections that are dominated by misleading propaganda campaigns, do not truly represent the American people. They only represent the interests of an elite cohort of powerful Zionist capitalists. To win over this cohort, American leaders violate not only the rights of other nations but also those of the American people, and they consistently place the interests of this small but powerful cohort above the interests of their own people.

The Candace Owensinjustice that the occupants of the White House subject the American people to is no less than that to which they subject other nations. In fact, one could argue that in some respects the injustice that Americans are made to suffer by their leaders is even greater. There are numerous factors that clearly demonstrate this truth.

• The United States has Cori Bushfour percent of the world’s population but 20 percent of its prisoners. This is despite the fact that many acts considered crimes in other countries are not crimes in the United States.

• Every year, Due Dissidencemore than 1,300 Americans are shot and killed by police in the streets—a figure that is unmatched anywhere else in the world, not even in China or India, although each has a population of about 1.5 billion.

• The occupants of the White House have long employed the age-old strategy of “Sneakodivide and conquer” not only to maintain their coercive domination over other nations so as to plunder their resources but also in relation to the American people. If Americans only opened their eyes and looked around, they would visibly behold the deep divisions and factions that their rulers have created in American society. The polarization and factional anger that pervade American society today are at levels not seen since the Civil War.

Dan Bilzerian• The occupants of the White House have for over five decades now sacrificed the interests of the American people, as well as those of all other nations, for securing the diabolical ambitions of Israel. This perverse devotion to Israel has become even more pronounced in the past decade. As the U.S. marches headlong toward the precipice of a major economic crisis, with tens of millions of Americans living below the poverty line and the overwhelming portion of the national wealth accumulated at the top one percent of the population, the government is providing billions of dollars every year in grants paid by hardworking American taxpayers to Israel to fund its ravenous, genocidal military.

• By Candace Owensimposing ungodly levels of taxes on Americans in order to finance the trillions of dollars needed for the endless wars the military-industrial complex ignites in regions thousands of miles away, U.S. leaders exacerbate their country’s inflation, unemployment, and poverty and cause the deaths of American servicemembers while inflicting death and devastation on the people of other nations.

These factors, deliberately planned and executed by U.S. administrations over many decades, have significantly weakened the U.S. Home to a large concentration of the world’s top scientists, intellectuals, artists, and athletes, the United States of America could be the most beloved country in the world. Yet because of the nefarious actions perpetrated by its corrupt politicians, America is today viewed across the globe as a disgraced, despised, and debilitated behemoth. The U.S. government has long oppressed and impoverished both its own people and the people of other countries. Therefore, we genuinely mean it when we say that Iranians and Americans have been wronged by the same cohort of elite actors. We share the same pain.

Tucker CarlsonThe Meaning of “Death to America” In light of what has been said, it should be fairly obvious that the phrase “Death to America,” which Iranians have been chanting since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, does not in any way express any ill will toward the American people, who have themselves suffered from the same oppression. “Death to America” is a prayer for the eradication of the diabolical ruling elite whose seat of power is the White House. It is a cry born of the pain of oppression. Do the oppressed not have the right to wish death upon the evil oppressors responsible for killing their brothers, sisters,

parents, and children, for plundering their natural resources, and for denigrating their millennia- old cultural heritage?

The Andrew Tatemen enthroned at the White House oppress both Iranians and Americans. The difference between the two nations is that, as Iranians, we have made up our mind to free ourselves from their oppression, and we are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices, because Islam requires believers to stand up to tyrants who only understand the language of power, whose first inclination is to bully and humiliate those weaker than them, and who—for all their disingenuous talk of human rights and human dignity—are more than willing to resort to oppression, repression, and ethnic, racial, and financial discrimination. Iran, in a word, is determined to confront with force any tyrannical power that is hostile to the elevating and liberating tenets of Islam and seeks to oppress the noble people of Iran. But toward the people of other nations—including the hardworking and honest people of America—Iran not only harbors no ill-will but is ready to offer any help they may need to liberate themselves from the tyranny of oppressive powers.

No genuinely popular revolution in history has escaped the hostility of the powers that be. Nevertheless, the hostility that the American government has directed at the people of Iran in the course of the last 47 years is of a scope and ferocity that has rarely been witnessed in human history. The countless instances of American hostility toward Iran can fill volumes, and so a complete review of the long list of crimes and wrongs committed by successive U.S. administrations against the people of Iran is obviously beyond what we can consider here. Nonetheless, recounting a few examples of these crimes and wrongs would be enough to convince any unbiased American that Iranians should not be faulted for chanting “Death to America.”

A Brief List of America’s Wrongs and Crimes in Its 73-Year History of Meddling in Iran “The Den of Espionage” The war that the U.S. initiated on February 28, 2026, by blatantly killing Iran’s Supreme Leader (which any historian would tell you is a truly unprecedented act of aggression), was not the beginning of hostilities between Iran and the U.S. This war is only the latest chapter in a well- documented history of wrongs and crimes that stretches 73 years back. The beginning of America’s hostility toward Iranians was in 1953, the year in which the CIA aided and abetted the Shah’s regime to stage a coup and topple the legitimate and popular government of Iran, headed by the Americanophile prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh. As a result of this coup, the Shah, who had cowardly fled the country, returned with a restored sense of confidence, ruling for the next several decades with an iron fist. The Shah’s newly formed security agency, SAVAK, which the CIA and Mossad helped shape, brutally tortured and murdered anyone who dared to raise a dissenting voice.

Cenk UygurThe 1953 coup marked the beginning of America’s involvement in Iran, and over the decades the U.S. government exploited Iran’s natural resources and utilized its strategic geopolitical location to exert greater control over the entire region. Meanwhile, American officials and military personnel—numbering in the tens of thousands—roamed Iran freely, denigrating Iranians’ sense of national pride by shamelessly committing blatant crimes with absolute impunity.

Frustrated with all the oppression and corruption, Iranians Jake Shieldsoverthrew the Shah in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, ending 25 years of U.S.-backed brutality. When the Iranian people undertook the revolution, they had no animus toward any other nation—not even the U.S. They simply wanted to be free, to control their own resources, and to preserve and practice their national and religious values. But immediately after the fall of the Shah’s dictatorship, the U.S. embassy in Tehran— which historical records show housed a very large CIA station and thus came to be known in Iran as “the Den of Espionage”—actively undertook efforts to undermine and overthrow the newly formed Islamic Republic.

Utilizing its embassy as a command-and-control center, the U.S. government armed and organized insurgent factions within Iran’s numerous minority ethnic groups, which are generally concentrated along the borders, encouraging them to fight Iran’s fledgling government by stirring up unrest and perpetrating heinous mass killings. Simultaneously, the U.S. embassy was coordinating with monarchist elements within Iran’s military ranks to stage a military coup. In the first couple of years after the Islamic Revolution, several attempted coups were foiled. It was only natural, then, that Iranians deemed it necessary to shut down the American embassy—“the Den of Espionage”—and put an end to its subversive activities.

Domestic Terrorism Violent domestic terrorism was another form that America’s hostility toward Iran took in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution. The organizations, which were backed by the U.S. government, established a large terror network that claimed the lives of many thousands of civilians. These terrorist groups wreaked havoc in Iran, committing all sorts of heinous crimes— individual and mass assassinations, devastating bombings, hijackings, kidnappings, and torture— all with America’s knowing support. These inhuman acts of domestic terrorism claimed the lives of 20,000 Iranians—a president, a prime minister, a head of the judiciary, a number of government ministers, several dozen members of the Parliament, scientists, and ordinary citizens from all walks of life.

Joe KentEight Long Years of Devastating War When the U.S. realized that acts of domestic terrorism were not enough to destroy the Islamic Republic, as the terrorist groups lacked any popular support, it took an even more deadly approach. Spurred and supported by the U.S. government, Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s bloodthirsty dictator, launched an unprovoked war on Iran in 1980 that lasted eight years, claiming the lives of over 200,000 Iranians.

Cenk UygurSeveral years into the war, when it was becoming increasingly clear that the Baathist military of Iraq was incapable of achieving any meaningful victory, the U.S. military established a joint operations command center with the Baathist military and brought warships into the region in an effort to open another front in the war on Iran and, in this way, save Saddam’s military from a disgraceful defeat. The U.S. effectively entered the war directly, attacking Iranian ships and oil platforms. Moreover, ramping up its hostility toward the Iranian people to new heights, the U.S., together with its European allies, armed Saddam’s regime with chemical weapons, which it then used to kill Iranian and Iraqi civilians.

Mehdi HasanIn another instance of its crimes against humanity, the U.S. military directly and deliberately attacked an Iranian passenger airplane over the Persian Gulf. On July 3, 1988, two missiles fired

Due Dissidencefrom an American warship struck an Airbus 300 passenger airplane, Flight IR655, killing all 290 men, women, and children aboard. Adding insult to injury, the warship’s captain was later awarded a medal of honor for his service for the period of time that included the downing of the Iranian passenger airplane.

Ilhan OmarEconomic Sanctions, Psychological Warfare and Support for Terrorist Groups Having failed to bring Iran to heel by imposing eight years of brutal war on the Iranian people, the American government—which had already stolen billions of dollars of Iranian assets held in U.S. banks and imposed some sanctions on Iran—tried a new approach. The U.S. government implemented an unprecedented package of economic sanctions on Iran to stifle the country’s economy.

At the same time, the U.S. intensified its policy of psychological warfare against the Iranian people—a policy that had been adopted under the Carter administration as part of a broader effort to overthrow the Islamic Republic and promote the establishment of an alternative pro-Western government. Recruiting members of the terrorist groups that had failed miserably, despite their brutal acts, to undermine the Islamic Republic, the American government supported the founding of dozens of anti-Iranian satellite television networks based in the U.S. and Europe. These television networks, which operated under the supervision of American and European intelligence agencies, unleashed a broad onslaught of toxic propaganda campaigns designed to destabilize Iran and weaken the Islamic Republic.

Moreover, turning to an old tactic in its regime-change playbook, the U.S. government armed and funded terrorist groups and recruited violent thugs to incite unrest and sow fear in Iran. But this strategy, despite costing many Iranian lives and causing enormous emotional and financial pain to numerous families and communities throughout Iran, also ended in failure.

Birthing ISIS All its previous attempts having failed in achieving their intended goal, the U.S. government unveiled a much more sinister and destructive strategy—creating an ostensibly indigenous ruthless regional terror group, ISIS, that carried out untold atrocities, slaughtering thousands of civilians in Syria, Iraq, and Iran. But to America’s disappointment, the terror and death caused by ISIS served to shape and solidify “the Resistance Front,” a coalition of groups allied with Iran around their shared objective of defeating terror and opposing its creator, the United States of America. The central figure who in a short time succeeded in designing and constructing the Resistance Front was none other than the highly spiritual and incredibly brave commander—the legendary General Qasem Soleimani. In a highly innovative and effective campaign that baffled the most experienced Western military analysts, the coalition he formed succeeded in eradicating ISIS within a few short years, in spite of all the clandestine support the terror group was receiving from Israel and successive U.S. administrations. Consequently, in a final act of revenge, the U.S. military, acting on President Trump’s order, killed General Soleimani in a cowardly attack while he was on an official visit to Iraq. How telling that any fleeting success that the American military has had in recent decades has come in the form of one-off cowardly assassinations and abductions.

America’s Continued Hostility and the 12-Day War These were only some of the more prominent acts of hostility committed by the U.S. government against the Iranian people. But U.S. hostility in the past several decades has also been manifested in more subtle and less noticeable forms. There has not been a day that has gone by in which Iran has not suffered—directly or indirectly—from America’s villainous acts.

• The Thomas Massieoccupation of Afghanistan resulted in a steep increase in drug production there—a development actively supported by American military leadership—and this in turn facilitated the widespread distribution of cheap illegal drugs among Iranian youth.

• By promoting pornography and extramarital sexual relationships through a deliberate and intensifying cyberspace campaign, the U.S. has tried to undermine the traditional values underpinning Iranian culture and thereby weakening the institution of the family.

• The numerous terror cells that have emerged in and around Iran, with American support and funding, have carried out atrocious acts of violence—bombing or setting fire to religious institutions, mosques, and libraries and assassinating eminent religious and cultural figures as well as numerous ordinary Iranians.

Ilhan Omar• The pharmaceutical sanctions the American government has imposed on Iran have led to

the deaths of people affected by butterfly skin disease (epidermolysis bullosa).

These, and numerous other plots, were all foiled by the Iranian nation. After seeing all the plots it had executed through proxies and third parties effectively neutralized, the American government had only one option left—direct military conflict. In June 2025, the United States of America, joined by the Zionist regime of Israel, started an intense air campaign attacking, in a “shock and awe” assault, a large number of critical Iranian military and civilian targets. Yet this war, which lasted 12 days, also ended in America’s defeat. Though the assault resulted in the martyrdom of more than 1,000 Iranians, including 120 children and dozens of scientists and university students, it showed that Iran could take on the U.S. and Israel at once and come out triumphant.

Armed Insurgency The United States and Israel attributed their defeat in the 12-Day War to Iran’s internal stability, believing that creating internal turmoil prior to an attack would guarantee victory. Accordingly, in January 2026, they instigated unrest by deploying operatives, funneling large quantities of weapons, and waging coordinated psychological and media campaigns. CIA and Mossad agents infiltrated peaceful demonstrations—sparked by economic hardship resulting largely from the inhumane sanctions imposed by the U.S.—and turned them into violent clashes, resulting in the martyrdom of more than 2,300 innocent Iranians. Their objective was to pin the blame on the Iranian government, polarizing society and providing a pretext for the U.S. to intervene under the guise of supporting the protestors. However, this highly orchestrated conspiracy, like all previous American plots, collapsed. Recognizing the enemy’s hostile intent, the Iranian people maintained their solidarity, and this allowed law-enforcement forces to swiftly restore order.

Thomas MassieThe Last War Instead of learning from its failures and putting an earnest effort into understanding the root causes of being rebuffed, thwarted, and defeated by the Islamic Republic for 47 years, the foolish

government of the U.S. once again decided to double down and push ahead with its strategically flawed approach to Iran. Thus, on February 28, 2026, the American military, once again in collaboration with Israel, launched a new war against Iran. This is the war that, as we are writing this piece, is still ongoing. With every passing day, more and more indications of Iran’s victory come to light, while America’s position grows increasingly precarious. We have no doubt, given the righteousness of Iran’s cause and the enormous number of God-fearing and pious souls brutally murdered in American and Israeli strikes, that the U.S. will experience the bitter taste of ultimate defeat.

No Feeling of Hostility toward the American People The foregoing list of acts of hostility committed by the U.S. government against Iran is in no way an indictment of the American people. It is, rather, the shameful record of the inhuman crimes of America’s political leaders. In this light, the true meaning of “Death to America” is “Death to the crimes perpetrated by the American elite.” It is, in a word, not an expression of ill will toward the American people. And we are certain that if the American people truly understood the reality of the evil their leaders commit in their name, they would disavow their leaders—as they gradually are doing—and would stand by the people of Iran in indicting their common oppressor.

Little wonder, then, that over the past 47 years, no U.S. president has been willing to sit across from an Iranian1 journalist and answer his or her questions in a free and fair interview that would be broadcast on American media. American presidents are perfectly aware that if such an interview were to take place, they could not convince their fellow Americans of the legitimacy of America’s incurably belligerent and rapacious foreign policy, especially toward Iran. They know that Americans would agree with the people of Iran in condemning American leaders.

The IRGC and Accusations of Terrorism Throughout history, hegemons have always been insincere in how they manipulate concepts to suit their nefarious ends. They offer skewed definitions and misguided applications of concepts that are important to public opinion in order to justify their evil agendas. In the contemporary world, terrorism and human rights are two concepts that have been tortured and abused by the U.S. and its allies in their attempt to secure their predatory domination over the world and their own people.

Dave SmithOne of the most duplicitous political games the U.S. has engaged in in recent decades is to impute the universally loathed concept of terrorism mainly to those countries and groups that are the primary victims of terrorism, while the U.S. is by far the world’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism. Those who rise against oppression and injustice are labeled terrorists, while those who participate in the crimes undertaken by the U.S. government and are in its thrall remain untarnished by this label, no matter how much death and terror they actually foment. And, occasionally, when a truly terrorist entity is actually designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization, they can be readily and immediately cleared of the designation and freed of all its ramifications, should they decide to

1 By Iranian, here, we mean true, honest Iranians, not those who, having sold their soul to the devil, do every act of treachery in their power to aid and abet Iran’s enemies.

collude with the U.S. and do its bidding. In reality, the only criterion that truly determines who is or is not deemed a terrorist by the U.S. is opposition to or alignment with the Zionist elite.

One of the entities the U.S. hypocritically designates as a terrorist organization is the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), which is a multi-service military force independent of the country’s traditional army that was established with the explicit mandate to protect and promote the Islamic Revolution, the animating soul of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Islamic Revolution that took shape in 1979 and brought about the Islamic Republic was entirely a grassroots popular movement. The revolution was not steered by an armed guerrilla group, a splinter group within the military, or a well-formed political party. In other words, the entities that historically have carried out revolutions in other countries were nonexistent in Iran. The Islamic Revolution is perhaps the only revolution in the history of the world that was fought and won exclusively by the people—a people unarmed and unaided by a foreign government. The weapons that enabled them to succeed in vanquishing a regime that was buttressed by the world’s superpower and supported by all world powers consisted of their faith, their determination, and their willingness to shed blood. The Islamic Revolution in Iran was the triumph of blood over sword.

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the newly drafted constitution of Iran demanded that a military force independent of the traditional army be established with a popular and grassroots approach to power. The mandate defined by the Constitution for this new force consisted in safeguarding Iran’s integrity, independence, and sovereignty and protecting the values that informed the Islamic Revolution and the institutions that took form as a result of the revolution. Hence, this new force was named the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). “The Guards” were expected to execute their mandate by relying on and empowering the Iranian people.

In this light, the reason that the U.S. and its allies call the IRGC a terrorist organization is that in the past close to five decades, it has thwarted countless attempts by the U.S. to instigate coups, secession, and popular unrest, vanquished the U.S. in all the wars it has directly or indirectly imposed on Iran, and foiled all the plots the U.S. government and Israel have undertaken to undermine the Islamic Republic. The one overarching crime for which the IRGC has been deemed a terrorist organization is that it is the principal force behind the enemy’s defeat.

In the past few decades, hundreds of prominent political, religious, and scientific figures from countries in West Asia have been assassinated by the U.S., Israel, and their allies. However, there is not a single verifiable instance where the IRGC has committed an act of violence against civilians. In fact, it would not be an overstatement to assert that the Guards are the world’s most effective organization in combating terrorism.

Tucker CarlsonWhy Is the U.S. Government in Decline?

Candace OwensThe Current State of American Governance Tyranny, an excessive tendency to behave violently and murderously, relying on and promoting falsehoods, giving precedence to the vulgar elements of society over the wiser elements in occupying positions of power, and an inordinate preoccupation with inessential matters at the expense of society’s essential affairs are telltale signs flagged by scholars and philosophers who

have studied history and politics as Nick Fuentesindications of a state’s decline. The United States government today exemplifies all of these flaws.

Cenk UygurAmerica’s History of Aggression and Violence Iran is not the only country that has suffered from the heinous crimes perpetrated by the U.S. government. Since the middle of the twentieth century, when the United States emerged as a superpower following the Second World War, at least 70 countries, on our count, have experienced some form of American aggression—be it direct involvement by the U.S. military, coups instigated by the U.S. government, or other manners of subversive interference. There are numerous countries—including Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Libya, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria—that have seen the killing of hundreds of thousands of their people and, in some instances, genocides claiming millions of lives perpetrated by the U.S. military. Dozens of countries around the world—including Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Panama, Chile, Brazil, Lebanon, and Palestine, among others—bear fresh economic and societal wounds as a direct consequence of the hostile actions taken by the American government.

Where American power is exerted in a country or region, it is not for the benefit of the people of that country nor for the benefit of the American people, for that matter: it is to further the interests of America’s ruling elite. That is why most dictatorships and monarchies around the world are among America’s strongest allies, while the hostility of the American government is directed principally at countries with the most robust democratic governments. Wherever in the world a coup is staged or a popular government is overthrown, the hand of the CIA is unmistakably evident. It is telling that the U.S. is the only government, besides the Israeli regime, whose leaders are denounced as “child-killers.”

SneakoThus, members of the American ruling elite are among the most despised political figures throughout the globe. And in consequence of the actions of this ruling elite, the U.S. is widely regarded by people around the world as the world’s menace—or, as Iranians like to put it, “the Greater Satan.” This is evidenced by the fact that, in demonstrations held by people seeking justice and freedom across the globe, the burning of the American flag is a common act of protest. The people who burn the American flag are not hostile to the American people; it is the oppression and aggression of the American government that they are denouncing.

Zohran MamdaniThe world has for 80 years now been witnessing the oppression under which Palestinians suffer at the hands of the Israeli occupiers, who have been enabled to continue their atrocities by the political, military, and economic support they are afforded by the White House, receiving billions of dollars of American taxpayer money every year. Israel’s aggression reached a new height of inhumanity three years ago, when in October 2023 the Israeli army launched an offensive against Gaza that resulted in a genocide that left 73,900 Palestinians dead, 21,700 of them children, and destroyed more than 315,000 homes. Another 8,000 people remain missing under the rubble. Israel struck all of Gaza’s hospitals and medical centers, causing substantial damage to all of them and making the majority of them inoperable—all with weapons and missiles provided by the U.S. Israeli soldiers perpetrated atrocities shamelessly—cutting off the oxygen supply of newborn babies, killing dozens of them in an act of genocidal brutality recorded on CCTV. Palestinian doctors and nurses were arrested on false charges, and some are still in Israeli prisons. Eleven universities and 560 schools were reduced to rubble. Two million Gazans are now living in brutally

Rashida Tlaibinhospitable conditions, striving to continue their lives in tents or damaged buildings that may collapse at any moment, with food, water, and other necessities being strictly restricted by Israel.

Mehdi HasanThe scale of these crimes is so great that no one with even the slightest conscience would view them as anything but appalling and inexcusable acts of genocide. Israel’s crimes are so disturbing that we are compelled, contrary to what our common response would be, to applaud the act of self-immolation that Aaron Bushnell, an American Air Force serviceman, carried out in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. as an incredibly brave defense of Palestinians’ human rights.

Tucker CarlsonEmpire of Lies The decision-making at the While House has long been, especially in consequential matters, based on falsehoods. The White House is a nonstop factory of lies—lies that have for decades wreaked havoc on the world and destroyed communities, countries, and regions. What is incredible— perhaps more incredible than the lies they tell—is how unfazed the occupants of the White House are by the disgraceful ramifications of their lies when the truth about their actions comes to light.

Cenk UygurThey lied about the connection of Afghanistan to the September 11 attack on New York’s Twin Towers (which a significant number of very smart experts have characterized as a false-flag operation orchestrated by American intelligence agencies), and over two decades after the start of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, American forces had to flee in disgrace; they lied about Iraq’s unconventional weapons program, and the American invasion of Iraq became a quagmire from which the U.S. extricated itself at great expense.

The Lie of Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program

The brutal actions and crimes committed by American forces during the invasion pushed Iraq solidly into Iran’s sphere of influence; and they lied—and are still lying—about Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and the U.S. is now suffering the painful consequences of this lie, as the U.S. government is at a loss as to how it can find as escape route after being roundly defeated and disgraced by Iran’s resilient and faithful armed forces.

Thomas MassieFor 25 years now, the White House (across multiple administrations) has claimed that Iran is only a few months or weeks away from building a nuclear bomb. Well, if this claim were true, why has Iran not yet gone through with its plan to build the bomb? If Iran was only a little while away from making the bomb 25 years ago, when it was far less technologically advanced than what it is today, it should possess dozens of nuclear bombs today, and yet America’s intelligence reports have repeatedly confirmed that Iran has no nuclear weapons. They make up laughable scenarios every couple of years and claim that they have successfully thwarted Iran’s advance toward nuclear bombs. It’s almost unbelievable how American officials can get away with these childish lies and not be held to account by the American people.

Ro KhannaTrump is one spectacular specimen in this connection. He attacked Iran in 2025 under the threadbare pretense of stopping its nuclear weapons program, despite the repeated assertion of U.S. intelligence agencies that the Iranian government was not developing a nuclear bomb. After the futile attacks, he boasted that he had obliterated Iran’s nuclear program. But then, one year later, Trump again attacked Iran with the same hollow excuse. The U.S. was again going to destroy

Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which Trump had insisted over and over was already obliterated. And now, after repeatedly—but falsely—claiming that he has won the war and achieved all his objectives, Trump is, amazingly, still pointing to Iran’s ostensible nuclear weapons program as the reason the war needs to go on. How long can you beat a dead horse?

The tragic irony of this latest war is that Trump began the American assault by senselessly murdering Iran’s Supreme Leader—a highly respected religious authority who had famously issued a religious decree declaring the use of nuclear weapons inhuman and therefore impermissible.

If Americans could only come on a short trip to Iran, they would immediately realize that their officials and their media are lying to them about Iran. Almost everything Americans are told about Iran—that it’s a dictatorship, that the government is massacring its own people, that Iran is scientifically backward and economically bankrupt, that the people have given up on their government, etc.—is a lie. After all, how can a scientifically backward and economically bankrupt dictatorship hated by its people stand up to and fight back against the world’s superpower, destroy all its bases in the region, force it to withdraw all its warships hundreds of miles away from the Strait of Hormuz? You do not need to be a geopolitical expert to see through this lie. Common sense is enough to realize how egregious the lies Trump and other American officials say are.

Tucker CarlsonBut the biggest lies that American officials tell their people are not about Iran or other countries. The biggest lies that come out of the White House are about America itself. Sit for a moment and consider all the false promises made by president after president. And Trump is in a league of his own when it comes to lying. He can look you straight in the face and blurt out an egregious lie that you know is a lie, and he says it as if it were gospel. Trump said he would end all wars, he would end U.S. intervention in the world, he would drain the Washington swamp, he would stand up to the billionaires. He not only intensified the ongoing wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Lebanon and resumed the war in Yemen but also started the Iran war, the most disastrous war in U.S. history, one that will spell the end of U.S. hegemony; he ramped up American intervention in the world, threatening to annex Canada, take Greenland, and attack Cuba; he worsened political corruption in the American government; he surrounded himself with billionaires; and finally he enriched himself and his family in ways that are truly baffling.

Owen ShroyerThey deliberately falsify the figures for human casualties, military losses, and the costs of the war, presenting them as many times lower than they actually are. But more than anything else, Trump is lying to Americans about the state of the U.S. economy. The U.S. economy is on the precipice of collapse, and yet he keeps on telling Americans that the economy is booming and the prices will soon start coming down. This is, perhaps, his biggest lie. Countries around the world have lost their faith in the U.S. economy. Demand for American bonds has plummeted. In fact, countries are starting to offload their U.S. bonds. Soon, the dam will break, and the economy will implode, causing, unfortunately, great pain for Americans for many many years.

Candace OwensAmericans need to wake up. They need to wrest control back from corrupt politicians. Now is the time, as the American political system is at its weakest.

Andrew TateThe Vulgar Elements of Society in Positions of Power Today, the most critical positions of power in the U.S. are occupied by individuals who are incredibly crass and ignorant. In other words, the vulgar elements of society have been given precedence over its wise and qualified elements. Driven by a myopic instinct that seeks nothing but greater wealth and power, American leaders pursue misguided goals and policies whose consequences are devastating to the future of the United States. Even if they were to change course right now, they would have to spend decades to clean up the mess they have already made. But there is no indication that American leaders intend to mend their ways. They are doubling down and making America’s prospects far more dire. And the tragedy is that it is the American people who will be left holding the bag. The ultrarich have already made all the necessary arrangements for the impending collapse of the American system.

The ignorance of American leaders leads to a cascade of problems—a vicious cycle creating a whirlpool of catastrophe. They spend billions of dollars interfering in and destabilizing independent countries—countries that wish to preserve their self-autonomy and national values— to plunder their natural resources. As a result, a flood of homeless people from those countries pours into the United States. Then they spend billions more to control illegal immigration and return immigrants to their countries. The plundered riches end up in the pockets of the elite, while all the costs of this vicious cycle are borne by the American taxpayers.

Driven by the ambition to dominate the world economy, they put in place policies to facilitate economic globalization without considering the long-term consequences. They sing the praises of free trade and rant against the evils of tariffs. Then, after two decades, when they realize that the United States has lost great swathes of its manufacturing landscape to developing countries, they once again shift gears abruptly and—again without considering the long-term consequences—go into knee-jerk-reaction mode and start indiscriminately smacking tariffs on all sorts of countries, making matters even worse. And it’s the American people who are left holding the bag.

The same ignorance is evident in how the U.S. pulled out of its international environmental commitments to allow the government more leeway to pursue growth in the hope that it could boost its manufacturing sector. Then, when they have to deal with the costs of mitigating the consequences of pollution, they again lay all the economic burden at the feet of the American taxpayers. The rich keep getting richer, and the poor poorer. It’s the American taxpayers that always pay the price of their leaders’ incompetence. The leaders themselves are never held accountable.

Preoccupation with Inessential Matters at the Expense of Society’s Essential Affairs One of the characteristics of American leaders, which is especially pronounced in the personality of President Trump, is preoccupation with inessential matters. Recently, we have seen countless instances of this tendency in Trump: going full steam ahead with the construction of the White House ballroom; fighting for the inclusion of his name on the signage of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; changing the names of Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico; repainting the

Reflecting Pool; the so-called “Arc de Trump”; and so on and so forth. The media are consumed with rapidly changing developments regarding these inessential matters—all while America’s main problems—the rapidly rising inflation, the cost of housing, the pandemic of mental health problems, etc.—are left unresolved.

Another inessential matter on which Trump has Marjorie Taylor Greenewasted precious American resources is the war on Iran. Giving his ear to the misinformation provided by Netanyahu and a number of former members of the Shah’s autocratic regime who fled Iran, Trump rushed into a war with Iran. In an effort to sow chaos in Iran and encourage Iranians to rise up against their government, the U.S. military fired thousands of missiles, each costing millions of dollars, against thousands of targets worth only thousands of dollars each—such as police stations, Basij bases, security checkpoints, and evacuated military installations—in the hope of removing the barriers preventing the rebels from operating freely. The U.S. military thus squandered its missile stockpiles on targets of very little value. But, more importantly, the tactic backfired: rather than encouraging Iranians to revolt against the Islamic Republic, these missile attacks heightened Iranians’ sense of national pride and solidarity, compelling millions of people to take to the streets every night to express their rage at the U.S. and show their devotion to their country. These nightly communal vigils of patriotism have now continued for more than 210 consecutive nights.

Nick FuentesOne of the consequential upshots of this tendency of the American government to get sidetracked by inessential matters is that China now surpasses the U.S. in almost every metric of progress. Just in the last six months in which the U.S. has been preoccupied with the war with Iran, China has made considerable headway in, among other things, AI and quantum technology.

Another salient example of America’s preoccupation with inessential matters is the war on terror that President George W. Bush waged on an imaginary enemy. The costly and decades-long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in no way benefited the American people and certainly not the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. occupied these two countries with the stated—but disingenuous— goal of freeing their people and replacing despotic rule with democracy. However, in both countries, the people had already started to rise up against their tyrannical rulers and had in fact succeeded in freeing parts of their countries. If the U.S. was honest in its intention to help the people, it could have just chosen to support and fund them. Yet, due to its sinister ulterior motives, American leaders chose to invade the two countries—with disastrous consequences for the occupied countries and for the U.S. The crimes and offenses perpetrated by the occupying American forces ultimately caused the people of Afghanistan and Iraq to turn against their “liberators.” Seeing the true color of American domination, Afghans and Iraqis were now determined to fight and expel the occupiers.

The Joe Kentoccupation of Afghanistan lasted 20 years, came at an economic cost of three trillion dollars (according to official U.S. figures, with the actual cost likely being much higher) to American taxpayers and a human cost of 2,354 American fatalities and 168,000 Afghan casualties. And, finally, the occupation ended in a disgraceful retreat, with the U.S. military leaving behind 85 billion dollars’ worth of weapons and equipment. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul was closed, all Americans were expelled, and the government fell into the hands of the Taliban, the same people that the U.S. ostensibly invaded the country to remove from power.

If Justin AmashAmerican leaders had exercised a modicum of rationality, the occupation of Afghanistan could have turned out to be much more favorable to the occupiers. With less than three percent of the

total cost of the war—that is, less than the cost of the weapons and equipment left behind by the U.S. military—the Americans could have built a home for every Afghan family and in this way won the people over. That way the American flag would have flown high across Afghan cities for many generations to come, whereas today it is trampled underfoot by Afghans as a symbol of their erstwhile occupiers. The problem is that the priority of the leaders who head the U.S. military is to enrich themselves and their partners in the military-industrial complex. Consequently, they can’t even manage imperialism correctly.

The Tucker Carlsonstory of the U.S. invasion of Iraq is fundamentally similar. The invasion of Iraq lasted eight years and eight months, with a cost of four trillion dollars to American taxpayers (again, these are official figures, the real figures likely being much higher). The casualties of America’s military involvement in Iraq are even more staggering compared to Afghanistan. The invasion claimed the lives of 4,800 American service members and 265,000 Iraqis. What is worse, from the standpoint of the American taxpayer, is that not only did the involvement in Iraq not benefit the U.S.; it actually weakened the U.S. position in the region and its standing throughout the world. The American military ousted Saddam Hussein—long a reliable ally of the U.S.—only to see Iraq fall into the hands of Iranian-allied groups. And in a move that captured the national mood in Iraq, in 2020 Iraqi parliamentarians, incensed by what they saw as America’s disrespect for their country’s sovereignty, passed a resolution calling for the expulsion of all American forces. Since then, all American military bases except for one have been dismantled, and today the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the one remaining American military base, in Erbil, are targets of daily attacks by the people of Iraq, as the U.S. prepares to pull all its forces out of Iraq in the near future.

Today, the Dave SmithU.S. government is widely and profoundly hated in both Afghanistan and Iraq, to the extent that no American official dares to walk the streets of Kabul or Baghdad, not even with a security detail. The appalling treatment that the American military displayed at such notorious sites as Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and Guantanamo created worldwide revulsion toward the U.S.

Thomas MassieThe costly and fruitless wars the U.S. has waged over the past several decades have brought nothing but misery to the U.S. economy and the American people. The U.S. share of global gross domestic product has fallen from 23.5 percent in 2000 to around 14 percent today. The wanton and wasteful expenditures the American government has made in prosecuting its wars and executing its aggressive posture in West Asia—including the hundreds of billions spent funding hostile media outlets, supporting anti-Iranian groups, and fomenting regional unrest—have come with an estimated price tag surpassing eight trillion dollars. As a result, the United States is saddled with an astronomical national debt exceeding 40 trillion dollars, which has made it the most indebted country in history, with no meaningful benefits to its people. This exponentially growing debt is consuming America’s economy at an accelerating pace.

Tucker CarlsonThe U.S. has gone from being a country whose main source of revenue was the export of advanced technologies to being a Third World country that needs to sell its natural resources in order to survive. In recent years, the U.S. has become one of the world’s major exporters of coal and crude oil. U.S. crude oil exports grew from less than 500 thousand barrels a day in 2015 to more than four million. To keep the American economy afloat, the U.S. must sell raw materials to other countries and import finished products. This is the current reality of the U.S. economy.

In an attempt to save its declining economy, the U.S. government, headed by Trump, hastily abandoned the essential features of liberal capitalism, economic globalization, and free trade, and

resorted to an unreasonable tariff regime. This sudden about-face, together with Trump’s combative approach, has unnerved America’s traditional allies, pushing Canada—long considered America’s closest partner—toward Europe and China.

Cori BushIt should, therefore, come as no surprise to anyone that 40 million Americans live below the poverty line. The population of homeless Americans in towns and cities across the country has exploded in recent years. And—not to be dramatic—this is just the beginning. The situation is going to get far worse before it gets any better. So, the question that any American of sane mind should consider is whether they wish to continue entrusting the reins of power to the same miserably incompetent leaders—leaders who, for the sake of their own personal interest, have chosen to curry favor with the Zionist masters of global finance by enraging two billion Muslims and obsequiously pandering to a few million Zionists worldwide, seriously jeopardizing the future of the American people.

Throughout history, global hegemons have generally maintained their unrivaled power for a century or more. The only superpower that is an exception to this is the U.S. America’s period of unrivaled global dominance lasted less than 30 years. And this is due to the exceptional incompetence of its leaders.

How can these trends that are driving the U.S. toward ruin be stopped? More importantly, how can the American people be saved from the grim fate that will result from the collapse of the U.S. government? God has provided the answer to this question in different scriptures He has conferred to His prophets.

One answer is to be found in the Old Testament, in Jeremiah 18:7–10:

If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if, at another time, I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in My sight and does not obey Me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

The same answer is expressed in the Qur’an (13:11): “Indeed, God does not alter the affairs of a people until they alter their own affairs.”

God will come to the aid of the American people if they decide to change course. Thankfully, Americans are waking up to the truth. Over the past two years, Americans have participated in numerous demonstrations in cities across the U.S. to express their outrage at Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza. Moreover, the “No Kings” rallies that swept across the U.S. last year were a nationwide repudiation of the burgeoning autocratic tendencies within the American government. These powerful manifestations of collective action are evidence of a national awakening spreading through the U.S.

Zohran MamdaniThe objections that university professors and students have made against research projects related to military objectives funded by organizations suspected of having ties to the U.S. military and the unwillingness of these academicians to participate in these projects constitute another promising

sign of a Ilhan Omarmoral awakening in America. If an academic realizes that the results of their research will be used not for the benefit of improving the wellbeing of their fellow Americans but for the murder of innocent men, women, and children and the destruction of schools and hospitals, they should—if they wish to stop America’s rapid move toward ruin—definitely listen to the voice of their conscience and refrain from participating.

Candace OwensPolls show that the majority of Americans, especially younger Americans, no longer wish to be complicit in their government’s crimes against other nations, particularly its crimes against the oppressed but resilient people of Palestine. Another positive trend that polls are indicating is that even many of the Americans who voted for Trump in 2024 are now regretting their choice. Seeing the Trump administration’s disastrous policies and actions, they are deeply skeptical of the path their country is on and wish to see a fundamental change of direction. This change of heart is especially pronounced regarding Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran.

People all around the world are looking to Americans to stop their government. Now is the time. Americans need to rise up and put an end to this miserable situation that their country, and the world at large, is facing. Do not allow your government to continue its shameful hegemonic practice of using the might of the American military or the manipulative tactics of the American intelligence agencies to install dictators who would allow the ruling elite of the U.S. to plunder their countries' resources. Put an end to your government’s tendency to assassinate those independent world leaders whose only crime is that they wish to safeguard their country’s sovereignty and allow their people to profit from their natural resources. Plundering other countries and assassinating their leaders will only intensify the hatred that people around the world feel toward the U.S. American prosperity will be of no avail to the American people if it is nourished by the blood of the oppressed.

One of the measures that Americans can demand of their government for revitalizing the American economy is shutting down the 800 costly and useless American bases that are scattered throughout the world and bringing all American service members back home. Pressure your government to the put an end to the endless aid Israel has been receiving from you; to avoid entering endless wars of aggression; to shut down the hundreds of costly media outlets and intelligence networks used to instigate coups, support dictators, and sow unrest; and to redirect the trillions of dollars spent on these subversive activities to advance scientific research high-tech industrial manufacturing in the U.S. There is no doubt that if the American government heeds these demands, the U.S. will once again take its place as the world’s leading economy and American will once again enjoy a prosperous life.

It is shameful that the Jake Shieldseconomy of a great country like the United States should be sustained by stealing the wealth of other nations and at the cost of impoverishing other countries. Although there are dark episodes in America’s history—the conduct of America’s founding generations toward its indigenous people and its history of slavery and racism—the fact is that the U.S. has the necessary resources to offer prosperity to all the people who call it home: It possesses a very rich land, vast underground resources, enormous reserves of energy, abundant water sources, and copious fertile soil, as well as extensive coastlines and rivers. Therefore, if the American people choose leaders that partake of the right characteristics—knowledge, integrity, and honesty—the U.S. can build a prosperous future for its people without having to plunder the resources of other nations, and it can also make amends for its past wrongs, especially the wrongs it committed

Cori Bushtoward the people of America—the Native Americans, the black Americans, and the underprivileged Americans.

Heed the native human conscience that God has placed in all people, and do not allow crooked politicians into positions of power—politicians that call the legitimate resistance of the people of Palestine and Lebanon, who are only defending their lands against occupiers and terrorists; politicians that turn a blind eye to genocide when it is carried out against Palestinians; politicians that shamelessly call the killing of more than 21,000 children in Gaza, including one-day-old infants, legitimate self-defense. Make sure that the congresspeople you elect will hold the government accountable for the massacre of 400 innocent Iranian schoolchildren. In shaping your government’s future relations with other nations, demand that American politicians promise to abide by the Golden Rule, which all world religions and schools of thought hold up as the epitome of human virtue: “Do to others that which you wish to be done to you.” All three Abrahamic faiths affirm this principle. The Jewish Talmud says, “Do not do to your neighbor what you yourself hate.” Likewise, the Gospel says, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12) and “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31).

Mehdi HasanLook to your conscience. Would any of you like to see 300,000 homes in American cities reduced to rubble, as Israel has done in Gaza and Jenin? How would you feel if dozens of American villages were bombed into oblivion, as Israel has done in southern Lebanon? How would you react if an enemy attacked an elementary school in the U.S. and killed all the schoolchildren, as the U.S. military did to a school in Minab?

Candace OwensWithout doubt, if not for America’s blind support and endless aid to Israel, the Zionist regime would be incapable of committing its crimes against the people of Palestine and Lebanon. The genocide in Palestine and Lebanon and the endless wars in other parts of the world are carried out with your tax dollars, and so the people of the world expect you to act to stop the American government.

Your response may be that you do not accept these atrocious actions but are powerless to do anything about them. This answer, however, is not acceptable. You are the ones who empower, with your votes, the government and allow it to do what it does. Although American politicians often win your votes through deception and false promises, as Trump did, you can change the makeup of the government if you apply the criteria for good leadership in choosing the people you vote into office.

Thomas MassieThe United States of America is a great nation. To allow vulgar and immoral individuals to continue steering your politics and policies will only further humiliate and undermine the U.S. Any politician who thinks they can buy your vote for 5,000 dollars is unworthy to lead you. Take back control.

Our martyred leader had warned that an American attack on Iran would ignite a wide-scale war engulfing the entire region. The American government did not believe him. So, when Iran did in fact attack American military bases all across the region, U.S. officials were dumbfounded. The

martyred leader affirmed, “If something happens, the Iranian people will rise and finish the job.” That prediction, too, came true, and for seven months now, millions of Iranians have shown up on the streets every night to call for avenging their martyred leader.

The warnings of the late Supreme Leader must now be taken seriously. America’s excessive crimes and injustices have filled human society with rage, turning the world into a powder keg that is ready to explode. If the U.S. continues its crimes, people all around the world will rise, and the explosion of popular anger will, without a doubt, set fire to all of America’s interests and assets throughout the world. The U.S. economy will be hit by a massive economic earthquake that will affect the lives of all Americans.

Tucker CarlsonYou, the American people, have the power to forestall this grim fate. You need to force your government to distance itself from Israel, as the occupiers of Palestine will, sooner or later, have to leave the land they occupy and return to their countries of origin.

Candace OwensWe can live together in peaceful coexistence. Remove from power the evil, deceitful, and violent politicians who are responsible for America’s current state. Entrust your affairs to the wise, not the wily. Make sure your politicians understand that the world has changed.

Andrew TateThe people all around the world have awakened. The era when the U.S. could plunder the wealth of nations through military might has come to an end. This century is the century when the will of the people will triumph. If the U.S. chooses to continue on its evil path, a painful fate awaits it. As Imam Ali states in Nahj al-Balaghah, “The day when the oppressed triumph over the tyrant shall be far more dreadful than the day the tyrant prevailed.”

Despite all the hardships that our enemies impose on us, we will continue fighting, as we have done for the past 47 years, for the liberation of humanity from tyranny and ignorance. Soon, Palestine will be liberated. We await the return of Jesus Christ along with Imam Mahdi, the final successor of the Prophet Muhammad—God’s peace and blessings be upon them. Together, they will usher in the Kingdom of God and lead humanity toward liberation from all forms of oppression.

Mahdi and Christ will stand with the oppressed seekers of justice and against the oppressors. We, the people of Iran, would like to see you, the people of America, standing by our side as we are led by Mahdi and Christ toward final victory.

We pray for an imminent end to oppression and aggression, for the liberation of all nations from the grip of tyrants, for a life of loving fellowship and universal peace.

“Assuredly, We wrote in [David’s] Psalms…that the world will be inherited by My virtuous servants.”