Re-creation of an American foreign policy tactic, “We have to kill them in order to save them,” sheds a dark light on the executive leadership that guides foreign policies and on the political commentators who inform Americans of the policies. The U.S. government released its assessment of why Iran must be pulverized into the Stone Age, and favored political reporters persuaded their readers to agree with the policy.
The Iranian Regime’s Decades of Terrorism Against American Citizens, The White House, March 2, 2026
For nearly half a century, the Islamic Republic of Iran — the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism — has killed and maimed American citizens and service members through its own forces and proxy militias. More Americans have been killed by Iran than any other terrorist regime on Earth.
President Donald J. Trump is doing what Presidents over the last five decades have refused to do — eliminate the threat once and for all. By destroying Iran’s missiles, annihilating their navy, and ensuring they can never obtain a nuclear weapon, the Trump Administration’s bold and decisive action is protecting American lives and advancing American interests.
According to the White House, Iran’s missiles, navy, and a potential nuclear weapon have killed American citizens. Now the threat is eliminated, and we can relax. Here is a partial record of the White House list of the “Iranian regime’s blood-soaked war on Americans.”
- November 1979: Iranian students, backed by the regime, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran — taking 66 Americans hostage in a 444-day standoff.
- April 1983: The Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terrorist group, carried out a suicide car bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 17 Americans.
- October 1983: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 241 U.S. military personnel — including 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other service personnel — in a truck bombing at a Marine compound in Beirut.
I’ll stop here. The complete farcical list can be found at the farcical website of the farcical U.S. government. Read the complete list and note there is none, not even one, Iran military or intelligence agency attack on Americans. The record is couched with “Iran-backed Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and Hamas “terrorists,” making it seem that these groups operate on direct orders from Tehran and do not have legitimate grievances against the United States. No proof that the specified organizations deliberately targeted Americans. No proof of a direct link of the Mullahs to any of the attacks.
Examine this notation, similar to all other notations accusing Hamas.
- August 1995: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing an American and three other passengers, and wounding more than 100 others.
Because an American, who probably was an Israeli citizen and lived in Israel, was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Hamas, who has never attacked Americans, is accused of deliberately murdering an American, and Iran, who probably knew less of the attack than the United States, is accused of being an accomplice.
Here is another notation, which characterizes many of the notations linking Hezbollah to killings of Americans.
- August 2006: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed American citizen and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Michael Levin during the Second Lebanon War — the only American to die in the conflict.
A Lebanese militant shoots an invading Israeli soldier in a war and Hezbollah is portrayed as murdering an American. Iranian officials, several hundred miles away from the battle, are in contact with the militant and steer the weapon to aim at the IDF soldier, who they knew was American. - August 1998: Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, facilitated by Iran-backed Hezbollah, simultaneously bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people — including a dozen American citizens.
Connecting Hezbollah, a Shia organization with al-Qaeda, a sworn enemy of the Shia, is nonsensical. Connecting Iran with al-Qaeda is equally nonsensical. Washington, D.C. Think Tank, New America, analyzed nearly 300 declassified documents in Arabic. Key Findings:
- Al-Qa’ida views Iran as a hostile entity, a hostility that is evident throughout the documents examined for this study.
- The examined documents provide no evidence of cooperation between Al-Qa’ida and Iran on planning or carrying out terrorist attacks.
- The presence of jihadis in Iran was out of necessity, not a result of strategic planning. Jihadis, including Al-Qa’ida members, and their families as well as members of bin Ladin’s family fled Afghanistan to Iran following the 9/11 attacks and the resultant fall of the Taliban regime.
- When jihadis began to set up communications with entities outside Iran, thereby violating the terms of the security measures set by the regime, Al-Qa’ida experienced a campaign of arrests and deportations.
- Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Al-Qa’ida perceived Iran’s policy as one of detention/imprisonment, refusing to allow jihadis to leave Iran. Some jihadis managed to evade arrest and adopted stringent measures to maintain a clandestine presence in Iran.
Al-Qaeda has linked Shi’ite Muslims, who are represented by Iran and Hezbollah, with Crusaders — Zionists and Americans— as its most bitter enemies. Deceased al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, Al-Zarqawi, in a speech, said: “Days go by, and events follow one after the other. The battles are many, and the names used are varied. But the goal (of the Crusaders) is one: a Crusader-Rafidite war against the Sunnis.” Who are the Rafidites? They are Shi’ite Muslims who reject (rafḍ) the caliphate of Muḥammad’s two successors Abū Bakr and ʿUmar.
A more accurate assessment of Iran’s “terrorist activities” against Americans is there has been none. Iran has been involved in assassinations of dissidents, whose groups have engaged in sabotage in Iran, and in tit-for-tat violence with Israel, whose intelligence agencies have murdered scores of Iranians. A few plots against U.S. officials that purportedly link the plotters with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were foiled, but do not indicate plans of an international terrorist organization. These were revenge actions, reprisals for the assassination of Iranian Major General, Qasem Soleimani, and others in his entourage, and to U.S. complicity in aiding Israel in several assassinations of Iranian scientists and government officials.
Trump’s post on Truth Social, “They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP,” tells the story — an American president takes pleasure in murdering others. Iran has not killed innocent people, whereas the United States in wars, sanctions, starvation and helping ally, Israel, is responsible for millions of deaths.
The nation that murdered most Americans, outside of military confrontations, is Israel, which killed 34 people on board the U.S.S. Liberty and wounded 171 of its crew members during the 1967 Israel/Egypt war. The human rights organization DAWN details 14 American citizens killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since 2003. The number of Americans killed in Gaza during the several Israeli incursions has not been available. Iran, which has not murdered any Americans, is bombed mercilessly, and Israel, which has murdered many Americans, is assisted in murdering the innocent Iranians.
Popular and influential political columnists certify the charade that describes Iran as the world’s villain.
Tom Friedman can be confusing, showing unnecessary endearment and subdued criticism of Israel, leaving it to others to determine if the slaughter in Gaza can be declared genocide. The NY Times foreign affairs columnist has a huge following and a possible restraint; he depends on his relationships with Israeli government officials to supply him with inside information. His facts and opinions on the ugly war are ugly and unreal.
First, I hope this effort to topple the clerical regime in Tehran succeeds. It is a regime that murders its people, destabilizes its neighbors and has destroyed a great civilization. There is no single event that would do more to put the whole Middle East on a more decent, inclusive trajectory than the replacement of Tehran’s Islamic regime with a leadership focused exclusively on enabling the people of Iran to realize their full potential with a real voice in their own future.
While you’d never know it if you listened to the campus left in recent years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been the biggest imperialist power in the region since 1979, cultivating proxies to control four Arab states — Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen — and undermining liberal reformers in all four by promoting sectarian divisions.
The highly vocal supporter for the war on Iraq changes the q in Iraq to the n in Iran and whoops it again up for the killing machines. Examine each phrase.
- It is a regime that murders its people.
We never get the complete story. Murder is not the correct word. As many nations, the Iranian government acted ruthlessly when peaceful protests spilled over into attacks on police stations, security personnel, religious institutions, and government buildings. The country has a unique security problem — the United States and Israel intelligence services clandestinely instigate the peaceful protests to violence. The recent large protests are more due to economic factors — credit denial, inflation, and currency deterioration — caused by the sanctions and embargoes imposed upon Iran. Repression is proportional to threat, and the United States and Israel, eagerly enlarge the threat and augment the repression. - Destabilizes its neighbors.
The Middle East neighbors that have been unusually unstable in the last forty years are Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, and maybe Bahrain, at moments. The first six were consistently unstable before the Islamic Republic came into existence and the first four became more unstable due to Israeli and U.S. aggression. Bahrain’s troubles stem from its autocratic government and treatment of its oppressed majority. The Shia population is a slight majority and has been treated as a foreign minority under control of Sunni monarch Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. Human Rights Watch says, “Bahraini authorities use the many repressive tools available to them to silence and punish anyone who criticizes the government.”Meanwhile, Israel has consistently destabilized its bordering nations and Egypt by invading them and several African nations — Libya, Sudan, and Ethiopia — by assisting opponents of their governments
- Has destroyed a great civilization.
Weren’t the great civilizations destroyed a long, long, long time ago? What great civilization existed recently and how was it destroyed?Safavid dynasty rule (1501–1736) began modern Iranian history. Because Shah Ismail I established the Twelver denomination of Shia Islam as the official religion of the nation, and mingled Shia Islam with Iranian identity, we can speciously conclude the opposite to Friedman’s characterization ─ the Mullahs returned Iran to its ancient civilization roots.
- No single event would do more to put the whole Middle East on a more decent, inclusive trajectory than the replacement of Tehran’s Islamic regime.
What has Iran done to modify the trajectory of Middle East nations? Only Egypt, Syria, and Iraq have modified their “trajectories,” whatever they were, and those are due to U.S. and Israel interference.
- The Islamic Republic of Iran has been the biggest imperialist power in the region since 1979.
That is a whopper. Without gaining one inch of territory, never attacking any nation, not colonizing other nations, not controlling the commerce or government of other nations, and suffering from isolation and sanctions, by some invisible mechanism, known only to Tom Friedman, Iran is the “biggest imperialist power.” - Cultivating proxies to control four Arab states — Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen — and undermining liberal reformers in all four by promoting sectarian divisions.
Where does or did Iran exercise one finger of control over any of these states and promote sectarian divisions that have always existed in the Middle East? According to Friedman, Iran, which, as all nations, seeks friends of mutual interests, cannot have friends, only proxies.
Former NYT columnist, David Brooks, is another popular and influential commentator who has shown no understanding of the war on Iran and has propagandized the administration’s position. On the Friday PBS Nightly News, David Brooks hallucinated Iran’s history of the last 47 years.
- Iran has been at war with us for 47 years.
Brooks escalates arguments and disagreements into war and forgets that Iran assisted in freeing seven U.S. hostages held in Lebanon during the Iran-Contra affair, offered assistance in rehabilitating Afghanistan after the U.S. invasion, and signed the 2014 Joint Plan of Action” (JPOA), an interim agreement that froze parts of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for limited sanctions relief.
- One of worst events of 20th century began 47 years of terrorism, extremism, theocratic fascism.
As debated above, what terrorism has Iran committed?- It started with one to two million people dead in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980’s.
This twist in assigning blame to Iran for the killings of its people, and demonstrating a lack of empathy for its citizens, when Iran suffered extensive casualties after being attacked by Iraq, who had assistance from U.S. intelligence, reduces David Brooks to Donald Trump’s level.
- There were 241 Americans killed by Iranian supervision in Beirut.
Another unproven statement that ties Tehran to happenings in Beirut. The suicide bombers who drove a truck into the marine barracks coordinated with suicide bombers who simultaneously performed a suicide bombing at a French base. These fanatics revenged the shelling by French and American forces of the Shouf hills that killed fellow Lebanese.- Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, they have destabilized the Middle East.
Another statement that was debated above.- They have killed people in Syria.
A vague and accusatory statement. Can Brooks name one person and describe the circumstance in which Iran killed the person(s)?
- Iran recently killed 25,000 to 35,000 of its citizens, a destructive and savage regime that has destabilized the Middle East.
Official government figure of deaths in the uprising is about 3000; other agencies claim much more. As explained above, “We never get the complete story.”
How does David Brook’s fallacious commentary excuse the illegal attack on a mostly defenseless nation?
Conclusion
Israel and the United States attacked Iran for one reason — Iran is only country to contend the genocide and willing to stand up against Israel and its expansionist policies. Iran may not be the best nation but its failings, which are mostly the unequal status of women, are not much different from America’s friends — the Gulf nations and Saudi Arabia. The theocracy unnerves its citizens; the economic problems drive the populace into despair. Economic problems are due to engineered U.S. sanctions, which hinder economic expansion and job opportunities for women Denial to credit markets has caused a huge inflation. Without sanctions, Iran would be a prosperous and more obedient nation.
Why Trump does not comprehend his contradictory statements on the war and why there is nobody to make him understand is baffling.
He pleads for an end in the war in Ukraine so Ukrainian and Russians will no longer be killed and does not exhibit regret for massacring more than Iranian 100 school children in a U.S. missile attack.
He says all elements of the Iranian military have been destroyed and continues the war.
He exults over previously low oil prices, for which he claims credit, although OPEC and other producers determine production and price, and disregards the increased prices due to his war on Iran.
He poses as president of the U.S. people and gloats that the increased oil price benefits the United States, which has surplus oil. His United States is the petroleum conglomerates who will benefit from the higher oil prices paid by the U.S. people.
The corrupt and sinister warmongers that occupy executive positions in Washington, D.C. and Tel Aviv are beginning to realize that Iran will not falter. Subduing Iran implies murdering millions of its people. An endless war is being waged, in which Cyrus the Great will never die, while Trump and Netanyahu, the degrading duo, have numbered days.
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This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Dan Lieberman.