The Case for Ending the Iranian Regime

By John F. Di Leo, Opinion Contributor

We have been told for decades that “we cannot be the world’s policeman.”

And this is true. We can’t, and mustn’t.

But that’s not the same thing as saying that we should always keep our pistol holstered when something needs to be done, and we’re the only ones who can.

For too many politicians, for too many years, the first question to ask was “But can we make a difference?” And to that question, the answer is always Yes. We are huge; we are the biggest military and economic giant on earth. Of course we can make a difference. We can always make a difference.

And that viewpoint may have gotten the United States involved in a number of conflicts in which we didn’t belong, because even if we can make a difference, that doesn’t mean we should. In too many cases, we might choose the wrong side, we might empower the wrong people, we might disturb a regional balance of power that was better off undisturbed, we might spend an unjustifiable amount of our own resources (both men and money) in the process.

But as true as that is, not every foreign entanglement is such a case.

There are foreign entanglements in which we not only can make a difference, but we should, because it’s in our own best interest to do so.

The situation in Iran today is such an example.

We should begin with the point that the disaster in Iran is at least partially America’s fault. It was, after all, America’s president, the calamitous Jimmy Carter, who encouraged the return of Ayatollah Khomeini from French exile back to Iran, and stoked the flames of jihadist revolt in Iran with his undiplomatic rhetoric. Acknowledging this fact doesn’t mean we absolutely have to try to right this 47-year wrong, though it is certainly a point in favor.

But it is our own interest – America’s interest – that we must consider, and that’s where the grounds for involvement are overwhelming.

The mullahs’ governance of Iran, as malicious to its own people as it has been these 47 years, has been even more malicious to outsiders. The mullahs have exported terrorism for as long as they have held the reins of power in the oil-rich, once modernist nation of Iran. They have had land, people, connections, and money at their disposal, and they have used those resources to directly attack our friends, allies and trading partners, again and again, over the years.

The mullahs specifically used their power and position to radicalize as many muslims as possible, all over the world. Every mosque on earth, even the most peaceful and harmless, is at greater risk of being taken over, or of breeding jihadist terror, today, because of those 47 years of authority, sowing the seeds of jihadism and the dreams of a global caliphate all over the earth to anyone warped and malicious enough to listen.

The mullahs have established puppet states or puppet insurgencies in multiple countries across the middle east, broadening their reach through their well-funded surrogates. Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have done Iran’s bidding for decades. Other client states or deferring equals have long included Syria and Qatar, as well as other small muslim countries in Africa and Asia. These puppet states have worked to move the muslim world as a whole over to the jihadist, anti-Western side, and have made particular targets of both the United States and our ally, Israel.

Of the hundreds of examples of ways in which these extra-Iranian activities have created an impact that makes our action a true American interest, these three should make the point sufficiently:

Iraq: No sooner had the United States freed Iraq from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, than the Iranian mullahs made their move, undermining our efforts at building republican governance among the Iraqi people, strengthening insurgencies within the new nation that the United States – with all our good intentioned naivete – was trying to develop. And yes, that means they killed a lot of American warriors, civilians and contractors in the process.

Our Colleges: American colleges and universities have been carefully conned, massaged, and outright bribed over the years into establishing partnerships all over the world, sometimes with overseas campuses, often with underlying jihadist or marxist goals. Iran’s client state Qatar has been among the most aggressive of these enemy sponsors, as the single largest foreign financier of American education, often taking advantage of these partnerships to spread their theories in American student populations and college towns, and using the programs as an immigration funnel, to plant their agents in America as professors, as graduates, and as activists.

The Red Sea: With the Houthis in Yemen being heavily armed and funded by the Iranian mullahs, it is no exaggeration to say that everything the Houthis do is really being done by Iran. Under Iran’s direction, the Houthis have blocked commercial access to the Suez Canal for two years straight, by combined threats of missile attacks and piracy. Since the threatened ships include some American-flagged vessels, this has of course been an act of war. But the big picture is one of costs: The closure of the Red Sea means that our friend, Egypt, loses out on some eight to ten billion dollars annually in Suez Canal transit tolls and port business, and even more importantly, the entire world economy suffers from all that commercial business between Asia and Europe – thousands of sailings per year – having to take two more weeks per trip sailing around the continent of Africa instead of utilizing the Suez shortcut. This directly costs the world economy over a billion dollars per day, and indirectly costs even more, due to this unnatural, unnecessary lengthening of global supply chains.

America is part of that global economy. The companies that must overpay for transportation because of the Iranian-directed Houthis aren’t just foreign companies, unrelated to us; the companies suffering from inflated transportation costs and lead times include American-owned manufacturers and distributors, vendors and customers, as well.

And these are costs that we don’t think about when we discuss the choice between action and inaction on the global scene – but we should.

Too often, we have been given the impression – by politicians and press alike – that the only thing that could justify American involvement in Iranian affairs is their nuclear bomb ambitions, and that if we could only thwart those dreams, we could wash our hands of Iran. As we have seen above, that position is wholly indefensible. Nuclear issues are a drop in the bucket, as far as the ongoing damage done by Iran’s mullahs is concerned.

As long as we leave the puppeteer in position, his many puppets can continue to act. To cripple all these many assaults on both Western liberty and the global economy, we must eliminate the puppeteer.

We are fortunate in this effort, in that the people of Iran have already done much of the job for us. Long a Western-focused, modern nation before the mullahs took it over, the honorable Persian people have arisen in recent months, demonstrating in the streets, attacking government buildings, and burning down the hated mosques that are the symbol of their mullah overlords.

The public has laid the groundwork; America needs to take off the kid gloves and return Iranian governance to the people of Iran – and by so doing, solve so many other problems around the world in one fell swoop.

For those who repeat the old chant, “It’s the economy, stupid,” as a perennial effort to quash talk of military action – this is that rare example of a military solution that will have an immediate and massive positive effect on the economy.

Imagine Persia as a full participant in global trade again, rightly freed from the sanctions needed during the mullahs’ rule. Imagine Persian oil flowing freely and legally in the world market again. Imagine containerships, bulkers, tankers and cruise lines safely traversing the Red Sea and Suez Canal again. Imagine the threat level not just in Iran but across the entire middle east being lowered at once. And yes, imagine righteous vengeance, at long last, for the thousands of Americans imprisoned, tortured, or killed by the mullahs over their half century of wickedness.

The time has come. May Divine Providence bless and guide the American solution in the days and weeks to come.

Copyright 2026 John F. Di Leo