Western leaders still speak about Iran as if it were a rational actor — a nation with interests, concerns, red lines, and political calculations. But this is a dangerous delusion.
The Islamic Republic of Iran was never built to serve the Iranian people. From its founding, its purpose was something far more sweeping — the global victory of Shiite Islam.
Ayatollah Khomeini made that crystal clear when he said: “For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.”
That chilling statement isn’t historical trivia — it is the guiding principle of Iran’s ruling elite to this day.
To understand the Iranian regime, one must realize: the regime sees Iran itself as expendable. Its people, its economy, its heritage — all are tools to be sacrificed on the altar of ideological conquest. This is why the regime pours billions into its terrorist proxies like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, even as Iranians at home endure poverty and oppression. The suffering of their own people is irrelevant — or even useful — in their apocalyptic worldview.
This logic is mirrored in the proxies themselves. The Palestinian terror leadership, particularly Hamas, operates from the same ruthless script. Gazans are not civilians to be protected. They are human shields, propaganda tools, and cannon fodder for jihad. The more they suffer, the more the world is expected to rage — not at the jihadists, but at those who fight back.
It’s time we stop speaking about these groups in diplomatic clichés. They are not “freedom fighters,” “resistance movements,” or even “governments.” They are instruments of a larger vision that glorifies death over life, conquest over compromise, and martyrdom over humanity.
Until the West truly understands this, it will continue to be manipulated, outmaneuvered, and stunned by the cruelty of an enemy it refuses to name.