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Source: https://reason.com/volokh/2026/09/11/president-trump-is-bold-brave-and-right-on-the-iran-war/
Why President Trump Is Right on the Iran War
(Reason) Steven Calabresi - Iran has been a mortal enemy of the U.S. in the 47 years since its Islamic Revolution of 1979. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini began his theocratic dictatorship by imprisoning 52 Americans including the U.S. Ambassador to Iran from Nov. 4, 1979, until Jan. 20, 1981. Ayatollah Khomeini repeatedly led crowds in chants of "Death to America," which he called the "Great Satan" - chants that have been made repeatedly down to the present day by Khomeini's successors. There is an appreciable and unacceptable possibility that if Iran had a nuclear bomb, it would first use it on Israel and then on the U.S. Six U.S. Presidents since 1979 have done nothing meaningful to curtail Iran's ambition to destroy the U.S. None have treated Iran as the mortal and dangerous enemy that it is. Iran wants to destroy the U.S. and all that it stands for. It is a revolutionary theocracy that wants to pave the way to an entirely Shiite Islamic world. Some Americans naively think that Iran can be bought off if we would just abandon our alliance with Israel. But President Trump knows that Iran is committed to regime change in the U.S. and he bravely chose to go to war in an intelligent way in which American casualties would be very limited. At the moment, opponents of the war have persuaded 60% of Americans to oppose U.S. involvement in the Iran War even though (1) Iran is an even more mortal enemy of the U.S. than are China and Russia, (2) it is only a matter of time before Iran's resistance collapses, (3) our armed forces are at very little risk and have suffered very few casualties, and (4) 80% of the Iranian people hate their own government. The writer is Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.