SITREP IRAN:
The collapse of the Islamist ruling system in Iran would represent more than a military or geopolitical outcome; it would mark a historic correction. The current regime is a modern imposition, in power for less than five decades, governing a civilization that spans more than 6,000 years of recorded history.
For most of that history, Iran functioned as a culturally sovereign society defined by Persian identity, statecraft, science, art, and law, not by clerical rule.
Today, nearly 66 percent of Iran’s 90 million citizens are under 40 (that’s significant). This generation has no memory of the 1979 revolution, but lives daily with its consequences: economic stagnation, political repression, and compulsory religious governance enforced by the state.
They are among the most educated and digitally connected populations in the Middle East, and polling, protests, and emigration patterns consistently show deep resistance to theocratic rule (they seriously dislike the Ayatollah and have good reason to).
What is often described as regime stability is, in reality, sustained by coercion rather than consent. Removing the Islamist power structure would not erase Iran’s identity; it would allow Iranians to reclaim it, opening the possibility for a secular, nationally grounded future aligned with the population’s demographic reality rather than an aging ideological elite.
So what?
We (America) must allow the Iranian people, especially the young generation, to decide its own fate. Yes, that is and will continue to come at great sacrifice and sadly, bloodshed. I am in favor of seeing a free and open Iran. I believe that’s what the young generation of Iranians want. The forces lined up against them are powerful and many are external regional forces who want the region and Iran to remain under a tightly controlled and tyrannical Islamic theocracy.
The Iranian regime is dead, they just don’t know it. Pray for the Iranian people, especially their young generation.