Guest Post from an Iranian
The following guest post was written by a Shtetl-Optimized fan in Iran, who’s choosing to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. I’m in awe of the courage of this individual and the millions of other Iranians who’ve risked or, tragically, sacrificed their lives these past few weeks, to stand for something about as unequivocally good and against something about as unequivocally evil as has ever existed on earth. I’m enraged at the relative indifference of the world, and of the US in particular, to these brave Iranians’ plight. There’s still time for the US to fulfill its promise to the protesters and do the right thing—something that I’ll support even if it endangers my friends and family living in Israel. I check the news from Iran every day, and pray that my friends and colleagues there stay safe—and that they, and the world, will soon be free from the Ayatollahs, who now stand fully unmasked before the world as the murderous thugs they always were. –SA
Guest Post from an Iranian
The protests began in Tehran on 28 December 2025, triggered by economic instability and high inflation, and spread to other provinces. People, tired of the regime and aware that every president is just a puppet with no real power, began targeting the source of authority by chanting directly against Khamenei. After government forces killed several protesters, Trump said on 3 January that if they shoot, then U.S. will come to rescue. Protests continued, and on 6 January, Reza Pahlavi called for demonstrations at 8 PM on January 8 and 9. At first, all the regime supporters mocked this and said nobody will come. On these days, they shared videos of empty streets on the news to claim that nobody had shown up. But actually, many people joined the protests. Right around 8 PM on January 8, the government shut down the internet. Only Iran’s internal network remained active, meaning local apps and websites that use Iranian servers work, but the rest of the world was completely cut off.
The regime fears the internet so much that it has officially announced that anyone using Starlink is considered a spy for foreign countries, especially Mossad, and will be punished. As a result, Starlink owners are extremely cautious and rarely let others know they have it.
I know many students who missed deadlines or interviews because of internet shutdown. Some students were forced to travel near Iran’s borders and use Afghanistan’s or Iraq’s internet just to check their email. I personally missed the deadlines for two universities. Just before the internet shutdown, a professor sent me a problem sheet that was part of the application process, and I could not even inform him about the situation. For the past four years since completing my undergraduate studies, my only dream has been to pursue a PhD. I come from a low-income family, and I did everything in my power to reach this stage. I tried to control every variable that might disrupt my four-year plan. Yet now it seems I have failed, and I face an uncertain future.
At the same time, U.S. sanctions have significantly limited Iranian opportunities to study at universities worldwide. With Trump’s travel ban on all Iranians, along with some European countries following U.S. sanctions by rejecting Iranian applicants solely based on nationality, our options have become limited (for example, see the “Evaluation criteria” section). The recent internet shutdown has worsened the situation and left us with even fewer opportunities. While the regime shuts down our internet and takes away our opportunities, the very people responsible for this suppression are ensuring their own children never face such obstacles (I will return to this at the end of the post).
On January 8, my sister and I participated. We were inside our car when Special Units and Basij thugs shot at civilians on the pedestrian path using a shotgun, exactly two meters away from us. I was so shocked that I could not even respond. My sister pushed my head under the car’s dashboard to prevent me from getting shot. I come from a very small town, and this was the level of suppression we witnessed there. Now imagine the scale of suppression in major cities like Tehran, and suddenly the number of protesters reported killed in the news begin to make sense.
We now see tweets on X that not only deny the killings but openly mock them. Is it really possible to deny the body bags in Kahrizak? If a government shuts down the internet across an entire country for three weeks to prevent information from leaking out, do you believe it when it claims the sky is blue? (Check NetBlocks.org and this on Mastodon.)
After January 8, many of the regime’s puppets, who are funded to spread its propaganda in Western media, began whitewashing events on U.S. and European TV, claiming that nobody was killed or that it was a terrorist attack and the government had to act. Some even claim that the protesters are violent rioters and the government has the right to shoot them with war ammunition. Iranians call these puppets “bloodwashers.”
These bloodwashers forget that since 1979, people have tried every possible way to express their opinions and demands, and all of it was ridiculed by the regime and its supporters. Every attempt was suppressed without even being heard. So how do you think things will turn out? Clearly, people become more aggressive in each wave of protests, a pattern you can see in every uprising since 2009. This is also accompanied by worsening poverty. Ordinary people suffer from hunger because some radicals refuse to talk with the U.S., while regime supporters enjoy unlimited access to money and privileges.
Out of the four presidential elections held after 2009, people elected three presidents who promised to pursue a deal with U.S, the so-called Reformist party. People were desperate for change because they knew their situation could only improve if the regime talks with U.S. Many called the voters naïve, arguing that presidents cannot truly make a difference and lack real power, often saying, “Khamenei would never allow that.” I believe many of the voters knew that deep down. They knew that each time a president speaks about negotiating with the U.S., Khamenei suddenly gathers all his supporters and states “No, I am not okay with talking with the U.S.”. Still, people felt they had no real alternative but elections. After the 2015 Nuclear deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), people thought they can finally live normal lives and have normal relations with other countries (See how people celebrated the deal on the night it was finalized). At the time, I was even planning to assemble a new PC and thought it might be better to wait and buy parts from Amazon! We didn’t yet know what the IRGC had planned for us over the next ten years. Now, all their actions and stubbornness have led them to this point where they have to surrender completely (the deal Trump is talking about, which essentially takes away everything that makes Islamic Republic the Islamic Republic), or force another war on our people, and then surrender disgracefully. People are now saying that “Come on, the U.S. you wanted to destroy so badly has come. Take all your supporters and go fight it. Or perhaps you are only brave against ordinary unarmed people” This was an inevitable outcome after October 7 attacks, that their time will come one day, but they still did not want to listen. I often see debates about whether U.S. involvement in other countries is good or whether it should isolate itself as it is not its people’s business. I believe decisions regarding Iran were made weeks ago, and we now have no choice but to wait and see what happens. I just hope that the situation turns out better for the people.
As I mentioned earlier, Islamic regime officials chant “death to the U.S. and the West,” yet they send their children to Western countries. These children use funds and opportunities that could have gone to far more deserving people, while living comfortably and anonymously in the very societies their parents want to destroy.
They flee the country their parents made and climb the social ladder of western societies, while ordinary students cannot even afford a simple TOEFL exam and survive on as little as five dollars a month.
When ordinary Iranian students apply for visas, especially for the U.S. and Canada, they are forced to provide every detail of their lives to prove they are not terrorists and that they will return to Iran. Sometimes, they may have to explain to the embassy officer the topics of their professors’ papers, the health condition of their father, and whether they own houses, which the last two indirectly indicate whether they will return or not. If they are lucky enough not to be rejected within ten minutes, they may enter a clearance process that takes at least a year. Only then might they receive a visa. But how is it that when it comes to the children of regime’s officials, they freely enter and live there without issue.
There are countless examples. Mohammad Reza Aref, a Stanford graduate and current Vice President who has repeatedly worn IRGC uniforms in public support, has sons who earned PhDs from EPFL and the University of Florida, and one publicly attributed this success to “good genes”. Ali Larijani, an IRGC officer, had a daughter working at Emory University until last week. Masoumeh Ebtekar, who climbed the wall of the U.S. Embassy during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has a son, Eissa Hashemi, who is an adjunct faculty member at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
Many Iranians are now actively raising awareness through petitions and protests at these individuals’ workplaces. One example is the petition regarding Eissa Hashemi. Protests at Emory University have reportedly led to Fatemeh Larijani’s recent unemployment. (Larijani family hold critical roles in the regime, and in fact, many members of the family have studied or currently live in Western countries. There is even a saying that while people were forced to fight the U.S., the Larijanis were filling out university application forms.)
When these individuals occupy seats in your labs or use your tax-funded resources, it directly affects the integrity of your institutions and the opportunities available to those who actually share your values. You do not even need to spend time investigating these people yourself. Iranians will protest outside offices or send emails about your colleagues with this condition. All I ask is that the next time you receive multiple emails about a particular Iranian colleague, or hear about protests near your workplace, you spend just five minutes considering what is being said.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this. I know it is long, and I know it is heavy. I wrote it because silence and denial only help suppression survive, and because attention, however brief, matters.
I hope that better and freer days come.
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Comment #1 January 31st, 2026 at 3:09 pm
Very moving. Be safe brother and I do believe military action is coming. My only wish is that it helps the Iranian people.
Comment #2 January 31st, 2026 at 6:21 pm
Hello
I’m an Iranian living in Iran. Thanks for covering this.
Comment #3 February 1st, 2026 at 4:01 am
Yes, the situation is terrible, but I honestly don’t think the US is actually capable of performing a military intervention that makes the lives of the average person in the targeted country better (at a cost in blood and treasure that the US public will be willing to accept). Invading Iraq under George W. Bush didn’t turn out very well, and neither did bombing Libya under Obama. Furthermore, our President is a liar whose promises aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on and our Secretary of Defense is incompetent.
As far as I can tell, the only way there’s going to be regime change in Iran is if the armed forces in Iran are willing to allow it to happen. If there are enough soldiers that are willing to massacre protesters and not enough soldiers that are willing to shoot at soldiers who do try to massacre the protesters, then the protesters are eventually going to get massacred and the rest of the world probably isn’t going to do anything about it. 🙁
Comment #4 February 1st, 2026 at 11:18 am
I am in awe of the bravery of Iranian anti-regime protestors like the author of the above guest post. I hope Iran is freed soon, and the Iranian people live in peace and prosperity and reestablish friendly ties with the US and Israel and the West.
However, the massacre of protestors over the past month has shown that Iran will likely never be liberated peacefully. Khamenei is not a “nice” dictator like Gorbachev or Ben Ali or Mubarak, who bowed to pressure from protestors and saw their regimes fall with minimal bloodshed. Khamenei is much more like Assad, or Mao, or the Kim dynasty. There is still a remote possibility that the Ayatollah regime will become decrepit and collapse without violence, but it does not seem like it will happen soon.
If I were the US president, I would have declared a 2003-style regime change war against the Ayatollahs, and invaded Iran. The actual US president, on the other hand, seems to operate via a “one and done” doctrine, where he will do a quick strike but avoid prolonged war at any cost. Since there is no “one and done” strike that can end the regime, it seems like Trump will not be attacking, or at best he might conduct a weak strike that does not remove the Ayatollahs and the IRGC from power. The opposition party in the US, the Democrats, are reluctant to do anything at all against the regime. If anything, they would probably support the regime via sanctions relief, “deals”, and forcing US allies to “share the region” with the Ayatollahs.
This means that the Iranian opposition needs to start organizing as an armed resistance movement. It should prepare for a prolonged war, and not expect help from any Western government. It will take a long time before a rebel movement is strong enough to face the regime, but from what I understand at the current moment, unless something big changes, this seems like the best hope for Iran.
Comment #5 February 1st, 2026 at 11:29 am
Doug S #3
I agree, when foes value their citizens as the most renewable of resources and the US values them as the most dear of resources it provides substantial advantage to foes. I agree Trump bluffs too much but Venezuela does now provide additional uncertainty that foes must consider. This was a real event that was successful even if everyone involved was incompetent.
Venezuela was a remarkable operation. Entering a military base and capturing a sitting president with no fatalities possibly using a novel weapon is quite remarkable but yes unknown if there were prior agreements with the Venezuelan military.
If his threats against Khameini turn out to be hollow, then he begins to appear a ridiculous figure and he certainly doesn’t want that. But yes uncertainty about the attack and then uncertainty how effective the attack will be in the event it happens. If they are slaughtering people now and the concern is they will slaughter people later then no real difference.
Libya and Iraq were controlled by brutal despots but neither country had militias roaming the streets and firing in urban areas with indiscriminate weapons like shotguns and 50 cal machine guns. Hussein did slaughter Kurds as a targeted ethnic group but in Iran just whomever is unfortunate enough to be in the line of fire. The risk of making things substantially worse is lower in the case of Iran I believe.
When I considered the outcomes in Libya and Iraq I thought as you have outlined but then when I considered the differences I changed my view. Repression can be severe enough to justify a military strike even in lieu of high certainty of outcome. Iran to me appears to fit that case.
The Iranian military did have proposals to the US government for alternatives to the return of Khomeini but they were ignored. That was a time that the US intelligence community was actually correct about the return of Khomeini but they were ignored.
Comment #6 February 1st, 2026 at 11:53 am
Because someone asked me: no, I could not independently verify the accusations that my guest blogger makes against specific people living in the US, who he describes as the children of regime officials. I didn’t feel like editing or censoring a document from someone dodging regime gunfire, whose friends and colleagues are getting murdered—and in any case, my guest blogger doesn’t exactly have the world’s most reliable Internet access to go back and forth and clarify things. But if anyone has any further clarifications regarding the individuals mentioned, they’re welcome to share them in this comment section.
Comment #7 February 1st, 2026 at 1:24 pm
@Scott #6: I can confirm that Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani is Ali Larijani’s daughter and that she worked at Emory until just over a week ago, although I think we still don’t have confirmation of whether she was fired or chose to quit. There was definitely pressure on the university.
I’m in awe of the bravery of the protesters in Iran and of your commenter. Based on what I know though, I disagree with their call to fire Ardeshir-Larijani. I have not yet seen any accusation that she herself has done anything wrong; at most, the accusation is that she has been the beneficiary of her father’s position. I don’t think that my university should fire professors for the crimes of their family members without some active wrongdoing on their part.
I’ve tried to think about how firing Ardeshir-Larijani will help the Iranian people. I think the logic is that by hurting family members of regime leaders, we increase pressure on them to make a deal. This seems plausible to me, but not certain, and it’s not the kind of logic that I want my university using.
Comment #8 February 1st, 2026 at 2:09 pm
Very moving testimony. I hope the so brave Iranian people can set themselves free from this criminal regime, which as any dictatorship forces its people to eke a poor living while the thugs in power have fun at their victim’s expense.
Comment #9 February 1st, 2026 at 3:23 pm
Daniel Weissman #7: Right, it’s perfectly fair to skewer the hypocrisy of regime officials who send their own kids to Western universities even while they denounce the west, and while ordinary Iranians are prevented from leaving. But I’m not inclined to visit the iniquity of the parents upon the children—I’d at least first want to know whether the children support or reject their parents’ values.
Comment #10 February 1st, 2026 at 5:54 pm
Scott #9: I’m not persuaded that even the values of the children of Iranian officials ought to affect their employment or immigration status. I’m much more comfortable holding people accountable for actions than for beliefs. There’s no allegation that Hashemi or Larijani were ever personally involved with the regime, right?
And if petitions of this sort become popular, there are no prizes for guessing which Middle Eastern diaspora will be the next target. I’d rather hold on to my principled opposition to ideological litmus tests.
Comment #11 February 1st, 2026 at 11:35 pm
Very enlightening post, all of my support to the Iranian people.
I am a bit troubled, however, by the calls to persecute/fire the children of supporters of the current regime in Iran. I completely see, and condemn, the hypocrisy of the parents denouncing western countries and values while availing of their funding, and I sympathise with the writer’s opinion, the preferential treatment given to these people compared to his/her own situation is deeply unfair. Still, I think punishing any children for the actions of their parents, with no evidence of any wrongdoing on their part, is a slippery slope and is morally questionable at best.
Comment #12 February 2nd, 2026 at 2:06 am
There’s a change.org petition on Eissa Hashemi. https://www.change.org/p/deport-the-eissa-hashemi-families-of-iranian-government-officials-from-u-s-soil His picture was apparently removed from the website of The Chicago School, so it might have worked.
Comment #13 February 2nd, 2026 at 11:33 am
About most of these issues the CS community (and more broadly the academic community) cannot do much. But about the unnecessary “security checks” Iranian students have to undergo before doing a PhD in theoretical subjects that can in no way benefit the regime and are becoming the modus operandi across all Europe and the terrible visa situation at Canada, they plausibly can organize and do something.
This would not only be to the benefit of Iranian applicants but to the benefit of the world. Iran has produced two Fields medalists (Mirzakhani and Birkar) and I believe every well-established academic in STEM would know how many high-quality applicants come from Iran. I live among these applicants and I know basically all of them are mentally crushed under the current discriminatory system. Lots of them even start losing all hope after several visa/security check rejections.
Do something.
Comment #14 February 2nd, 2026 at 5:37 pm
Irianian student #13,
“But about the unnecessary “security checks” Iranian students have to undergo before doing a PhD in theoretical subjects that can in no way benefit the regime and are becoming the modus operandi across all Europe and the terrible visa situation at Canada, they plausibly can organize and do something.”
I find it interesting that you point the finger at Europe and Canada for their ‘unnecessary’ security checks and not at the criminals in your own regime who are the root cause of your problems. No, sorry, those security checks are not unnecessary. Iran is a well-known exporter of terrorism and of cyberattacks/misinformation campaigns against western nations. Those campaigns must be carried out by people who know more than a little about CS, so I wouldn’t say that Iranian CS students should be given a free pass to receive a western education. Almost on the contrary, I’d say. This is, sadly, a case where the good must suffer because of the bad. The ayatollahs are your real problem. Blame them for all your trouble.
Comment #15 February 2nd, 2026 at 5:49 pm
I could also mention the drones made in Iran that are used by Putin to cause death and destruction in Ukraine. I can imagine that there is some pretty sophisticated CS and engineering involved in the design of these drones. Who knows if the designers got their education at western universities? I think there is every reason to be suspicious of Iranian students coming to the West.
That is unfortunate for those who oppose the regime, but how are authorities in the West supposed to filter the good from the bad?
Comment #16 February 2nd, 2026 at 7:25 pm
Jansen #14: I find your response gratuitously cruel. Educated Iranians like this commenter are literally getting slaughtered by the thousands to stand up to the murderous Ayatollah regime. They don’t need any lectures from me or you, sitting in safety, about opposing that regime. In the meantime, though, we in the west could give hope in their lives and also accelerate Iran’s brain drain by letting them study after appropriate vetting to ensure that they aren’t regime agents. I personally think we should give them that, but even if I didn’t, would never presume to tell them not to want what you or I would obviously want in their situation.
Comment #17 February 3rd, 2026 at 12:37 am
Scott #16,
Yes, my response can be read as cruel, unfortunately. Many students are incredibly brave for speaking out against the regime. But you yourself say that we should let them study here after “appropriate vetting”. This, I suppose, implies the “unnecessary security checks”. All I was saying was that those checks are not unnecessary. I wouldn’t dare to tell anyone in Iran what to do.
Comment #18 February 3rd, 2026 at 1:25 am
JanSteen #17: Here on planet earth, there is a humanitarian/scientific crisis of thousands of promising students who are trapped in Iran to languish and (in many cases) get murdered by their own government, in part because the US under Trump has entirely stopped letting them in, even though vetting would show that they despise the Ayatollah regime with a white-hot intensity that exceeds even mine or yours. It sounds like you actually agree that such students should be let in? If so, good! I’m more interested in solving the crisis than I am in debating semantics.
Comment #19 February 3rd, 2026 at 4:53 am
Trump’s false promise of help is just one of his countless atrocities. Currently his administration encourages federal thugs to shoot protesters even in America, why would they help Iranians? Until people stop listening to anything this blob of hatred spits and stop taking any kind of benefits from him or his “friends”, even for good purposes, the evil will spread.
Comment #20 February 3rd, 2026 at 5:52 am
At one time there were a considerable number of Iranian students in US Nuclear Engineering programs. I have always enjoyed my contact with Iranian emigres and Iranian students in the US and agree the current visa restrictions punish unfairly a considerable number of earnest students The vetting needs to be effective and probably the return mandate softened.
Outstanding STEM students are still positive for the US (nascent and unclear AI period). I have the same concern with blanket embargoes. In my view the effectively powerless and innocent are the most affected. The elite have some special medication for their sick child but the common folks just need to shut up and bury their child.
Comment #21 February 3rd, 2026 at 8:37 am
Scott #18
Yes, I am all for enabling Iranian students who oppose the regime to study in the West. But then the thugs in Iran might consider the fact that they are allowed to study here as evidence that they are ‘subversives’. On the other hand, we don’t want Iranians loyal to the regime coming here to undermine our security. It’s a dilemma.
Comment #22 February 3rd, 2026 at 2:14 pm
JanSteen #14:
First of all, thank you very much for your lecture that I should oppose the regime. I think I should inform you that me and my compatriots have been doing this at great personal cost for generations.
Secondly, I’m actually in favor of not letting regime agents to acquire sensitive knowledge. This is not only because of the threat to the west, but also because their acquiring such knowledge directly threatens people in Iran. (For example there are people who have studied abroad and currently do the technical work for internet censorship.)
My problem is that based on my first-hand knowledge, the terrible visa situation and the security checks have been mostly without any discretion. I know people who work on topics of a purely theoretical nature who have been stuck in unending vetting procedures both in Canada and in Europe. We are not talking about applicants in cybersecurity or something like that but arithmetic dynamics, theoretical foundations of quantum computing, etc. that are of no use for the regime.
Comment #23 February 4th, 2026 at 6:38 am
Iranian student #22
But blanket bans are easy so bureaucrats don’t have to think or make real decisions that could lead to blame. I understand that some companies are conducting screening employment interviews with AI. I am optimistic it will be much better when AI is capable of reliably assuming governmental bureaucratic tasks.
I respect you and your families courage and agree that absurd not to consider topic of study.
Comment #24 February 4th, 2026 at 7:57 am
OhMyGoodness #23:
Yeah of course. The current situation is mostly (perhaps except the US travel ban) the result of bureaucrats who don’t want to think.
As an example, the best STEM university in Iran is Sharif and because of military ties Sharif is under EU sanctions. I believe these sanctions are fine and just. But some bureaucrats in certain European universities have decided that they should stop hiring PhD students who have previously studied at Sharif. This is a clear case of overcompliance (since not all universities do this) and targets basically every talented Iranian. This situation can be changed without endangering the west.
There can be much more discretionary policies that both protect western countries and don’t rob Iranians of their opportunities (which is also to the benefit of the west for obvious reasons).
Comment #25 February 4th, 2026 at 12:34 pm
Iranian student #24
Don’t be alarmed if you hear a clap of thunder. I am sending all my good karma in your direction. Unfortunately nothing there to protect from inept bureaucrats.
Comment #26 February 4th, 2026 at 5:52 pm
Iranian Student #22,
I don’t think I told you to oppose the regime, just to blame it for your problems. I often wonder what I would do if I had to live under your circumstances (or under Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Kim Jong-un, etc.). Open revolt as an individual would be suicide. There is strength in numbers, so the only form of open protest that gives you at least a chance to survive is mass protest. Even that is extremely dangerous, of course. Underground activities, such as writing clandestine pamphlets, publishing on media abroad, sabotage, assassinating members of the regime, are obvious possibilities.
There are two other options that crossed my mind: (1). Infiltrate the system and patiently wait for an opportunity to destroy it, of at least its leaders. Or, more realistically, (2). Don’t do anything that strengthens the regime (such as helping to build better surveillance systems), unless it is as part of option (1).
In reality, I may have been like the main character in Nabokov’s short story “Tyrants Destroyed”, who lived under a stalinist regime and fantasised all the time about killing the dictator but did nothing in the end. You never know what you would do under extreme circumstances until you are actually put to the test.
I am sure you and your friends have thought about these things a lot. It would be presumptious of me to tell you what to do, so I don’t. Stay safe.
Comment #27 February 4th, 2026 at 11:05 pm
I sympathize with this Iranian student, but unless the person in question themselves have done something wrong, punishing them for the sins of their parents does not register with me.
Sure, no one should get any advantage for being related to this regime, but if someone is qualified and has good character and hasn’t climbed through special treatment, we should not follow this advice. Do your extra due diligence, but no revenge or punishment on people just because their parents are guilty.
I know colleagues in our department that have parents in the Iranian regime with whom they strongly disagreed and opposed and even broke up, not just now but decades ago, even when those do called reformists were in power, who are secular and nonreligious. Why should we punish such a person? Just so that some people who have suffered feel good?
This is against the ethics we learn and teach in the modern Western society. Sons do not inherit the sins of their fathers.
From what I hear, there is trend among some Iranians to sell revenge against anyone they consider somewhat related to the Iranian regime or even those who are not related to the Iranian regime but just have a different opinion. It is a very toxic space.
The Iranian opposition groups against the Iranian regime are fractured and do a lot of online harassment not just against the Iranian regime but others, even reputable American intellectuals. There is no way that from this attitude anything good comes out, even if this always infighting fractured vengeful opposition somehow finds a way to topple this regime.
And no, you should not count on us in the US. We have had enough trouble in Iraq for a generation. We will not spend billions of dollars or hundreds of thousands of troops to topple the Iranian regime for you.
The most you can expect from us is some limited amount of air strikes and economic pressure on the regime.
It might sound harsh, but rather than escaping to the West, maybe you should organize and stand up and get rid of the Iranian regime, like many other countries did in the West. It is not easy of course, but whining about not getting the chance of escaping to the West and seeking revenge against people for sole reason of guilt by association, these are not signs of a great character.
If a perspective student acted this way, I would likely consider it a negative for admission rather than a positive.
Comment #28 February 4th, 2026 at 11:18 pm
To those who know more, what can we do here in the US? I’ve been surprised at how little this is covered by eg the NYT and WSJ, and how few people in my well-educated Ann Arbor bubble are aware of the scale of killings that’s come to light in the last couple of weeks. So maybe protest to spread awareness? I haven’t seen much of that.
Comment #29 February 5th, 2026 at 4:10 am
Anon #27
“ It might sound harsh, but rather than escaping to the West, maybe you should organize and stand up and get rid of the Iranian regime, like many other countries did in the West. It is not easy of course, but whining about not getting the chance of escaping to the West and seeking revenge against people for sole reason of guilt by association, these are not signs of a great character.”
Iran is not a US college campus nor armed US guerrillas and regulars attacking British troops. Some tens of thousands were just killed for peaceful protests. In the case of Iran your advice is not a prescription for change but a prescription for suicide.
The unarmed have zero.zero chance attacking Islamist militias that are heavily armed.
Comment #30 February 5th, 2026 at 5:02 am
Here is an interesting document. A statement from the Iranian Government to a UN firearms working group about their gun control efforts. I especially found the following passage darkly amusing-
“As a victim of foreign-sponsored terrorists and facing persistent threats
from organised crime and drug trafficking associated with the illicit trade in
Firearms , the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to be dedicated to fighting the
illegal trafficking of Firearms and places great importance on the Protocol against
the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and
Components, and Ammunition supplementing the UN Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime (Firearms Protocol).”
https://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/Firearms_2025/Statements/2/Iran_Islamic_Republic_of.pdf
Comment #31 February 6th, 2026 at 10:08 am
#29
Was the US revolutionary war against the British a suicide as well?
What about the Romanian revolution that toppled the communist regime?
What about the Yugoslavians getting rid of Milosevich who had previously massacred thousands in Bosnia?
Was French revolution a suicide?
Was Indian fight for Independence from British a suicide?
Was the fight against apartheid regime in South Africa a suicide?
What would we do in the US if suddenly a dictatorship took over the country? Would we escape to some other country rather than organize to take back our government?
Many countries who have democracy have fought for it. No one gives you your rights on a silver plate.
So many smart Iranians in the US, what have they done so far seriously to try to seriously fight against this regime? Where is their organized work for the past few decades to bring down this regime? I don’t see any serious struggle.
Some random protests and social media posts and harassment of others will not bring down a dictatorship. Where are the people among the young smart Iranians even in the US who are doing serious organization and strategy to bring down the regime?
Going to streets to protests against a bloodthirsty requires courage, no doubt, but that is not enough. It needs people who have dedicated their lives to bring this regime down by doing the required hard work for months and years.
All I see is some random unorganized street protests and a lot of social media posts and asking the US to go told the regime for them.
There are even books out there written on how to bring down dictatorships explaining what works and what does not. Or you can just start by asking ChatGPT these days.
They say almost everyone in the Iran wants this government gone. If that is true, it should not be difficult really to bring down the government. You don’t even need an armed struggle or street protests. A few weeks of nation wide strikes would likely make this regime to fall. The regime has killed tens of thousands. Where are the nation wide strikes?
Yet, what we see? requests to the US to topple the government for them (not gonna happen, we have had enough), online social media posts (to what end? we are not going to topple the government for you), online harassment of other people (online mob lynching to silence others will not cause the US to topple the regime for you, get over it), ….
Take the ownership of your story. Do the serious work required to get rid of the regime.
Comment #32 February 6th, 2026 at 2:56 pm
Anon #31
Details in purported analogies matter. Your purported analogies are weak because relevant details are different-
AmRev-As noted before Americans armed. Britain an occupying force that did not conduct mass executions of civilians. I don’t accept this as analogous. No not suicide
Romania-No mass executions of civilians. Berlin Wall fell a month before and all Warsaw Pact countries disintegrating. Military supported reformers. No not suicide
Yugoslavia-No mass executions of protestors. Military switched sides in the final demonstration a couple days before resignation there were reportedly two fatalities. No not suicide
French Revolution-Military personnel helped storm The Bastille. Actually revolutionaries probably slaughtered more people than Royalists. No not suicide
India-British foreign occupying force with massive indigenous population. Gandhi was correct that non violent methods were effective. No not suicide
South Africa-On the order of 200 people shot at early demonstrations. No not suicide
What would we do? The US public is heavily armed unlike Iran but I guess some would comply and some would oppose and some would leave.
The conditions in Iran are unique in comparison to those on your list. The top is dominated by fanatical Islamists who support jihad. They have imported other fanatical Islamists as killing squads from Lebanon and Iraq who have no inhibitions about killing Iranians. I don’t believe in any of the conflicts you list there were mass executions of peaceful demonstrators and I don’t believe any imported fanatical kill squads specifically to kill people on the street.
To fight these kill squads unarmed means assured death so yes suicide. None of the cases you referred to had the equivalent certainty of death so not suicide.
As for Iran there is not only internal oppression to consider but also funding of international terrorism that works to oppose (and will continue to oppose) US interests wherever possible. The terrorism it funds is a constant threat to US ally Israel and has resulted in heinous attacks on our ally.
I am not a neo con but do believe that Iran is a very bad apple that has crossed the line of reasonable tolerance. Libya and Iraq were not funding international terrorism and posed no imminent endemic threat to the US and its allies. Iran does.
Comment #33 February 7th, 2026 at 2:34 am
#32
Your way of freaking things is wrong.
Just as an example, Romanian dictator ordered military to kill protesters, most of them didn’t obey. South Africa, they turned into armed resistance after a massacre of hundreds in one incident. ….
And you are missing the point: I do not see any serious organized struggle by Iranians inside or outside Iran against this regime. Why? Where is their ANC? There is a lack of seriousness in their claims regarding fighting against the regime.
The author of the post is willing to go to streets knowing that they might get shot, but cannot post this under their real name? And they are asking us to listen to their mob lynching of people without any evidence of wrong doing as their main request?
Where is the nation wide STRIKES in Iran for this regime killing tens of thousands of people? Note that I am saying why they don’t go fight with the armed regime thugs, I am saying why are you still working as of nothing has happened? Why there is no serious organization for those opposing this regime?
Coming back to our role, anyone who thinks we are going to send troops to Iran or spend billions of dollars on this I would seriously question if they know anything about the US politics. So that is simply out of question. Not gonna happen. Even if the Iranian regime is the most evil force in the world, it is still not gonna happen.
Without armed troops on the ground, there is a zero chance of the US toppling this government. You yourself day they have a significant number of armed fanatic islamists there, that caused even the massive US military years to deal with in Iraq. Without troops on the ground, there is no way we can get rid of these thugs just work airstrikes.
Add to that the lobbying of almost all our allies in the region in Washington who do not want this regime to be toppled, cause they fear the chaos that would follow.
The chance of the US toppling the Iranian regime is ZERO.
What we can do is carrying out some limited strikes to knock off the IRGC headquarters or combination centers and some military installation, maybe some political targets as well. None of these will address the core issue that is there is a significant number of very well organized armed islamist fanatics there. Who is going to deal with them?
If Iranians want to get rid of this regime, they need to get serious about it, not just ask for us to get rid of it for them. As I wrote, there are even books on how to effectively fight against a dictatorship. What these Iranians are doing like unorganized street protests, social media posts, and online attacks against others, these have absolutely nothing with carrying out a serious work to topple the regime.
And they need to be told the hard truth here: we are not going to topple the regime for you (too costly, and extremely against the public opinion in America which does not want to engage on any big costly war in the middle west), and what you are doing is not serious so far.
What the US administration is hoping for, as you can see on the remarks of the secretary of state Marco Rubio to the Congress, is that we can increase the pressure on Iran economically and militarily, with the hope of some cracks appearing in the Iranian regime’s leadership and then some form of those who want to cut a deal with us taking over the regime.
We have lived with Saddam’s Iraq for decades post first Gulf war, after we took our his ability to cause trouble for us and our allies. We contained the USSR for decades. Iran’s proxy network in the region is decimated, and we can keep the pressure on them and prevent them from gaining power. Their nuclear program is in shambles, and if they try to reconstitute it, we can carry out targeted attacks to take them off. We have shown that we have pretty good intelligence and also locations buried deep under the mountains can be taken out. We have taken out Iran’s air defense, if we see any serious missile threats, we can take them out. That puts Iranian trying in a weak enough state that it cannot cause much trouble for us or our allies. We can keep the economic pressure and that will prevent the regime from having funds and continuing economic crisis and high levels of disapproval of the regime among the Iranians.
Why should we go for a full scale war with hundreds of thousands of ground troops and billions of dollars in cost to take out this regime?
So if Iranians want to get rid of it, they need to own their story and get serious about it. Do the serious work that is needed, and this regime would not survive for more than a year or two.
Comment #34 February 7th, 2026 at 7:48 am
Anon #33
You seem to pointedly ignore statements. My statement for Romania was that “military supported reformers” with the implication that contributed to it not being suicide to demonstrate against the regime. In South Africa I noted that civilian casualties were on the order of a couple hundred in early demonstrations so not suicide to oppose the regime. I was responding to your earlier claim that found no difference between death expectation in Iran vs the cases you cited. Considering your response I take it you have accepted that it is suicidal in Iran but wasn’t in the cases you cite.
You state that-
“ We have lived with Saddam’s Iraq for decades post first Gulf war, after we took out his ability to cause trouble for us and our allies.”
So you believe that military intervention in Iraq was in fact successful and eliminated the risk that Iraq posed to US interests. In the case of Iran then do you believe they pose less of a risk to the US and its allies than did Iraq?
Here is a list of Iranian sponsored terror groups currently operating in Iraq
https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/09/terrorist-designations-of-iran-aligned-militia-groups
Here is a list of Iranian sponsored terror acts that included US citizens as casualties-
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/06/19/iranian-and-iranian-backed-attacks-against-americans-1979-present/
I simply don’t agree with your premise that military action against Iran cannot be justified because the actions of Iranian citizens don’t meet your standard of acceptable resistance.
It’s far more than its citizens that have been terrorized by this regime and I expect that it will continue. It is driven by what is seen as a sacred duty and sacred duties persevere.
I read Kissinger’s PhD dissertation some years ago. It was extremely good reading. One of his points as I remember was that revolutions tend to occur after changes for the better. The implication is that a regime like in Iran can be stable so long as it is sufficiently repressive. The consideration of military action against Iran however must be based not only its treatment of its citizens but also its actions external to Iran. Its actions external to Iran victimize the most innocent (children) and are not actions that should be tolerated.
Comment #35 February 7th, 2026 at 7:57 am
Anon #33
Also,I am not aware of any mass armed uprising in South Africa. The changes were negotiated and then finalized through the democratic process.
Comment #36 February 7th, 2026 at 11:38 am
#34 #35
Your understanding of these topics is not good.
In Romania the military only flipped at the last days, it was behind the dictator up until very close to the end of the regime. so your statement is not correct. The toppling of Romanian dictatorship was pretty bloody.
in South Africa, ANC and others turned to armed struggle and bombings of government and … it was only many many years later that under immense intentional pressure and the election of Clarke that they decided they should cut a deal with Nelson Mandela. There was many years of struggle in between. They won the struggle, outside forces helped by intentional sanctions, but it was primarily a struggle driven by the people of South Africa.
The critical point I am making here and you keep ignoring us that:
1. the US is NOT going to topple the Iranian regime (you can disagree but this is the general consensus among the experts that we will do what we did in Iraq and without massive ground force it is not possible to topple the significant armed fanatical islamists in Iran, even if they were just a few hundreds of thousands).
2. Iranians themselves who are opposed to this regime are NOT doing the serious work needed to topple the regime. Where is the organization of Iranians opposed to the regime like ANC in South Africa or Otpor in Yugoslavia? Where is the nation wide strikes? … They have not done their homework and are wasting their time and energy on useless and sometimes counterproductive things.
The current US view is that if the pressure on the Iranian regime is high enough, it will cause the refund to fracture and some kind of coup that will result in a government that will cut deals with the US, without us needing to spend billions of dollars and deploy hundreds of thousands of ground troops to Iran. The rest is up to the Iranian people themselves.
Your examples of past Iranian activities are not relevant after the events of the past two years post Oct 7.
Comment #37 February 7th, 2026 at 3:16 pm
Anon #36
The published data I can find about deaths in Romania are from this man who was a mechanical engineer in Tiamasoara who opposed the regime and was arrested and charged early on-
Marius Mioc (born July 23, 1968 , Timișoara ) is a Romanian publicist , participant in the 1989 Revolution in Timișoara . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Mioc is the author of several works documenting and popularizing the events of December 1989
His book includes the following-
https://web.archive.org/web/20060510173243/http://www.timisoara.com/mioc/REVT01~1.HTM
The Revolution in Official Statistical Data
Dead: 1104 of which 543 in Bucharest and 561 in the rest of the country.
Before December 22 there were 162 dead of which 73 in Timisoara, 48 in Bucharest and 41 in the rest of the country.
After December 22 there were 942 dead of which 495 in Bucharest.
So prior to Ceausescu’s arrest 162 dead and after (including revenge deaths) 942 according to this source with no apparent reason to lower numbers.
Yes there was very limited guerrilla activity by MK the direct action wing of ANC. The Truth Commission Vol 6 includes this-
“ 53. Despite these noble intentions, the majority of casualties of MK operations were civilians. These civilians included those that members of the ANC apparently regarded as legitimate targets: ‘collaborators’ in the form of councillors, state witnesses at the trials of ANC members, suspected informers and the like. In other words, they were ‘deliberately targeted civilians’. For example, in the period 1976 to 1984, of some seventy-one deaths as a result of MK actions, nineteen were members of the security forces and fifty-two were civilians.”
https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/reports/volume6/section3/chapter2/subsection7.htm
These are not mass armed resistance numbers.
I made no claim what the US will do and only presented my rationale for what I believe the US should do.
I understand your position about Iranian citizens but your assessment is not a litmus test for me as to military action. I explained why.
You are of course free to consider or ignore any data you choose.
Comment #38 February 7th, 2026 at 3:49 pm
I have no idea if true or not but heard that while Ceausescu was in power the locally made shoes (at least for some period) were made with a water soluble glue. When there was heavy rain many lost the soles from their shoes.
Comment #39 February 7th, 2026 at 7:46 pm
#37
Your claim was the military was on the side of protestors. They were not up until very close to the fall of the Romanian dictatorship. The number of casualties doesn’t change that.
You claimed that there was no significant armed resistance in South Africa. The ANC turned to armed resistance after one of the massacres of protesters and started carrying out bombing. The number of causalities doesn’t change that. ANC was the main driving force against the Apartheid regime.
You said the US should, I say it won’t. Whether you think it should is not material. What is material is whether will US topple the Iranian or not. If it will not, putting hopes on it doing so is unwise and not a serious strategy to get rid of this regime on Iran. One needs to understand the reality as it is if one is going to make serious decisions, not assume it is as one wishes it was.
The Iranian people who oppose the Iranian regime do not seem to have done the basic serious things that are needed to get rid of this regime. That is the first thing they sold sortb out.
Comment #40 February 8th, 2026 at 4:36 am
Anon #38
What they have been responsible for is so abhorrent it would be a death sentence from even a US prison inmate population.
Maybe Supermax could keep them safe.
Comment #41 February 14th, 2026 at 4:07 pm
>As I mentioned earlier, Islamic regime officials chant “death to the U.S. and the West,” yet they send their children to Western countries. These children use funds and opportunities that could have gone to far more deserving people, while living comfortably and anonymously in the very societies their parents want to destroy
I guess that I’m a bit late to the party but we have the same exact stuff in Russia. Putin’s daughter lives in Paris, for instance and not Pyongyang or Tehran. All of these totalitarian regimes are the same, all of them are based on lies (“fight against the Satanic West”) and attract similar useful idiots who whitewash them in the name of anti-imperialism while they ruin their respective countries.
Comment #42 February 25th, 2026 at 9:57 pm
I heard the other day from my Iranian colleague that recently after Munich Security Conference, the supporters of the son of former King of Iran attacked the CNN journalist Christian Amanpour and chanted against her as a supporter of the regime in Iran. Supposedly her crime was asking difficult questions in the interview.
There is a very authoritarian and even potentially fascist steam among the iranian opposition to this regime of mullahs in Iran. I hope that Iranians get rid of this regime and don’t end up with a fascist regime in place of it.