Iran's Road to Destruction

By: Yehuda Singer

Iran seems to be in a pretty bad position now. There were recently anti-government riots all across Iran due to the terrible economy, as the Rial (Iranian currency) is 0.00083 cents to the dollar. 

But it wasn’t always like this. Iran once had the support of most of the country, which is how this theocracy came to be.

In 1977, under the leadership of the Shah, Iran's economy was going strong; they had invested in many companies and were trading with most Western countries and the Soviet Union. So what went wrong? 

Despite the economy being good, the Shah suppressed the Shia population and forced secularization, and, in 1964, exiled his vocal opponent and the leader of the Shia, Ayatollah Khomeini. 

Despite the good economy and modernization of Iran, many people in Iran were furious with the way the Shah was treating their religion. So, in 1977, many Shia supporters revolted, and a revolution began. After two years of fighting, the Shah was exiled, and Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran to become its leader.

Once the Ayatollah took power, he reversed many of the Shah's rulings and made Iran a theocracy. Instead of suppressing religion, the Ayatollah now forced religion and attempted to make Iran the primary Muslim power in the world that would follow and keep the laws of the Quran. 

Unfortunately for Israel, following the Quran includes destroying the state of Israel. Shortly after the Ayatollah's takeover, he held hostage the U.S. citizens working at the embassy in Tehran. These citizens were only released after Reagan's inauguration, marking 444 days of being captive. 

Over the next few decades, Iran would begin to work on their missile and nuclear programs, in an attempt to have the capability to destroy Israel. After becoming an enemy of the West, Iran's main source of economy became oil and drone manufacturing, which they’d sell to enemies of the West. 

Iran's economy began to deteriorate, but, despite that, the Shia theocracy was extremely popular. Over the past few years, Obama made a nuclear deal with Iran, which only strengthened their position and helped their economy, and the Biden administration sanctioned Iran, though they didn’t enforce it well.

With the help of America under President Trump, just last year, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, which aimed to destroy Iran's newly created weapons-grade uranium. Israel was highly successful in damaging Iran's missile and nuclear infrastructure, and the United States finished the job by bombing Iran's two ‘Impenetrable’ underground facilities, Fordow and Natanz. 

Iran took a big hit in this operation and lost much of its leadership but remained in power. However, Iran's economy began to drastically decline. The fall of Hezbollah, Iran's main proxy, contributed to the declining economy.

Just last month, people in Iran began to protest against the terrible economy, and soon the country was rocked by anti-government riots. Iran responded by killing at least 32,000 people. 

Trump then threatened to attack Iran and began moving warships to the Arabian Sea. Since then, the protests have died down, but the theocratic leadership remains in charge. 

New reports suggest Iran may have created biological weapons since the 12-Day War with Israel and is rearming their ballistic missile arsenal, as well as trying to recreate their recently destroyed weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear missile. 

Israel is ready for war, and America’s armed forces are on their way to the Arabian Sea. Now we can only wait and see what Trump does. Will he attack Iran and destroy their dangerous war capabilities, or will he back down?