While most Republicans were delighted that the joint U.S.-Israeli offensive against the repressive, theocratic, authoritarian Iranian regime had finally begun, there were a few who condemned the strikes in the most hyperbolic terms.
Asked for comment by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Tucker Carlson, who visited President Donald Trump at the White House just last week to advise him against taking action against Iran, denounced Operation Epic Fury as “disgusting and evil.” He reportedly argued that the strikes will “re-shuffle the deck” in a big way.
Well, wasn’t that the whole point?
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), once among Trump’s most loyal allies and now one of his fiercest enemies, also took aim at the president.
In a Saturday post on X, Greene attacked Trump and his “baby boomer friends and supporters” for prioritizing the strikes over the affordability crisis he had been elected to fix. After rattling off a list of economic problems Gen Xers, millennials and Gen Zers are currently facing, she claimed that, “Us younger generations … hate this f***ing bulls***.”
She added:
Because we all know that in 10 years when the baby boomers that have been in charge of ALL of America’s disastrous decisions are retired or passed away, us younger generations will be left with no social security checks because it will have gone bankrupt, over $50 Trillion in debt, and a dollar that won’t be worth sh**.
Questioned by CNN about Greene’s remark that the Iran strikes are an example of putting “America last,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) reminded the host that Greene once pushed “Jewish space lasers” and called her “one of the dumbest people ever in Congress.”
Carlson and Greene weren’t alone in their opposition to the war. They were joined by all of the usual suspects, which, of course, included Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). What’s wrong with Republicans from Kentucky anyway?
But these individuals appear to be missing something. Since 1979, Iran’s evil regime and its determination to acquire nuclear weapons have destabilized the region — and the world. Designated the world’s top sponsor of terrorism, Iran and its network of proxy militias are responsible for killing and wounding thousands of U.S. service members throughout the Middle East.
As for the Iranian people, most of them welcomed the strikes. After 47 years of life under a hardline regime, Iranians — both inside the country and across the diaspora — celebrated when the death of Ayatollah Khamenei was confirmed Saturday afternoon.
In a January 13 post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump urged Iranian citizens to continue protesting, promising that “help is on the way.” At that time, roughly 2,000 protesters had been killed in the government’s crackdown on dissent.
As the Trump administration moved to coordinate a military response, tens of thousands more protesters were slaughtered. While an exact death toll is impossible to verify, estimates range from 30,000 to 40,000.
The true number may be even higher. On January 27, The Guardian published an article titled, “Disappeared bodies, mass burials and ‘30,000 dead’: what is the truth of Iran’s death toll?” According to the report, “Testimony from medics, morgue and graveyard staff reveal[ed] a vast state effort to conceal the systematic killing of protesters.”
That was five weeks ago. And even with the regime-enforced internet blackout that has limited reporting, we know that February was an especially bloody month in Iran.
Those figures are comparable to the number of Palestinians the Left claims were killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel–Hamas war, yet I don’t hear liberals calling it a genocide. In fact, most of those who so aggressively denounced Israel’s efforts to defend itself against Hamas’ stated aim of wiping the country off the map have remained conspicuously silent as the Iranian regime has carried out mass murders to crush the growing rebellion.
The New York Times reported that Iranians took to the streets to celebrate when Khamenei’s death was announced: “displays of exuberance broke out in cities across the country.”
In video calls with The New York Times, three residents of Tehran showed the scenes unfolding in their neighborhoods: Large crowds of men and women dancing and cheering, shouting, “Woohoo, hurrah.” Drivers passing by honked their car horns. Fireworks lit up the sky and loud Persian dance music filled the streets. Many residents, from their windows and balconies, joined in a chant of “freedom, freedom.”
In Los Angeles, which has a large Iranian American population, jubilant crowds rejoiced over the news. CNN reported:
Crowds in Los Angeles erupted in celebration following the news of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death. Among the voices echoing through the crowd was the call for Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah, to return and lead a temporary government, with hopes of holding a referendum to reshape Iran’s future.
Videos of celebrations throughout the U.S. have flooded social media since the bombs began to fall.
I’ll leave you with The Wall Street Journal’s troubling obituary for Ayatollah Khamenei, a man who is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. Borrowing from The Washington Post’s 2019 obituary of terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Journal described Khamenei as “an austere cleric.”
It began:
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the austere cleric who ruled Iran for more than three decades and reshaped the balance of power across the Middle East through confrontation with the West, has died during U.S. and Israeli strikes against his country. He was 86.
What were they thinking?
The Washington Post’s obituary for Khamenei was even worse:
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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