Peace with Iran Is Impossible Unless We Stand Together with its Citizens
By Colonel (Retired) Wes Martin
October 9, 2025

Humanity should not suffer the consequences of tyrannical dictators and the twisted minds of their murderous subordinates. For seventy-two years citizens of Iran have been denied the four basic freedoms identified by American President Franklin Roosevelt: of speech, of worship, from want, and from fear.

Iranians reclaimed their right to democracy and those four freedoms in 1979 with the collapse of the Shah’s government. Unfortunately, their opportunity to once again have a secure country where families could thrive in secure communities was hijacked by religious extremists led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The arrests and executions by Khomeini’s fundamentalist regime immediately commenced and reached a high point when 30,000 lives were extinguished by government authorities in a single year. In 1988, at the conclusion of its unsuccessful war with Iraq, the regime sought to stamp out organized opposition to the theocratic dictatorship because its vulnerability had been exposed. Khomeini’s regime was at its weakest and knew the Iranian people were becoming both stronger and more determined to rid the country of anarchy. Members of Iran’s primary dissident organization, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran or Mujahedin-e Khalq (MeK), suffered the overwhelming majority of the 1988 executions.

Not satisfied with just destroying lives of the people of his own country, Khomeini began attacking democracies with bombings and assassinations. Khomeini and his subordinates succeeded in making Iran the number one nation-state exporter of international terrorism. Through the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and other government agencies, Iran has been directly and indirectly involved in terrorist attacks throughout the world. Khomeini and his successor Ali Khamenei always had the determination to exterminate Israel. To this day, Khomeini’s declaration still dominates Iran’s religious extremists’ mindset, The road to Jerusalem goes through Karbala (Iraq).

By funding and backing terrorist organizations and corrupt governments, Iran developed a Middle East axis of evil. Loyal Bashar Assad ruled Syria, Hezbollah controlled Lebanon and deployed north when necessary to support Assad, Hamas dominated Gaza; the Houthis seized Yemen during the Arab Spring uprisings; and the Gulf-War coalition defeat of Saddam allowed Iran to turn Iraq into a puppet state.

Going into 2024, Khamenei thought he had all his pieces in place to achieve Israel’s annihilation. Khamenei overlooked one major detail – the superior effectiveness of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). After decimating Hamas, Israel neutralized Hezbollah. Without protection from Hezbollah, Assad had to flee to Russia for safety. The IRGC fled from the Arabian Peninsula when U.S. Navy aircraft started bombing Yemeni missile sites.

Of the hundreds of Iranian missiles and drones launched from Iraq and Iran, only a few penetrated Israel’s layered air defense systems. Taking preemptive action, for twelve days Israel owned Iranian airspace as precision strikes took out the regime’s war machine. Khamenei went into hiding, the headquarters operations of all Iran’s critical infrastructures relocated to Baghdad. Disappearing from sight, the IRGC and Quds Force cowered from a fight they knew they could not win.

Khamenei was further stunned when the three facilities of his nuclear weapons development program were decimated. For decades Iran denied having an offensive nuclear program. In a single bombing run that was not detected until the facilities were broken rock and ashes, the U.S. Air Force made those lies a reality. Totally defeated in what history will record as “The Twelve Day War”, Tehran accepted a ceasefire.

History is now repeating itself, only worse. The 1980’s Iraq-Iran war lasted eight years and was fought to a stand-still. 2025 proved Iran to be a third-rate power that barely got a shot off. In the past forty years, communications have advanced so far that Iran cannot hide the truth about the Twelve Day War.

Iran has intensified its oppression with a new reign of terror against all citizens perceived to be even a remotely potential threat. The regime’s judiciary recently acknowledged that it has carried out at least 21,000 security-related arrests over roughly the past two months, confirming that its fear of a domestic revolt has intensified.

Once again, the arrests and prosecutions have focused on Iran’s leading pro-democracy opposition group, the MeK. Along with Israeli and American military capabilities, Khamenei’s biggest fears are the MeK and the umbrella organization National Council of Resistance to Iran (NCRI), of which MeK is a member. He knows these will bring dramatic change from within Iran. That dramatic change will be anchored on NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi’s ten-point plan which outlines an Iranian future with free elections and an end to religious extremism.

To bring attention to what is happening, on September 6th, tens of thousands of Iranians from across Europe, joined by dignitaries from Europe and the US, will converge in Brussels for a mass rally. Their call will be to end the executions in Iran and urge the world to put human rights at the center of any relations with Tehran. That rally must only be the beginning.

Unless governments throughout the world stand up against Iran, this ongoing reign of terror will far exceed what happened in 1988. The world stayed dormant then. It cannot remain dormant this time while humanity again suffers the consequences of tyrannical dictators and the twisted minds of their extremist subordinates.

- Colonel Martin served as the senior antiterrorism office for all coalition forces in Iraq

©2024 Wes Martin