In 1776, a band of colonists declared a truth that altered the trajectory of human history: when a government becomes destructive of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it is the right of the people to throw it off and provide new guards for their future security. We celebrate this principle every Fourth of July. We teach it to our children as the bedrock of civic virtue. We have carved it into the very stone of our national monuments. Yet today, as the Iranian people rise against a theocracy that has murdered, tortured, and terrorized them for nearly half a century, the international community—and too often our own leadership—hesitates to affirm the very right we hold sacred. This contradiction does more than stall diplomacy; it diminishes our own moral standing.
I do not say this as a partisan, but as an American who believes our founding principles are not merely historical artifacts to be admired under glass. They are living, universal truths that apply with equal force to a farmer in Virginia in 1776 and a student in Tehran in 2026. To suggest that the right to revolution is an American "privilege" rather than a universal human "right" is a form of cultural exceptionalism that betrays the very spirit of the Declaration of Independence.
The Iranian people are currently providing the world with a masterclass in courage. For over two weeks, a relentless wave of protests has swept across more than 110 cities. What began as a localized outcry against a collapsing economy—marked by inflation exceeding 40 percent and a currency in freefall—has metastasized into a sophisticated, nationwide uprising against the entire system of religious dictatorship. These protesters are no longer asking for "reform" within the existing framework; they are demanding the total dismantling of the regime. They understand that you cannot prune the branches of a poisoned tree; you must uproot it.
The cost of this demand is written in blood. In Hafshajan, regime forces shot dead fifteen-year-old Soroush Soleimani. In Ilam Province, the brutality reached a nadir of depravity when Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) stormed a hospital, fired tear gas into medical wards, and dragged wounded protesters from their beds to face further interrogation. When a government treats a hospital as a battlefield and the wounded as enemy combatants, it has forfeited every shred of legitimacy. Our Founders would have recognized this instantly; they pledged their lives and sacred honor against a King whose offenses, by comparison, were far less severe than the systematic slaughter currently occurring across the Iranian plateau.
However, the narrative of this uprising is no longer one of mere victimization. It has shifted toward active liberation. In the cities of Abdanan and Malekshahi in Ilam Province, we have witnessed a historic turning point. Armed with little more than stones and an unshakeable will, the "rebellious youth" engaged in hand-to-hand confrontations with the IRGC, the State Security Force, and agents of the Intelligence Ministry. In a stunning display of the regime’s fraying control, these citizens forced the suppressive apparatus into a full-scale retreat. For a period of time, the people of Abdanan and Malekshahi tasted the air of a liberated territory, proving that when a population loses its fear, the dictator loses his power. The liberation of these cities serves as a blueprint for the rest of the nation, signaling that the regime’s armor is not nearly as thick as its propaganda suggests.
What strikes me most about this movement is its ideological clarity. For years, the echoing chant in every major city has been: "Death to the oppressor, be it the Shah or the Leader." This slogan is a sophisticated rejection of both the current theocracy and any attempt to resuscitate the monarchy that preceded it. It is a referendum on eighty years of autocracy. Some Western observers have tried to muddy these waters by promoting Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed Shah, as a convenient alternative. But the Iranian people have answered this decisively. They recognize that a choice between a "turbaned" dictator and a "crowned" one is no choice at all.
That organized resistance is found in the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), led by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi. This movement has fought the regime for over forty years, paying a price that is almost unimaginable: 120,000 members executed, including the 30,000 political prisoners massacred in a single summer in 1988. The NCRI’s ten-point plan—calling for free elections, gender equality, and a non-nuclear Iran—reads like a document Jefferson himself might have drafted.
America does not need to send soldiers to Iran. The Iranian people are not asking for military intervention; they are asking for recognition. We must formally recognize their right to resist the IRGC and overthrow their oppressors. We must designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization and refuse to engage in "stability" talks that treat the mullahs as permanent fixtures. The Declaration of Independence was not a private letter for the thirteen colonies; it was a manifesto for all mankind. If we believe that, then we must stand with the people of Abdanan and Malekshahi. It is time to be worthy of our own founding.