For millennia, unscrupulous rulers have instigated wars and sacrificed soldiers to their hunger for expanded power. Radical Islamists have taken this to an extreme – the sacrifice of civilians. https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/hezbollahs-urban-missile-factories-put-civilians-risk
Since the Lebanese Civil War, they have maintained a mechanism that brings them closer to their core goals – the global spread and radicalization of Islam. The engine is kept running by the suffering of Muslims in wars and civil wars. https://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Timeline-of-Terror_Membership-version_low-res.pdf
This suffering, firstly, sets refugee flows in motion and, secondly, triggers a willingness in European countries to accept these people. Islamists discuss the use of the mechanism as a deliberate strategy almost exclusively within their inner circles, because it only works when there is widespread ignorance. https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/what-hamas-leaders-actually-want-in-their-own-words-part-1/
The actual functioning of the migration engine leads to the realization that the acceptance of Muslim refugees in Western countries has, on the whole, the opposite effect of alleviating violence and hardship. This willingness to help tempts unscrupulous terrorists and jihadists to provoke such violence against Muslims. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar proved this by masterminding the massacre on October 7, 2023. After Israel had done the Islamists a huge favor with the supposedly deterrent, but militarily largely pointless, destruction of the Gaza Strip, he wrote to his accomplices in Qatar in 2024: "We have Israel right where we want them." https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2024/06/11/hamas-leader-yahya-sinwar-depicts-palestinian-casualties-as-necessary-sacrifices/
The Tehran regime displays the same irresponsible mindset. It cannot achieve its Islamist goals by protecting the Iranian population, but only by imposing them the victim role portrayed in the media. The attacks on neighboring countries and the obstinacy in negotiations stem from the hidden desire to prolong and expand the war. Threatening the destruction of civilian infrastructure (“power plant day and bridge day”) does not deter these extremists; it only serves them. The strategy is to deliberately instrumentalize every conflict to portray Western actions as aggressive and to position itself as the morally superior victim. This is precisely what fuels the migration engine and ‘justifies’ radicalization.
Actual liberation is based on restoring the correct standards of evaluation. When Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in 1979, he promised Iranians democratic freedoms and rights, which later were enshrined in the constitution. However, the supposed republic turned out to be a de facto Islamist dictatorship. A circle of extremists, consisting of the Supreme Leader, the Assembly of Experts, and the Guardian Council, was established, holding the actual power outside of democratic control.
Although the regime is rejected by 70–80% of Iranians, this majority has no chance of asserting its right to self-determination. The regime's apparent intention to escalate and prolong the war threatens civilization. This justifies the provision of necessary external assistance.
Through decades of supporting terrorism and killing thousands of demonstrators, the regime has lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the population. It can therefore be forced to call new elections in the short term. The power of the autocratically ruling triangle of the Supreme Leader, the Assembly of Experts, and the Guardian Council should cease upon their release. Members can voluntarily place themselves under house arrest, from where they are prohibited from issuing orders. Otherwise, they are considered outlaws without legal protection. Similar measures are appropriate for high-ranking military officers, police chiefs, and certain high-ranking administrative officials. Those who voluntarily register at a police station as future cooperating democrats retain their rank. Once senior officials are under house arrest, any agency can fill their positions through democratic elections. This creates broad consensus.
The right to peaceful assembly and demonstration is strengthened through the use of drones to protect against police violence.
All of this, together with public education, represents practically achievable steps toward an immediate end to the war and a peaceful new beginning for Iranian democracy after the coups of 1953 and 1979.