Avideh Motmaen Far, an Iranian-Canadian, writes that the Islamic Republic of Iran is collapsing under American pressure. She fled the regime, like over 200,000 Iranian-Canadians, and emphasizes that the regime is not the same as the Iranian people. The regime, she argues, is the first and longest-suffering victim of the theocracy, citing Mahsa Amini, Flight PS752, and the suppression of 'Woman, Life, Freedom' protests.
She states that Iranians inside the country want the regime gone, not the JCPOA or constructive engagement. They desire the right to choose their government, dress freely, and live as a normal nation alongside Israel. The flag they wave is the lion-and-sun, not the mullahs' green-white-and-red.
The Hormuz Doctrine
President Trump's Hormuz Doctrine and Secretary Hegseth's 'shoot to destroy' rules of engagement, along with three carriers in the Gulf, are not an attack on the Iranian people but the first credible US policy in a generation that sides with them against the theocracy.
For four decades, the US treated the Islamic Republic as a problem to be managed—sanctioned, contained, negotiated with, and appeased. That premise ended in the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump, Secretary Rubio, and Secretary Hegseth have replaced it with an American president who is not bluffing.
Military Build-Up
The USS George H.W. Bush joined the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford, placing three carrier strike groups, twelve escort vessels, over 200 aircraft, and 15,000 sailors and Marines in striking range of Iranian targets. This is the largest concentration of US naval airpower in the region since Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Trump declined to give a timeline for the end of the Iran war. Strategic ambiguity, combined with overwhelming force, is what wins. The carriers are there to ensure Tehran understands any war it escalates will be lost catastrophically and quickly. That is deterrence, and Washington had forgotten it.
