Jamsheed K. Choksy and Carol E. B. Choksy
“Death to America, death to Israel” emerged as a slogan of the 1978–1979 Islamic Revolution, then was transformed into a reason for existence of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Conventional and chemical weapons that pounded Iranian cities from Iraq during the latter nation’s US-supported war between 1980–1988 did not topple the Islamist regime. Nor have subsequent decades of ever-mounting sanctions or, more recently, the elimination of Iranian nuclear scientists and military commanders as well as its client Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and commanders by the US and Israel. Iran’s leadership, under second Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since 1989, seems thoroughly convinced that their revolutionary guide and first Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was correct when he declared in 1979, during the Embassy Hostage Crisis, that: “America can’t do a damn thing against us.” Indeed, Tehran has positioned itself to take on the United States of America, Israel, and any Arab nations militarily from all corners of West Asia. Tehran will do so “cautiously and carefully” directly and also circuitously through its West Asian retainers.
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