Article 1:
The Left Mourns a Monster
Why Western Feminists are Weeping Over Khamenei’s Demise
Opinion
By: Aamir Gailliard
Published on 02/03/26
The Middle Eastern landscape underwent a seismic shift this week following the confirmed death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In a joint operation on Saturday, February 28, U.S. and Israeli air forces conducted a precision strike on a high-security leadership compound in Tehran. The operation, which utilized advanced intelligence to pinpoint a meeting of top Iranian officials, resulted in the elimination of the head of the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism and several members of his inner circle.
For decades, Ayatollah Khamenei was allowed to sit at the center of a web of global instability. He funded terror groups including Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas. He even propped up the brutal Assad Regime in Syria. But, under the Trump administration, the era of appeasement and Obama’s “pallets of cash” sent via airplane has been replaced by President Trump’s philosophy of “Peace Through Strength.” In practice this philosophy has brought a hard-hitting military reality to the Iranian Regime.
To make it plain: the elimination of Khamenei was a good riddance because the world just became a much safer place. But, you wouldn’t know that by listening to many on the American left who are taking part in “Hands Off Iran” protests.
One would think the removal of a tyrant with the blood of millions on his hands would be cause for universal and unanimous celebration. Instead, we are witnessing a bizarre and quite embarrassing spectacle. In the United States, vocal feminist groups like “Code Pink” and progressive activists are rushing to the streets in defense of Khamenei and the Iranian Regime. If you want to know what these protesters actually stand for, just look at who they mourn. A literal madman!
The protesters’ main defense of the Iranian Regime rests on a few fragile notions: that this strike was a “reckless” and “unprovoked” escalation by President Trump and Israel. They argue that by targeting a sovereign head of state, the U.S. and Israel have violated international law and destroyed any hope for a diplomatic “nuclear glide path.” To them, Khamenei was a “stabilizing” force who, despite his flaws, kept the region from total chaos.
Let’s Break Down Their Arguments
The “Unprovoked” Lie: To call the removal of Khamenei “unprovoked” is to develop a sudden case of amnesia regarding the last forty years. This is the man who bankrolled the Houthi attacks on global shipping, directed Hezbollah’s terror campaigns, funded Hamas’ terror in Israel, and directed the brutal suppression of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that saw thousands of innocent Iranians murdered by their own government. A “provocation” isn’t a single event; it is a decades-long resume of global bloodshed.
The Sovereignty Shield: Activists claim that targeting a head of state is an illegal “assassination.” However, under the “Peace Through Strength” doctrine, sovereignty is not a suicide pact for the West. When a leader uses his “sovereignty” to export suicide bombers and carry out drone strikes against democratic allies while chanting “death to America” he forfeits the protections of the international order he seeks to destroy.
The “Stability” Delusion: The Left fears that “decapitating” the regime will lead to a power vacuum. What they fail to realize is that the “vacuum” is already filled. Millions of Iranians were filmed this weekend cheering from their rooftops and setting off fireworks in the streets of Tehran celebrating their newfound freedom. The “stability” the Left mourns was actually a graveyard of Iranian potential, suppressed only by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) gallows.
The Bottom Line is this: You cannot claim to be a “feminist” or a “human rights activist” while also defending a man who legalized the veiling of women by force and executed political dissidents in the streets. The truth is they aren’t mourning the death of a “leader”; they are mourning the loss of their favorite anti-Western narrative.
The Truth: A Resume of Brutality
Instead of celebrating the fall of a tyrant, the many leftists are actively ignoring the horrific reality of the man they are defending. To understand why his removal is a victory for humanity, one only needs to look at Khamenei’s resume of brutality:
The War on Women: Khamenei was the architect of a system where the “morality police” could beat a woman like Mahsa Amini to death for the “crime” of showing her hair. He didn’t just suppress women; he institutionalized their abuse.
Systemic Sexual Violence: Under his direct rule, human rights organizations have documented the darkest abuses imaginable. This includes the regime’s documented history of its guards raping young girls in prison prior to their execution—a sick “religious” loophole to ensure they didn’t die virgins.
A Global Architect of Death: Khamenei didn’t just kill Iranians. He provided the bankroll and the boots on the ground for Bashar al-Assad to gas Syrian children with chemical weapons.
Despite this barbaric resume, the leftists who are protesting are hand-wringing over his fate. When Western feminists—who claim to be the ultimate defenders of women’s rights—condemn a strike that took out the world’s most prolific abuser of women, the hypocrisy is deafening and the selective outrage is more glaring than ever before.
These so-called activists will march in the streets of D.C. over perceived micro-aggressions, yet they cry foul when a man who systematically tortured and murdered thousands of women is finally brought to justice. It reveals a political faction so blinded by their disdain for President Trump and Western values that they have become the “useful idiots” for a terror mastermind.
The Solution: Peace Through Strength
President Trump’s willingness to project power is exactly the kind of leadership the free world has been starved of. He recognizes what the progressive left willfully ignores: you cannot negotiate with a regime that rules through rape, chemical weapons, and terror. You can only defeat it.
After the decisive military action in Iran, the Iranian people—especially the brave women who have faced down the morality police in the streets of Tehran—are one step closer to freedom. It’s time the leftists on the streets stopped mourning the monster who kept the vulnerable in chains and started cheering for the strength that finally broke the vulnerable free of those very chains.
Thousands protested in “Hands Off Iran” Demonstrations in response to joint Israeli and United States military strikes in Iran.