The war between the United States and Iran is rooted in events stretching back more than seventy years. As the major media continues to ignore the history, it is important to understand this essential backstory.
If you’re wondering why the United States and Iran have been bitter antagonists for more than a half century, and why they are now at war, you won’t find the answer in today’s media coverage where the conflict is portrayed as a dispute over terrorism and nuclear weapons. To truly understand what underlies this ongoing conflict you need to look back much further to a history that has been forgotten, or ignored.
Known for most of its history as Persia, Iran is one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world, with human habitation dating back more than seven millennia. Despite this foundational history, by the early twentieth century Persia had become a semi-colonial state dominated by British and Russian influence. A rising nationalist movement arose determined to restore the country’s political and economic independence.
The 1953 Coup
A crucial turning point came in 1953. Iranian oil resources had been controlled by the British, who kept most of the vast profits and left little to the Iranians. Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, a popular reformist who resisted foreign domination, took the bold step of nationalizing his country’s oil industry in 1951. In response, the CIA working with British intelligence organized a successful coup that overthrew his government. Although most citizens of the US and UK have little if any knowledge of this event, the 1953 coup and its consequences remain deeply embedded in Iran’s national memory, even today.
The Shah’s Iron Rule
In Mossadegh’s place, they installed a brutal dictatorial regime headed by the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s monarch who ruled the country ruthlessly for the next 26 years. To protect his new-found power, the Shah condemned Mossadegh to three years of solitary confinement, then kept him under house arrest until his death in 1967. In the years following the coup, the Shah and his CIA-trained secret police, Savak, became notorious for their vicious murder, imprisonment and torture of political dissidents. Much of Iranians’ growing hatred of the Shah was focused on the United States, since the Shah was viewed as a puppet of the Americans who put him in power.
CIA Audacity
The overthrow was considered a resounding success by the CIA, which then became emboldened to undertake a series of regime change operations in other parts of the world. This newfound bravado also influenced America’s decision to undertake its disastrous involvement in the Vietnam War starting in 1954.
A partial list of the countries destabilized and overthrown by the United States following the 1953 coup includes Guatemala (1954), Brazil (1964), Chile (1973), and later Panama (1989), Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003). Regime change is now considered an accepted instrument and goal of US foreign policy. Destabilizing and supporting the overthrow of unfriendly governments has become a central function of the CIA and the State Department.
The Islamic Revolution
Resistance to the Shah and his totalitarian rule grew over the years, and finally culminated with the Islamic Revolution in January 1979. The Shah was driven into exile, eventually settling in Egypt. His government was replaced by a theocracy headed by the previously exiled religious figure Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who became Iran’s Supreme Leader. Although Khomeini was revered among religious conservatives, he was a ruthless tyrant who executed thousands of political prisoners, often hanging his victims in public from construction cranes for everyone to see. Nonetheless, his anti-Americanism resonated with many Iranians as he stirred up further hatred and a desire for vengeance, calling America the “Great Satan.”
The Embassy Takeover
When the Shah was admitted to the United States for cancer treatment in October 1979, Iranians demanded that he be returned to Iran to face prosecution for his crimes. In a dramatic confrontation in Tehran, an angry crowd besieged the US embassy. A group of militants stormed the embassy and took the American diplomats hostage, outraging American leaders. The Iranians insisted on the Shah’s return as a condition for release of the hostages. President Jimmy Carter refused and the hostages remained captive in Iran for more than a year. Carter would spend the rest of his presidency struggling to find a way to free them. His reelection depended on it.
The Hostages
Carter was pressured by advisors into approving a dangerous rescue mission to free the hostages, but it ended in a humiliating disaster that killed eight members of the rescue team that never got close to the hostages. While Carter’s rescue mission was underway, unbeknownst to him there was another secret operation in process to undermine him. Convincing evidence shows that leaders of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign made a secret deal with Iran’s leaders to delay release of the hostages until after the 1980 US election to ensure that Carter would be defeated. It was a covert action they called the October Surprise operation. The plot was successful – Reagan cruised to a landslide victory and the hostages remained captive until the day he took office in January 1981.
The Nuclear Agreement
In 2015, the Obama administration successfully negotiated a six-nation agreement with Iran, called the JPCOA, that limited Iran’s nuclear program and prohibited the development of nuclear weapons. At that point, it finally appeared that a peaceful coexistence with Iran was possible. But once President Trump took office in 2017, with support from wealthy Zionist supporters, he wasted no time abandoning the deal and imposed new economic sanctions.
When Joe Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election, most observers expected him to quickly reinstate the Iran nuclear deal that Obama had so painstakingly negotiated when Biden was his VP. Instead, Biden, a hardline Israel supporter, began stalling and demanding more concessions from Iran, never intending to reach agreement. For those seeking military action, abandoning the JPCOA was an important step toward achieving regime change in Iran.
The Nuclear Threat
As a justification for war, proponents have argued for years that Iran is dangerously close to developing nuclear weapons that can threaten Israel and the world, even though the Iranians agreed repeatedly not to do so. In 2003 Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared the production and use of nuclear weapons forbidden under Islamic law. Iran’s civilian nuclear program was subject to rigorous IAEA inspections during enforcement of the JCPOA, which consistently verified that Iran was complying with the agreement. The CIA assessed with high confidence that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified in March 2025 confirming that assessment still holds. Nevertheless, war supporters continue to use the supposed nuclear threat as a device for creating fear and consent for military action. Whether Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei (son of the assassinated Ali Khamenei), will reverse his father’s fatwa and allow nuclear weapons remains to be seen.
Support for Terrorism
The other claim we hear repeatedly is that Iran is “The world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.” Iran does provide support for political and military movements in the Middle East, including Shia militias in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and Houthis in Yemen. These groups have been designated as terrorist organizations by the US, but opponents argue that whether their actions actually amount to “terrorism” is a semantic distinction. The State Department uses the terrorism label freely as a device to demonize its adversaries and justify sanctions. The irony of resistance groups being portrayed as terrorists while Israel, with US support, indiscriminately targets civilians for mass murder in a genocidal campaign is obvious, but conveniently ignored.
Most of these supposed terrorist groups are created and organized in response to repression and consider themselves to be liberation movements. That they sometimes resort to violence should not be a surprise when effective peaceful methods become futile. Hamas, for example, has support in Gaza as the primary force defending Gazans from Israeli atrocities. Whether one supports their tactics or not, is there any wonder why such a movement would arise after struggling for years under horrific Israeli abuses? Although the Hamas founding charter in 1988 called for the dissolution of Israel, that demand was dropped in their 2017 charter revision.
The Uprising
In late December 2025, an anti-government protest movement began in Tehran and quickly spread to all 31 provinces. Thousands of protesters, angry at the severe economic crisis and authoritarian rule, called for an end to the Islamic Republic. The revolt was not, however, entirely home grown. Further investigation shows that it was largely a foreign operation to destabilize Iran, sponsored by the US and Israel. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly boasted that economic sanctions were explicitly designed to trigger a collapse of the Iranian currency in order to damage the economy and spark anti-government protests. Israeli officials admitted to provoking the unrest by coordinating with foreign extremist groups who attacked and killed Iranian police officers by the hundreds. Iranian authorities responded to the uprising with a brutal crackdown using live ammunition against both the provocateurs and protesters, reportedly killing and arresting thousands.
Donald Trump’s War for Israel
For years, Zionists in the US and Israel repeatedly attempted to create a pretext for US military action against Iran. Underlying this hostility is an intrinsic desire to exact revenge from Iran for daring to oust the Shah and humiliate the United States during the prolonged hostage ordeal. But American presidents, who could foresee the disaster that would result, consistently refused.
That is, until Donald Trump was persuaded by Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director David Barnea that a successful “decapitation” attack targeting Iran’s regime leaders would encourage Iranians to revolt and replace the existing government. Even though Trump’s advisors warned him against it, he decided to go ahead with the Israeli plan, launching a massive unprovoked air attack in collaboration with Israel in February 2026. They succeeded in assassinating the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and most of his family. In the process they destroyed thousands of structures, including military and energy assets, schools, hospitals, residential neighborhoods and historic sites. Thousands were killed, many of them civilians.
Israel Sets the Trap
The expected internal revolt against the regime never happened. In fact, exactly the opposite occurred. As many expected, the attack increased Iranian hatred of the US and Israel and caused most of Iran’s population to support their government in defending against the foreign attack. Given the choice of continuing under the Islamic government or submitting to a client regime controlled by the US and Israel, few Iranians would choose the latter after the dreaded experience of living under the US-installed Shah for 26 years. Some analysts believe the Israelis knew the decapitation scheme would fail but used it to lure the Americans into an ongoing war that they could not easily escape. The Israelis set a trap for Trump, and he walked right into it.
The Real Purpose
So, what is the real purpose of overthrowing or destroying the Iran regime if not stopping their nuclear ambitions or stopping them from sponsoring terrorists?
For the American war hawks, Iran is an obstacle in the way of pursuing the neoconservative goal of US global domination. The contempt for Iranian leaders centers on their refusal to behave as a client state obedient to US demands, especially their insistence on controlling their own oil and other resources. For the US neocons, America’s determination to rule the world cannot tolerate any successful defiance from uncompliant countries.
For Israel and many Zionist supporters in the US, the goal is to eliminate Iran as a power in the region, not simply to neutralize it as a threat, but to remove it as an impediment to Israel’s dominance and expansion. Israeli officials now openly promote what they call Greater Israel, intent on overtaking the territory of Palestinians and neighboring countries to establish Israel as the dominant power in the Middle East. If the attempts to install a compliant regime in Iran fail, they intend to destroy it with US help and turn it into a failed state that can no longer stand in the way of Israel’s goals.
Never-Ending US Complicity
None of Israel’s genocidal and expansionist ambitions would be possible without continuing support from the United States. Virtually the entire international community condemns Israel’s genocide in Gaza and opposes its military aggression, yet Washington continues to provide billions of dollars in military aid, advanced weapons, intelligence and diplomatic protection that shields them from international accountability. The US stands firmly behind Israel no matter what they do.
The Lobby
Why, then, has American policy remained so consistently supportive of Israel despite growing public opposition? Critics point to the extraordinary influence of pro-Israel lobbying organizations in Washington. President Trump is accused of serving the wealthy Israel supporters who helped put him in power, but why does the US Congress allow such unconstrained support of Israel?
A closer look shows that almost all Republicans and Democrats in both houses of Congress consider themselves beholden to the Israel lobby for their political survival. More than 90 percent of them are reliant on money from AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups. These politicians are careful not to oppose the lobby’s goals lest their funding gets pulled, or they get targeted for defeat in the next election. As a result, they can be counted on to consistently vote in favor of Israel. This is despite the fact that their constituents are increasingly opposed to it. Israel’s control of the American political system has become so extensive and obvious that a large and growing part of the US population now opposes it.
Looking Back
An important lesson from this history is that nations, like people, carry the memories of their past. For Iran, the 1953 coup and the decades of tyranny that followed are not distant history. They are living wounds that persist and influence Iran’s interactions with the world. For the United States, the legacy of this history is a war built on deception and a foreign policy increasingly controlled by a foreign power. But there are signs that this situation is changing. A growing number of Americans, especially the younger generations, are questioning the official narratives and demanding a foreign policy that reflects their own priorities rather than the ambitions of a power elite.
Whether this awakening will translate into lasting reform remains uncertain, but the prospect of reclaiming popular control over the American government is a real possibility. The road to war was long, but the road back – toward accountability, honesty and authentic democracy – remains open to those willing to follow it.
David Kasper is Executive Director at the Empowerment Project, a documentary production group in Chapel Hill, NC. As a filmmaker, he is best known for his 1992 Oscar-winning documentary The Panama Deception. His earlier film Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair was one of the first to expose the Reagan October Surprise operation. He can be reached at media@empowermentproject.org.
