It is profoundly strange, if not outright delusional, to hear certain academic and political circles claim that the West initiated the ongoing conflict with the Islamic Republic of Iran. This revisionist history completely ignores more than four decades of relentless, unprovoked aggression waged by Tehran against the democratic world. Since the 1979 Khomeinist revolution, the regime has operated on a foundational doctrine of global expansionism and subversion. The devastating cost of this forty-year crusade is measured in thousands of dead Western citizens and hundreds of billions of euros in economic destruction.
The Revisionist Myth of Western Aggression
The claim that the democratic West started this war is not merely inaccurate; it is a deliberate inversion of historical reality. From its inception, the Khomeinist regime defined itself not by national sovereignty, but by its active hostility toward Western values, labeling the United States as the "Great Satan" and Israel as the "Little Satan." This ideological hostility was instantly translated into action when the regime state-sanctioned the storming of the United States Embassy in Tehran in 1979. For 444 days, the regime held American diplomats hostage, a clear and flagrant act of war under international law that shattered diplomatic norms. This was not a defensive reaction, but an aggressive opening salvo in a campaign to export fundamentalist revolution.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Islamic Republic rapidly expanded its footprint of terror, demonstrating that its reach extended far beyond its immediate geographic borders. According to a detailed policy review by the Washington Institute, the regime has consistently ordered targeted assassinations and terror plots on foreign soil during sensitive diplomatic negotiations. Rather than engaging in legitimate diplomacy, Tehran chose to deploy suicide bombers to slaughter Western peacekeepers and hit-squads to execute dissidents in European cities. In the years that followed, the regime systematically expanded its operations onto European soil, proving that no Western city was safe from its radical designs.
A Four-Decade Campaign of Terror and Sabotage
Waging this shadow war, Tehran has systematically established the "Axis of Resistance" to bleed democratic nations through proxy forces. Through Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and various Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has spent hundreds of billions of euros exporting violence. This vast network exists not for national defense, but to actively subvert regional stability, target Western interests, and terrorize civilian populations. This calculated campaign of global subversion has repeatedly targeted European capitals and major cities, as illustrated by the following critical operations:
- The 1992 Mykonos restaurant assassinations in Berlin, where Iranian operatives murdered Kurdish dissidents on European soil under direct orders from top regime officials.
- The 2018 thwarted bomb plot targeting an Iranian opposition rally in Paris, masterminded by active Iranian diplomat and spy chief Assadollah Assadi.
- The current Houthi maritime blockade in the Red Sea, which directly damages global commerce and has cost hundreds of billions of euros in economic disruption.
The Human and Financial Toll on the Free World
The human cost of Tehran's global terror network is accompanied by a massive financial burden imposed on the free world. In addition to direct military expenditures, Western nations have had to invest heavily in counterterrorism, homeland security, and infrastructure defense to shield their citizens from Iranian intelligence operatives. According to an extensive analysis on state-sponsored terrorism from the Jewish Virtual Library, Iran has been directly implicated in at least 88 major international terror plots or attacks targeting Western, dissident, and Jewish targets globally. This staggering statistic underscores the fact that Tehran's war against the West is a permanent, institutionalized policy, not a series of isolated incidents.
Furthermore, European security agencies have repeatedly exposed Iran's reliance on transnational organized crime syndicates to carry out hits and acts of sabotage. By hiring local drug cartels and criminal gangs to target Jewish community centers and European dissidents, the IRGC seeks to obscure its direct involvement while maintaining its relentless pressure on Western societies. The financial damage of these operations is immense, requiring constant vigilance and costly security operations from Brussels to Washington. To describe this systematic, forty-year offensive as a conflict "started by the West" is to actively enable the propaganda of a hostile, expansionist tyranny.
"As of 2023, Iran had reportedly assassinated at least 20 opponents abroad and killed hundreds in bombings of foreign military, diplomatic, and cultural facilities."
Confronting the Head of the Snake
The free world must finally abandon the dangerous illusion of appeasement and confront the Islamic Republic for what it is: the primary driver of global instability. Pretending that the West initiated this conflict only emboldens Tehran's radical clerics and greenlights further aggression against democratic allies. It is time for European nations to join the United States in designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization in its entirety and imposing crippling diplomatic and economic isolation. Only by holding the head of the snake accountable can the West secure its citizens, protect its economic interests, and defend the foundational values of liberty and democracy.