As security forces sweep through hospitals arresting surgeons and drag wounded protesters from their beds, a chilling cry is rising from the Iranian street: Please, bomb us.
In the wake of the bloodiest crackdown in the Islamic Republic’s history, a second, more desperate wave of popular fury is engulfing Iran, with citizens openly praying for American military intervention to obliterate the regime. “We’re all staring at the sky, hoping Trump will bomb us, just to destroy Khamenei and his regime,” a woman from Kermanshah told The Wall Street Journal via text message. “We’re willing to die one by one, but we don’t want our children to suffer our pain.”
The sentiment reflects the abyss of hatred now directed at Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after security forces killed approximately 7,000 protesters in January, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a U.S.-based rights group cited by The Wall Street Journal. With more than 50,000 arrested and armed plainclothes militias raiding medical facilities to seize the injured, Iranians are engaging in acts of defiance that would have been unthinkable months ago.
At funerals across the nation, mourning families are transforming grief into sedition, shouting “Death to Khamenei!” at memorial services. In Mashhad, medical students kneeled outside faculty buildings chanting, “A student who dies won’t accept humiliation,” footage verified by Storyful showed, The Wall Street Journal reported. High schoolers are refusing to sing the national anthem, while teachers’ unions issue scathing condemnations of what they call “the greatest street massacre in contemporary history.”
The regime’s brutality has radicalized even its former servants. In a stunning break with his past, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi—under house arrest since 2009—declared the Islamic Republic irredeemable. “Put down your gun and step down from power,” he demanded of the ruling clerics, according to The Wall Street Journal. Acclaimed actress Elnaz Shakerdoost announced she was quitting the industry forever, declaring, “I will never again play a role in a land that smells of blood.”
Perhaps most terrifying for the ayatollahs is the revolt among medical professionals. After authorities detained more than 30 doctors and nurses for treating wounded protesters—beating cancer surgeon Ali Reza Golchini in front of his family for offering to help the injured—the Medical Council of Iran issued an unprecedented rebuke, demanding security for healthcare workers and citing their duty to treat all patients regardless of “political or security conditions,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
The regime’s response—feeble concessions like allowing women motorcycle licenses—has only fueled contempt. Now, merchants at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar are calling for a nationwide uprising on February 17–18 to mark the end of the 40-day mourning period, vowing to “avenge the greatest street massacre in contemporary history,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
With President Trump amassing warships off the coast and diplomatic talks scheduled in Oman, the Islamic Republic faces a population that no longer fears death—a dangerous adversary for any dictatorship clinging to power.
Photo: The source