Armin Nowroozpoor MD

Hegseth: Flying over their capital. Death and destruction from the sky all day long. We're playing for keeps. Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise, and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they're down, which is exactly how it should be.

After nearly five decades of repression under the murderous Islamic Republic regime, the Iranian people deserve freedom. But I want to be clear: sustainable freedom must come from the Iranian people themselves. And the MEK is a cult—not a legitimate opposition in waiting. I’ve seen firsthand the influence the MEK has in Washington, and it is deeply disturbing. The MEK is a violent cult that was previously designated as a terrorist organization by the United States. Across generations and political viewpoints, the overwhelming majority of Iranian—inside Iran, throughout the diaspora, and across the ideological spectrum—despise the MEK. That opposition is rooted in history: the MEK openly sided with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War, a betrayal that cost countless Iranian lives and remains one of the rare issues that truly unites Iranians. There is currently a congressional resolution, with significant bipartisan support, that expresses solidarity with the Iranian people and their struggle for human rights and freedom. On its face, that goal is important and necessary. But the resolution goes further—explicitly endorsing Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the MEK. That endorsement is why I have refused to sign onto this resolution, and why I have urged my Democratic colleagues to do the same. Supporting the Iranian people must never mean elevating a fringe, authoritarian group that lacks legitimacy among Iranians themselves. The Iranian people are courageously risking their lives in the streets, demanding dignity, democracy, and an end to tyranny. Their fight is for real self-determination—not the replacement of one authoritarian regime with another imposed from the outside. I stand unequivocally with the Iranian people in their pursuit of genuine democracy, human rights, and a future defined by freedom and opportunity.

You cannot ‘free’ people by killing them and destroying their country.