In November 1979, as they seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took American diplomats hostage, Shia Islamic thugs loyal to the Ayatollah Khomeini screamed, "Death to America!"

Seizing an embassy is an act of war, so Khomeini's thugs intentionally started a war with the U.S.

Why? The ayatollah declared his movement had worldwide goals. He insistently called his thugs "global revolutionaries." To wage and win a global war, Khomeini knew he had to target and defeat the preeminent world power. He concluded he could defeat it by existing — existing and resisting America with relentless, undefeatable defiance.

Resistance included degrading America economically. He had a handy territorial energy weapon: Persian Gulf oil flowing through Hormuz. He could undermine America by consorting with criminal gangs — besides, narcotics and human trafficking made money.

Blood gets headlines. His thugs and proxies could wound America by launching spectacular but plausibly deniable terror attacks. These attacks would expose American cowardice, its lassitude, weakness and decadence, and demonstrate the limitations of American military power.

Khomeini's cultists would employ these criminal, guerrilla, terror and other gray area tactics until ... the moment their Iran acquired its own nuclear arsenal.

With their own nuclear arsenal, Iran's cultists could threaten the entire southwest Asian energy and natural resource zone with immolation.

A nuclear arsenal and its proximity to southwest Asia's resources would make Iran a Great Power. Sure, Khomeini's Islamic veneer was useful politically, but lurking behind his vision was a restoration of the Persian Empire.

Delusional? Insane? Sure, but delusions often spawn grim and deadly realities — remember, Hitler wanted to establish a 1,000-year Reich.

If the Khomeini regime obtained deliverable nuclear weapons, the world would face several grisly scenarios:

1. Global economic blackmail as the regime threatens regional oil and gas exports.

2. Nuclear attacks in southwest Asia (possibly Europe).

3. Israeli preemption.

Decades ago, Ayatollah Iran dismissed Israel as a "one bomb state." Israel would face nuclear destruction — unless Tel Aviv struck first. If Israel struck first, then the Israelis would be guilty of denying the world its daily oil ration, and that would justify Iranian retaliation and invasion by Iranian proxy armies.

Indeed. Obtaining nukes was and is central to the Khomeinist Death to America Cult.

So — "Death to America!" is often howled in English. Why English? Media and propaganda purposes. Khomeini wanted to frighten and provoke Americans. In 1979 (before auto-translation applications), English had far more media impact than Farsi. Screaming death threats in English all but guaranteed coverage by the BBC and CBS.

In 2026, X and Truth Social trump the BBC. Forty-seven years after the Carter administration, Donald Trump's America is quite vibrant and unquestionably more powerful than it was in 1979, as President Jimmy Carter's years of malaise, dithering and guilt trips lurched into 1980.

The Trump administration understands nuclear weapons are central to the regime's strategy and existence. In June 2025, B-2 stealth bombers entered Iranian air space undetected and destroyed key nuclear facilities. U.S. and Israeli intelligence knew where the nuclear "dust" was stashed.

But as late as February 2026, Iran's relentlessly defiant thugs bet America lacked the will to finish the job. Rather than risk a major war in an election year, America would buckle. They fantasized the U.S., in lieu of protracted war, would ultimately accept a new version of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Obama-Biden faculty club administration's ridiculous name for appeasement of Iran's radical religious dictatorship. The JCPOA essentially permitted endless negotiation with the dictatorship rather than requiring verified inspection of nuclear facilities.

Then the U.S. and Israel went to war with Iran on Feb. 28.

Now the U.S. Navy controls the Strait of Hormuz and the robed thugs face an embargo. Global powermongers? No. Wretched, murderous thugs who'll soon be fleeing lynch mobs.

To find out more about Austin Bay and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: GR Stocks at Unsplash