OPINION: Wake-up America! An Iranian-born American Citizen’s Message to His Adopted Country
By Paul White, September 3, 2026 2:00 pm
Washoe County resident Ali (not his real name) was born and raised in Iran as a Shiite Muslim until he was 19. Shortly before the Shah of Iran was deposed in the 1979 Revolution, Ali told his parents he wanted to move to the United States to have more freedom. He became a U.S. citizen and has lived, worked, and raised family here ever since: fully participating in – and contributing to America’s progress.
Life in Iran under the Shah’s constitutional monarchy, was not nearly as free as in America, Ali told White; but relatively speaking, their lives were good. Public speech, protests, and women’s rights, including what clothes they wore were allowed, within reason. Freedom was far greater back then than it is in today’s Iran, where de facto sharia law dominates every facet of Iranian life.
Ali continued: He left for America because signs were everywhere that the Shah’s leadership was not going to last, and neither were personal freedoms. Iran had steadily devolved from a strong-handed constitutional monarchy to an outright dictatorship. And after the revolution, the victorious radicalized Muslim leaders installed a fiercely harsh and murderous Islamic theocracy that still governs Iran.
Ali has a message he wanted to share with his fellow Washoe County residents and all American citizens:
The current approach to ending the Iranian war will not work.
My dear fellow Americans in Washoe County and throughout our great United States of America,
I felt driven to write all of you: expressing my serious concerns about this prolonged war between the United States and Iran. What I find most troublesome are America’s false assumptions about the Iranian government and the radicalized Islamic philosophy its leaders ascribe to.
What I’m sharing with you is not a theory. It’s what I personally experienced for the first 2 decades of my life, and what my family members in Iran are still experiencing today.
The Islam of Iran’s current leaders is not even a religion.
America is not dealing with the relatively reasonable Shiite interpretation of Islam that I was raised with.
I was taught a peaceful approach to worshipping God (Allah). It was an approach that allowed Iranian citizens a choice as to whether or not they practiced Iran’s national religion of Islam.
Islam in today’s Iran is a violently enforced secular ideology that is not peaceful in any way. Its teachings and practices have been distorted by radicalized leaders. Iran’s Islam has abandoned its moral teachings, but Iranians today cannot walk away from Islam like I did, without putting their lives at risk.
Iranian citizens who speak this truth are terrorized, beaten, imprisoned, and/or killed. Is this radical expression of Islamic teachings compatible with America’s government and culture? Absolutely NOT.
What Caused the Current U.S. War with Iran?
I respect and support our President Donald Trump, and am grateful for everything he’s done to improve and strengthen America. However, I feel that Trump’s desire to over-align with Israel’s feelings towards Iran, prematurely led us into a military confrontation.
I believe America’s goals for Iran, including eliminating its nuclear weapons program, installing a new government, and protecting our Israel ally are right and necessary. However, I believe those goals could have been more effectively achieved, and at a much lower cost by implementing a stronger economic war – rather than a military conflict right from the beginning.
Economic War from the Beginning Would Have Been More Effective
Choking off Iran’s economy more strongly from the beginning, in lieu of the (some but not all) excessive military action that was used, would have weakened Iran’s government more effectively. It would have deprived its citizens to a degree that forced them to take action. It would have fomented rebellion. It would have motivated my long-suffering former countrymen to revolt: overthrowing the current leaders and establishing a freer form of government.
Additionally, to expedite a revolution, the U.S. could have continued infiltrating the Iranian government with covert military operations. These operations would have kept eliminating Iranian leaders, one-by-one, similar to what was effectively done in the early days of the current war. This action would have destabilized Iranian leaders and encouraged the Iranian people to revolt.
Negotiating with Iranian Leaders is a Complete Waste of Time
I know firsthand: you can NOT negotiate with radicalized Muslims, and that is who is in charge in Iran.
- Iran’s leaders cannot be trusted to tell the truth about anything: especially if such lying enabled them to acquire nuclear weapons they could use to terrorize America and the world.
- Radicalized Islamists world-wide, from historical times up to today, have known only two things: kill and conquer their perceived enemies.
The United States is on the top of Iran’s kill-and-conquer list. That is why it’s imperative that America shut-down Iran’s economy until the victimized Iranian people become willing to rise-up and overthrow their government. This would allow America to support their efforts. Our war with Iran would end, and a lasting peace between our nations could begin.
Anyone who believes this violent terrorism occurs only on the other side of the world needs to educate themselves about recent happenings in New Jersey, New York, Florida, Texas, Michigan, and beyond.
Radicalized Muslims are not just gaining footholds in America’s local, state, and national politics. They are increasingly killing innocent Americans, disrupting our society and culture, and promoting the Islamization of the United States.
Did you ever think you’d see the day when it would be reported in American media that a local mosque in Reno preached a sermon encouraging parents to raise their children to be jihadi terrorists, martyrs, and fatwa enforcers?
3 Keys to Protecting America’s Future
There are 3 keys to not just ending the war with Iran, but also protecting America’s government and culture, and preserving our constitutional freedoms for future generations.
1) America’s Christians, whose forebears founded and fought for this great nation, must stand up against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic, and save America, because NO one else will do it for us. Christians must stand up and speak out, or our nation will be taken over . . . more than it already is. It is not enough for Christians to just say, “Let’s pray about this.” They must take actions that support their prayers, starting with voting.
2) America must do whatever it takes to guarantee fair elections. There is NO other way to increase the dangerously low rate of voter participation. There is NO other way to make sure that the people elected to political office – regardless of political affiliation, share a desire to build America up, rather than destroy it.
3) America’s public education system must be completely dismantled and rebuilt. Our schools must return to being institutions that develop highly educated, morally strong and contributing citizens, who proudly know their history and will fight to maintain it.
This stands in stark contrast with our current public schools that are incubating and mass-producing functional illiterates. They teach children to hate our Constitution, be ignorant/ashamed of our nation’s history and democratic-republic government, and embrace aberrant moral behavior and (only slightly-disguised) Communism.
My fellow Americans, God blessed countless millions of us with this great nation that has offered “liberty and justice for ALL” – including grateful immigrants like me, for 250 years.
Encourage our leaders to bravely and wisely take the steps I described for winning – and thus ending this too-long battle with Iran.
We have allowed ourselves to be fooled by the endless delays and insincere moderate talk of Iranian leaders who seek nothing but the destruction of America.
Let us stop wasting time. Let us finish the job we started to free the Iranian people, protect our own future and the world’s safety, because we need to move on to solving the growing number of challenges that confront us.
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