The calculated elimination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by a joint US-Israeli strike four months ago was not merely a tactical win but a reaffirmation that the security of free peoples depends on the willingness to meet terror with force. As the regime stages state-orchestrated mourning in Tehran’s Enghelab Square with red banners of martyrdom, the West should not be seduced by the spectacle; it should recognize that the successor Mojtaba Khamenei remains wounded and absent, proving the strike decapitated the command structure that long prioritized global aggression over the welfare of its own citizens.
A government that hides behind censorship—barring the BBC Persian Service from reporting—while crowds deface imagery of President Donald Trump and wave banners calling for vengeance is a government that threatens national sovereignty beyond its borders. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz made the position clear: any leader who threatens the existence of Israel will face the same fate. That clarity is what protects free nations from the incremental erosion of liberty.
The same lesson applies in Ukraine, where a severe shortage of interceptor missiles resulted in zero successful interceptions of the 23 Russian ballistic missiles fired at Kyiv this past Sunday. Alongside a massive wave of 68 missiles and 351 strike drones, the barrage killed at least 23 people and left residential areas in ruins. President Volodymyr Zelensky correctly points to Patriot missile systems sitting in allied stockpiles rather than in the hands of those fighting on the front lines; sovereignty is not preserved by summit rhetoric but by putting hardware where it can stop the kill chain.
At home, the brutal murder of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk by 23-year-old Tyler Robinson underscores that domestic order requires equal resolve. Prosecutors are right to seek the death penalty for aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm, obstructing justice, and witness tampering in the September 10, 2025 shooting at Utah Valley University. When the defense attempts to suppress evidence and ban cameras, the state must push forward transparently, as Kirk’s widow and parents witness the proceedings, because accountable government does not shield the guilty behind closed doors.
Individual liberty, free markets, and limited government cannot flourish under the shadow of ballistic missiles or state-sponsored martyrdom. Russia’s occupation of roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian land and its retaliation strikes against civilian infrastructure reveal the cost of Western hesitation. The Iranian regime’s funeral procession, which will continue through Qom and into Iraq, is a desperate final act of a leadership that lost its master yet still incites violence against the West.
The path forward is unambiguous: support lethal deterrence abroad, from supplying Kyiv’s air defenses to backing Israel’s stance against threats; demand impartial justice in Utah; and reject the propaganda of regimes that fear the truth. Only through strength and accountability do sovereign nations secure the conditions for traditional values and self-government to thrive.
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