Current conditions give U.S. ‘an opportunity to leverage human rights and international law as justifications’ for dismantling structure
By Julian Spencer-Churchill, Real Clear Wire
The United States’ Strategic Opportunity
The nationwide protests in Iran, started on September 28, are more than just a period of political and economic unrest. They reflect a deeper problem: the widening gap between the state and a population that views this government as alien to their culture and civilization. And also, a population that believes their country occupies a pivotal position in global geopolitics. The Islamic Republic still possesses significant capacity for repression, and according to some media reports, more than thirty-five thousand have been killed in a matter of days. For the United States, this raises a question that goes beyond human rights or ethical concerns: could the collapse of Iran’s Islamic regime present a geopolitical opportunity to reshape the balance of power against China and Russia?
The Truth About Repressive Violence
Online platforms allow eyewitnesses and ordinary citizens to share firsthand accounts and grassroots reports—voices that can challenge official narratives and broaden the global public’s understanding of events. Dictatorial governments appear to understand this reality very well; they have consistently tried to control the dominant narrative. For such regimes, the internet has become a serious threat, because they can no longer imprison the truth or present their own version as the only reality.
A clear example can be seen in recent protests in Iran, where one of the government’s first actions has repeatedly been to shut down the internet nationwide. In 2019, 2022, during the twelve-day war, and again during the January 2026 protests, the Islamic Republic imposed complete nationwide internet blackouts. During the most recent protests, the full shutdown lasted 18 days and disruptions continue even now. Because today’s realities are often seen through the window of the media, many of the regime’s alleged crimes were never transmitted to the outside world, exactly what the authorities intended. Despite this, citizens attempted to reveal the truth by sharing personal testimonies with Persian-language media outlets, accounts that many outsiders found almost impossible to believe.