This article was originally published in Danish on March 9, 2026.
By Povl H. Riis-Knudsen
It is disheartening to see the reaction of the so-called right wing to Israel’s (and its American vassals’) unprovoked war of aggression against Iran. One can seriously doubt whether there is sufficient intelligent life on the nationalist wing at all. There are many aspects to this issue – I cannot promise that we can cover them all within this framework, but let us at least try to touch on the most important ones.
1:
Very few Westerners have any idea about Iran and Iranian affairs – and certainly not about Iranian history. However, this knowledge is a prerequisite for having any opinion at all about this criminal attack. If you don’t know anything about Iran, you should keep off your keyboard.1
2:
The Iranians who, unfortunately, find themselves in this country came here mainly because they were fleeing military service during America’s (i.e., Israel’s) war against Iran in the 1980s—because that is what it was. Iraq was only America’s henchman – and the thanks Saddam Hussein got for his efforts clearly shows that it is literally deadly to be a friend of the US – Saddam Hussein simply knew too much. From the beginning, these Iranians belonged to the segment of the population that supported the Shah’s bloody dictatorship against the majority of the Iranian people. Their opinion on this matter is quite irrelevant. They have been traitors to their people from day one. They do not represent the Iranian people, but only a small minority.
3:
Iran is not an Arab country, but an Indo-European country. Its culture goes back thousands of years and extends far beyond the Muslim conquest. The Iranian language is an Indo-European language like Danish and English. The Iranians are our brothers – or at least our cousins. However, history has made it so that there are many minorities within Iran’s borders, such as Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, and many others. This is a weakness to which we will return.
4:
Iran is a Muslim country. There are two very different forms of Islam: Sunni and Shia. Iran is Shia Muslim. There are Shia Muslims in most countries in the Middle East, but in the Arab countries the leadership is mostly Sunni Muslim. An understanding of Iran requires a basic understanding of Shia Islam. However, there is extensive religious freedom in Iran. There are several Christian denominations, Sunni Islam, Zoroastrians (worshippers of fire, an ancient Persian religion). Missionary work for religions other than Islam is prohibited, as in other Muslim countries.
5:
Iran’s strength, size and population (93 million) have made it Israel’s main enemy, as Iran also supports the Palestinian struggle for freedom. It is the last country on Israel’s laundry list to the US of Middle Eastern countries that must be destroyed. All the others have been destroyed: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, Sudan. The other Arab countries are merely Israeli vassal states. In all cases, the villain is the US – humanity’s enemy No. 2. No. 1 is Israel. If the world is ever to have peace, these two states must disappear from the map in their current form.
6:
Iran is an immensely rich country. A significant part of its wealth comes from oil. This has also proved to be one of Iran’s curses, because it has always attracted foreign interests.
7:
Iran had actually established a democratic government until England and the US jointly overthrew Mohammad Mosaddegh’s democratic government in 1953 because Mosaddegh had committed the mortal sin of nationalizing the country’s own oil industry. When the US talks about wanting to “democratize” Iran, it therefore sounds more than hollow. Instead of Mosaddegh, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was installed as governor, for this was what he was, even though he later assumed the title of shah. Pahlavi did not represent the Iranian people, but the US, and he initiated a harsh and forced westernization of the country. This means that in Europe and the US, there is a tendency to view the Pahlavi dictatorship as a golden age and the Shah as a man of progress – because, from our perspective, we are naturally far more developed and civilized than everyone else. The Shah did his best to make the country resemble America, but these efforts meant that he was inevitably mobilizing the population against him, because the population was and is Muslim and wanted to live as Muslims even then. The Muslim resistance movement was fought with harsh measures. Imprisonment, widespread use of torture, random executions, etc. were part of the daily disorder. The Muslim leader Ruhollah Khomeini was forced into exile in Paris, from where he led the resistance movement. Despite massive American support for the dictatorship, Pahlavi’s regime collapsed, and Khomeini was able to return and was welcomed as a hero by the Iranian people—there are still a few of us who remember the television images from that time. The current regime is precisely the result of a popular uprising. The American embassy was stormed and exposed for what it really was: a spy center – and the home of Iran’s actual secret government.
The majority of the Iranian people hate America for what America has done to Iran (not least during the eight-year proxy war with Iraq).
8:
Iran has a Muslim government with the Council of Guardians and the Supreme Leader as guarantors that the country’s government does not pursue policies that deviate from Islam. But there are elections that determine who is president and who sits in parliament. Candidates must be approved – which is not a bad idea. This protects against the election of complete idiots, as we know from the average Western parliament and the average Western government. In Iran, the qualifications of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen would just be sufficient for her to clean a public toilet. As Westerners, we may like this system or not. It is none of our business. It is an internal Iranian matter, and no outsider has any right to interfere in it. We can probably agree that we do not want that system here, but then again, we do not have it, and Iran in no way poses any threat to either the US or Europe.
9:
Donald Trump also knows nothing about Iran, as he has clearly demonstrated. Overall, Donald Trump has been a big disappointment. He has consistently done the opposite of what he promised during the election campaign: namely, to keep the US out of foolish wars. However, he has done nothing but embroil the US in wars and conflicts – and the war against Iran may well be his downfall. It is illegal – both under international law and under the US Constitution – but Trump has openly declared that he does not recognize any law – only his own conscience. However, it is doubtful whether he has one. This is not Trump’s war, however; it is Netanyahu’s war. But why is Trump waging this war – which threatens his position as president and will cause him to lose the midterm elections in November, leaving him paralyzed for the rest of his presidential term, if he is not impeached before then? Why get involved in this war at all? We know that Israel controls the US. Rich Jews control the capital, the entertainment industry, the media, and almost all institutions of higher education — and through their wealth, they determine who can be elected to Congress—and as president. Trump’s election campaign was paid for with Jewish money—and his daughter is married to a Jew and has converted to Judaism. When he lets Jared Kushner, his Jewish son-in-law – who has no role whatsoever in the US government – and his likewise Jewish golf buddy Steve Wittkoff – who also has no official role to play, but like Kushner is merely a speculator – travel around the world as negotiators, including on relations with Iran, it is a mockery of professional diplomats in general and of the Iranians in particular.
But Trump is not up for re-election, and the midterm elections are unlikely to be won at this point anyway, so why is he doing this? It is hardly a stretch of the imagination to assume that Netanyahu is in possession of all of the Epstein files. Could it be that Netanyahu has damning evidence against Trump? In any case, this war is a wonderful distraction from the Epstein scandal, which suddenly no one is talking about anymore…
But probably Trump has also been misinformed about the actual situation in Iran on purpose! He believed that regime change could be achieved by killing the country’s leader. How naive. Trump may have believed that the entire country would then welcome the Americans (and the Jews?) as liberators. This only testifies to his ignorance of Iran and its history and the country. The Iranians still hate the US. Since that strategy failed, we have heard countless other reasons why this barbaric attack was necessary:
- To prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons; indeed, they were only a week away from having a nuclear bomb. Well, that has been said for the last 40 years – and they still haven’t developed one. And besides, Trump claims that he completely destroyed their nuclear program in the 12-day war six months ago. How does that add up? Furthermore, the recently assassinated supreme leader had issued a fatwah against the development of nuclear weapons – a religiously motivated ban. Trump assassinated what was probably the most moderate figure in Iran’s leadership. I should think that his successors will reconsider this fatwah. The reason Iran is in its current situation is precisely because it has not developed nuclear weapons, cf. North Korea, which is left in peace precisely because it does have nuclear weapons. Incidentally, does anyone remember the legend of Saddam Hussein’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction?
- Because Iran allegedly controls all the world’s terrorist movements. Another claim that has been plucked out of thin air. Iran supports the Palestinian people and defends southern Lebanon against Israeli aggression. It is a reaction to Israeli terror.2
- To prevent further executions of rebels. How touching. What about the nearly 100,000 Palestinians murdered in Gaza? How about preventing that? It would be easy. But oh no, they were just Palestinians. In Iran we were talking about CIA and Mossad agents who had been smuggled in. It was the master race, or at least its servants.
- Because Iran threatened the US. It takes a lot of imagination to picture that!
- Among the more bizarre explanations is War Minister Hegseth’s explanation that Trump has been anointed by God to initiate Armageddon, which is a prerequisite for the return of Jesus. He really said so. And it is people like him who want to rule the world. God help us all!
The fact is that Trump’s ideas about Iran had no basis in reality. He is a stupid man and, like most Americans, he is uninformed about the world he wants to rule as his own personal property. This is precisely what makes him and the US dangerous.
By killing Khamenei, he did not just kill Iran’s supreme political leader. He killed the supreme religious leader of the vast majority of Iranians – the second most important leader of all Shia Muslims. He turned him into a martyr – and martyrdom has a special place in Shia Islam. With this killing, Trump did the worst thing he could possibly do if his goal was to overthrow the regime.
There is much speculation as to why all these people were gathered in Ali Khamenei’s official residence at this time – and not in a bunker. One explanation is that Khamenei deliberately sought martyrdom. He may have sought martyrdom for himself, but hardly for his closest associates, let alone his children and grandchildren. It is believed that he had received an American peace offer that needed to be discussed and responded to. As the Mossad’s motto goes: “By means of deception!”
10:
This war could change the world. The Gulf states have seen that it is dangerous to be America’s friends. American bases are being bombed, economic life is being hit, and tourists are being scared away. A blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could triple the price of oil within a few days. Europe has cut itself off from cheap and reliable Russian energy. Russia can supply China with whatever it may lack from the Gulf states. Europe is going bankrupt.
11:
Israel’s goal is to create an Israel from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates River by expelling the indigenous Arab population, who will flood Europe (and other European-populated countries) as refugees. This will contribute to the breakdown of Europe (and other white countries) and will create further hatred towards Muslims and implicitly greater love for the Jewish criminal state in the Middle East, who is the origin of the disaster. It is satanic – but well thought out. The Jews are intelligent people – and the Europeans and white Americans are stupid. Iran’s support for the Palestinians stands in the way of these plans.
12:
The CIA is arming the Kurds, of whom there are also large numbers in Iran, in order to incite them to rise up against the Iranians. As a reward, they have been promised their own state – a dream the Kurds have had for centuries. This may incite other minorities in Iran to try to get their own state, so that Iran is split into atoms, but it will inevitably force Turkey into the war on Iran’s side. Turkey will never voluntarily accept a Kurdish state, and neither will Iraq and Syria, but Israel has already castrated these two states. Turkey, however, is a powerful military force. What right do the Americans have to interfere in such matters?
13:
The great unknown. Will China and Russia accept an Iranian defeat? I don’t think so – and that would mean World War III, which would inevitably end in nuclear war. After that, further concerns are superfluous.
14:
Israel is a terrorist state – and the US is Israel’s extended arm. The imperialist ambitions of the US and Israel are the greatest threat to world peace, mankind, and the existence of the planet. We cannot have a world order where one country – the US – can set the agenda everywhere on the planet. An international court must be established to judge all these warmongers and criminals against humanity. German officers and politicians were hanged in Nuremberg for far less!
15:
One can debate whether it is the US that directs and facilitates Israel – or vice versa. The fact is that the two are joined at the hip. Israel is the little brother, but it is the little brother who calls the shots, because it is the little brother who holds the economic power in the US. Remember the movie “Wag the Dog!” – that is the situation we are facing. It is the tail that is wagging the dog. In this context, Epstein plays a very important part. Israel has incriminating evidence against a vast part of the US and European elites!
16:
Is democracy even a desirable form of government? Just take a look at the governments this way of organizing states has created. America and Europe are hardly examples to follow! As they say: Gold sinks to the bottom – shit floats on top!
Notes
- If you want to know more about Iran, check out one of Povl’s earlier articles: https://danmarksfrihedsraad.com/2026/01/23/iran-3/ ↩︎
- Povl has written about the Israel-Palestine conflict in the following articles (In Danish): https://danmarksfrihedsraad.com/2023/04/09/on-palestine/
https://danmarksfrihedsraad.com/2024/03/03/israel-et-mislykket-samfund-en-mislykket-stat/ ↩︎
Danmarks Frihedsraad 