Khamenei May Want Iran to Be Bombed, But He’s Miscalculating: Just a day prior to the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy, Steven Erlanger, the future New York Times heavyweight who was then just a young reporter for the Boston Globe, filed a dispatch for The New Republic arguing the religious phase of Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Republic was ending.

First the hostage crisis and then the Iraqi invasion less than a year later, allowed Khomeini to rally Iranians around the flag and gave him time to consolidate his resolution. 

Why Iran Want Bombs Falling?

Forty-five years later, the Islamic Republic again faces a persistent legitimacy crisis. Protests have rocked the country with increasing frequency since 1999. During the 2022-2023 “Woman Life Freedom” movement, Iranians openly rejected theocratic rule. For the regime, it is the perfect storm as “Maximum Pressure” resumes and the 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei faces his own mortality.

By provoking direct military action, first by Israel and now ruling out nuclear negotiations and ramping up support for the Houthi’s terrorist campaign against international shipping and freedom of navigation through the Bab el-Mandeb and the Red Sea, Khamenei is daring the United States to attack Iran directly.