Brett Cooper — Conservatives Can’t Agree on Iran — Here’s My Take

Right now, Iranians have no internet. They are living under an almost complete blackout because their government has cut them off once again. Now, we do not know exactly what is happening on the streets of Tran. We do not know how many protesters have been arrested. We don't know the real death toll. But what we do know is that Iran's youth is not backing down. And this is not their first fight. And now Trump is deciding how and if America is going to get involved.

Now, before we get into anything in the story and what is happening in Iran, I just want to take a second to say just how lucky we are. Like, I hope everyone appreciates that that we live in a country that at least at this point does not cut off our internet access, that still has freedom of speech, that I'm allowed to sit here behind a microphone and criticize our government if I want to, that we can vote actually for our elected officials, because millions around the world do not have that privilege.

Because right now, as we are sitting at the comfort of our own homes, as I am sitting behind this microphone with my telephone streaming to you guys, Iranians are fighting for basic human rights under a real a genuine fascist religious extremist government. Not the kind the left complains about, but a real fascist regime. And they are taking to the streets to fight for a better future. And allegedly, based on the few videos that we have been able to see that have made their way out of Iran again, they are living under a blackout.

These are what the streets have looked like for days now. Iranians have been in and out of blackouts for weeks now and information is limited, but human rights organizations have reported the death toll to now be in the tens of thousands. And that number has spiked just in the last 48 hours because I started looking into this and prepping this episode earlier this week on Monday when reports were saying that only a few hundred have been killed.

And then today when I sat down to record this episode, it looks like now it is estimated to be at 12,000. Now, first of all, I want to give my usual disclaimer per usual that I am not claiming to be any kind of expert on Iranian, you know, geopolitics, but I did learn a lot about the history as I was researching this episode. It was things that I did not know that maybe you also didn't know. So, I just wanted to share that before we get into what is happening today because I think it is really important context.

So, let's just take it back to 1951 when Muhammad Mosedc was elected as prime minister in Iran. Now an important fact and something that we are seeing everywhere all the time in geopolitics is that everything basically comes back to oil and Muhammad nationalized Iran's oil industry which was previously controlled by the British. Effectively they were telling the West to go f themselves. We don't want foreign interference in our government.

We are going to be autonomous. Go f yourself. And this is where it really gets interesting because in 1951 there was a coup against Muhammad executed by the CIA and MI6 in the UK. It was called operation Ajax and Muhammad was overthrown as prime minister and they reinstalled the sha who is you know the head of state the king who was Muhammad Ray Apolloy and hopefully I am pronouncing all of these names correctly. Now it was not until the early 2000s that people actually learned of the United States's involvement.

This was not known back in the 50s. One article reads that the New York Times published a special report based on a leaked CIA internal history that the extent of American culpability was finally revealed. In response, the then Secretary of State Maline Albbright could do little to deny the charges, admitting that the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development. And we're going to remember that for later in this episode when we're talking about new American involvement.

President Obama agreed, and in 2013, the CIA admitted culpability, explicitly referencing Operation Ajax, the code for the American operation in Iran in an internal history released by the agency. In 2017, the publication, over 1,000 files concerning American activity in Iran were released through the Foreign Relations of the United States series, confirming beyond all doubt long-running suspicions as to foreign involvement.

From the documents now available, it is clear that the CIA and their Iranian assets collaborated closely with the Sha and Iran's most reactionary forces to force Mosedc from office. I mean, the whole thing is just crazy. What is important to note is that after that in Iran, there was a deeply anti-western sentiment among many Iranians. Although it was only rumored at the time that the US was involved, Iranians were again, they were in the ' 50s, fed up with foreign influence, especially Western influence in their country.

Now, here is where it gets really complicated because if you have been on social media recently, like myself, I'm sure that you have seen all of these old photos and videos from the 1960s and '7s in Iran. You know, women in skirts with their hair showing, attending universities, young couples out at parties, on the beach, and people are posting this saying, you know, look what Iran used to look like. This is what they're fighting for.

This is what Iran could look like again. For example, Tommy Robinson posted this video and said, "This is how Iran was, and this is how Iran will be once again. Make Iran great again." Another woman said, "This was my mom and her mates in Iran before the Islamists with the help of the communists and the diabolically dim-witted Jimmy Carter took over the country." Again, saying, "Make Iran great again." Now, all of that is true.

Those are real photos. Those are real videos. Those were real experiences that people did have in Iran. But the sha again after the CIA involve him when they overthrew the government. He was not popular among all Iranians in large part because of his secret police force called the Savak. Hopefully I'm saying that correctly that brutally suppressed descent in Iran. There was also massive wealth inequality which led to great unrest with the students of Iran and the working and middle classes.

They also believed once again that their cultural identity as Iranians was being erased as the country became more and more western and embedded with foreign influence. And so my point in bringing all of that up is that when you were scrolling on X and Tik Tok this week and you were seeing those photos, remember that yes, that was real. But that freedom and that happiness did not exist for all Iranians. And the Shaw, while he might be, you know, better than what they have now, was still called a dictator.

He was authoritarian. And all of this brings us to the 1979 revolution. Because this revolution was not anti-freedom. They were not, you know, looking at themselves in their bathing suits and their hair showing and going, "Man, we all want to wear hijabs. We don't want to be like this." is no. They were anti-dictatorship and they were anti possibly most importantly anti-forign control. They wanted democracy in Iran.

They wanted freedom and they wanted their cultural identity respected. But after the revolution they did not get democracy. They got yet another kind of dictatorship. The shop was overthrown but Ayatollah Rohala Kani hopefully I'm pronouncing his name correctly established a theocratic state with himself as the first supreme leader. So they essentially just you know did a swap. They replaced one dictator with another and this created what we now know as the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Sharia law was imposed. Women's rights were stripped almost immediately and their country continued to deteriorate economically. The Ayatollah established Islamic law as the basis for all legislation. They put religious leaders at the top of the political food chain. But again, this is not what the people of Iran wanted when they started the revolution. They wanted a democracy. And very quickly in 1979, they realized that that is not what they had gotten.

One article reads, "On March 8th, 1979, tens of thousands of Iranian women took to the streets demanding the right to choose what to wear on the first international women's day of the post-revolutionary Iran." Postrevolutionary. The rally that was supposed to be a celebration of women became the start of a 6-day battle against the newly imposed Islamic dress code on them. It was perhaps the earliest sign that the revolution they had fought for had been hijacked.

Only weeks before, many of these same women, students, doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, and activists had marched against the dictatorial rule of the sha fighting for freedom, democracy, and equality, unaware that they would become the first victims of Iran's Islamization by the Ayatollah. And these peaceful protests, these demonstrations, the one that started on International Women's Day, they were once again met with government brutality like they had experienced under the sha, they were experiencing once again.

So then fast forward 20 years. Then in 1999, students then led the charge with another set of protests. And an article from that year reads, "Iran on the brink as students protests. Three days of clashes between reformers and Hisba hardliners erupt after a newspaper ban." But still nothing changed. The next big protests would once again come from young women in 2022. So another 20 years after that, and these protests were spurred after a young woman, 22-year-old Masha Amini, was arrested for quote unquote improper hijab.

But only a few days later under their arrest she died and the Iranian authorities said that she died coincidentally of a heart attack. But her family believes this to be untrue. Most of Iran believes this to be untrue. Her father said, quote, "What makes me sad is that the authorities are spreading lies about my daughter every day." They said Masa had a heart disease and epilepsy. But as the father who raised her for 22 years, I say loudly that Masa did not have any illness.

She was in perfect health. The person who hit my daughter should be put on trial in a public court, not a fake trial that results in reprimands and expulsions. Her family members also told news outlets that they were denied access to her autopsy report, pressured to quickly bury her and told not to speak publicly about the case, but they decided not to do that and the story could not be suppressed and protests erupted after her death, which then turn led to 500 other deaths and over 20,000 arrests.

Now, what made these protests very different and arguably a lot more powerful than the ones that took place in 1999 and 1979 was the internet. Because not only were the people in Iran able to see how people lived in other countries, but they were able to show us the realities of their country. They were filming everything. It was all over social media. Within hours, videos were flooding out of Iran just like this. Women in Iran set their headscarves on fire in fury.

They are tired of the morality police beating them up and the Islamic Republic leaders who police their every move. [cheering] Their protest is sparked by the death of this woman. And this is what the government of Iran that is run by old 80-year-old men does not understand. The internet is forever. You cannot erase videos seen by millions of people around the world. This is the 21st century. We are filming everything, including your citizens.

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So, now back to today 2026. Protests are once again erupting throughout Iran, and this is what you are seeing on social media. And articles are once again saying, you know, Iran is on the brink. The government might collapse. And it is a tale that older generations of Iranians have seen time and time again with no change in outcome. But not Gen Z. This is a different story for Gen Z and they are the ones leading this fight.

So all of that context, all that history that brings us to the protests that we are seeing right now and they started back in December. This report reads, "The protests that erupted in late December 2025 began with strikes by bizarre merchants and shopkeepers in Tran triggered by a deepening economic crisis marked by hyperinflation, rising food prices, and the rapid devaluation of the Iranian realale. Within days, demonstrations that began over economic grievances evolved into broader political demands, including calls for an end to the Islamic Republic.

Many young Iranians say that their generation differs from those before it, not only in age, but in outlook. Tarlin told Iran wire that unlike her parents, she and her peers grew up with the internet and constant access to information. "There was no internet in my parents youth. They were cut off from the world," she said. But from the beginning, we understood that this is not a normal life. Through social media, young Iranians follow events and protests in other countries.

They see peers elsewhere challenging their governments and believe that they too can demand change. So while these older generations have lived through this time and time again, whether it was in, you know, the ' 50s, the '7s, 1999, they might be tired of fighting. They might feel hopeless. But Gen Z, these young Iranians, they feel like they have nothing to lose and they are not ready to give up because again, they grew up online.

They can see Turkey, a Muslim majority country with no mandatory hijabs. They can see Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, with a democratic government. They see, you know, South Korea and Singapore, which in the 70s had a very similar economic level as Iran, but obviously developed very differently. And they're seeing all of this online and they're asking, why can't we have what they have?

Why can't we rise up and overthrow our government and finally get what we want? And so, over the last couple of weeks, these demonstrations have just gotten bigger and bigger. And the Ayatollah responded by cutting off the internet, as he does, while he and his government attacked and killed protesters just hoping that the rest of the world wouldn't see. And even when Elon Musk brought in Starlink to try to give internet to the people of Iran, the government was actively trying to jam the satellites to keep the entire country dark.

All the while the Ayatollah was on X tweeting blaming Trump for the deaths of thousands of Iranians. Like you cannot make this up. Like I'm sorry bud, but I think we are beyond damage control at this point. The world knows what you and your government are capable of. We know what you do. Now, speaking of that and all of us being very aware, the other thing that I want to point out is that even with all of these videos coming out, the articles, the reports, there is one sect of our country here in America that is totally silent.

The side of the country that conveniently is constantly yelling about fascism and religious extremism and women's rights and gay rights and yet consistently turns a blind eye when real dictators are murdering people in the streets. When real fascists and religious extremists are beheading women because they dare to show their hair, who throw gay people off of buildings. The Golden Globe just happened 48 hours ago. Not a word was said about Iran.

They were completely silent. Jack Mack, my good friend from Barcel, he summed this up well. Listen to what he said. >> I find it very interesting that I'm seeing no Instagram stories about Iran, which by the way, the current regime in Iran has killed over 2,000 protesters over the past week or so, if not more, including a 5-year-old child that was in the arms of a mother. Various Instagram stories that I look to to see what the appropriate thing to think is have said nothing.

I haven't seen anything there. Last night at the Golden Globes, nobody said anything. Not one mention. Not one. And they mentioned a lot of things. I'm not saying you only have to care about one thing. You can only care about one thing. That's how the world works. But I do find it interesting that I'm not seeing any of those. Oh, here's this colorful story where you swipe through on this post. >> Yeah. Where are the infographics?

Where are the infographics about the Ayatollah and the Iranian revolution? They don't exist because it's not convenient for them. Somebody commented and said the left wasn't told to be upset about it. Yeah, maybe it's because they've spent the last couple of years defending Muslim regimes. Maybe it's because they just elected a Muslim mayor to lead New York City, so they're like, "Oh, maybe we should sit this one out."

No, actually, you shouldn't. Because thousands of innocent people are being killed for what you have the privilege of doing every single day, complaining about your government, standing up to fight them. you have the privilege and the freedom to do that from behind your Instagram stories and they are being killed in the streets for wanting that same freedom to be able to do that safely. Somebody else commented and said, "Mark Ruffalo is awfully quiet."

Yeah, they all are. But Trump isn't. Which takes us to our next point in this episode, which obviously US involvement. It's a big question on everybody's minds because back in DC, he and his admin are deliberating whether or not the US should get involved in this fight. And while it is, you know, very clear that I think most of the United States stands with Iran and supports them, it is still up for debate if that is good enough.

And many Republicans are already calling for the military to get involved. And Trump is certainly considering that option just based on his posts on Truth Social. He said Iran is looking at freedom perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help President Donald J. Trump. And he has apparently been briefed throughout the week. Obviously, he's continued to put out statements like this saying, you know, help is on the way and hold the line and take over your institutions protesters.

And actually just an hour before I sat down to record this episode, he did an interview and he gave this threat to the Ayatollah and his government. >> You did say the US would get involved if Iran started killing protesters. They have >> by the many thousands according to reports. >> We'll see what that is. I've heard two numbers, but we'll see what that is. >> Well, now we're hearing that they're going to start hanging protesters tomorrow.

So, it comes back to the question, have they crossed your red line or has the line moved? >> I haven't heard about the hanging. if they hang them, you're going to see some things that uh I don't know what your uh where you come from and what your thought process is, but you'll perhaps be very happy. >> Now, obviously, you guys know me. You've heard me do episodes like this before, as with all foreign intervention. I'm skeptical.

I'm definitely more of an isolationist because like all of this is just so nuanced and it's so complicated because no human being, no good, decent human being wants to sit back and watch innocent people be murdered in the streets by their government. But we also have to acknowledge that America has stepped in before. Like like we talked about with Venezuela just last week, we have often left these places worse off than they were when we got there.

And it ends up harming Americans and American soldiers. And like it's ironic even that the US is toying with the idea of getting involved and being a savior here when so many Iranians have in the past blamed the US and the West for destabilizing them in the first place. And some even think that the West is behind this destabilization right now, which you might have seen on X. I don't really know anything about that.

I'm not going to try to theorize, but that is definitely circulating. But like but still people are putting a lot of pressure on Trump to get involved. One tweet stood out to me. It brought up our own history. This attorney said, "President, look out your window and he talks about um statues of two Frenchmen, one Polish patriot and one Prussian officer. Foreign commanders whose countries helped George Washington and a ragtag revolutionary army defeat the most powerful empire on earth."

That is the American origin story. A revolution against tyranny that survived because others stepped in to help. There was no shame in it then and there is no shame in it now. When the Iranian regime says it wants to negotiate, that is not diplomacy. It is delay. Authoritarian regimes negotiate to buy time to regroup to identify protesters and to finish the job. If this regime survives, what follows will not be stability.

It will be a blood bath that locks their power in permanently. And this poster does make a good point about quote unquote negotiating and trying to do things from afar. Now, Sarah Adams, who has a new show with Sean Ryan's company, she made a great video detailing everything that is going on Iran, talks about some of the history there, and she brought up everything that happened under Obama. how Obama basically sat on his hands, sat idly by and made statements like don't don't do that.

Don't kill those people. America is watching. That was basically what he did, but he never stepped in. Which taught the Islamic regime that essentially or actually literally that they could murder their protesters, their citizens in broad daylight while the world is watching on social media and no one would stop them. So Tyrron learned very quickly that wow, we can be as violent and suppress these protests as quickly as we want.

there isn't going to be any sort of international pressure or any kind of effects that come to us because of her. That was a dangerous lesson they learned. Now, later in that same video, Sarah also talks about how Trump might be feeling, knowing that pro-f freedom protesters also died in Iran while he was president four years ago. So, I don't know what's right. I don't know how Trump is feeling, if there is guilt there, if that's motivating him in any way, shape, or form.

But I do know that I don't want to see American soldiers dying in Iran in 15 years. I know that I don't want the US to be running Iran in some kind of failed Ponzi regime change that costs us billions of dollars. And I know that Iranians at those protesters do not want that either because for decades they have been saying we are tired of foreign interference and foreign control in our country. But obviously as people and even more so if you are a politician involved in this, thank God I am not.

Is there a point morally where you have to say enough? And then how do you go about taking that action? Or is this something that will just be a net negative for Americans and therefore we sit it out and say it's not our country. It's not our problem. Now all I do know and I want to be totally honest about this always is that it is a lot easier for me to sit here behind this camera and behind this microphone and give opinions.

It's very easy to have a black and white, you know, intervention bad POV until hits the fan until possibly 12,000 people are being murdered around the world for just standing up for freedom. And so on that not president. I would not want to be in his position and I do hope that we see a day when Iranians have a free and democratic country. I do not know how they are going to get there but this revolution right now it does seem different.