'Boogeyman mullahs': How decades of anti-Iran hysteria set us on the path to war

'Boogeyman mullahs': How decades of anti-Iran hysteria set us on the path to war Submitted by Nura Hossainzadeh on Tue, 03/03/2026 - 08:18 Western portrayals of the Islamic Republic as irrational and one-dimensional, devoid of political complexity, have helped ingrain prejudice and normalise a once-unthinkable war A man sits beside portraits of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a burial ceremony for a person killed in recent US-Israeli strikes, in Tehran on 9 March 2026 (Atta Kenare/AFP) Off The unthinkable has happened: the United States and Israel have launched a war on Iran , now in its second week. More than 1,300 people have reportedly been killed by American taxpayer-funded munitions, and some 100,000 displaced, while hospitals, schools, playgrounds and other civilian infrastructure have been destroyed . The assassination of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , in the opening US-Israeli strikes on 28 February was intended to decapitate the country's leadership and advance the regime-change goals openly declared by the Trump administration.