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On Saturday, the United States and Israel launched a coordinated military assault on Iran, striking targets across Iranian cities. Iran’s Supreme Leader since 1989, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the strike, as confirmed by Iran’s state media. Dozens of senior officials died, as well.

I’m deeply outraged and disturbed by these recent headlines. This isn’t just a crisis, but a reminder of Western intrusion and the long-lasting, atrocious effects of military intervention.

The Iranian government has since declared 40 days of public mourning and described the killing as martyrdom. President Donald Trump responded on social media by celebrating Khamenei’s murder, calling it “justice” and promising the bombing campaign would continue until his goals were met.

This joint operation, celebrated by the U.S. and Israeli governments as a strategic victory, reveals a staggering sense of entitlement. There’s abhorrent arrogance in believing the most powerful military alliance in the world has the right to bomb a sovereign nation into submission — and then openly cheer its leader’s death on social media.

The rhetoric of “justice” and “peace” as labels for force is dangerously reminiscent of old imperial thinking. It reflects the white savior complex on a geopolitical scale, which has repeatedly failed ordinary civilians in the past.

This is real human suffering. In one of the most tragic disasters of this savagery, a girls’ elementary school in Minab was hit by an airstrike during class hours, and local officials reported that the first victims were 40 young girls. Schools are a place of safety and sanctity for students. The halls of Shajareh Tayyebeh should’ve been filled with laughter, learning and the ordinary routines of childhood.

I struggle to picture these little girls sitting at their desks, thinking it was another day at school, when they were suddenly reduced to casualties in a struggle they had no part in. That’s the unbearable reality of military intervention. There’s no strategic objective, no talk of deterrence or regime change and no morality.

It’s important to be clear: Even if Khamenei was an authoritarian who repressed dissent and wielded power harshly through Iran, executing regime change through bombing isn’t justice. It’s violence, and violence begets more violence.

I’m from Bangladesh and my family has been displaced, abused and killed through military regimes and interventions by “superpowers” and their disgraceful leaders; I want to make it explicit that Western civilization isn’t a state of progress or a goal to achieve.

We don’t want your military intervention. We aren’t helpless people who need saving by the “successful” West. The American regime has often considered itself the savior of the world, yet it’s the reason why cycles of systemic regimes never change through its displayed “intervention.” Claiming to intervene to serve justice — when this excuse has been used to loot resources time and time again — isn’t new to us.

This isn’t the first time the U.S. has intervened in Iranian affairs. This atrocity against the people of Iran is eerily similar to the Iraq invasion campaigns in the early 2000s. Tehran and the U.S. have a long history of covert intervention, coups and proxy conflict spanning decades, including the 1953 CIA-orchestrated overthrow of Iran’s democratic government. These interventions created cycles of repression and mistrust that persist today.

The way this assault was conducted, with near total reliance on airpower and external intelligence and without genuine diplomatic engagement, shows a repetition of the same pattern. A pattern of military dominance is substituting for political problem-solving. A belief that winning is measured by lives taken rather than by genuine peace.

It deserves to be stated simply. The U.S. and Israel worked hand in hand on this campaign, becoming partners in the co-execution of war. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claim their actions are meant to prevent nuclear threats, yet their weapons of choice remain bombs and missiles.

Considering America’s history of constant invasions in West Asia, I greatly fear this will cause a massive risk of drawing the region further into conflict.

This can’t remain as distant headlines as we scroll through our phones. Universities are spaces of critical thinking, moral courage and global awareness. As students, faculty and members of the Syracuse University community, we have a responsibility to engage thoughtfully with what’s occurring beyond our campus.

This means creating space for dialogue centered on human dignity. This means supporting humanitarian relief efforts and contacting elected representatives to demand diplomacy and protection of civilian lives.

Our campus is filled with students from diverse backgrounds, including students directly connected to Iran, and how we respond to our peers and this atrocity matters. If we believe in justice, human rights and the value of every life, then we must bring those principles into our own community conversations and actions.

Trump continues to show how careless he is in his endeavors and sporadic decisions as he plays the role of puppet master over this country. The people most affected by this assault aren’t the policymakers celebrating in Washington, D.C., and Tel Aviv. They’re the civilians, families and ordinary Iranians now living in fear.

Saimun Uddin is a graduate student majoring in engineering management. She can be reached at sauddin@syr.edu.

Published on March 1, 2026 at 10:11 pm