Iran Explodes

January 12, 2026

“Gradually, then suddenly”, is how Hemingway once described the onset of bankruptcy. The same applies to revolutions, and Iran, another odious and oil-rich Russian comrade-in-arms like Venezuela, is on the cusp of collapse and is also in Donald Trump’s cross-hairs. In November 2022, an unprecedented and sweeping protest by Iran’s Generation Z females against Iran’s misogynistic theocracy took place. It was heroic and hopeless, but one of the world’s largest female-led “revolutions” in history. That struggle failed, but anger has continued. The current uprising in Iran is the country’s sixth in recent history, but what’s different time is that the despots are bankrupt; protests are national not local; some members of Iran’s military side with the people; an Iranian leader has come to the fore, the son of its former Shah; and President Donald Trump has waded in with moral support and is contemplating military, cyber, and economic measures because of the death rate. On January 2, hours before Trump invaded Venezuela, he also stoked Iran’s rebellion by posting: “If Iran kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”