Why Iranians are celebrating being bombed

March 2, 2026 — 2:00am

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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader who ruled Iran with unwavering brutality for 36 years, is dead. You can see the giddy shock on people’s faces, as they rush spontaneously into the streets of Iranian towns and cities in some of the clips that have made it to social media.

There are eruptions of joyous dancing, sweets offered to strangers, chanting and cheering and singing – all as the United States and Israel rain down bombs on a country which, despite Khamenei’s demise, remains for now in the grip of mass-murdering theocracy.

There are reports of civilian casualties, including at a girls’ school in Hormozgan province. Despite decades spent diverting billions to fund terrorist proxies, ballistic missile and nuclear programs, the Islamic Republic had not built a single bomb shelter for its long-suffering civilian population. That everyday Iranians would risk taking to the streets to celebrate the death of their own leader during a time of active war speaks volumes. These are a desperate people, many for whom war had come to offer a more hopeful future than the absence of it.

Some of the political........

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