Thanks to U.S. President Donald Trump.

The decades-old dream of millions of Iranians and peace-loving people around the world may be coming true at last.

No more murdered Nedra Soltans or Mahsa Aminis. No more warmongering in the Persian Gulf. No more proxy terror. No more threat of a nuclear Iran. No more Morality Police. No more Revolutionary Guards.

Iran is the new face of democracy in the Persian Gulf…at that face is female. Photos and videos of Iranian women removing headscarfs and burning photos of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have become the iconic images of a revolution.

And it’s thanks to U.S. President Donald Trump.

As the situation develops in Iran, it hard to turn away from the news coverage. This past week in particular, foreign policy analysts and news hawks have been on the edge of their collective seats, breathless for the next precious and rare news dispactch from inside Iran.

For many people around the world who have been watching with horror the many human rights abuses of the Ayatollahs of Iran for decades, this day couldn’t have come soon enough.

But no regime lasts forever. No government ruling by force, however brutal, can stay in power indefinitely. 

Two years ago, an Iranian American I know spoke of the hope and promise of the Iranian people. Despite the abuses, despite the oppression, the state-sanctioned murders, kidnappings, torture, disappearances; despite the scores of innocent people killed by the Iranian regime, the Iranian people never lost hope.

“At what seemed to be the height of his power,” one Iranian American remarked to me not long ago, “Hitler’s army was staging a military parade down the streets of Paris. The size and sophistication of Nazi military might was a terrifying spectacle. How could such a force fail? What could stand against it? And yet, Hitler was dead a few weeks later, the Nazi army defeated. The allies victorious.”

Against all odds, good prevails.

And as the Iranian people struggle in what looks to be a final push to throw off the devastating chains of oppression foisted upon them for so long by a corrupt and murderous regime, the world waits in wonder and horror.

Horror at the staggering number of protestors murdered by the death throes of a mortally wounded tyrant, which according to inside sources stands close to 15,000 people; wonder at the bravery, fortitude, and steadfastness of people who just will not give up.

The Iranian people, fighting for their freedom, are demonstrating a courage that fills us all with hope and pride.

As of the latest reports, the corrupt regime of the Ayatollahs is currently in the process of abandoning ship — financially, at least. The highest ranking members of the Iranian government, including members of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah’s own family, are furiously working to transfer billions in assets out of Iran.

“We are now seeing the rats fleeing the ship!” U.S. Treasury Secreatry Scott Bessett told reporters today. “We can see millions, tens of millions of dollars being wired out of the country, snuck out of the country by the Iranian leadership! So they are abandoning ship, and we are seeing it come into banks and financial institutions all over the world. What we do at Treasury is we follow the money!”

“Under the yoke of the Islamic Republic, Iran is identified in your minds with terrorism, extremism, and poverty,” Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi said in a statement. “The real Iran is a different Iran. A beautiful, peace-loving, and flourishing Iran. It is the Iran that existed before the Islamic Republic, and it is the Iran that will rise again from its ashes the day the Islamic Republic falls.”

The son of the former Shah of Iran —  who was deposed by the Ayatollahs in 1979 — Mr. Pahlavi has been a central figure in the Iranian opposition movement. 

How united is Iran’s opposition party? No one really knows. It has always been, by mortal necessity, a secret network. And news out of Iran has always been spotty at best. In countries with strict state media, information isn’t dependable.

But as hard as the Ayatollahs have tried to control the flow of information into and inside Iran in recent years, news still reaches the citizens of Iran. And spreads.

Which is why U.S. President Donald Trump deserves much of the credit for helping to engineer this uprising. If the Iranian people claim their independence and depose the ruling regime now, it will be, at least in part, because of the recent actions President Trump took to remove Nicholas Maduro from power in Venezuela.

The main message was clear: “The U.S. is not afraid of boots on the ground.”

And there was another message too: “Threats to the U.S. will be dealt with.”

The specter of Nicholas Maduro — billionaire, autocrat, ruthless dictator, friend of Russia, China, and Iran — bound, blindfolded, still befuddled by sleep, clutching a water bottle in a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter being extradited with extreme prejudice to face the American justice system had to be haunting the dreams of Iran’s ruling class.

If it could happen to Nicholas Maduro, after decades in power, it could happen to anyone.

President Trump’s other messages to the Iranian people have been open: “Help is on the way.”

Iran’s rulers might be smart to flee now, while they still can.

With any luck, by the grace of God and everything good in this world, we will be celebrating tomorrow the beginning of a glorious new dawn in free Iran, mourning fallen heroes, and rebuilding a once and future great nation.

(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)