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OPINION:
What is unfolding in Iran is heartbreaking and enraging.
Once again, innocent blood has been spilled at the hands of an evil regime that rules through fear, violence and religious extremism. The ayatollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have murdered their own people for daring to seek freedom.
We may never know the true number of lives lost, but history tells us it is likely in the thousands. These deaths are not accidents of unrest. They are the predictable outcome of tyranny.
The Iranian people are trapped, disarmed, silenced and stripped of the ability to defend themselves or overthrow a regime that answers peaceful protest with bullets and prison cells. This is what happens when a government fears its own citizens and ensures they have no means to resist.
That reality should cause Americans to pause, reflect and be deeply grateful. Instead, we watch Hollywood elites lecture us at awards shows about how terrible America supposedly is, an accusation that is simply untrue. It’s sickening to hear rhetoric that undermines the rule of law, attacks law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and dismisses the very institutions that protect our freedom.
We live in a democratic republic rooted in Judeo-Christian values and protected by a Constitution that recognizes rights as God-given, not government-granted. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, religion and assembly. The Second Amendment affirms the fundamental right of self-defense, a safeguard against criminal violence and government overreach.
Above all, we are governed by the rule of law.
President Trump understood this contrast clearly. His decision to send a U.S. armada to the Middle East and project strength in the region was not reckless; it was necessary. Peace is not preserved by weakness. Tyrants do not respond to diplomacy alone; they respond to strength, deterrence and consequences. History proves this time and again.
For 47 years, since 1979, the Iranian regime has exported terrorism, destabilized the Middle East and brutalized its own citizens with impunity. When America retreats, evil fills the vacuum. When America leads with strength, innocent lives are saved — not just at home but also abroad. Peace through strength is not a slogan. It is a proven doctrine.
The tragedy in Iran also serves as a sobering reminder of what we must never take for granted.
In 1789, as Benjamin Franklin exited Constitution Hall in Philadelphia, a woman asked him what kind of government the founders had given the new nation. His response was simple and profound: “A republic, madam — if you can keep it.”
More than 250 years later, that warning still echoes.
Millions of people from around the world continue to risk everything to come to the United States, not because we are perfect but because we are free. They come for opportunity, for liberty and for the chance to live the American dream envisioned by our Founders. That dream survives only if we defend it.
Legal immigration and assimilation are essential to preserving this grand experiment in human freedom. A nation without borders is not a nation. A Constitution without enforcement is merely paper. Freedom without responsibility cannot endure.
What we have seen in Iran is the end result of unchecked power, disarmed citizens and a regime that answers only to itself. What we have in America is fragile but extraordinary. It must be protected, strengthened and passed on.
We should pray for the people of Iran. We should condemn their oppressors without hesitation, and we should recommit ourselves to defending the principles that make America a beacon of hope in a dark world.
Because freedom is not inevitable. It is defended, or it is lost. As Franklin warned us, keeping the republic is now our responsibility.
• Rep. Brian Babin represents Texas’ 36th Congressional District and serves as chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.
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