War was imposed on Ayatollah Khamenei by the Zionists and Western imperialists, who wanted Iran to submit and kneel. Under his wise and visionary leadership, alongside brave commanders who were themselves martyred, Iran resisted.
After September 11, 2001, America invaded Afghanistan to Iran's east, and in 2003 it invaded Iraq to Iran's west. Washington named Iran part of an 'axis of evil' and openly discussed who would be next.
With American armies on both borders, the pressure to submit was enormous. He did not submit.
Encircled
American armies stood on two borders. He did not submit.
The Occupations Fail
He judged that the occupations would exhaust themselves, and they did.
Iraq's occupation collapsed into chaos of the occupier's own making, and the last American combat troops left in 2011. In Afghanistan, the war ended twenty years after it began with the invaders' withdrawal in defeat.
Iran emerged from the decade unbroken, and the resistance to occupation across the region looked to Tehran. The encirclement meant to isolate Iran had instead extended its reach.
The Decade of Encirclement
Two invasions, two occupations, two withdrawals.
Oct 2001
Afghanistan invaded
America invaded Afghanistan on Iran's eastern border. Iran had opposed the Taliban for years, but he warned the occupation would bring neither peace nor freedom.
Jan 2002
The axis of evil
Washington named Iran alongside the very regimes it had just fought, and openly debated who would be invaded next. He answered that Iran would bow to no one.
Mar 2003
Iraq invaded
America destroyed the state on Iran's western border on the pretext of weapons that did not exist. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died in the chaos that followed.
2006
The 33-Day War
Between the two occupations, the Zionist entity was fought to a standstill in Lebanon by a resistance Iran had spent two decades building.
Dec 2011
America leaves Iraq
The last American combat troops withdrew from Iraq. The government that remained in Baghdad was closer to Tehran than to Washington.
Aug 2021
Kabul falls
Twenty years after the invasion, America fled Afghanistan in defeat. Both occupations meant to encircle Iran had ended, and Iran had not fired a shot at either.
The Decade in Pictures
Steadfast while the region burned.
The Friday pulpitThe people in the streetsUnbowed through the decade
