Disclaimer: The views presented are those of the author himself and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of War or the United States Marine Corps.
As a student of politics here at Pomona, there are many insights and takeaways from lectures, classes, research assignments, etc. But the largest is simple: The world is a mess.
I, like many other Americans, am tired of our nation being pushed around in recent years. Whether this be by outlaw foreign regimes abroad or academics at home who have lost confidence in America, these occurrences do not reflect strength. They do not represent who we are as a nation. America was not built by a people who apologized for its existence. It was built by people who believed this republic, a nation of settlers, was worth fighting for.
Coming from an Iranian family who left Iran and settled in America, and having visited Iran before, I can see firsthand what happens when the good, decent people of a nation do not stand up and fight for what they know to be right. During the Islamic Revolution, Islamic fanatics and their supporters overran Iran’s government. When I ask many older Iranians how they allowed this to happen, they admit they didn’t know any better.
I do not believe our nation can afford that kind of ignorance. As war returns to the center of world politics, my position is clear: America must recover the will to fight — not only against those who seek to harm us abroad — but also against a spiritual retreat that threatens to hollow out our nation from within.
For that reason, among other convictions, I applied and was selected to report to Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia this summer, where I will begin training to earn the honor of leading Marines and commission as a company-grade officer in the United States Marine Corps.
A few weeks ago, I was at Officer Selection Team training in Pasadena under the leadership of Captain Francis Skehan. We were holding a long plank while our Gunnery Sergeant Jose Rivera spoke to us. He had served in Syria. He saw the reality of war up close, and he saw what our enemies do. While we held the plank, he told us to look up. In front of us were young people playing baseball. Their families stood nearby, laughing. Relaxing. Living normal lives. Then he asked us: “Are they training for war?”
No, they’re not. Nonetheless, our enemies get a vote. Whether we prefer peace or not, they have a say in whether that peace holds. While we sit idly in the face of international conflict, our enemies act. They organize, and they prepare to harm us.
During the Cold War, our primary adversary, the Soviet Union, offered a rivaling political vision. Unlike the Soviet Union, our adversaries today do not compete with America through a rival governing vision. They resort to terror, destabilization, and destruction for what Steven Erlanger attributes as their primary objective: To ensure the survival of their Islamic state in Iran. And yet, in the face of this threat, many on our campuses now treat even the recognition that America has legitimate interests of its own as taboo.
This is dangerous because, whether we like it or not, the world still depends on America to think outside of its borders. For millions, we are more than a shining city on a hill — we are a nation looked to as a last hope for strength, stability and guidance when their own governments fail them. We are a nation of explorers, pioneers and fighters — a nation that stands up for itself, that is not afraid to leave home to fight for what is right. This is who we are as Americans. This is the responsibility we inherit.
Now, on the other side of the world, the Islamic regime in Iran has massacred tens of thousands of its own people in weeks this January, and strangled international economies by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz. They continue to act with open hostility toward the prospect of peace, constantly chanting “Marg bar Amrika” (translated from Persian as “Death to America.”)
At the very conception of their state, they took Americans hostage at our embassy in Tehran and enforced religious fanaticism that has led my parents and millions like them to settle abroad. They are responsible for the deaths of more than 600 Americans in the last decade, and have recently launched missiles that have taken the lives of more than 13 Americans. We are not being given the choice between peace and war, but whether we fight or surrender — whether their aggression continues to advance or is finally checked.
They are emboldened to continue their aggression, as they bet on Western exhaustion — a bet theythey have since their conception in 1979. The Iranian regime’s success relies on Americans becoming too guilty to defend others, too comfortable to sacrifice and too confused to tell the difference between oppressor and oppressed. They wager that Americans will submit to negative rhetoric surrounding intervention and march out in our streets demanding our military withdraw from the conflict — thus cementing an Iranian victory. In short, they bet that America will let itself be pushed around by its own internal ideological divisions.
This July, our nation will mark 250 years of refusing to be pushed around. Starting from the original continental reckoning that established self-rule, the world would do well to remember that the United States has repeatedly demonstrated both the capability and the resolve to fight and win when our freedom is challenged. From the farmers who bravely stood their ground at Lexington and Concord in 1775, to the Soldiers who occupied a quarter of Berlin in 1946, to the Marines who liberated Baghdad in 2003, Americans have continuously redefined the strength and responsibility inherent to what global power means.
This power has never been incidental and has always depended on more than arms alone. It depends on us being willing to believe America’s cause is worth supporting, worth advancing and ultimately worth fighting for. If adversaries continue to seek harm to the United States, they should understand that not only does America still possess the will to respond, but the national character required to endure hardship and act with purpose.
Today, despite the internet blackout, I hear from family members abroad that Iranians continue to cheer each American bomb that lands on Islamic Regime facilities. Millions of Iranians, as well as Venezuelans, Cubans and an entire world still trapped under the remaining strongholds of tyranny depend on Americans to live up to their legacy as the “Arsenal of Freedom.” As Americans, this is what the moment requires of us.
Writing this, I am not sure what the future holds for our nation or the world. But what I know is this: The moment will not wait. The threats we face are increasingly growing and real, and ignoring them will not make them disappear. The United States, even if she stands alone, must be ready. We must recover our will to confront the burdens ahead of us. And should these burdens grow heavier, and the circle of allies grow thinner, the duty to carry on will remain. That is what leadership demands. When that moment comes, I plan to answer it.
Ryan Kossarian PO ’27 believes in America.
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