If you follow the news, you have likely heard of the recent Israeli-US attacks on Iran. Israeli officials announced that 600 sites had been targeted as of noon on March 2nd. I understand that people have mixed reactions to this ongoing conflict. Some might praise President Trump for confronting a potential nuclear threat in the Middle East, while others argue that another war in the region is the last thing we need. Here, I want to share my perspective as someone from the other side—I am, indeed, from Iran—in the hope that my words can help readers grasp the complexity of this conflict a bit more easily.

First and foremost, I want to share that Iranians are the happiest they have been in 47 years (since the Islamic Revolution). The reason, you might ask, is the death of the supreme leader—a theocratic dictator who led the country to poverty, nuclear conflict, and proxy wars. Khamenei was an embodiment of evil, a man who killed his own people by the thousands—along with hundreds of Americans—in the name of God. We owe this happiness to President Trump and the Israeli government. Don’t get me wrong: I just heard that a location merely two miles from my family’s home was bombed, among many other places. But why aren’t Iranians sad about this, and why shouldn’t you be either?

I would argue that the wretched dictator of Iran was a threat to the entire free world. He forced his extremist Islamic ideology onto the people of Iran and fought wars both inside and outside the country that we had no part in. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. He was a bloodsucking monster who killed over 30,000 people according to Time just a month ago simply because they protested in the streets demanding change.

You might ask why the US would fight this war. It is for the same reason the US fought Nazi Germany. Evil will not stop until it rules the world, so someone must step in to stop it. Aside from the US and Israel, no other country would be able to defeat this evil, especially given his alliances with China and Russia.

So, if you are not a fan of Trump and believe he has no right to attack another country, I ask you to think twice. Know that Iranians are thankful to him for eliminating the monster who made us suffer for just shy of half a century. And if you are in the other camp, arguing that this is not our war and we shouldn’t spend our money fighting other countries’ battles, I must remind you: Khamenei was not just a dictator oppressing his own people. He started proxy wars all around the world, funded terrorist groups in multiple countries, was developing an underground nuclear program, and was responsible for the deaths of many American soldiers.

Ali Parastesh is an international student from Iran studying in LSU’s chemical engineering Ph.D. program.