Australia has long thrived within the protective orbit of two of history’s most benign empires: first the British, and then, with some hesitation, the American. But the inherent risk of any empire is the quality of its stewards. History reveals that at critical junctures, the ‘experts’ who rule us are too often seized by a collective insanity – a pathological urge to betray their most loyal allies in favour of their most ideological enemies.

When we look at Iran, once the West’s greatest sentinel in the Middle East, we must ask: how was it that the creation of a ruling clique of evil, seventh-century, bloodthirsty mullahs was actually decided by the very men entrusted with Western security?

The collapse of the 2,500-year-old Persian monarchy was not an accident of fate; it was a choice made in a tropical paradise. In January 1979, the ‘Big Four’ leaders met at the Guadeloupe Conference. They were the US and French presidents Jimmy Carter and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the UK’s  PM  James Callaghan and the West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

They were not acting in ignorance. It was known at the time that the Ayatollah was a seventh-century theocrat. Like Hitler with Mein Kampf, Khomeini had already published his medieval blueprint for the state, Velayat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Jurist), as early as 1970. Intelligence services surely knew of the mullahs’ unholy alliance with the communist Tudeh party. Yet, the West withdrew its support, signalling to the Iranian military – to whom the British had sold 1,500 advanced Chieftain tanks – to stand down.

The ultimate ‘rug-pull’ was executed by General Robert ‘Dutch’ Huyser, whom Carter dispatched to Tehran with a specific, devastating mandate: to ‘neutralise’ the Iranian army. Huyser met with top generals, persuading them to stay in their barracks. This cold-blooded stand-down order ensured that 400,000 soldiers remained idle while their nation was surrendered to a mob of fanatics.

The betrayal was followed by a moral void. Having forced the abdication of the Shah’s father in 1941, the British held a debt of honour they chose to ignore. When the gravely ill Shah sought refuge, the British government treated him as a security risk rather than a friend.

The most poignant detail of this desertion was the ‘Wright Mission’. The British government dispatched Sir Denis Wright, a former ambassador, to the Bahamas to tell the dying ‘King of Kings’ that he was not welcome in Britain. Of all the leaders of the West, only the Egyptian, Anwar Sadat, had the steel to stand by his friend, proving that loyalty is a virtue the ‘Big Four’ had long since discarded.

This pathology reached a state of near-insanity under Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Despite decades of hearing ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to the Great Satan’ from Tehran, and criminal attacks by the regime, they handed over tens of billions of dollars to the world’s primary purveyors of terrorism. While one Republican and most Democrats now attack Donald Trump, one wonders if they have even heard the slogans of the Iranian regime or were aware of its many acts of aggression against the US given that they assume that it is innocent.

They ignored the fact that the mullahs had joined Moscow’s and Beijing’s  Axis of Evil.  Trump, observing the failure of his predecessors to stop the Axis power North Korea’s nuclear rise, was the only leader to understand that the mullahs must not be allowed to follow that path. Unlike the ‘appeasement-by-bribery’ model, Trump understood that the only way to stop them was to dismantle their financial and military structures.

The liberation of Iran will represent a singular moment for the West.

Trump is executing a tectonic shift by facilitating the return of Persia to its rightful place. By cutting off the ‘dark fleet’ oil flows, the Trump administration is not only liberating Iran but also strangling the industrial engine of Beijing. Iran and Venezuela have been supplying up to 15 per cent of China’s total crude oil imports at heavily discounted prices – often $10 to $15 below global benchmarks. By ending this illicit flow, Trump is reclaiming Western energy dominance and dismantling the Axis from the inside out.

History confirms that Muslim-majority countries normally thrive best under monarchical government. In the Islamic world, a ‘republic’ has too often meant a path to dictatorship or the anarchy seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. A monarchy, as seen in Morocco, provides a stable anchor – a pillar that is constitutionally and culturally superior to the seventh-century mullahs.

As recognised by Iran’s widespread and highly educated diaspora, typified in Australia by a young leader, Danial Taghaddos, the best way for Iran to be well governed is for the nation to follow the sophisticated, secular blueprint developed by the son of the Shah, Reza Pahlavi. This was designed specifically to avoid the power vacuums that followed the American departures from Baghdad and Kabul. This centres on the National Uprising Institution, a transitional body that carries the residual authority of the throne. It is designed to be a ‘self-dissolving bridge’, managing the state only until a permanent government is established.

Unlike the disastrous ‘de-Ba’athification’ of Iraq in the George W. Bush era, which turned soldiers into insurgents, Pahlavi’s plan integrates the professional military. It invites them to take a new, secular oath to the Iranian nation rather than a radical cleric. Moreover, Pahlavi’s personal strength lies in his commitment that the people will be in charge. They will, for example, decide in a referendum and instruct the Constituent Assembly whether the constitution for a democratic secular Iran will be a monarchy or a republic.

The darkness is lifting. From the shameful pseudonyms of the ‘Wright Mission’ to the tropical betrayals of Guadeloupe, we have arrived at a moment of restoration. Donald Trump will be remembered as one of the greatest American presidents – a Churchillian figure who saw the reality of the threat when the ‘experts’ were blind.

With ‘Javid Shah!’ (Long live the King!) resounding across the land, Iran is finally poised to reclaim its place among the great nations of the West. The hour of freedom has arrived, led by those who finally understand that the only way to secure the future is to correct the betrayals of the past.