Snippets from IRGC’s ‘Open Letter to American People’

October 9, 2026

Below are excerpts from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ open letter to people in the U.S., selected and with an intro by Press TV, published on Sept. 29, 2026.

‘Wake up and wrest back control from corrupt politicians’ 

In an unprecedented move, the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) has bypassed the U.S. government and corporate media to issue a direct, hard-hitting open letter addressed to the American public, scholars and journalists.

Released seven months into the U.S.-Israeli war of aggression, the letter exposes the catastrophic strategic failures of the American war machine and the hypocrisy of Washington’s “Empire of Lies.”

It highlights the profound resilience of the Iranian nation following the cowardly assassination of the martyred leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and the massacre of 168 schoolchildren in Minab.

Drawing on Islamic theology, historical grievances and contemporary geopolitical realities, the IRGC outlines how Iran achieved a decisive victory with merely 1% of the US defense budget. Ultimately, it issues a compassionate call to action: urging Americans to dismantle their global empire of 800 military bases, reject their Zionist-aligned elite and reclaim their country before it collapses under the weight of its own arrogance.

Below are the key snippets from the IRGC’s historic open letter:

Reality of Iran’s victory and U.S. defeat

• Seven months ago, the U.S. military launched a war in violation of international law, attacking an elementary school in Minab and murdering 168 innocent schoolchildren, while simultaneously assassinating the Leader of the Islamic Republic, Imam Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
• To determine which side has won, we must look at objectives. The U.S. and Israel initially sought regime change and the partition of Iran. When those failed, the U.S. president blurted out thirteen different, contradictory targets — from seizing Kharg Island to returning Iran to the Stone Age and even annexing the Strait of Hormuz and imposing a 20% toll — betraying a complete absence of coherent strategy.
• The U.S. military, the largest and costliest in history, has scored no wins. They failed to realize even their ulterior motive of diverting the world’s attention from Israel’s horrific genocide in Gaza.
• Iran’s armed forces decimated American bases in the Persian Gulf, neutralizing over 200 expensive strategic drones, 12 tanker and transport aircraft, 30 fighter jets and at least one AWACS aircraft. The operational capability of 18 U.S. bases was reduced to nearly zero, destroying more than 350 primary facilities.
• For the first time in history, Iran has exerted and retained operational control over the Strait of Hormuz. American warships were forced to flee deep into the Indian Ocean, and not a single US vessel can now dock at the vaunted US Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain.
• At the beginning of the war, people in Manama and Doha witnessed American military personnel fleeing their bases, running around in their underwear looking for places to hide. American bases now resemble ghost towns, and there is serious discussion in Washington about dissolving them entirely.
• The war completely neutralized much of the U.S. government’s decades-long cognitive and cultural warfare aimed at weakening Iran’s national and religious values and alienating Iranian youth from their cultural heritage. The Minab attack and the assassination of the Leader instead strengthened Iranian youth’s determination to resist, reinvigorating the Islamic Republic and ensuring it will thrive for decades to come.

True meaning of ‘Death to America’

• The nations of Iran and America are both victims of the oppression of the occupants of the White House — which should aptly be named “the House of Oppression.”
• The U.S. has 4% of the world’s population but 20% of its prisoners. Every year, more than 1,300 Americans are shot and killed by police. Forty million Americans live below the poverty line.
• The phrase “Death to America” does not express ill will toward the American people. It is a prayer for the eradication of the diabolical ruling elite whose seat of power is the White House. It is a cry born of the pain of oppression. Do the oppressed not have the right to wish death upon the evil oppressors responsible for killing their children and plundering their resources?
• The U.S. government has long employed the strategy of “divide and conquer” against its own people. The polarization in American society today is at levels not seen since the Civil War.
• We genuinely mean it when we say that Iranians and Americans have been wronged by the same cohort of elite actors. We share the same pain.

Secret to Iran’s invincibility

• The main factor behind Iran’s victory is not drones and missiles. It is threefold: The Qur’an’s superior doctrine, the Iranian nation’s faith in the tenets of the Qur’an, and the competent, righteous leadership of a man of God.
• If you want to understand why Iranians are not intimidated by the extreme brutality of the American war machine, you must read the tragedy of Karbala. Read how Imam Hussein fought fiercely despite his thirst, and how his infant son, Ali al-Asghar, had his throat torn by an enemy arrow. Read how Hazrat Abbas lost both arms attempting to deliver water to parched children, and how Lady Zaynab epically endured and safeguarded his legacy in captivity.
• The martyrdom of Imam Seyyed Ali Khamenei shone a spotlight on the concept of Vilayat al-faqih (the rule of the jurisprudent). His historic funeral, with over 40 million mourners in Iran and 12 million in Iraq, vindicated the superior moral and political legitimacy of the Islamic Republic, a system where the leader lives like the lower echelons of society, allocating no privileges to himself or his family.
• Imam Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei has proven his mettle by steering the country through turbulent times and decisively pushing back two of the world’s mightiest armies. He possesses the five constitutional virtues: jurisprudence, justice, piety, political insight, and courage. Conversely, the U.S. commander-in-chief is an inveterate liar and an insanely avaricious man who calibrates the pace of war based on what makes his personal stock purchases more lucrative. It is perfectly clear which of the two leaders God supports.

The 73-year rap sheet

• The hostility did not begin in 2026. It traces back 73 years to the 1953 CIA-backed coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, followed by the restoration of the Shah and the creation of the SAVAK [the former shah’s brutal political police force] with CIA and Mossad assistance.
• Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the U.S. embassy in Tehran became a “den of espionage,” coordinating with insurgent factions and military elements involved in attempted coups against the new Islamic Republic.
• The United States backed a domestic terror network that killed around 20,000 Iranians, including senior political officials, scientists, and ordinary civilians.
• During the Imposed War, the United States eventually entered the conflict directly after supporting Saddam Hussein. The U.S. and its European allies supplied the Iraqi regime with chemical weapons that were subsequently used against Iranian and Iraqi civilians.
• In a staggering crime against humanity, the U.S. military deliberately shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf in 1988, killing all 290 men, women and children aboard. The captain of the U.S. warship involved was subsequently decorated.

Cost of America’s wars

• The United States’ experience in Afghanistan and Iraq demonstrates the strategic and economic costs of prolonged military intervention. The 20-year Afghanistan occupation cost roughly $3 trillion, caused 2,354 US military fatalities and 168,000 Afghan casualties, and ended with the withdrawal of U.S. forces and the Taliban’s return to power.
• The invasion of Iraq cost an estimated $4 trillion, 4,800 U.S. military deaths, and 265,000 Iraqi deaths. The war ultimately weakened the U.S. position in the region while strengthening Iran’s influence in Iraq.
• Decades of American wars and interventions have accelerated the erosion of U.S. global economic power, with the cost of its broader military and interventionist policies exceeding $8 trillion, according to its own estimates.

U.S. complicity in Gaza genocide

• Washington’s unwavering support has enabled Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, presenting the war as part of a broader pattern of US military and political backing for Israel.
• Israel’s genocide has left 73,900 Palestinians killed, including 21,700 children. Israel has destroyed homes, schools, and medical facilities while severely restricting food, water, and other necessities.
• The sheer scale of these crimes compels us to applaud the incredible bravery of Aaron Bushnell, the U.S. Air Force serviceperson who died after self-immolating outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C., presenting his act as the ultimate expression of opposition to the treatment of Palestinians.

‘Empire of Lies’

• The White House is a nonstop factory of lies. They lied about Afghanistan, they lied about Iraq’s unconventional weapons, and they are lying about Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
• For 25 years, the White House has claimed Iran is weeks away from a nuclear bomb. If this were true, Iran would possess dozens of bombs today. The tragic irony is that Trump began this war by murdering Iran’s Leader, the very man who issued a religious decree declaring nuclear weapons inhuman and impermissible.
• The U.S. is saddled with an astronomical national debt exceeding $40 trillion, making it the most indebted country in history. The U.S. has gone from exporting advanced technologies to becoming a Third World country that must sell raw crude oil and coal to survive.
• American leaders are preoccupied with inessential matters. While the U.S. squandered trillions on the war, China surpassed the U.S. in AI [artificial intelligence] and quantum technology. Meanwhile, Trump wastes resources on building a White House ballroom, fighting to put his name on the Kennedy Center, and proposing the absurd “Arc de Trump.”
• The U.S. military is governed by a crooked ethos that condones the killing of innocent children. American forces are intellectually and morally hollow, and consequently, when confronted by an able opponent, the US military is shamefully incompetent, a paper tiger.

IRGC and hypocritical label of ‘terrorism’

• The U.S. hypocritically designates the IRGC as a terrorist organization simply because it is the principal force behind the enemy’s defeat.
• The Islamic Revolution was the triumph of blood over sword, won exclusively by an unarmed people against a regime buttressed by the world’s superpower. The IRGC was established by the Constitution to safeguard this grassroots revolution.
• The IRGC has thwarted countless U.S. attempts to instigate coups and secession, and it is the world’s most effective organization in combating terrorism, having eradicated the U.S.-created Daesh [ISIS or the Islamic State militias] in a few short years under the legendary Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani. In a final act of cowardly revenge, Trump ordered General Soleimani’s assassination. There is not a single verifiable instance where the Guard has committed an act of violence against civilians.
• The one overarching crime for which the IRGC has been deemed a terrorist organization is that it refuses to submit to global hegemony.

Call to action for American people

• Americans need to wake up and wrest control back from corrupt politicians. Now is the time, as the American political system is at its weakest.
• Demand that your government shut down the 800 costly and useless American bases scattered throughout the world and put an end to the endless aid given to Israel.
• God provides the answer in both the Old Testament (Jeremiah 18:7–10) and the Holy Qur’an (13:11): nations can change their fate by changing their conduct. “Indeed, God does not alter the affairs of a people until they alter their own affairs.”
• In shaping future relations, Americans must demand that their politicians abide by the Golden Rule, affirmed by Jewish, Christian and Islamic teachings: “Do to others that which you wish to be done to you.” Would any American like to see 300,000 homes in their cities reduced to rubble, as Israel has done in Gaza? Would they accept their own villages or schools being subjected to the destruction experienced in Lebanon or Minab?
• If the U.S. continues its crimes, people all around the world will rise, and the explosion of popular anger will set fire to all of America’s interests. The U.S. economy will be hit by a massive earthquake.
• We await the return of Jesus Christ along with Imam Mahdi. Together, they will usher in the Kingdom of God and lead humanity toward liberation from all forms of oppression. We would like to see you, the people of America, standing by our side as we are led toward final victory.