Senator Markwayne Mullinof the Senate Armed Services Committee Doesn't Understand Iran

Ignorance With a Kill Switch: How Senator Markwayne Mullin’s Confusion Exposes the Cost of American Anti-Intellectualism

The problem is no longer merely bad policy.
The problem is illiteracy in power.

U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin — a sitting member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, no less — has publicly demonstrated that he cannot distinguish between Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s current Supreme Leader.

One has been dead since 1989.
The other has been in power since 1989.

Mullin appears to believe they are the same man — or worse, interchangeable footnotes in a talking point about bombing Iran.

This is not a trivial error. It is not a gaffe. It is not semantics.

It is strategic ignorance in a position that holds life-and-death authority.

Getting the Basics Wrong — While Advocating Violence

According to the claim highlighted by journalist Yashar Ali, Mullin asserted that Ayatollah Khamenei has been Supreme Leader since 1979 — a role that belonged to Khomeini, who led the 1979 revolution and died a decade later.

Mullin further suggested that Khomeini came to power seeking a nuclear Iran — a claim that collapses under even the most cursory historical scrutiny.

In reality, Khomeini was deeply skeptical of nuclear ambitions. Iran’s modern nuclear enrichment push emerged years later, shaped by geopolitical pressures, sanctions, and regional power dynamics — not by revolutionary theology in 1979.

These are not obscure facts. They are Iran 101.

And yet, this senator — entrusted with oversight of the U.S. military — cannot pass the first paragraph of the syllabus.

This Is Not Just Embarrassing. It’s Dangerous.

When elected officials argue for war, accuracy is not optional. Precision is not elitism. Historical literacy is not a luxury.

Bombs do not care whether the person authorizing them did the reading.

The senator’s confusion is emblematic of a deeper American disease: a political culture that rewards certainty over competence, volume over knowledge, and aggression over understanding.

We are watching people who cannot tell who ruled Iran when speak casually about attacking Iran now.

That is not strength.
That is recklessness.

Anti-Intellectualism as Policy

For years, expertise has been mocked as weakness. Reading has been dismissed as elitist. Nuance has been branded unmanly. And now the consequences are fully visible:

A U.S. senator, confused about basic Middle Eastern history, weighing in on military action as if the region were a monolith and its leaders interchangeable villains in a cable-news script.

This is how wars start — not with evil masterminds, but with uninformed confidence.

Wars Don’t Start With Malice. They Start With Ignorance.

No one is accusing Senator Mullin of criminal intent. The charge is more damning than that.

He does not know what he is talking about — and does not appear to know that he does not know.

History is littered with wars launched by leaders who misunderstood the people, the politics, and the past of the countries they attacked. America has paid for that ignorance in blood, treasure, and global credibility.

We are told, again, that escalation is necessary. That force is the answer. That the stakes are existential.

But if the people voting to unleash that force cannot tell Khomeini from Khamenei, then the existential threat may be closer to home.

Because the most dangerous weapon in Washington is not a missile.

It is confidence without comprehension.