TJ Madsen is among the founding members of the New Herald Tribune and chairs the editorial board. He worked for national syndicated newspapers in Newark, Philadelphia, and Baltimore before moving to the midwest.
June 19 , 2025
Washington, DC - Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) ignited controversy this week after suggesting that Israeli forces entering Tehran could be “greeted as liberators.”
“The Iranian people are not our enemies. They have suffered under a brutal theocracy for decades,” Cruz said. “If the regime in Tehran were to collapse and Israeli troops were to enter in a stabilizing role, I believe many Iranians would greet them not as occupiers, but as liberators.”
The senator’s remarks immediately sparked debate across political, academic, and international communities. Critics called the suggestion historically tone-deaf and diplomatically dangerous, warning it could inflame regional tensions and alienate ordinary Iranians.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) called Cruz’s comments “reckless and fantastical,” while former Ambassador to Iran John Limbert, now a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, labeled the idea “absurd.”
“The Iranian people, even those who despise their current government, are deeply nationalistic,” Limbert said. “To imagine they would welcome foreign troops—particularly from a nation perceived as an adversary—as liberators, is to completely misunderstand Iran’s history and identity.”
Middle East analysts were similarly skeptical. Dalia Dassa Kaye, a senior fellow at the Wilson Center, warned that Cruz’s framing risked invoking memories of the 2003 Iraq invasion.
“This kind of language—'greeted as liberators'—echoes disastrously misplaced assumptions made before the U.S. invasion of Iraq,” Kaye noted. “It fundamentally misjudges how foreign military presence is perceived in the region, regardless of intent.”
Cruz’s office defended the senator’s comments on Wednesday, issuing a statement clarifying that his remarks were “hypothetical and based on a future scenario in which the Iranian regime has collapsed and Israel is acting in coordination with allies to secure peace and stability.”
Conservative commentator Mark Levin defended Cruz on social media, writing: “Ted Cruz is right to remind us that the Iranian people are not synonymous with the tyrannical mullahs. Israel standing with them in a time of transition would be an act of solidarity, not imperialism.”
In Iran, state media denounced Cruz’s remarks as “proof of Zionist-American imperial designs,” while Iranian dissident groups offered mixed reactions. Some exiled activists emphasized that while many Iranians oppose the Islamic Republic, they also value national sovereignty and would resist any foreign military incursion.
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