"Know Your Adversary…
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Not a Fortunate Son"
by Larry C. Johnson
"I say adversary instead of enemy. Mr. Khamenei and the Iranian people are not the enemies of the US. They did not attack us on February 28, we attacked them… And we did so while the Iranians were engaged in good faith negotiations, or so they thought. Iran’s new Ayatollah shares something in common with President John F. Kennedy and President George H. W. Bush… He’s a combat veteran.
Since 1960, the United States has only had two presidents who actually fought in a war… In the case of Kennedy and Bush that was World War II. I concede that Kennedy played a key role in fanning the flames of the Vietnam war but, before he was murdered, he reportedly was going to put an end to the US role. George H.W. Bush oversaw the first invasion of Iraq in 1991, but he at least made sure the US confined itself to ejecting Iraq from Kuwait. The rest of the lot, the ones who embroiled the US in subsequent needless wars, had zero combat experience. Donald “Bone Spurs” Trump avoided serving in Vietnam. He was too wealthy and entitled to be bothered with enlisting in the Army or the Marine Corps… Just another Fortunate Son:
I think it is important that the American people understand that Mojtaba Khameni was a 17 year old boy from a privileged family - sort of like Baron Trump - who ignored his father, enlisted, fought on the front lines in that war with Iraq and was wounded. He absolutely knows the cost of war.
Mojtaba Khamenei (full name: Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, born September 8, 1969, in Mashhad, Iran) is the second son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He served as a teenager in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the final years of the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988). Just a reminder… The US played a critical role in helping Iraq attack Iran by providing the chemicals used to make chemical weapons and by providing intelligence to the Iraqi General Staff.
Mojtaba joined the IRGC around 1987 (some accounts say 1986) after completing secondary school, at approximately age 17. He was from a privileged family and, by virtue of his age, could have stayed home. But he chose to fight for his country against a foe that had launched a war of aggression against Iran at the behest of the Untied States. This was during the later stages of the war, when Iran was conducting offensives and facing Iraqi counterattacks. He was assigned to the Habib ibn Mazahir Battalion (also spelled Habib bin Muzahir or Habib Ibn Mazaher) within the 27th Mohammad Rasulullah Division of the IRGC Ground Forces. This unit consisted largely of ideologically committed volunteers and operated on the western front. The battalion’s name references a companion of Imam Hussein from the Battle of Karbala, reflecting the religious-martyrdom ethos common in IRGC units.
Mojtaba saw real combat. One account mentions he went “missing” at one point during the recapture of Mehran (a border town that changed hands multiple times). Details on specific combat roles, injuries, or awards remain limited. Public accounts indicate he participated in several IRGC operations, including:
Operation Mersad (1988), the final major battle of the war, which involved repelling an Iraqi-backed Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) incursion into Iran.
Operation Beit ol-Moqaddas 2, 3, and 4 (part of a series of offensives aimed at recapturing territory).
Operation Valfajr 10 (Dawn 10), a major Iranian offensive in 1988.
Mojtaba’s service in the Habib Battalion helped him build lasting personal and institutional ties within the IRGC. Many comrades from this period later rose to senior positions in Iran’s security, intelligence, and military apparatus (including figures like Hossein Taeb, who headed IRGC intelligence, and others associated with Qassem Soleimani’s circle). These wartime relationships are widely viewed as a foundational element of his influence in Iran’s hardline and security networks.
After the war ended in 1988 with Iran’s acceptance of a UN ceasefire, Mojtaba shifted focus to religious studies in Qom and later assumed behind-the-scenes roles. He has maintained strong connections to the IRGC and Basij (where he reportedly held a command role in later years), but his wartime service is often highlighted in Iranian narratives as evidence of his revolutionary credentials. Unlike Donald Trump, who only knows war through the movies he watches, Mojtaba Khamenei learned at a young age the horrors of war and the sacrifice it entails. Keep that in mind in the coming days."
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