Mehrooz Mehrizi left Iran in 1990, shortly after Ali Khamenei took over as Supreme Leader. Now living in Kentucky, he says the ongoing U.S. conflict with Iran is giving him hope but only if it leads to complete regime change."N obody wants to admit that their country has stage 4 cancer, right? And we do," Mehrizi said.The death toll is rising as the war with Iran continues. Six U.S. service members have been confirmed dead as missiles continue to fall in the Middle East.For Mehrizi, the conflict is personal. He says the Iranian people have long been stripped of their ability to speak freely."The reason why we say stage 4 cancer is because an internal force has become sick, taken over the entire country. They got their paws into everything," Mehrizi said.He says the ruling class has consolidated power and wealth while ordinary Iranians suffer."They basically rule as an oligarchy and them and their cronies have all the money and everybody else is in total destruction mode," Mehrizi said.Mehrizi says one of the reasons he left Iran was because of Khamenei.In his view, U.S. military intervention is not something to fear it is something to welcome."As a stage 4 cancer patient you voluntarily enter poison into your blood, right? You go and get chemotherapy or you do radiation and those things actually kill your normal cells, but they kill cancer faster," Mehrizi said.In this case, Mehrizi says the United States is the chemo."Celebrating an external force attacking you, that that doesn't make any sense, right? Why would you be happy if another country attacks you?" Mehrizi said.He says the answer is hope something he says the Iranian people have been fighting for since long before this conflict began."This has been going on since 1989. It just progressively getting worse," Mehrizi said. "The mission is not accomplished by just bombing some facilities and ballistic missile sites," Mehrizi said.He says he understands why Americans on both ends of the political aisle disagree with intervention in the Middle East. But with the Supreme Leader now dead, Mehrizi believes this is a pivotal moment for the entire world. ...read more read less