TEHRAN — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed Iran in parts of his Wednesday evening speech at the Acropolis in Athens. Taken as a whole, his speech was a selective reading of history; a flimsy version of Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations." When the argument is flimsy, a theatrical stage must inevitably be built out of historical symbols. The audience is meant to be impressed by the backdrop, not by the force of the reasoning.

The same logic applies to the war. When a war is launched without careful calculation, on the basis of impulsive, gut-feel decisions, a civilizational and historical veneer must later be tailored to justify it. Rubio's colleague, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, has gone even further, seeking to legitimize the same action with religious and evangelical language.

I do not intend here to critique every aspect of Rubio's speech. Other observers have, to some extent, already done so, particularly from a historical perspective. What is striking to me is where Rubio called the Islamic Republic of Iran a "cult of death."

The phrase reminded me of George W. Bush's "axis of evil" after September 11. The pattern is the same: manufacturing a label to evade accountability. Most of the perpetrators of those attacks were Saudi nationals, and no documented link to Iran was ever proven, yet the then-US president chose to point the finger at Iran. Twenty-five years later, the victims' families remain aggrieved by Riyadh's lack of accountability and by the appeasement of the matter by US administrations — Republican and Democratic alike.

Labeling Iran a "cult of death" is, first and foremost, an insult to the intelligence of that speech's audience. One need only review the record of the seven-month war:

Who attacked a school in Minab on the first day of the war? Who targeted Iran's bridges, roads, and civilian infrastructure?

Thousands of civilians were killed in these attacks, some 300 of them schoolchildren alone. The unarmed vessel Dena was also sunk in waters near Sri Lanka, killing more than a hundred sailors. Trump later stated bluntly that we did it for fun.

Nor is this record limited to that. Who threatened, even at the UN General Assembly, the complete annihilation of the Iranian nation and civilization? And who, by supporting Israel's operations in Gaza, became complicit in the killing of more than 20,000 children?

Ten days ago, the US Secretary of War said bluntly at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia: " Lethality is our calling card." The remark was shocking, but at least it was honest. An army that sets in motion under the slogans of counterterrorism, freedom, and democracy — what has it brought the targeted nations in practice but death and destruction?

So with this record, who truly deserves the label of "cult of death"? Answering that question requires no complex research. It requires only a modicum of courage and a refusal to close one's eyes to reality.

The Trump administration claims that all this killing was carried out to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The bitter irony of our time is that the only country in history to have used the atomic bomb, killing hundreds of thousands, regards itself as the world's nuclear policeman.

When the Israeli regime, even after the genocide in Gaza, calls itself "the most moral army in the world," it is hardly surprising that the US Secretary of State should also call Iran a "cult of death."

The issue here is not the misreading of history. It is the attempt to turn history into a license for war and atrocity.