OPINION:
U.S. and Israeli forces jointly attacked Iran over the weekend. Precision strikes aimed at the heart of the regime took out the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and 40 other top officials. The bombing will continue until Iran’s people reclaim control of their nation, President Trump said.
“We are hearing that many of their [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], Military and other Security and Police Forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking for Immunity from us. … Hopefully the IRGC and Police will peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots, and work together as a unit to bring back the Country to the Greatness it deserves,” he explained on Truth Social.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the mullahs maintained an iron grip on power through barbarism, including the public torture and execution of political opponents. Their hatred of the West manifested from the start with the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, where diplomatic staff were held captive for 444 days.
As oil wealth accumulated, the mullahs became paymasters for terrorist proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, which put international commerce and regional stability at risk. The world is a better place without this regime.
Even so, noninterventionist fans of the president will likely be disappointed by the latest developments, but they ought to realize this is no departure from the original “Make America Great Again” agenda. Candidate Trump’s 2015 “golden escalator” speech laid out an intention to deal decisively with the threat posed by the Islamic republic.
“Iran is going to take over the Middle East. … I will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons,” Mr. Trump said.
The public likely sees matters differently. Mr. Trump’s orations have extolled the virtue of avoiding entanglements abroad. His own vice president expressed such a policy in 2023.
“Twenty years ago we invaded Iraq. The war killed many innocent Iraqis and Americans. It destroyed the oldest Christian populations in the world. It cost over $1 trillion, and turned Iraq into a satellite of Iran. It was an unforced disaster, and I pray that we learn its lessons,” then-Sen. J.D. Vance wrote on X.
We removed Saddam Hussein in Iraq. We toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan. We ended Moammar Gadhafi’s reign of terror. We contributed to the fall of Bashar Assad in Syria. Despite the tremendous expenditure in terms of blood and treasure to accomplish these feats, it’s hard to say the Middle East is better off as a result.
Syria is run by a “former” al Qaeda terrorist leader who trimmed his beard and changed his name to Ahmad al-Sharaa so dewy-eyed Westerners would forget the U.S. government had until recently offered a bounty for the head of this decapitation enthusiast. The Taliban rules Afghanistan again, except it’s now doing so with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of advanced U.S. military equipment.
Without a strongman to hold it together, Libya disintegrated into factional strife as Gadhafi’s successors looted the state. The current State Department travel advisory sums it up: “Do not travel to Libya for any reason due to crime, terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict.” An identical warning applies to Iraq.
The lesson we should learn from these unforced disasters is that it’s not particularly challenging to eliminate despots. What’s difficult is ensuring countries don’t devolve into chaos in the aftermath of their removal.
Success can’t be assured in Iran because it’s not up to us. It’s up to the citizens of that land to rise and fill the power vacuum before someone as bad or worse steps in. If the international celebrations of Ayatollah Khamenei’s loss are anything to go by, the will to do so exists. Mr. Trump’s removal of Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela seems to have been pulled off without the place falling apart.
Mr. Trump’s “America First” instincts should serve him well in navigating the tricky balance required to keep U.S. forces out of harm’s way. A free and peaceful Iran would be a great asset to the world community. Let’s pray for that outcome.
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