The Time for Regime Change in Iran Has Arrived
The Trump administration is right: Only a change of regime in Tehran will end the threat Iran poses to Americans and our interests.
As you might have heard, the situation in the Middle East has heated up to a boiling point. War with the Iranian regime is not only on the table, it is here. My latest effort for National Review explores why America must take action against the evil mullahcracy, how it fits perfectly within our national interest, and what actions we should take next to best aid the courageous Iranian people in their righteous quest to topple the regime that has oppressed them for nearly 50 years. Ending the regime in Tehran would be a boon to the region, American interests, and global security. The mullahcracy has been at war against us for half a century; it’s far beyond time we returned the favor.
Below is an excerpt, but you can read the whole thing here.
As of this writing, American and Israeli forces have struck Iranian assets across the country, focusing on the regime’s repressive apparatus, its power projection capabilities, its defensive and retaliatory capabilities, and its command-and-control infrastructure, including the nation’s military and civilian leadership. In a video statement released on social media, Trump said that the key targets of this “massive and ongoing operation” are the regime’s ballistic missile industry, its navy, its regional terrorist proxies and the Iran-based infrastructure that supplies and controls them, as well as the mullahcracy’s remaining nuclear weapons sites. According to the president, these pose a serious threat to “our core national security interests.” The regime itself is also in the crosshairs, with the president telling “the great proud people of Iran” that “the hour of your freedom is at hand” and exhorting them to “seize control of [their] destiny, and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within [their] reach.” This is no Operation Midnight Hammer — the successful attack on Iran’s nuclear sites last summer — but a far broader and more intensive approach. The goals are nothing short of complete obliteration of the danger posed by the mullahcracy and its final overthrow by the Iranian people.
But are these goals actually within our “core national security interests?” The answer is a resounding yes. Iran has killed hundreds, if not thousands, of American citizens around the world. The Islamic Republic’s first major international action in 1979 was the raiding of the U.S. embassy in Tehran and the taking of hostages; it has not stopped attacking Americans and our interests since. It has continued its nuclear weapons program apace, despite years of diplomacy on our part and last summer’s kinetic strikes. It is building an enormous arsenal of ballistic missiles with which to endanger Americans and our allies in the Middle East, Europe, and even further afield. Many of those missiles have already been launched against various nations in the the Middle East, including ones that have explicitly denied U.S. access to their airspace for an attack on Iran. The regime is a destabilizing force that massacres its own citizens, aids and abets our Russian and Chinese enemies, foments terrorist violence around the globe, and seeks to destroy both America and our Israeli friends. Their ideology is one of apocalyptic messianism that, paired with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, could very well spell the doom of humanity — in fact, that’s the whole point.
These strikes, relying heavily on our dominating position in the air and on the seas, will degrade the regime’s capacity to carry out those malign aims. But time will tell if they are able to truly effect a change in the government in Tehran. To finish the job, more will be required in support of the Iranian people.