LOS ANGELES (oc).–President Donald Trump clarified the U.S. mission in Iran telling the elite Republican Guard Corps to lay down their arms or face certain death. Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netahyahu had unfinished business in Iran after last year’s 12-day war where Israel decimated Iran’s air defenses and, with U.S. B-2-Stealth bombers, “obliterated” Iran’s underground uranium enrichment sites. Skeptical anti-Trump news media discounted the damage done to Iran’s uranium enrichment sites but Iran has no enriched uranium since them. Trump tried to negotiate a new nuke deal in Geneva with Omani Foreign Minister Badr Abusaidi mediating the talks. Abusaidi hoped to avoid war but knew that Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was only willing to go so far. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi’s hands were tied by Khamenei.
U.S. military action in Iran was long overdue when you consider the 1979 Islamic Revolution turned Iran into a hostile state without U.S. diplomatic relations. Iran thought it could confront U.S. dominance in the Middle East by sponsoring terrorism against Israel through a variety of proxies, including Palestinian Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels more recently. But, let there be no mistake, Iran has done everything possible to sabotage U.S. interests, especially Israel. Iran, a Shiite country, worked feverishly for decades cultivating Sunni Arab states to attack Israel in anyway possible. When new leadership emerged in Arab Gulf State and Egypt, they realized that Israel was too powerful and prosperous to continue the Palestinian cause of destroying the Jewish State. Arab state slowly came to realize they were better off cooperating with Israel.
Only Irarn remained the sole anti-Semitic state, threatening to wipe Israel off the map. Iran’s mullah government has done everthing possible to undermine U.S. foreign policy since the Islamic Revolution. So, when it comes to Trump finally seeking regime change, he’s the only U.S. president who would have considered it. Trump’s relations with Israel far exceed prior U.S. presidents who, for whatever reason, tried to placate radical Palestinians in the name of fairness or impartiality. Once Hamas revealed for the world to see the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre of 1,200 Israels, mainly teenagers, then U.S. policy changed. After the Israeli-Hamas war, Palestinians no longer had the same influence on other Arab State. Arab Gulf States in particular were no longer interested in funding Gaza’s reconstruction with Hamas in power. Trump saw all these moving parts and acted accordingly.
When asked whether the Ayatollah has been killed, Aragchi said he didn’t know but assumed he was OK. “As far as I know, yes, they are alive,” Aragchi said, not too convincing that senior leadership has been eliminated in thef first U.S. and Israeli strikes. Reuters reported that Iran’s Defense Minister and head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps had been eliminated. Trump said in an early morning White House video that the U.S. has engage in “major combat operations in Iran.” “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats f rom the Iranian regime, a vicious group f very hard, terrible people,” Trump said. Trump urged the Iranian people to take back their country saying the real mission was regime change in Tehran. Trump told Iran that help was on the way to stop the massacre of Iranian street protesters by the Ayatollah.
Netanyahu said that the operation was underway to liberate the Iranian people from tyrannical mullah rule. “Our joint operation will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their contry their own hands. The time has come for all part of the Iranian people—Persians, Kurds, Azeris, Baloch, and Ahawzis—to case off the yoie of tyranny and bring freedom and peace-loving values to Iran,” Netanyahu said. So, in of any confusion, Netayahu made it clear that the mission was regime change. Ayatollah Khamenei has way overstayed his welcome, hanging on to power but doing nothing to advance the prosperity or opportunity for ordinary Iranians. Trump acted with Netanyahu to finally end the 47-year-old oppression of the Iranian people, craving for days before the Revolution, when the Shah offered hope and prosperity.
Ayatollah had warned about a regional war, dragging in Egypt and Arab Gulf States into any conflict against Iran. Khamenei badly miscalculated the tenuous support from other Sunni Arab states. Whatever revolution the Ayatollah thinks he leads, it’s not the anti-Semiitic campaign that interests anyone in the Arab world other than radical Palestinians. Trump and Netanyahu’s decision to take out Iran;s mullah government was not thought possible a short time ago. Once Netanyahu and Trump saw firsthand what happened in last year;s 12-day war, it gave them confidence to finally end the mullah regime. Firing missiles at U.S. assets in the Arab Gulf States only reminds the Arab world why the mullah regime must end in Iran. Ayatollah watched the world pass him buy, consumed by old hatreds, unable to adapt to a modern world of peace, cooperation and a hopeful future..
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
