Joe, sorry that this is too complicated for you to understand, but this really isn’t difficult. I’ll try to splain it to you:
1. President Trump is the most courageous Commander in Chief in modern American history. There is no question about this. His brave move to end the threat against America and our allies and who have been killing Americans since 1979 is the bravest move that any President has done in my lifetime.
2. Unlike traditional politicians, President Trump undertook an action that has no political upside potential and has severe political downside risk, because he genuinely wants to do what’s right for Americans and the World.
3. President Trump’s decisive leadership may achieve similar or greater results than President Reagan standing at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin challenging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall! The difference is that President Reagan was able to pull it off without firing a shot. But Gorbachev was a reasonable man where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is a radical Jihadist who has repeatedly espoused his intention to bring death to Israel and death to America. When your enemies state their intentions, believe them. Sometimes circumstances are such that military force is necessary. Given the rapid overwhelming force that President Trump authorized against the Jihadist, Mullah, terrorist leadership of Iran it seems he is a student of the warfare tactics of the heroic US General George S. Patton. Both Reagan and Trump demonstrate that either you have gonads or you don’t.
4. Joe, you simultaneously demonstrate your stupidity and ignorance; why should any woman be forced to wear a hijab?
5. By every account President Trump’s plan in Venezuela has been executed brilliantly and the positive results are following. Sorry that this is also too complicated for you to understand.
6. And try to keep up; President Trump has consistently encouraged the Iranian citizens and those of the Iranian military to take this opportunity to take control of their country. As Trump said, “this may be the only opportunity you have in a generation”.
7. The bottom line is President Trump is absolutely right (once again); Iran can’t be allowed to make nuclear weapons.
8. Iran has been enriching uranium to 60%, which can be enriched to weapons grade in only a week. They justify this enrichment for medical purposes, but medical uranium only requires 5% enrichment. The Trump negotiation team offered Iran medical grade uranium for free, for life and Iran refused. So, like everything else, the current Iranian leadership lies through their teeth, just like basement Biden’s DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas lied about their open border, uncontrolled, unvetted, taxpayer subsidized, illegal immigration into the US.
9. This is not just about Iran; this is also a blow to all of Iran’s terrorist proxies all over the world.
10. Furthermore; I relish the stark contrast between President Trump’s fair and firm toughness with Iran’s Mullah regime versus B. Hussein Obama and John Kerry’s total failures by flying plane loads of cash in the middle of the night to the regime, foolishly thinking these radical terrorists could be rehabilitated with naive ignorance and kindness.
11. In addition, President Trump’s emerging legend of “you don’t mess around with Trump” has certainly projected a deterrent to US enemies across the globe. I’m sure that China will be pulling back their aggression to take over Taiwan. I’m sure Putin and Zelinsky are recognizing it’s time to end the Ukraine war before Trump turns both barrels (diplomatically, not militarily) on them.
12. And what the heck are “crypto-colonialist thugs”? What are you smoking Joe?
Joe, you can thank American citizen first voters for re-electing President Trump (for the second time) to put someone in the White House who loves the USA, who does what is in the best interest of its citizens and is smart enough, is tenacious enough and has the balls to fight for us. President Trump is remaking the world. You should be grateful you get to watch history being made. You’re welcome.
Bruce, ignore this coward who operates under cover of a pseudonym. He fails to realize that by his personal insults he sends anything credible he has to say to self-immolation. So sad.
LMAO. Patrick, you're projecting your own "cowardice". If you had anything "credible" to say, you'd say it to me directly. But you don't have anything credible to say, do you? And you still haven't answered the questions I made to your post yesterday. Sorry that this is all too complicated for you.
Joe, an interesting column but I suspect that your hatred of all things Trump might be clouding your judgement here. Iran may indeed be inscrutable but one thing has been crystal clear: it has also has been the world’s greatest purveyor of terrorism for almost half a century.
(For example, as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan I attended dozens of our impromptu roadside funeral observances for fallen American combatants— mostly killed by Iranian IEDs)
The Democrats have lost me with their predictable carping about “imminent” threat and complaint about the irrelevant War Powers Act. Their gotcha question is “what is our plan?” as if a wise course of action for US and Israeli intelligence is to blab about it on “Meet the Press.” The leftist China-funded street protests are a sick joke, particularly in light of 35K slaughtered Iranian protesters a month ago. Sadly, the Democrats are not a serious party anymore.
The Dem politicians ask, “will it work”? “When will it end”? “What is the plan”? Who the hell knows but I am glad that we are skillful and determined enough to take out the leadership of an evil regime and seriously degrade their capabilities.
If Trump hadn’t done anything, these same blatherskites would be calling him “TACO.” I am far from MAGA but Trump’s audacity is the sort of bold leadership that could reshuffle the deck in an area that has bedeviled Western Civilization (and the Iranian people) for far too long.
Fortune favors the bold and God bless America.
Ps What is that “crypto-colonist thug” nonsense all about?
PG-I am thrilled that Khamenei has been taken out. I hope that most disgraceful regime is over. I was there, like you, in Iraq and Afghanistan and lived in fucking fear of those IEDs. But the smartest military minds I've known have been obsessed with Phase IV operations. To quote General Petraeus as he went over the berm into Iraq, "Tell me how this ends." I've known, and befriended, dozens whose lives were wrecked by that unanswered--and utterly unplanned--question. Iraq was a walk in the park, potentially, compared to Iran. I don't think it's a question Donald Trump is capable of asking or understanding. He disdains planning. Best to keep a close eye on Joint Chiefs Chair Dan Caine, who was skeptical about this operation. (EVERY military intelligence officer I've ever talked with was reluctant to do this.) Perhaps it will be over in two weeks. If so, I stand gratefully corrected. If not, I will not say I told you so. I will simply mourn our lost. I'm sure we'll mourn them together.
Joe, thank you for a thoughtful and substantive response. First of all, I know your bona fides. I grew up reading you in Time Magazine, followed you by a decade or so at Penn, I read “Primary Colors” like everyone, but most importantly, I read “Charlie Mike.” Being a veteran, I had an inkling of the sweat equity that you acquired to write such a powerful and moving book. As the Squids would say, Bravo Zulu.
The point is that when you write about a topic like Iran, you bring an expertise that very few legitimately have, certainly to include me. So I share your apprehension and question the sanity of anyone who doesn’t. As MacArthur’s aide said about Inchon, “we drew up a list of every handicap, and it had ‘em all.” But while Trump’s myriad of random utterances may represent a psy-ops campaign that confuses our enemies, we have smart people who study Iran and have contacts with the people. This operation is sui generis, which also means it isn’t Iraq 2003 or Gulf of Tonkin 1965. Brilliant military officers that catalog the difficulties of an operation can also be risk adverse à la McClellan.
We all know the track record of this regime stretching back to the Jimmy Carter days, but sometimes the banality of evil loses its power to impress; Iran slaughtered 35K citizens a few weeks ago and the world yawned. Iran has been a cancer on the body politic of America, Israel and the region and we are attempting to eradicate that cancer and liberate 90 million people. Foolhardy perhaps but sometimes fortune favors the bold. As far as risk-reward, I would say that while it is a gamble that could set America back, the upside is so great that it is worth trying. Iran was never going to change without our brand of geopolitical “tough love.” May God bless audacious America for trying.
This regime was not going to go away unless we made it go away, and while we haven’t done that, we are off to a good start.
Joe, you continue to demonstrate that you aren't intelligent enough to understand what President Trump thinks. It is obvious that extensive planning has gone into this military exercise and the surgical precision with no boots on the ground, having the Israelis bomb the regime leadership while the US bombs military targets and the unprecedented number of opening sorties and targets hit, synchronized with Trump's locked and loaded masterful speech delivered at 1AM EST explaining the justifications for his actions, have President Trump's signature all over the total planning of this exercise. Drawing upon his business, entrepreneurial and master building experience, President Trump is putting on a master class of detail oriented project planning and management. The only other person on the planet who can come close to this ability is Elon Musk. Joe, I'm certain that you've never managed any $billion dollar projects or even $million projects for that matter, so you have no idea. And this isn't going to be over in two weeks. The decision criteria isn't time, it's cost vs. benefit. President Trump is remaking the world. You should be grateful you get to watch history being made.
You still haven't answered Potomac's question: What is that “crypto-colonist thug” nonsense all about?
I’m convinced that Trump’s foreign policy exploits now — in direct contradiction to his America-first declarations — represent a plan to lift his approval ratings prior to the midterms. So egregiously anti-constitutional have been his domestic machinations that he’s deathly afraid of a landslide flip in Congressional control that will result in impeachment and — his worst nightmare — jail. Like so many others, I too revile Iran’s brutal theocracy, but I simply do not trust the morally bankrupt might-makes-right Trump for doing the right thing in any circumstance now.
You obviously aren't intelligent enough to understand what President Trump thinks. What has he done that is unconstitutional? Exactly how is he using might to make right?
Americans now rounding Social Security, spent a year of high school wrapping trees in yellow ribbons for the dozens of US hostages, that spent more than a year in Iranian captivity.
The 40 year encore included attempting to develop nuclear weapons to vaporize Israel, if not the US. The Mullahs also found time to fund Hezbolla and Hamas, responsible for depravity unknown since WWII. In between, these "religious leaders" hanged young women from cranes for the sin of displaying a few strands of hair, and executed young people, en mass, seeking just a modicum of freedom. Up to 40K perished, in the last few months alone.
How ever loathsome one may find Trump, Khomeini's death, and that of his entourage, is reason to pop a really good bottle of bubbly, saved for a special occasion. 90 million people still have a long way to go, but they have a better chance at some form of self determination, then they have enjoyed in nearly a half century.
US Soldiers lost their lives attempting to protect Americans from evil, wrapped in religion. In doing so, they may have freed tens of millions from modern day bondage. Perhaps we could give the process a little time to work, before declaring it a likely failure.
I think Joe's initial reluctance to write anything about Iran yet was the right one. He probably should have stopped there. A few thoughts in response:
1. We cannot risk this regime getting its hands on a nuclear weapon. Yet the regime remained single-minded in its quest for the bomb and had been getting way too close. The risks of Trump's present military engagement - and there are obviously many - pale in comparison to the world-destabilizing risks of a Nuclear Iran. I don't know why this is a difficult point for so many people to grasp.
2 The US has not had a coherent Middle policy for several decades (if ever), and especially with respect to Iran. Many of the actions we took over that time period actually helped Iran, from Bush's disastrous Iraq War to Obama's bewildering diplomatic efforts. These incoherent policies have further assisted Iran's efforts to arm itself with nuclear weapons.
3. This military action is not in Trump's short term political interest. My guess is that he is doing it for a pretty simple reason - if he doesn't take decisive action, no one else will prevent this Iranian regime from getting a nuclear weapon.
4. This action is considerably different from the Bush-Cheney wars. The only similarity is that it is the same region of the world and involves the US military. Everything else is different. The failure of the former does no harbor either success or failure of the latter. They're just different.
5. There are broader geopolitical objectives at stake. This U.S. military operation against a presently weakened Iranian regime may also help us achievesl important objectives vis a vis China and Russia.
Obviously, no one knows how this will turn out. There are major risks of action - but there were considerable risks from inaction (and many more risks from inaction here as compared to the Bush-Chaney wars, which were unnecessary in a very literal sense.). The fact that Trump is not engaged in a democracy-spreading mission increases the odds for success. Where success is defined as a defanged Iran that has at least de facto abandoned its nuclear ambitions and has fewer levers to destabilize the region.
I respect what you say since you know so much about Iran, but I disagree. I have never voted for Trump and do not like him, but I think that he was right. Regime change in Iran is not only good for the Iranian people, it is also good for the United States' national security and for stability in the Middle East. Of course, no one likes war, but sometimes it is the only option available. Many innocent people will die, and we don't know what the result will be. Things could get worse. But Iran without Khamenei is better than Iran with Khamenei. Time will tell.
(per Amnesty International, Dec. 2024) "Iranian authorities have adopted a new draconian law that further erases the human rights of women and girls, imposing the death penalty, flogging, prison terms and other severe penalties to crush ongoing resistance to compulsory veiling, Amnesty International said today.
The “Law on Protecting the Family through the Promotion of the Culture of Chastity and Hijab” will come into force on 13 December 2024, according to Iran’s Speaker of Parliament. In a dangerous escalation, the law permits the imposition of the death penalty for peaceful activism against Iran’s discriminatory compulsory veiling laws.
The law, containing 74 articles, also imposes flogging, exorbitant fines, harsh prison sentences, travel bans, and restrictions on education and employment for women and girls who defy compulsory veiling laws. It also penalizes private entities that fail to enforce compulsory veiling, while providing impunity to officials and vigilantes who violently attack women and girls for defying it.
I think you need a gut check Joe. My gut told me that Trump's decision was a good one. Especially given that the Iranian government slaughtered 30,000 peaceful protesters over two days just a few weeks ago. 30,000!!!! And yet, no protests against this horror by the west.
The Iranian people have been crying out for freedom for decades now - only to be ignored by the West (and strangely the supposedly democracy loving progressive Left in the US) which allowed the totalitarian Islamic Republic to quickly shutdown any rebellion, via execution, jail and shut down all speech thru radical control of information. - without so much as a peep from the US or the UN.
Obama had the opportunity in 2009, to do what Trump just did but he completely ignored the Iranian "green movement" which sought the same freedom from the oppressive Iranian regime, that the current protest movement has been screaming out for. Instead Obama, gave the Iranian mullahs a path to a nuclear weapon by signing a treaty which kicked the can of a nuclear Iran down the road a few years. Thankfully, President Trump has blown that sham of a deal to bits. Trump's courage and foresight in taking this step, without any intention of nation building behind it - at last has made a real peace in the Middle East an actual possibility now - and given hope to millions, where none existed a week ago.
Sorry, but the Iranian people I interviewed in Green Party street demos in 2009 wanted did want the regime reformed (“a reFolution,” some called it) but no part of a kinetic American intervention (especially after the CIA coup in 1953). Folks there have long memories and a lot of pride. Your broad-brush statements bear no relationship to the situation on the ground. I wish you were right, but I’ve seen no evidence that you are.
Scott Anderson's *King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution—A Story of Hubris, Delusion, and Catastrophe* (2025) is a narrative-driven history of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, framing it as a Shakespearean tragedy of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's detachment, U.S. foreign policy blunders, and Khomeini's patient revolutionary genius. Anderson, known for *Lawrence in Arabia*, weaves palace intrigue, street protests, and superpower miscalculations into a cautionary tale of elite blindness amid mass upheaval.
## Synopsis
The book opens with the Shah's 1970s apex: oil-boom Iran as U.S. proxy (Nixon Doctrine), SAVAK repression, White Revolution modernization alienating clerics/bazaaris. Anderson spotlights hubris—Shah as "Napoleon of the Caspian," ignoring 40% inflation, corruption, rural decay. U.S. sees Cold War bulwark, ignores warnings (Sullivan embassy cables).
Crisis builds: 1978 Cinema Rex fire (477 dead, blamed both ways) ignites riots; Khomeini (Paris exile) floods cassettes preaching jihad. Carter waffles (human rights vs. ally); Shah dithers (martial law too late). January 1979: Shah flees; Khomeini returns to millions; moderates (Bazargan) sidelined by Islamists. Hostage crisis seals U.S.-Iran rupture; revolution's template (populist theocracy vs. secular elites) echoes globally.
## Strengths
- **Narrative verve**: Gripping like thriller—Shah as Lear/Hamlet, Khomeini cat-like; vivid scenes (Tehran Black Friday massacre).
- **Multi-perspective**: Shah's court, U.S. diplomats, revolutionaries (Yazdi moderates vs. radicals); interviews (Empress Farah).
Using Venezuela as a model, Trump has refused to dissolve the government, he has instead recreated it. Delcey, the new leader, had been in talks with the administration for over six months prior to Maduro's unexpected holiday to the U.S. This is probably, or definitely should be, the result of seeing what throwing everyone out of the government, as was done in Germany in '45 and Iraq in '03, which totally destabilized the nation. Instead it is almost business as usual, but with a different leader, with a different future on the horizon. One that can appear gradually, as the people open up to the idea, that Freedom, requires restraint as well as liberty, to maintain a balance. It is my expectation that Venezuela will have elections, likely before the year is out, with Iran, likely next year, depending on the chaos with the fall of their Republic.
There is an interesting British fellow, who sounds and looks rational, who claims that DJT’s Iran gambit is part of his 100 year plan to deal with China by controlling the energy sector, starting with oil? Kook? I’ll see if I can find his name.
A preemptive strike: Now that gas prices have gone up 17 cents a gallon, Fox is mad at Trump's maga hat funeral, and innocent people (kids) are dying, only you can make the argument that it's all a ruse -- to distract attention from Trump's real enemy: Epstein -- and make it stick.
Thank you for the article, Mr. Klein. I think our President has definitely lost his mind and is out of touch with reality. They have done with USAID and educational programs for children. It seems Trump as they have stated @Lincoln Square that , Mr. Kushner and Mr. Wytkoff, don’t know what they are doing? I thought that was the job for DNI director, Tulsi Gabbard! No sign of her at all. Three American soldiers have lost their lives and I am sorry for the bombing of a school for girls, they may have lost their lives. There is no common sense about this whatsoever? I felt The President needed to get an ear proclamation from the Senate and The Congress. If you like Independent Columnist! Please subscribe to The Sanity Clause!
Joe, sorry that this is too complicated for you to understand, but this really isn’t difficult. I’ll try to splain it to you:
1. President Trump is the most courageous Commander in Chief in modern American history. There is no question about this. His brave move to end the threat against America and our allies and who have been killing Americans since 1979 is the bravest move that any President has done in my lifetime.
2. Unlike traditional politicians, President Trump undertook an action that has no political upside potential and has severe political downside risk, because he genuinely wants to do what’s right for Americans and the World.
3. President Trump’s decisive leadership may achieve similar or greater results than President Reagan standing at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin challenging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall! The difference is that President Reagan was able to pull it off without firing a shot. But Gorbachev was a reasonable man where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is a radical Jihadist who has repeatedly espoused his intention to bring death to Israel and death to America. When your enemies state their intentions, believe them. Sometimes circumstances are such that military force is necessary. Given the rapid overwhelming force that President Trump authorized against the Jihadist, Mullah, terrorist leadership of Iran it seems he is a student of the warfare tactics of the heroic US General George S. Patton. Both Reagan and Trump demonstrate that either you have gonads or you don’t.
4. Joe, you simultaneously demonstrate your stupidity and ignorance; why should any woman be forced to wear a hijab?
5. By every account President Trump’s plan in Venezuela has been executed brilliantly and the positive results are following. Sorry that this is also too complicated for you to understand.
6. And try to keep up; President Trump has consistently encouraged the Iranian citizens and those of the Iranian military to take this opportunity to take control of their country. As Trump said, “this may be the only opportunity you have in a generation”.
7. The bottom line is President Trump is absolutely right (once again); Iran can’t be allowed to make nuclear weapons.
8. Iran has been enriching uranium to 60%, which can be enriched to weapons grade in only a week. They justify this enrichment for medical purposes, but medical uranium only requires 5% enrichment. The Trump negotiation team offered Iran medical grade uranium for free, for life and Iran refused. So, like everything else, the current Iranian leadership lies through their teeth, just like basement Biden’s DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas lied about their open border, uncontrolled, unvetted, taxpayer subsidized, illegal immigration into the US.
9. This is not just about Iran; this is also a blow to all of Iran’s terrorist proxies all over the world.
10. Furthermore; I relish the stark contrast between President Trump’s fair and firm toughness with Iran’s Mullah regime versus B. Hussein Obama and John Kerry’s total failures by flying plane loads of cash in the middle of the night to the regime, foolishly thinking these radical terrorists could be rehabilitated with naive ignorance and kindness.
11. In addition, President Trump’s emerging legend of “you don’t mess around with Trump” has certainly projected a deterrent to US enemies across the globe. I’m sure that China will be pulling back their aggression to take over Taiwan. I’m sure Putin and Zelinsky are recognizing it’s time to end the Ukraine war before Trump turns both barrels (diplomatically, not militarily) on them.
12. And what the heck are “crypto-colonialist thugs”? What are you smoking Joe?
Joe, you can thank American citizen first voters for re-electing President Trump (for the second time) to put someone in the White House who loves the USA, who does what is in the best interest of its citizens and is smart enough, is tenacious enough and has the balls to fight for us. President Trump is remaking the world. You should be grateful you get to watch history being made. You’re welcome.
Deplore- Let my reply for Joe, who is too polite by half, “fuck off”.
Child, does your mommy know that you are playing with the computer?
Bruce, ignore this coward who operates under cover of a pseudonym. He fails to realize that by his personal insults he sends anything credible he has to say to self-immolation. So sad.
LMAO. Patrick, you're projecting your own "cowardice". If you had anything "credible" to say, you'd say it to me directly. But you don't have anything credible to say, do you? And you still haven't answered the questions I made to your post yesterday. Sorry that this is all too complicated for you.
Joe, an interesting column but I suspect that your hatred of all things Trump might be clouding your judgement here. Iran may indeed be inscrutable but one thing has been crystal clear: it has also has been the world’s greatest purveyor of terrorism for almost half a century.
(For example, as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan I attended dozens of our impromptu roadside funeral observances for fallen American combatants— mostly killed by Iranian IEDs)
The Democrats have lost me with their predictable carping about “imminent” threat and complaint about the irrelevant War Powers Act. Their gotcha question is “what is our plan?” as if a wise course of action for US and Israeli intelligence is to blab about it on “Meet the Press.” The leftist China-funded street protests are a sick joke, particularly in light of 35K slaughtered Iranian protesters a month ago. Sadly, the Democrats are not a serious party anymore.
The Dem politicians ask, “will it work”? “When will it end”? “What is the plan”? Who the hell knows but I am glad that we are skillful and determined enough to take out the leadership of an evil regime and seriously degrade their capabilities.
If Trump hadn’t done anything, these same blatherskites would be calling him “TACO.” I am far from MAGA but Trump’s audacity is the sort of bold leadership that could reshuffle the deck in an area that has bedeviled Western Civilization (and the Iranian people) for far too long.
Fortune favors the bold and God bless America.
Ps What is that “crypto-colonist thug” nonsense all about?
PG-I am thrilled that Khamenei has been taken out. I hope that most disgraceful regime is over. I was there, like you, in Iraq and Afghanistan and lived in fucking fear of those IEDs. But the smartest military minds I've known have been obsessed with Phase IV operations. To quote General Petraeus as he went over the berm into Iraq, "Tell me how this ends." I've known, and befriended, dozens whose lives were wrecked by that unanswered--and utterly unplanned--question. Iraq was a walk in the park, potentially, compared to Iran. I don't think it's a question Donald Trump is capable of asking or understanding. He disdains planning. Best to keep a close eye on Joint Chiefs Chair Dan Caine, who was skeptical about this operation. (EVERY military intelligence officer I've ever talked with was reluctant to do this.) Perhaps it will be over in two weeks. If so, I stand gratefully corrected. If not, I will not say I told you so. I will simply mourn our lost. I'm sure we'll mourn them together.
Joe, thank you for a thoughtful and substantive response. First of all, I know your bona fides. I grew up reading you in Time Magazine, followed you by a decade or so at Penn, I read “Primary Colors” like everyone, but most importantly, I read “Charlie Mike.” Being a veteran, I had an inkling of the sweat equity that you acquired to write such a powerful and moving book. As the Squids would say, Bravo Zulu.
The point is that when you write about a topic like Iran, you bring an expertise that very few legitimately have, certainly to include me. So I share your apprehension and question the sanity of anyone who doesn’t. As MacArthur’s aide said about Inchon, “we drew up a list of every handicap, and it had ‘em all.” But while Trump’s myriad of random utterances may represent a psy-ops campaign that confuses our enemies, we have smart people who study Iran and have contacts with the people. This operation is sui generis, which also means it isn’t Iraq 2003 or Gulf of Tonkin 1965. Brilliant military officers that catalog the difficulties of an operation can also be risk adverse à la McClellan.
We all know the track record of this regime stretching back to the Jimmy Carter days, but sometimes the banality of evil loses its power to impress; Iran slaughtered 35K citizens a few weeks ago and the world yawned. Iran has been a cancer on the body politic of America, Israel and the region and we are attempting to eradicate that cancer and liberate 90 million people. Foolhardy perhaps but sometimes fortune favors the bold. As far as risk-reward, I would say that while it is a gamble that could set America back, the upside is so great that it is worth trying. Iran was never going to change without our brand of geopolitical “tough love.” May God bless audacious America for trying.
This regime was not going to go away unless we made it go away, and while we haven’t done that, we are off to a good start.
Joe, you continue to demonstrate that you aren't intelligent enough to understand what President Trump thinks. It is obvious that extensive planning has gone into this military exercise and the surgical precision with no boots on the ground, having the Israelis bomb the regime leadership while the US bombs military targets and the unprecedented number of opening sorties and targets hit, synchronized with Trump's locked and loaded masterful speech delivered at 1AM EST explaining the justifications for his actions, have President Trump's signature all over the total planning of this exercise. Drawing upon his business, entrepreneurial and master building experience, President Trump is putting on a master class of detail oriented project planning and management. The only other person on the planet who can come close to this ability is Elon Musk. Joe, I'm certain that you've never managed any $billion dollar projects or even $million projects for that matter, so you have no idea. And this isn't going to be over in two weeks. The decision criteria isn't time, it's cost vs. benefit. President Trump is remaking the world. You should be grateful you get to watch history being made.
You still haven't answered Potomac's question: What is that “crypto-colonist thug” nonsense all about?
I’m convinced that Trump’s foreign policy exploits now — in direct contradiction to his America-first declarations — represent a plan to lift his approval ratings prior to the midterms. So egregiously anti-constitutional have been his domestic machinations that he’s deathly afraid of a landslide flip in Congressional control that will result in impeachment and — his worst nightmare — jail. Like so many others, I too revile Iran’s brutal theocracy, but I simply do not trust the morally bankrupt might-makes-right Trump for doing the right thing in any circumstance now.
You obviously aren't intelligent enough to understand what President Trump thinks. What has he done that is unconstitutional? Exactly how is he using might to make right?
Americans now rounding Social Security, spent a year of high school wrapping trees in yellow ribbons for the dozens of US hostages, that spent more than a year in Iranian captivity.
The 40 year encore included attempting to develop nuclear weapons to vaporize Israel, if not the US. The Mullahs also found time to fund Hezbolla and Hamas, responsible for depravity unknown since WWII. In between, these "religious leaders" hanged young women from cranes for the sin of displaying a few strands of hair, and executed young people, en mass, seeking just a modicum of freedom. Up to 40K perished, in the last few months alone.
How ever loathsome one may find Trump, Khomeini's death, and that of his entourage, is reason to pop a really good bottle of bubbly, saved for a special occasion. 90 million people still have a long way to go, but they have a better chance at some form of self determination, then they have enjoyed in nearly a half century.
US Soldiers lost their lives attempting to protect Americans from evil, wrapped in religion. In doing so, they may have freed tens of millions from modern day bondage. Perhaps we could give the process a little time to work, before declaring it a likely failure.
I think Joe's initial reluctance to write anything about Iran yet was the right one. He probably should have stopped there. A few thoughts in response:
1. We cannot risk this regime getting its hands on a nuclear weapon. Yet the regime remained single-minded in its quest for the bomb and had been getting way too close. The risks of Trump's present military engagement - and there are obviously many - pale in comparison to the world-destabilizing risks of a Nuclear Iran. I don't know why this is a difficult point for so many people to grasp.
2 The US has not had a coherent Middle policy for several decades (if ever), and especially with respect to Iran. Many of the actions we took over that time period actually helped Iran, from Bush's disastrous Iraq War to Obama's bewildering diplomatic efforts. These incoherent policies have further assisted Iran's efforts to arm itself with nuclear weapons.
3. This military action is not in Trump's short term political interest. My guess is that he is doing it for a pretty simple reason - if he doesn't take decisive action, no one else will prevent this Iranian regime from getting a nuclear weapon.
4. This action is considerably different from the Bush-Cheney wars. The only similarity is that it is the same region of the world and involves the US military. Everything else is different. The failure of the former does no harbor either success or failure of the latter. They're just different.
5. There are broader geopolitical objectives at stake. This U.S. military operation against a presently weakened Iranian regime may also help us achievesl important objectives vis a vis China and Russia.
Obviously, no one knows how this will turn out. There are major risks of action - but there were considerable risks from inaction (and many more risks from inaction here as compared to the Bush-Chaney wars, which were unnecessary in a very literal sense.). The fact that Trump is not engaged in a democracy-spreading mission increases the odds for success. Where success is defined as a defanged Iran that has at least de facto abandoned its nuclear ambitions and has fewer levers to destabilize the region.
I respect what you say since you know so much about Iran, but I disagree. I have never voted for Trump and do not like him, but I think that he was right. Regime change in Iran is not only good for the Iranian people, it is also good for the United States' national security and for stability in the Middle East. Of course, no one likes war, but sometimes it is the only option available. Many innocent people will die, and we don't know what the result will be. Things could get worse. But Iran without Khamenei is better than Iran with Khamenei. Time will tell.
This seems fairly explicable:
(per Amnesty International, Dec. 2024) "Iranian authorities have adopted a new draconian law that further erases the human rights of women and girls, imposing the death penalty, flogging, prison terms and other severe penalties to crush ongoing resistance to compulsory veiling, Amnesty International said today.
The “Law on Protecting the Family through the Promotion of the Culture of Chastity and Hijab” will come into force on 13 December 2024, according to Iran’s Speaker of Parliament. In a dangerous escalation, the law permits the imposition of the death penalty for peaceful activism against Iran’s discriminatory compulsory veiling laws.
The law, containing 74 articles, also imposes flogging, exorbitant fines, harsh prison sentences, travel bans, and restrictions on education and employment for women and girls who defy compulsory veiling laws. It also penalizes private entities that fail to enforce compulsory veiling, while providing impunity to officials and vigilantes who violently attack women and girls for defying it.
I think you need a gut check Joe. My gut told me that Trump's decision was a good one. Especially given that the Iranian government slaughtered 30,000 peaceful protesters over two days just a few weeks ago. 30,000!!!! And yet, no protests against this horror by the west.
The Iranian people have been crying out for freedom for decades now - only to be ignored by the West (and strangely the supposedly democracy loving progressive Left in the US) which allowed the totalitarian Islamic Republic to quickly shutdown any rebellion, via execution, jail and shut down all speech thru radical control of information. - without so much as a peep from the US or the UN.
Obama had the opportunity in 2009, to do what Trump just did but he completely ignored the Iranian "green movement" which sought the same freedom from the oppressive Iranian regime, that the current protest movement has been screaming out for. Instead Obama, gave the Iranian mullahs a path to a nuclear weapon by signing a treaty which kicked the can of a nuclear Iran down the road a few years. Thankfully, President Trump has blown that sham of a deal to bits. Trump's courage and foresight in taking this step, without any intention of nation building behind it - at last has made a real peace in the Middle East an actual possibility now - and given hope to millions, where none existed a week ago.
Sorry, but the Iranian people I interviewed in Green Party street demos in 2009 wanted did want the regime reformed (“a reFolution,” some called it) but no part of a kinetic American intervention (especially after the CIA coup in 1953). Folks there have long memories and a lot of pride. Your broad-brush statements bear no relationship to the situation on the ground. I wish you were right, but I’ve seen no evidence that you are.
King of Kings according to Perplexity
Scott Anderson's *King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution—A Story of Hubris, Delusion, and Catastrophe* (2025) is a narrative-driven history of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, framing it as a Shakespearean tragedy of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's detachment, U.S. foreign policy blunders, and Khomeini's patient revolutionary genius. Anderson, known for *Lawrence in Arabia*, weaves palace intrigue, street protests, and superpower miscalculations into a cautionary tale of elite blindness amid mass upheaval.
## Synopsis
The book opens with the Shah's 1970s apex: oil-boom Iran as U.S. proxy (Nixon Doctrine), SAVAK repression, White Revolution modernization alienating clerics/bazaaris. Anderson spotlights hubris—Shah as "Napoleon of the Caspian," ignoring 40% inflation, corruption, rural decay. U.S. sees Cold War bulwark, ignores warnings (Sullivan embassy cables).
Crisis builds: 1978 Cinema Rex fire (477 dead, blamed both ways) ignites riots; Khomeini (Paris exile) floods cassettes preaching jihad. Carter waffles (human rights vs. ally); Shah dithers (martial law too late). January 1979: Shah flees; Khomeini returns to millions; moderates (Bazargan) sidelined by Islamists. Hostage crisis seals U.S.-Iran rupture; revolution's template (populist theocracy vs. secular elites) echoes globally.
## Strengths
- **Narrative verve**: Gripping like thriller—Shah as Lear/Hamlet, Khomeini cat-like; vivid scenes (Tehran Black Friday massacre).
- **Multi-perspective**: Shah's court, U.S. diplomats, revolutionaries (Yazdi moderates vs. radicals); interviews (Empress Farah).
- **Contemporary resonance**: Populism template for India/Middle East/U.S.; warns elite detachment breeds upheaval.
## Weaknesses/Critiques
- **English-language bias**: Relies U.S./palace sources; Iranian voices secondary post-Shah fall (how Islamists outmaneuvered?).
- **Pop history**: Entertaining but light analysis—structural oil economics, Shia messianism underexplored.
- **Over-deterministic**: Shah/U.S. "blundering" emphasis downplays revolution's contingency (almost failed).
## Overall Assessment
Bravura page-turner (4/5): Accessible entree to 1979 pivot, prescient amid 2026 populism. Serious readers pair with Abrahamian's *Iran Between Two Revolutions*. Warning for tech Hamiltonians: hubris blinds.
Using Venezuela as a model, Trump has refused to dissolve the government, he has instead recreated it. Delcey, the new leader, had been in talks with the administration for over six months prior to Maduro's unexpected holiday to the U.S. This is probably, or definitely should be, the result of seeing what throwing everyone out of the government, as was done in Germany in '45 and Iraq in '03, which totally destabilized the nation. Instead it is almost business as usual, but with a different leader, with a different future on the horizon. One that can appear gradually, as the people open up to the idea, that Freedom, requires restraint as well as liberty, to maintain a balance. It is my expectation that Venezuela will have elections, likely before the year is out, with Iran, likely next year, depending on the chaos with the fall of their Republic.
There is an interesting British fellow, who sounds and looks rational, who claims that DJT’s Iran gambit is part of his 100 year plan to deal with China by controlling the energy sector, starting with oil? Kook? I’ll see if I can find his name.
A preemptive strike: Now that gas prices have gone up 17 cents a gallon, Fox is mad at Trump's maga hat funeral, and innocent people (kids) are dying, only you can make the argument that it's all a ruse -- to distract attention from Trump's real enemy: Epstein -- and make it stick.
with respect
Thank you for the article, Mr. Klein. I think our President has definitely lost his mind and is out of touch with reality. They have done with USAID and educational programs for children. It seems Trump as they have stated @Lincoln Square that , Mr. Kushner and Mr. Wytkoff, don’t know what they are doing? I thought that was the job for DNI director, Tulsi Gabbard! No sign of her at all. Three American soldiers have lost their lives and I am sorry for the bombing of a school for girls, they may have lost their lives. There is no common sense about this whatsoever? I felt The President needed to get an ear proclamation from the Senate and The Congress. If you like Independent Columnist! Please subscribe to The Sanity Clause!