The bombs are still falling on Tehran as these words are written. Operation Epic Fury — the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign that began at dawn on Saturday — has already killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, struck the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and touched off Iranian retaliatory missile salvos against Israel, U.S. military bases, and Gulf state infrastructure. Explosions have been reported in Tehran, Isfahan, Qom, Kermanshah, Tabriz, and Karaj. The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes every day, is effectively a war zone.
President Trump has been characteristically blunt about his stated objectives: prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, destroy its missile arsenal and production sites, degrade its proxy networks, annihilate its navy, and — hovering just beneath the surface of the official four-point framework — trigger regime change from within. He told Iranians to “take back your country.” He offered IRGC soldiers amnesty if they laid down their arms, and “certain death” if they didn’t. These are not the words of a president conducting a surgical strike. This is the language of someone who intends to fundamentally restructure a country.
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