Obviously, the outcome of the war with Iran remains to be seen. The best outcome is a US military victory followed by regime change freeing Iranians from the tyranny of their government. With that may come a more peaceful and stable Middle East removing the existential danger of nuclear weapons in the hands of religious fanatics who have plagued the region for the last 47 years.

In 1979, a revolution deposed an oppressive unpopular monarch, the Shah of Iran who, at least, was a pro-western modernist. It brought Ayatollah Khomeini to absolute power as Iran’s Supreme Leader. Protected by his loyal religious army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Khomeini declared Iran to be an Islamic Republic and abolished the Family Protection Act, enacted under the shah, which extended basic rights to women. Khomeini’ s mosque-based bands, the komitehs, were unleashed to patrol the streets enforcing strict Islamic codes of dress and behavior. They beat women and other “enemies of the revolution,” with brutality and killings vastly exceeding any oppression by the shah. Most Iranians who supported the revolution hadn’t planned on trading one despot for far worst ones.

Throughout their reign, the ayatollahs have proclaimed death to the Little Satan and the Great Satan (Israel and America). Their first attack on America came abruptly in 1979 with the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran taking 66 hostages and holding them for 444 days, despite President Carter’s botched rescue attempt. It was no coincidence that the Ayatollah finally released the hostages literally minutes after President Reagan’s inauguration on January 20, 1981, no doubt fearing his wrath. The ayatollahs have waged one-sided terrorist warfare against the “two Satans” and other nations through proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis killing thousands of civilians and soldiers. Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden appeased the ayatollahs sweetening the pot with the gift of billions of dollars, and doing little or nothing to fight back imagining the ayatollahs would honor their promises and be peaceful. That was delusional.

The ayatollahs aren’t simply Muslims, they’re the most radical “Islamist” faction (only a fifth of all Muslims) who devoutly believe that all “infidels” must be converted, subjugated, or exterminated. So-called infidels are most of the world’s eight billion people, only two billion of whom are Muslims, along with 2.5 billion Christians, one billion Hindus, 500 million Buddhists, 16 million Jews, and of 4,000 other religions.

Isarel has defended itself and counterattacked for decades. Trump is the first president with the fortitude to fight back using overwhelming force starting with the June 2025 US-Israel joint attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons complex and now taking the war to Tehran directly, wisely capitalizing on the opportunity to attack a much-weakened Iran before it could rearm itself. This war has been inevitable ever since the ayatollahs came to power.

By a military victory, I mean the destruction of Iran’s defenses, military forces, missiles, launchers, drones, and the elimination of the IRGC and the Basij, the ayatollahs’ militia for domestic control, moral policing, and protest suppression.

By regime change, I mean the end of Iran’s theocratic form of government in which the head of state is an all-powerful Ayatollah, the Supreme Leader (selected by other ayatollahs), divinely guided and answerable to no mortal, with complete control of the military, the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, and the media. In its place, and to the desire of most of its people, Iran could become a secular democracy with free and fair elections. Leaving the ayatollahs in charge would make the war almost pointless, with the only long-run option being bombing Iran every few years to keep it defanged.

Some critics on the left and right who oppose yet another “forever war” are like the cat that steps on a hot stove and will never step on a hot stove again. But it will never step on a cold stove either. This war is nothing like the quagmire of Afghanistan. This is a long overdue big-time counterattack that will end an ongoing war. True, regime change isn’t always successful, except for when it is, like in Germany and Japan after allied victories in WW II and the greatest ever regime change: the American Revolutionary War.

It’s a sad commentary on the state of our nation that patriotic Americans, Republicans, Israel, and at least some of our allies are wishing for a decisive victory while many Democrat politicians, progressives, the liberal media, leftist academics, their indoctrinated students, and America-haters like Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are hoping we lose to ensure a Democrat wave in the midterm elections.