America’s approach toward Iran appears to be undergoing its most significant strategic shift in decades. The central objective is no longer simply the destruction of Tehran’s nuclear program, but the systematic degradation of the regime’s capacity to govern and sustain its power.
At a Cabinet meeting at Camp David last week, U.S. President Donald Trump declared that the United States is prepared to significantly escalate military pressure on Iran. Reaffirming his stance, he stated, “We’re going to hit them very hard. Eventually, they’ll reach a point where they say, ‘We can’t go on anymore.’”
He added, “We just want to win.”
Unfortunately, for the eighth time, Trump canceled a large-scale attack this week against the Islamic Republic, without any regard for the damage this has done to the credibility of the United States around the world. Once again, this is a sign that he neither had nor currently has any specific plan—either for war or for bringing down the Shi’ite Islamist caliphate in Iran.
On the other side, the Islamic Republic, in coordination with China and Russia, is seeking to humiliate Trump. The president’s only apparent source of hope is his relationship with one faction inside Iran’s Supreme National Security Council—the same faction that staged the theatrical and hollow spectacle in Pakistan, coupled with a meaningless Memorandum of Understanding with a handful of Islamist terrorists, a document that survived for only three weeks.
In reality, through this unconventional and contradictory course of action, Trump has also placed the national security of the United States and Israel at risk, and it will lead nowhere. This repeated pattern of indecision and political theater could ultimately work against him in the upcoming elections as well.
In reality, America’s wasted time negotiating with a Shi’ite Islamic Nazi terrorist regime in Iran was an insult to the intelligence of humanity in the 21st century, as well as to civilization and morality. No one shakes hands with murderers, bomb-makers, terrorists and a religious dictatorship, or signs a deal with them. Diplomacy with a savage junta is an illusion. However, the very nature of the savage Shi’ite mullahs’ Islamic terrorist regime is fundamentally opposed to peace, stability and dialogue. The regime is playing for time while keeping Trump occupied until the end of his term. Meanwhile, the Middle East is paying the price for the lack of strong will in Washington, and regrettably, Israel’s hands have also been tied, even though it understands the mullahs’ playbook. What a tragedy.
Of course, the Tehran Islamic terrorist regime and its brutal military and intelligence institutions, such as the Supreme National Security Council, have threatened to carry out destructive operations in both the United States and Israel.
In the regime’s political lexicon, Sept. 11 and Oct. 7 are regarded as instruments of success for its hollow ideology, used to satisfy its radical supporters through the commission of crimes. And even though Khomeini and Khamenei are gone, their destructive, absurd ideology and way of thinking remain in the regime’s core. For the survival of the regime, they are prepared to commit any crime or act of treachery.
Israel alone has distinguished itself in this war because its survival and security depend on regime change in Iran—and so does the birth of a new Middle East.
The Iranian people are entering an even deeper period of hardship, while the regime has effectively lost control over large parts of the country. At any moment, it could slide into a spiral of chaos and collapse. If, following the regime’s downfall, a figure such as Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi does not assume responsibility for leading the country through a transitional period, Iran could face a bloodbath. The remnants of the Islamic Republic are likely to reorganize through mosques and clandestine underground terrorist networks, seeking to preserve their ideology and continue their campaign by other means. This is a reality that cannot be ignored.
Currently, the White House has no serious determination for regime change. The war against Islamist terrorism requires unwavering resolve, genuine political will and a sufficient understanding of the threat. In the 21st century, the United States has failed to defeat a handful of savage mullahs.
Why? Because the Shi’ite Islamic Caliphate of the Shia mullahs serves as a tool in the hands of Moscow and Beijing, while the European Union remains two-faced, wishful and detached from reality. Israel alone has distinguished itself in this war because its survival and security depend on regime change in Iran—and, of course, so does the birth of a new Middle East.
If America’s objective is now to weaken the regime’s ability to govern rather than simply its ability to enrich uranium, then Washington has crossed an important strategic threshold. The success or failure of that strategy will shape not only the future of Iran, but the future security architecture of the Middle East.
Perhaps CENTCOM itself is in need of a reassessment. It should recognize that the strategic objective should not merely be the destruction of a few military facilities, but rather the dismantling of the pillars that sustain the regime: cutting off the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ financial resources and its proxy networks; disrupting its command-and-control and repression capabilities; exposing the corruption networks, financial assets, and hiding places of its leaders; preventing the regime from gaining access to surveillance and repression technologies; and providing the Iranian people with free and secure communications.
At the same time, a clear message should be sent to lower-ranking military and security personnel that, if they refuse to participate in the repression of the people, they will have a future in Iran after the Islamic Republic. External pressure without strengthening Pahlavi—the only credible political alternative and a clear plan for the transitional period—may only create chaos. The objective should be the collapse of the machinery of repression and enabling the Iranian people to make their own decisions freely, not harming the people or the country’s facilities.
However, even limited assistance from America could lead to a new uprising by the Iranian people against the ruling establishment and ultimately bring about the collapse of this destructive, occupying, plundering and repressive regime.
The people of Iran and Israel are in no state of reassurance or normalcy. They have been trapped in a prolonged war of attrition, living under abnormal conditions, with suppressed anger and deep frustration. The lack of direction, strategic confusion and inconsistency displayed by Trump and his vice president, JD Vance—who still appears to believe that posing for photographs with Islamist terrorists driven by apocalyptic ideology can somehow produce peace—has become detrimental to the Middle East and increasingly costly.
Trump refuses to confront the reality that Iran is on the brink of internal conflict and devastation, and that Islamist terrorists will still not reconcile with him. Unless this festering open wound is finally addressed, its consequences will spread far beyond Iran.
There is no diplomatic solution left—only a military one. Yet Trump appears to have been deterred by the Tehran regime’s final gamble and, unfortunately, he has never read the Shi’ite mullahs’ playbook.
