Posted on 06/26/2025 12:29:32 PM PDT by Red Badger
As Israeli missiles struck Iranian territory and Tehran fired back, the Middle East veered closer to a full-blown regional war. For the first time since the 1980s, the Islamic Republic faced a direct military assault from another regional power that targeted not only its military assets, but the symbolic and political heart of the regime itself.
Today, that war is paused under a tenuous ceasefire, and despite the hopes and near hysterical levels of speculation, the regime remains in power. Iran’s rulers may have survived this round, but their legitimacy is more fragile than ever. A tightening of its grip at home and the launching of internal purges to root out alleged Israeli collaborators is certainly on the horizon, if not already underway. The leadership will try to showcase its military resilience but underneath lies a deepening crisis and serious governance challenges remain. While Iranians demonstrated unity against the unprecedented Israeli and U.S. strikes, the war raised urgent questions about the regime’s survival and Iran’s evolution.
The immediate trigger was military. On June 12, Israel launched strikes deep into Iranian territory, followed by U.S. attacks on June 22 targeting nuclear sites. The Trump Administration framed the operation as a necessary step to “permanently eliminate” Iran’s weapons capabilities. In typical fashion, Trump followed up the strike with a promise to “Make Iran Great Again,” implying that regime change was the goal.
But on June 24, Trump reversed course and announced a cease-fire. The terms are vague and the enforcement mechanism unclear. What is clear, however, is that Iran’s political and military infrastructure remains largely intact. The idea that a decades-old regime could be brought down from an Israeli aerial campaign without boots on the ground or domestic support has once again proven to be fantasy.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Nice strawman.
the Middle East veered closer to a full-blown regional war.
The ME was never close to a full blown regional war.
Every other nation in the area was happy to use Israel and USA as their outsourced armed forces to end Iran’s nuclear ambitions....
The Saudis were probably dancing in their tents.............
They got a hard punch in the mouth and a significant loss of prestige. Next punch will be a knockout.
No nuclear weapon for them. President Trump and Israel mean what they say.
If the mullahs want to survive they need to play nice. No other way.
But these people remain rooted in centuries of hatred and the obsessive goal of a world wide caliphate. It’s better that they not remain in power.
Best to take them out and let the people there chart a better path forward.
Despite the antipathy that most Iranians have against the mullah regime, there s little or no chance that there will be a popular uprising to overthrow it. Two major reasons.
1) Iran has been defeated and humiliated by Israel and the United States. Anyone who comes to power by taking advantage of this situation will be viewed as kowtowing and owing their power to Iran’s enemies. Doubt they would survive long.
2) The mullah regime is supported by an infrastructure of goons and thugs who have and will crack the heads of anyone who rises against them. The goons are paid with the hard currency cash so graciously supplied on pallets by Obama, Kerry and Biden. As long as the cash lasts, there will be no uprising against the mullahs.
IMHO Iran will suffer under this regime for many more years.
Meanwhile, Iranian dissidents say the SOMEONE is still sending drones after senior Islamist Iranian figures.
Where do they go from here? Back to ordering parts to rebuild their centrifuges so that they can get back to building the bomb to nuke Israel. Is this even a question?
They might have to wait for a sympathetic dem president to show up to give them money again, but I would believe this is the plan.
Who says it was ever the intended goal to have “regime change?”
The goal was to get Iran to back of with the WMD program and I suspect also some of the support for Hezbollah.
This is how to win/succeed: You have a defined and reasonable goal. You use the right tool at the right time. You work towards that goal by sequencing events and in a coordinated fashion. This is called being METHODICAL.
Biden’s Ukraine war on the other hand, in an open ended, just throwing resources at a problem, undefined, a gray/ambiguous mess. We gambled that someone far bigger than Ukraine, an adversary which you’re pissing off, won’t “go for it.” This is NOT how to set the conditions for success. This is called HOPING.
Hope is a technique, but it is not a method.
Let’s Hope The Persian population
Have designs to Take Back their
Country from these 7th century
Enemies of Civilization.
.
If Not then at Least
They have been Defanged
For the foreseeable future.
Nonsense. They'll go back to what they were doing in the hope that Trump will be succeeded by a Democrat.
Muslims don’t have those. The just have a hole in the floor.............
I’ll take “straight to hell” for 2,000, Alex
“The Saudis were probably dancing in their tents....”
And the Bahrainis and the Emiratis and the Sunnis and Kurds in Iraq and the Lebanese, and the Syrians, etc.
Drones are crashing into apartments in Teheran tonight. Its such a shame...
How do you have a regional war when the entire region hates the Iranian regime and want them gone?
Here’s the point that I think Iran either doesn’t acknowledge or chooses to ignore: Israel can remove restraint and bomb Iran into oblivion, especially since Iran’s air defense is almost non-existent. This isn’t two enemies who are equal.
Now I’ll be thinking about Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.
Great song.
Lenin said that when you face opposition prob with bayonets. If you encounter steel stop. If you encounter mush push forward. Notice that he said stop and not retreat. Iran just has to stop for one or two presidential elections.
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