Hegseth is absolutely right. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been on a war footing with the United States throughout its existence. It has repeatedly attacks Americans and American interests. The Ayatollah Khamenei said that “Death to America” was not just a slogan, but a policy. This is true to the extent that while Hegseth says that this is not a regime change war, it is also true that if the Iranian regime doesn’t change, there will be more attacks from Iran against the U.S. and its allies. And once a Democrat is back in the White House, U.S. taxpayers will be financing those attacks.
“Hegseth says strikes are to destroy Iran’s missile system, navy and end nuclear program,” by Joseph Weber, Just The News, March 2, 2026:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday laid out the Trump administration’s objective for its joint air strikes with Israel on Iran: destroying the Middle East country’s missile system and navy and ending its pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
“We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump we are going to finish it,” Hegseth said at the Pentagon, two days after the strikes began on Tehran.”
He also said the strikes were not for a “regime change,” but he urged Iranians to take advantage of them killing Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of high-level government officials to try to install a new government. The strikes follow U.S. diplomats’ efforts to reach an agreement with Tehran on how its nuclear program will go forward.
“This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime has changed,” Hegseth also said….
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Like I mentioned in the previous thread, regime change is Israel’s objective, which is why they have been taking out their political leadership as well as bombing things like their parliament building and now Evin prison. Also, while the US has been taking out missile strikes and drone bases, as well as the drones, Israel has been targeting IRGC buildings, police stations and all symbols of political power. I guess that just like money is fungible, so are bombs & missiles
The regime is yet to change, until the IRGC resistance collapses completely, and Iran’s islamic leadership is completely eliminated. In the meantime, it has been reported that Reza Pahlavi is now looking at returning to Iran in 2-4 weeks so that he can start the transition activity
Taffy says
It’s only been 3 days! Give it a week or two and there will be a regime change. It takes a while for the enemy army to get completely demoralized. After the food starts running low and they are unable to sleep for a solid week when the ground shakes under them from constant bombardment. they will crack. Also, I think the fact that Israel was able to infiltrate their call to prayer app, really spooked a lot of them. Israel has to deprive them of hope at all times. Once there is hope, the enemy will tend to last much longer than they otherwise would have,
It is one thing to be the big bully on the playground. It is a complexly different thing when someone’s big brother is landing solid punch after punch after punch on the bully and he has to absorb each one with no hope of landing any of his own.
Even Imperial Japan who swore that they would fight to the death, eventually cracked and unconditionally surrendered after the US firebombed Tokyo and proceeded to drop two atomic bombs after that.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I don’t think that army itself has to get destroyed, and for the sake of a future Iran, I hope that it doesn’t get destroyed. A secular Iran, whether a monarchy or a republic, will need to defend itself from its islamic neighbors, who are aghast at the fall of not just the regime, but the fall of islam in Iran: like I noted yesterday, this almost reverses the battle of al-Qadisiyyah in the 7th century that saw the fall of Sassanid Iran. A secular Iran would be just as intolerable to the OIC and the Arab League as is a Jewish Israel, which is why it’s important not to leave Iran defenseless
That’s why in this war, w/o belittling what our forces are doing – knocking down Iranian missile and drone bases, and other military assets, what Israel is doing is far more effective. Destroying all institutions of islamic power and the regime. Last night, they took out the Iranian parliament and their main TV broadcast station, so now, it’s the regime that is at a loss to communicate all over Iran to the populace. Next will be to hack into their internal comms, almost like they did w/ Hizbullah, and take out other senior figures, like the 3 man leadership including Pezeshkian, and other leaders like Larijani, Aragchi and anyone people outside Iran have heard of
In short, I’ll be really surprised if the regime continues to last a week, let alone two
Keys says
Infidel, I think you are aware there is a difference between the IRGC and the regular Iranian army, the Artesh. But for those who are not:
The IRGC quickly formed specifically to protect the Islamic Republic regime after the 1979 Revolution. It operates independently (but cooperatively) from Artesh focusing on internal security and asymmetric warfare. The Artesh existed long before the Islamic Republic and primarily defends the borders.
Part of the reason IRGC was immediately set up was to protect the Ayatollah’s regime from coups, especially coups from the Artesh, because the Islamic leaders distrusted the military.
The IRGC also must maintain regime ideological integrity in Iran with a 2025 budget ($6 billion) almost twice the Artesh budget ($3.2 billion).
IRGC includes the QUDS force.
Seems to me the IRGC and Basij are likely to all be hardline regime supporters willing to fight to the death. Defections are more likely to come from the Artesh.
Reminds me of the SS compared to the regular German army in WW2.
Any thoughts on how to target only the hardline military and get the regulars to surrender, or better yet, turn against the IRGC and the fanatical Basij in order to protect the people and finally end the Islamic Republic of Iran?
Keys says
IRGC = Approximately 125,000 active personnel
Artesh = Approximately 480,000 active personnel
Wellington says
Well, Yes, the American strike was not done first and foremost to have regime change in Iran but rather to eliminate that regime’s nuclear and ballistic capacity. But it is highly unlikely that the regime won’t change, “nudged” along to achieve this result by America using various methods anywhere from threats to bribes to active assistance. Besides, as Infidel mentioned above, it is Israel’s objective to have regime change in Iran and this combined with the “nudging” by America I mentioned should be more than good enough.
Westman says
After watching a discussion with Alistair Crooke, former UK diplomat/surrender monkey, and Glenn Diesen, a Norwegian educator, it is so obvious the UK old guard are unbelievably ignorant of their existential absorption by Islam.
And the rest of Europe’s leaders are hedonistic cowards who can only fight a proxy war with the citizen’s money, a war they are losing let alone dealing with Iran and enemies within their own borders.
The Click Bait headlines that Diesen has recently been putting on his YouTube channel are extremely out of character for a university educator and content is now against both Israel and the US.
When Alistair Crooke says Iran has never attacked Israel or the US, he damn well lnows that the UK has been warring exactly the same against Russia as Iran has been doing to Israel and the US – sending money and arms to others to their dirty work. We have many dead and crippled to prove it.
Maybe we should just forget Europe, well on its way to Schitt’s Creek, and concentrate on supporting Israel and helping the non-Muslim 3rd world nations improve their own economies and standard of living – not by handouts, rather education, training, and direct investment(not to governments).
Go Israel and the US!!
Show the EU surrender monkeys what can be done. They just destroyed their argriculture system for a few Euros. Thanks Ursula – sold them out, all by her little self. And the UE calls that democracy !!
Open a US military service for seniors of good health to participate in the paperwork and building of war materials and weapons. AI is going to create hundreds of thousands of younger skilled people without jobs in but a few years. Many of them could speed up the US’ absolutely abysmal rate of arms production.
Islam ties up its women with restrictions to keep them dependent. The US has both workers and warriors of both sexes, leaving Islam at a potential disadvantage. The best Soviet sniper was a woman.
Horatio says
I’m concerned that Trump said he wants to negotiate with the new regime. What new regime? The next generation of mass murdering maniacs? Trump also said that the people should rebel and take over the government. How can they rebel? They have no weapons.
Westman says
If leftists and rogue nations can supply weapons and food to Hamas, the US could have certainly smuggled weapons into Iran. It seems a bit late now.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Actually, now, the people and the IRGC are about even. Yesterday, they showed a video in some city of some people taking over the center or a government building or something, and Basij units going on motorcycles to suppress them. Then a drone (probably Israeli) appeared from nowhere and took them all out at the same time. After enough of such incidents have happened, it’s up to the Iranians to take the initiative and finish the job: the Israelis can’t spoonfeed them all the way. It was one thing the last 2 months before Saturday, but now, the Iranians have no excuse for not rising up against the Basij
As for Trump, he should do his negotiations w/ Pahlavi, who’s still in Maryland. In fact, there is nothing even to negotiate: Pahlavi has already said that he’d end Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. A secular Iran will need a minimal defense, not against Israel, but against islamic wolves like Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq and maybe even Afghanistan, so elimination of Iran’s entire military should not be the objective. In the meantime, it’s not a wise idea to negotiate w/ guys like Pezeshkian, who could get killed anytime during the Israeli operations
More than one threat says
I find it interesting no one in the US or international community have referred to the justification for the actions by the US and Israel under the international law concept of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).
R2P is a global commitment established by the United Nations in 2005, aimed at preventing genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. It emphasizes that states have a duty to protect their populations, and if they fail, the international community has a responsibility to intervene.
No one disputes that the Iranian regime had killed tens of thousands of their own citizens in recent weeks. Under R2P, the international community had a legal responsibility to intervene. But only the US and Israel were prepared to do so on behalf of the Iranian people.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
How come this is never invoked by the UN to protect
⮞ Christians in Nigeria, Syria, Turkey, Pakistan and a host of other muslim countries
⮞ Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan
⮞ Boers in South Africa
The last thing we need to do is assert any moral powers to the UN: it’s an organization that’s way past its expiry date
OLD GUY says
The UN seems to protect Islam for the most part no matter how evil or how many people they murder.
More than one threat says
Agree that the UN is a disgraced, corrupt and obsolete entity, established originally under Marxist influence, and used to push globalist Leftist norms and hamstring the West.
Nonetheless, if R2P and humanitarian law were to have been used as a justification for intervention in Iran, much of the Leftist criticism that the operations in Iran are illegal, or designed to defend Israel, would immediately be negated.
Let’s hear AOC and Ilhan Omar say they don’t want Iranian women to be protected from the regime.