The Pyromaniac’s Victory Lap
Like a toddler playing with a box of matches in a dynamite factory, President Trump has finally managed to blow the roof off the Middle East. And true to form, he’s standing amidst the smoke and rubble of Tehran, beating his chest and waiting for applause. The assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during "Operation Epic Fury" this weekend is being hailed by the MAGA chorus as a masterstroke, a definitive end to the Iranian menace. But let’s be clear about what actually happened. The United States, in a spasm of unilateral recklessness, just decapitated a sovereign government without a single cohesive plan for what happens the morning after. We have botched a historic opportunity. For months, the brave people of Iran were already in the streets, bleeding for their own freedom. They were doing the hard, dangerous work of dismantling the regime from the inside. But instead of supporting that organic change, instead of building the kind of diplomatic and economic pres...