by Roger Kimball
Forty-seven years after the mullahs seized power, the countdown ended in fire, and Trump wagered that decisive force—not talk—would finally clear the path to Iran’s liberation.
On January 25, just over a month ago, I wrote here that “The Countdown to Iran’s Liberation Has Begun.” Yes, there were peace talks. Donald Trump’s negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, jetted off to talk to Iran’s agents. Had Iran acceded to Trump’s key demands—above all, the abandonment of its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons—war might have been averted. As Churchill almost put it, it is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war. But the ticking sound that was clicking throughout Iran this last month or so was not diplomacy. It was, I speculated, “a death-rattle, as a murderous regime nears judgment and a brutalized people pray that liberation, at last, is real.”
The countdown reached zero—liftoff!—yesterday, February 28, at about 8:15 a.m. Tehran time. That is when the first wave of the assault to destroy the hideous, 47-year-old Islamicist regime commenced. Code-named Operation Epic Fury (“Roaring Lion” in Israel), the initial assault targeted sites across the country in Tehran, Isfahan, Qom, Karaj, Tabriz, and elsewhere. According to some reports, a meeting in Tehran with the Supreme Leader Khamenei and several top aides was a primary target. Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, head of the judiciary in Iran, was killed in the strike. He had hundreds of Iranian citizens executed, so good riddance. Ditto for Mohammad Pakpour. He was, as one wag put it, “the new head of IRGC that replaced the previous new head of IRGC who was eliminated after he replaced the previous head of IRGC who was eliminated.” The same fate embraced Amir Hatami, the defense minister. It was he who directed the massacre of tens of thousands of Iranian protestors in January. When I sat down to write this, the fate of the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei was unknown. I had to come back to this sentence with the good news that he, too, has gone to meet his 72 virgins. He had been oppressing Iranians and exporting terrorism since 1989, so good riddance to him, too.
Meanwhile, Iran responded to the attacks by launching missiles at Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, and possibly Saudi Arabia. So far, one civilian casualty has been confirmed in Abu Dhabi from falling debris. Apparently, all the other missiles were intercepted. As one commentator observed, “Iran just converted every neutral and semi-neutral state in the Gulf into a potential co-belligerent. Every nation whose airspace was violated, whose civilians were killed, whose sovereignty was breached now has legal and political justification to join whatever coalition forms next.”
Early yesterday, both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered statements to announce the military action. Trump delivered his on Truth Social. “For 47 years,” he noted,
. . .the Iranian regime has chanted ‘Death to America’ and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States, our troops, and the innocent people in many, many countries.
Among the regime’s very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of American hostages for 444 days.
In 1983, Iran’s proxies carried out the marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel.
In 2000, they knew and were probably involved with the attack on the USS Cole. Many died. Iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of American service members in Iraq.
The regime’s proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against American forces stationed in the Middle East in recent years, as well as U.S. naval and commercial vessels and international shipping lanes.
It’s been mass terror, and we’re not going to put up with it any longer. From Lebanon to Yemen and Syria to Iraq, the regime has armed, trained, and funded terrorist militias that have soaked the earth with blood and guts.
And it was Iran’s proxy Hamas that launched the monstrous October 7th attacks on Israel, slaughtering more than 1,000 innocent people, including 46 Americans, while taking 12 of our citizens hostage. It was brutal, something like the world has never seen before.
Iran is the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested.
Trump went on to iterate his number one demand: that Iran never be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. He concluded with an appeal to the Iranian people. The “massive and ongoing operation” that had just started would clear the way for the Iranian people to finally assert themselves and form their own government. “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground,” Trump promised. “We are going to annihilate their Navy. We’re going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world. . . . When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations.”
For his part, Prime Minister Netanyahu echoed many of President Trump’s points. He also went out of his way to thank the president for his “historic” leadership and courage. Trump has been, he noted, “Israel’s greatest friend in the White House of all time.”
Here at home, The New York Times instantly got its anti-Trump chorus on stage. “Trump’s case for striking Iran rests on questionable claims,” sniffed one headline, while an official editorial demanded to know “Why Have You Started This War, Mr. President?” Naturally, Kamala Harris was there with her incontinent anti-Trump bloviating, as were Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York’s rich Muslim Socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Right on cue, clumps of unhappy white females, real and honorary, congregated outside the White House with their “Hands Off Iran” signs and other memos of mental madness. Pathetic. But Democratic Sen. John Fetterman once again broke ranks by coming out in support of the strike. “President Trump,” he wrote, “has been willing to do what’s right and necessary to produce real peace in the region.” Good for him.
Iranians across the globe agreed. In Tehran, there are many scenes of Iranians playing music and dancing in the streets. “Everyone waited for this day,” wrote one Iranian activist. Young students are cheering Trump, women are celebrating, Iranian exiles are cheering (and here and here), and one clever, technically inclined memer posted a video of Trump dancing to Iranian music (I don’t suppose there are many YMCAs in Iran).
What happened yesterday is not the end of the story. The fury unleashed by Israel and America is just in its opening phase. It is unclear how many casualties lie ahead. But so far, Trump’s actions in this crisis confirm something I have been saying for some time: that Trump is a great man of history. I am pleased that the red-pilled activist Bill Ackman agrees. “President Donald Trump,” he wrote on X, “will go down in history as one of the greatest and most consequential presidents we have ever had.” Does that sound odd? Donald Trump? The real-estate mogul and reality TV host? It may sound odd. It doubtless bothers the well-coiffed in Harvard Yard, CNN, and the Bulwark. But it is the truth. The New York Times will not like it, but Trump will occupy a spot alongside George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, and Ronald Reagan as one of our greatest presidents.
Roger Kimball
Source: https://amgreatness.com/2026/03/01/operation-epic-fury-and-the-fall-of-the-mullahs/
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