It's a dead tab party, who could ask for more, everybody's coming, leave your mullah at the door ...
.@SecGenNATO Mark Rutte: "I really commend what is happening here. Taking out Khamenei... but also taking out the ballistic missile program in Iran... I spoke with all the key European leaders over the weekend. [There's] widespread support for the president's doing." pic.twitter.com/qHsNoSIpjK
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 2, 2026
Ed: Say, remember when Democrats insisted that we pay attention to NATO leadership and the "key European leaders"? That was, what ... last week? All during 2025? Maybe Democrats should ask themselves why they're closer to the mullahs than they are to NATO on Iran. And Canada.
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CDR Salamander: What I would like to do is dive into a topic that I hinted at in the show: my historical support for the punitive expedition.
The target is valid, and the method has been underused for way too long.
I support the strikes on Iran because it firmly fits into a view I have held on the use of national military power for decades, based on thousands of years of military practice. If you are not up to speed with the thousands of Americans dead and maimed by the Islamic Republic and its proxies over the last 47 years, then I have nothing more to discuss with you.
Ed: This is a fascinating essay. It reminds us that we can make sure that people respect our interests and those of our allies without fully invading evil regimes and doing nation-building. It may leave despicable elements in place. However, it usually teaches them to stop provoking us. That should be enough.
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The two most powerful officials in Iran have sought refuge in a hospital.
— The Iran Watcher 🇮🇷 (@TheIranWatcher) March 2, 2026
Ali Larijani and Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, who are both high-priority targets, have reportedly taken refuge inside a hospital for cover out of fear of being located and targeted.
Both widely seen as… pic.twitter.com/f4Q2TWeoqH
Both widely seen as wielding the most power in Iran’s leadership after Khamenei’s death.
The Islamic Republic is widely reported to use hospitals and schools as human shields.
Ed: They learned this tactic from Hamas, or vice versa. Either way, it demonstrates their gutlessness. And it won't save them from the Iranian people's wrath, once fully activated.
===
Roya Hakakian at The Free Press: They say there is nothing worse in the world than war. But in fact, there is. It is a peace beneath whose facade a nation’s hope dies a thousand deaths every day. It is a peace that pleases the global anti-war community but is oblivious to the infinite suffering of a people. It is a peace whose advocates flood the streets when a bomb falls from the sky but keep silent when all the military might of a regime targets its own citizens and murders countless unarmed demonstrators.
That peace is a righteous lie many in the West have been peddling to themselves and others. And as of January 2026, it is the peace that Iranians reject. No, they don’t want war, either. What they want is an end to a regime that can only lead them to war; a regime that has been, from its inception, preparing them for “martyrdom” and funneling the scarce national resources to fund its proxies in the region.
Text messages are already lighting up American cell phones, including mine, urging everyone to call their elected representatives about “an illegal assault on Iran.” But there were no such messages when the regime shut down the internet and phone communications in January and aimed its machine guns at anyone on the streets—even passersby who were simply there to watch. No text messages when the Basij went to hospitals and clinics and shot the wounded protesters who were there for treatment. No text messages when the morgues began to overflow with body bags. No text messages when the officials asked the families of the victims to pay for the cost of every bullet with which they had killed their loved ones. No text messages when they arrested doctors who had dared treat the injured. No text messages when they arrested tens of thousands and tortured them in prisons, nor when the regime killed children and sexually assaulted women in detention.
Ed: Again, I recommend reading this in full. The American Left claims it wants to avoid war, but the Iranian regime has waged war against the US for 47 years, and on their own people the whole time, too. They want the Iranians to surrender to the kind of fascism they keep insisting is descending in the US.
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“[President Trump] will go down in the annals of Iranian history as the most-celebrated foreign leader that changed the ballgame and changed the world as a result,” says Reza Pahlavi, a leader of the Iranian opposition to the Islamic Republic. https://t.co/XmfcU4VAhc pic.twitter.com/rmo7i6K02T
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 2, 2026
Ed: It's interesting to see Pelley try to bait Pahlavi into criticizing Trump. Pahlavi is smarter than that. He's had to be to survive this long. The Iranians are not shy about ordering assassinations and fatwas, as Salman Rushdie can testify, which is another good reason to put an end to their 47-year war against the US. I have no idea whether Pahlavi can play an effective role in unifying Iran if and when the regime falls, but he can prove or disprove that when the time comes. That seems to be Trump's approach, too.
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Yashar Ali: As I have repeatedly reminded my followers, and I am far from alone in saying this, the Islamic Republic is vast, deeply entrenched, and structurally embedded in nearly every major lever of power. It controls a significant share of the economy, the security apparatus, and the political system itself.
Iran is also surrounded by governments and regimes that do not view the emergence of a genuinely free and democratic Iran as aligned with their strategic interests.
Jumping to the conclusion that “it’s over” only harms Iranians.
It creates complacency at the very moment when sustained pressure, scrutiny, and support matter most.
Ed: A sobering reminder that the regime is very well entrenched after 47 years. It can still be defeated, but it will take a lot of sacrifice by the Iranian people, and they need a lot of resources to achieve it.
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Trump: I was very proud to have knocked out the Iran nuclear deal by president Barack Hussein Obama pic.twitter.com/YaEykhjUVk
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 2, 2026
Ed: The JCPOA was indeed the worst deal in recent American history. The ballistic missile attacks we see this week make that very clear.
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Glenn Reynolds: Why didn’t we do this before? And why could we do it now? The reason we can do it now is mostly leadership. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth quickly prioritized precision and lethality in the military; President Trump was willing to use the military in ways prior presidents were not.
Why didn’t we do this before? Part of that is because the foreign policy establishment, like the domestic policy establishment, doesn’t exist to solve problems. It exists to manage those problems in ways that keep its members cushily employed. To, in Myres McDougal’s words, “maintain tensions at a level short of unacceptable violence.”
Trump, on the other hand, wants to solve things, even if it involves inflicting unacceptable violence on the enemy. Also, he regards our enemies as actual enemies, not as “foreign colleagues” or “partners in peace.” To quote author Keith Laumer, “there’s nothing as peaceful as a dead troublemaker.” Khamenei is now peaceful.
In fact, Trump’s approach across the board, which has brought him success after success in his first 13 months back in office, is to solve problems the way the guys in the bar say they would do it. Too much illegal immigration? Close the border and deport the illegals. Problems with Iran? Kill their leaders and encourage a revolution. Venezuela shipping drugs and gangs to the U.S.? Capture their leader and encourage his successor to cooperate or share his fate. You can just do things.
Ed: All you need is a president willing to do them.
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"The Moscow-Tehran axis is falling apart before our eyes." - Ukrainian expert Igor Semyvolos:
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) March 1, 2026
It has been confirmed that Iran did indeed seek assistance from Russia, invoking clauses on "mutual assistance in the event of a threat to sovereignty." Moscow, however, resorted to… https://t.co/8KofXVRkuZ pic.twitter.com/swOMe3sSkt
Moscow, however, resorted to legalistic maneuvering: since the U.S. and Israeli strikes are framed as "targeted operations against terrorist infrastructure," rather than a full-scale invasion, the Kremlin interprets this as a case that does not fall under the collective defense provisions.
Iran reportedly asked to activate S-400 systems and Krasukha/Leer-3 electronic warfare systems at Russian bases in Syria (Khmeimim and Tartus) to blind Israeli aircraft. Instead, Russia not only refused but, according to some reports, even switched off transponders and active radar systems at its bases during the flight of Israeli missiles, in order to avoid accidental involvement and any pretext for entering the conflict.
The Kremlin’s refusal has been heard in Pyongyang, Beijing, and across the Global South. Russia has demonstrated that it is a "fair-weather ally." Iranian elites - particularly the pragmatic wing - are now openly saying that the strategic bet on Russia was a mistake that led to a national catastrophe.
Ed: Cry harder. Putin's utility – or lack thereof – should have been obvious from their botched invasion of Ukraine. Putin has had to rely on Iranian drones to keep up on the front lines, and he's clearly out of his depth against Trump. Trump has undercut Putin's connections with ruthless implacability without directly provoking him, and the Iranians are just the crescendo of that strategy. Saddam Hussein learned the same lesson in 1991 and 2003, too, so this should have been no surprise.
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🚨 Austin CBS reporter just went rogue and earned nationwide praise for REFUSING to bury the story, straight-up told her higher-ups NO when ordered to IGNORE the massive support for Trump obliterating Khamenei!
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) March 1, 2026
“They don’t want us to focus on this…”
“Alright. Well, I AM.”… pic.twitter.com/4642RYO9Tt
Ed: I'll bet Bari has his back.
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Reposting this as now the pro Gaza left is going all in on behalf of the Mullahs against the Iranian people. The exposure of the "Free Palestine" con job is complete. https://t.co/mLc4gof9DL
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) March 2, 2026
Ed: It's the radical-Islam version of the German-American Bund in the late 1930s.
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As I said in my analysis on Sunday on @CNNSOTU ...now @politico reports: "President Donald Trump’s latest attack on Iran takes a big economic bite out of one of America’s chief rivals: China." https://t.co/k4HgY4FAI2 pic.twitter.com/K72RBSUsyj
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) March 2, 2026
Ed: They're starting to figure it out.
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Ed: I'm taking the final Final Word tonight with my commentary airing today and tomorrow on Salem Radio Network.
For 47 years, the radical Islamist terrorists running Iran have conducted multiple acts of war against the United States. The regime abducted our diplomats in 1979 and kept them hostage for 444 days. Their proxy terror network Hezbollah killed more than 240 Marines in Beirut, and kidnapped Americans throughout the 1980s. Iran and its Shi’ite militias targeted and killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq while wounding thousands more.
This weekend, Donald Trump finally addressed this long war by responding to it with overwhelming force.
Some Americans wonder how this fits with Trump’s “America First” strategy—claiming Trump has gone to war to protect Israel.
Make no mistake: This fits America First. It puts American interests ahead of European appeasers that spent decades restraining the US from a proper response to Iran’s acts of war. It will fully re-establish America as the first among nations—the superpower that, once again, does not fear to protect its interests.
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