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Arm the Resistance?

Plus: Yes, it's a war; nuclear options; Texas' primary election; Bad Bunny's big show, and more...

Peter Suderman | 3.4.2026 9:36 AM

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Iraqi Shiites shout slogans as they carry a portrait of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and wave Iranian flags during a protest near the US embassy in Baghdad against recent US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Bagdad, Iraq. 28 February 2026. (Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom)

Rebel fighters: Even before the strikes started, one of the biggest questions about the war in Iran has been: What's the endgame? 

The Trump administration has suggested a number of possibilities: Degrading and destroying Iran's military capacity; eliminating its nuclear program; regime change and freedom for Iranians; new leadership, perhaps from the old regime, that is more friendly to American power. 

Well, any plans for elevating new leadership from the old regime seem to have fallen apart because the options that had been considered have all been killed. After an Israeli strike, aided by CIA intelligence, killed Ayatollah Khamenei over the weekend, leaving a leadership vacuum, a council of Iranian clerics convened yesterday to appoint a new leader. That council meeting was also reportedly bombed. A public viewing of Khamenei's body has reportedly been delayed.

Khamenei's son is a possible successor, according to The New York Times. The Times quotes a Johns Hopkins professor on what the son's rise would mean: "If he is elected, it suggests it is a much more hard-line Revolutionary Guard side of the regime that is now in charge."

Trump himself admitted yesterday that one possible scenario is that regime change could bring in a new leader "as bad as the previous person….That could happen." Yes, that could indeed happen, which is why it's usually a good idea to think about that sort of thing before you start a war. 

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