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Feb 24, 2026
The Case for Striking Iran
Feb. 22, 2026
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But it doesn’t mean there isn’t a compelling case for action. Three, in fact.
Iran poses a threat to global order by way of its damaged but abiding nuclear ambitions, its deep strategic ties to Moscow and Beijing, its persistent threats to maritime commerce and its support for international terrorism.
It poses a threat to regional stability, not just through its support for anti-Israel proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah, but also by its meddling in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and (until the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime) Syria.
And it’s a mortal threat to the life and safety of its own people, many thousands of whom it slaughtered last month. There was a time not long ago when Americans, both left and right, cared enough about human rights to believe it could, in some circumstances, justify military intervention.
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Editor: Mr. Stephens is to say the least a Zionist Apologist/Advocate! He tries to mimic a kind of a disinterested point of view, but his regular readers are well aquainted with his tried and true methologies!
The US Has Three Options If It Wants to Hit Iran
February 23, 2026 at 2:26 PM PST
The Pentagon has set the table for major strikes against Iran. With US and Iranian officials negotiating in Geneva, President Donald Trump has threatened significant attacks to induce Tehran to accept a complete end to its nuclear program. What options are available to the president, and which would do the most to pressure Tehran?
Given the US force package in the Middle East, the administration has three “buckets” of capabilities for threatening the Islamic Republic.
The first is non-kinetic warfare, meaning nothing actually blows up. This includes cyberattacks to knock out military and civilian targets, reducing Iranian defense and response capability. There is also information warfare: more propaganda, a better flow of information to the Iranian people, and smuggling in more Starlink terminals to help them get around the regime’s internet clampdown.
Another non-kinetic option could be using radio-frequency tools to degrade microchips in key systems — the “discombobulator” weapon Trump discussed after the raid that seized the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
The second bucket is “limited” strikes. This is what the president seems to have settled on in much of his public commentary. The strategy could include one or two days of strategic attacks against military targets such as ballistic-missile batteries and production facilities; command-and control hubs, especially those of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps; and possibly leadership targets such as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
These strikes would use Tomahawk missiles launched from Arleigh Burke-class destroyers; drones and manned electronic-warfare aircraft; and land- and carrier-based F-35 Lightning stealth fighters. Iran’s air forces should be taken out on the ground before the fight really starts.
Finally, there is bucket three, the truly big tools. This might include several weeks of strikes to wipe out several levels of the Iranian leadership, both religious and secular; hitting what is left of Iran’s nuclear program; destruction of the electric grid; strikes against oil production and refining facilities; and assaults on Iranian naval and maintenance facilities on the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf.
A campaign of this scale would potentially include the “Sunday punch” of both strategic bombers — likely the B-2s used to devastate Iran’s nuclear sites last summer — and far greater numbers of land-based F-35s, plus sea-based F-18 hornets.
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Editor: What James Stavridis offer to the reader is what Bret Stephens cannot begin to match! The Military experience that Stavridis posses, even if still attched to a Idiology of Military Supremacy of Weaponry of many and varied kinds, may espress an Idiology of a kind: Yet in sum Mr. Stephens essay is about a purely idiological defence of the Zionist Faschist State manipulation of Donald Trump, via Miriam Adelson’s money, to reduce to it’s essientials!
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