5 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

There's zero chance of there not being a succession plan for Khamenei especially. He's old, and not in great health.

According to the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/mar/01/us-israel-war-on-iran-ayatollah-ali-khamenei-i-dead-latest-reports

"More details are emerging on who will lead Iran during a transition period, following Khamenei’s death.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and another official from the country’s legal council will be part of the trio overseeing the transition, according to state television which cited Mohammad Mokhber, one of Khamenei’s advisors.

Last summer during the 12-day war with Israel, Khamenei named three potential successors should he be killed. Reports earlier this month indicated that Khamenei had named four layers of succession for key government and military jobs, in an effort to ensure regime survival in the face of a US-Israeli attack."

I dunno how this is supposed to go from shooting missiles to regime change and I don't think Israel and the US do either.

There is no organized opposition in Iran and Iran's army and political structure is created to endure war, so regime change is unlikelly. I would guess it is more fear and terror that was goal so that other countries don't dare opposite US. Also it distrupts local politics both in Israel and US. Which allows unpopular moves like giving Oracle access to medicare data and allowance to use X's grok ai to use it as training data.

18 hours ago, Gorgon said:

I dunno how this is supposed to go from shooting missiles to regime change and I don't think Israel and the US do either.

16 hours ago, Elerond said:

There is no organized opposition in Iran and Iran's army and political structure is created to endure war, so regime change is unlikelly. I would guess it is more fear and terror that was goal so that other countries don't dare opposite US. Also it distrupts local politics both in Israel and US. Which allows unpopular moves like giving Oracle access to medicare data and allowance to use X's grok ai to use it as training data.

It would be hard to imagine regime change in Iran in the same way it happened in Venezuela, remove the leader and the new government falls in line and starts reversing all the authoritarian policies and the country starts on a journey of becoming a real Democracy again

Iran has never been a real Democracy and its spent the last 45 years creating a mindset that is opposed to the US and its " imperialist influence "

Anti-American sentiment is ingrained into the psyche of most of the hardliners in Iran, its all they have ever known

And anti-Israeli sentiment is even worse

There are lots of Iranians who would love to see a better relationship with the US and the West and the country to just be a normal member of the international community

But they not in power

I would assume the US and Israeli objective is if you kill the Iranian leadership and keep bombing them then the new government would be more favorable to all the demands and objectives

Its difficult to predict what will happen because we haven't seen this before with the Supreme Leader being killed

I dont think we will see the political change we are hoping for with the new leadership but you never know ?