Destruction is not a political path to peace
By Farah N. Jan / For The Conversation
Shortly after the opening salvo of U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28 — with missiles targeting cities across the country, some of which killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — President Donald Trump declared the objective was to destroy Iran’s military capabilities and give rise to a change in government.
Framing the operation as a war of liberation, Trump called on Iranians to “take over your government.”
In the first days alone, Israel dropped more than 2,000 bombs on Iranian targets, equal to half the tonnage of the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict in June 2025. Heavy U.S. bombing, meanwhile, has targeted Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as well as ballistic missile and aerial defense sites
The destruction is real. But, as an international relations scholar, I know that destruction is not the same as political success. And the historical record of U.S. bombing campaigns aimed at regime change shows that the gap between the two — the point at which Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya campaigns all stalled — is where wars go to die.
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