adminU.S. Central Command announced that American forces struck more than 3,000 targets inside Iran during the first week of Operation Epic Fury, posting footage and insisting the campaign will continue until the threat is eliminated. That blunt admission from CENTCOM is the clearest sign yet that Washington has chosen decisive military pressure over months of hand-wringing and equivocation.
President Donald Trump has publicly praised the campaign and framed it as necessary to protect American lives and interests, even declaring there will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender as the White House leans into a total defeat-first strategy. His rhetoric echoes a long-held conservative view that weakness invites aggression, and the president is plainly betting that strength will restore deterrence across the region.
The strikes followed a joint U.S.-Israeli operation on February 28 that many outlets report killed Iran’s Supreme Leader and a number of senior commanders, a development confirmed by Iranian state media and acknowledged by several international news organizations. The death of Khamenei — however seismic and fraught with unknowns — explains why American and allied commanders moved with extraordinary speed and lethality.
Beyond Tehran’s leadership losses, CENTCOM and allied forces released imagery showing attacks on command-and-control nodes, missile and drone sites, and what U.S. officials say includes dozens of vessels, with reports that some 40-plus Iranian ships were damaged or destroyed in the first week. Those strikes were calibrated to crush Iran’s ability to project power by sea and air and to sever the logistics that feed proxy networks across the Middle East.
Patriots should not be shy about acknowledging the gravity of these operations: the alternative was endless American bases under rocket and drone fire, left to watch while Tehran financed terror from Beirut to Sanaa. Congress has shown pockets of support for robust action, and the president’s willingness to wield American power has restored a deterrent posture that Democrats and appeasers long claimed was unnecessary.
This is a moment for solidarity with our servicemembers and for a sober, confident conservatism that understands force must be matched with purpose. Washington should press its advantage, protect civilians where possible, and demand that any future settlement guarantees American security and crushes the regime’s capacity to export violence. Hardworking Americans deserve a foreign policy that keeps them safe, not speeches that embolden our enemies.
