New York Times:
Iran’s Regime May Survive, but the Middle East Will Be Changed
A badly weakened Iran will no longer intimidate or threaten its neighbors in the same way. The regional impact could be comparable to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Iran’s decline began two years ago, with Israel’s tough and sustained response to an invasion by Hamas from Gaza. It accelerated when Israel eroded Iran’s air defenses, defeated Hezbollah and profited from the Syrian revolution that overthrew Bashar al-Assad, another ally of Tehran.
But now, with the ayatollah’s death and intense destruction from the air, Iran’s regional sway has ebbed further, with uncertain consequences that will play out over months and even years.
it’s pretty clear this war of choice was started because they saw an opportunity. Sure, Iran’s leadership was taken out, but the hardliners had plans for that. And what now? The WH can’t answer beyond ‘wait and see’ because they have no clue what happens now.
That is not the position you want to be in.
David French/New York Times:
War and Peace Cannot Be Left to One Man — Especially Not This Man
I take a back seat to no one in my loathing of the Iranian regime. I am not mourning the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike on Saturday. My anger at the Iranian regime is personal. Men I knew and served with during my deployment to Iraq in 2007 and 2008 were killed and gravely injured by Iranian-supplied weapons deployed by Iranian-supported militias.
But my personal feelings don’t override the Constitution, and neither do anyone else’s. As I mentioned in a round-table conversation with my colleagues on Saturday, I’m worried that all too many people will say: Well, in a perfect world Trump should have gone to Congress, but what’s done is done. That is exactly the wrong way to approach this war.
Here’s the bottom line: Trump should have gotten congressional approval for striking Iran, or he should not have struck at all. And because he did not obtain congressional approval, he’s diminishing America’s chances for ultimate success and increasing the chances that we make the same mistakes we — and other powerful nations — have made before.
New York Times:
Who Could Take Over for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?
Now that Iran has declared that its supreme leader is dead, it is unclear which of his possible successors might rise.
The three candidates Ayatollah Khamenei said he preferred for the role of supreme leader, based on interviews with six senior Iranian officials and two clerics who did not want to be identified discussing sensitive information, are the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i; Ayatollah Khamenei’s chief of staff, Ali Asghar Hejazi; and Hassan Khomeini, a moderate cleric from the reformist political faction who is a grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini.
The Israeli military said that Mr. Hejazi had been killed.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, who has been a powerful figure in the shadows, is favored by some factions, but Ayatollah Khamenei told followers that he did not want the post of supreme leader to be hereditary.
What happens now in Iran is unclear.
The corrected D support in 2026 is 10%, not 19%. The graph was updated.
Richard Fontaine on X:
The three candidates Ayatollah Khamenei said he preferred for the role of supreme leader, based on interviews with six senior Iranian officials and two clerics who did not want to be identified discussing sensitive information, are the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i; Ayatollah Khamenei’s chief of staff, Ali Asghar Hejazi; and Hassan Khomeini, a moderate cleric from the reformist political faction who is a grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini.
The Israeli military said that Mr. Hejazi had been killed.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, who has been a powerful figure in the shadows, is favored by some factions, but Ayatollah Khamenei told followers that he did not want the post of supreme leader to be hereditary.
What happens now in Iran is unclear.
x
No wonder Trump went to war with Iran in the dead of night, with the Capitol empty, most Americans soundly asleep
This war is illegal. Full stop. The worst abuse of presidential power in American history aims to cement a dictatorship on U.S. soil
My instant column www.inquirer.com/opinion/trum...
— Will Bunch (@willbunch.bsky.social) 2026-02-28T18:32:55.924Z
Timothy Snyder/Substack:
Why Attack Iran?
Our Authoritarianism and Our Corruption
How do understand the war with Iran? We must get away from the propaganda and ask why this might be happening, in light of the facts that we do know.
These facts suggest two interpretive frameworks: a foreign war as a mechanism to destroy democracy at home; and a foreign war as an element of personal corruption by the president of the United States.
From the United States, the most plausible angle of view is domestic politics, not foreign policy. Wars are a tool of undermining and undoing democracies. Given that we have multiple examples of this from both modern and ancient democracy, and given the behavior of Trump and his allies in general, this must be an interpretive method for these attacks.
The relationship between foreign war and domestic authoritarianism can take two basic forms: 1) we must all rally because there is a war and everyone who oppose the war is a traitor; 2) we must hold elections under specific conditions favorable to the party in power. This is utterly predictable and should be easy to halt and indeed to reverse.
On a different topic close to my heart, Eric Lullove/Blue Amp media:
THE SURGEON GENERAL MUST BE A PHYSICIAN, NOT AN INFLUENCER
Clinical Reality vs. Wellness Marketing: The Case for a Qualified Surgeon General.
In the surgical and wound care world, we understand that experience is earned at the bedside and in the operating room. There is no substitute for the years of rigorous training required to earn board certification. When we discuss public health policy that affects millions, we aren’t talking about “wellness coaching” or social media optimization; we are talking about life-and-death decisions, infectious disease protocols, and the translation of complex data for a lay population. Promoting an individual who walked away from clinical practice—and who has no residency training—to lead the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is not just unconventional; it is a profound dereliction of the standards we should demand for the nation’s health.
