Now is the moment for strategic resolve, not retreat.

Jeff Ballabon, JNS

The free world just witnessed a strategic milestone: the most forceful joint military campaign ever undertaken against Iran’s nuclear program. Israel launched it. The United States—thanks entirely to U.S. President Donald Trump—delivered the coup de grâce.

While early assessments suggest a devastating impact, the long-term outcome remains unclear. There are reports that enriched uranium was spirited away before the strikes. The regime’s duplicity demands caution: we simply don’t yet know how complete the damage truly is.

What we do know is this: even a successful military campaign cannot solve the Iran problem. Because Iran’s nuclear program is not the root of the threat—it’s the fruit. The regime itself is the threat.

That’s why the true mission is twofold—and always has been. First: destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Second: dismantle the regime that built them.

The urgency of the first is obvious. No state that pledges genocide and death to America can be allowed nuclear weapons. With intercontinental ballistic missiles—or a high-altitude EMP—Iran could inflict catastrophic destruction on the U.S. mainland—literally killing 90% of America. This regime doesn’t view nukes as deterrents. It sees them as divine instruments.

But it’s the second objective—regime change—that is the long-term strategic necessity. So long as the Islamic Republic endures, it will rebuild. It will re-arm. It will return. We’ve been here before: negotiated freezes, UN inspections, sanctions relief—and all the while, Tehran advanced its capabilities under the cover of diplomacy and deception.

This regime is not merely hostile. It is messianic. Its genocidal fixation on Jews, its hatred for Christianity, the West, even other Muslims—and its endless quest to export jihad are not policy preferences; they are religious imperatives.

Some in the West still flinch at the idea of regime change. They ask: What comes next?

The honest answer is that we don’t know. The next regime may not be friendly. It may even be anti-American.

But it is an easy bet that it will not be worse. No successor could exceed the Islamic Republic’s unique combination of apocalyptic ideology, oil wealth, and global terror reach. And there’s every reason to believe it may be better.

Iran is a proud, sophisticated nation whose people have risked everything to resist their oppressors. Many polls suggest a majority of Iranians seek not only regime change, but a more open society and friendship with both America and Israel.

Some critics—absurdly claiming the mantle of “America First” and “MAGA”—have attacked Trump for assisting Israel in confronting the nuclear threat. This is not only dishonest. It’s dangerous. It is precisely Trump—who personifies both “America First” and the MAGA doctrine—whose leadership was needed to deliver the final, decisive blow.

He understood what too many forget: that preventing a nuclear apocalypse in the hands of a fanatical regime is not a favor to Israel. It is a strategic imperative for America. And he will not be in office forever. The Iranians are extremely patient. They’ve waited out American administrations before. They will again—unless we finish what we’ve started.

That’s why now is the moment for strategic resolve, not retreat. The strikes must not be the end of American engagement. They must be the beginning of a sustained campaign:

• Maximum economic and diplomatic pressure.
• Relentless cyber and covert action.
• Unapologetic support for Iran’s resistance.

The nuclear threat must be eliminated. The regime must fall. The free world cannot afford another cycle of illusions, negotiations, and betrayal. What follows may be uncertain. But unlike the status quo, it holds the possibility of peace, stability—and a future not only for Iranians, but for the United States and Israel.

Israel struck first, for the world. America followed, with overwhelming force. Now both must lead, with vision.

Jeff Ballabon is an American media executive, lobbyist, political advisor and consultant.