The latest tactics of the US is to target killings or arrest of murderous and tyrannical leaders of regimes that disrupt the peace or do serious harm.
Time was when some condemned the idea of targeting the commander or leader of an enemy regime, probably encouraged by their own commanders or leaders who did not favour retaliation. It has often been the case that successful killing of the enemy has led to peace. When Henry Tudor’s army killed Richard III that was the end of the War of the Roses. When Hitler killed himself recognising he was about to be captured that ended the 2 nd World War in Europe.
The ability of the US and its leading allies to kill leaders in hostile countries whilst protecting their own leaders does provide a relatively easy way of shortening wars and saving many lives. Should we welcome this development? Killing the Supreme leader of Iran who has authorised mass murder of his own people for daring to undertake peaceful protest requires a concentrated attack on him and his key helpers.
The EU leaders and the UK PM were an annoying irrelevance to relieving the brutality of the Iranian regime. They sheltered behind international law to ignore the voices of the suffering masses in Iran, and failed to see the need to find the quickest way to end the evil regime at minimum risk to the Iranian people. The assertion that the US acted illegally has not been backed up by proper legal argument. Is this international law view any better than the nonsense the government put forward to justify giving away Chagos?
107 Comments
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March 1, 2026
Careful with your headlines, Sir John. I misread this one as Sir John Redwood’s Decapitation. Bloody Hell, I thought, the Islamists have got the poor blighter. But no, thank God.
March 1, 2026
Eu and Uk leadership may have feared knock on effect at home from militanr islam. I fear it will take more than leadership change foe Iran to become a positive member of the Arab community of nations.
I do not see the USA having the wisdom sublety or finesse, a la SOE/OSS , to organise the support of the majotity of the population in a national reset. Recall, our efforts in WW2 gave us de Gaul et al, to no long term benefit. I find it hard to believe that change is possible without boots on the ground to support it.
March 1, 2026
Iranians aren’t Arabs. Might I suggest “middle Eastern community of nations.”
We’ll have to see whether Iranians will seize the opportunity to effect change in their own country, without US boots on the ground. I didn’t exactly go well in Afghanistan.
March 1, 2026
Persians are famously Caucasian.
March 1, 2026
Iranians aren’t Arabs.
March 1, 2026
Iran is not Arab. They do not share that brotherhood. Moreover, the version of Islam they impose is Sharia, not Sunni, and there are significant minorities that follow other faiths such as Bahai. Older generations recall Westernisation and secularism under the Shah. Some still adhere to the Communism of the Tudeh. Underneath, it’s a very complex society subjected to the tyranny of the IRGC and the Basij.
March 1, 2026
“The EU leaders and the UK PM were an annoying irrelevance to relieving the brutality of the Iranian regime.”
Rather understated even by JR standards. Had these lefty, wets given full more unequivocal support to the USA and Israel perhaps the Iranian regime might even have decided to negotiate and call it a day rather than fight to the death saving many lives. Starmer’s actions were truly appalling. He was on the wrong side as usual. He has belatedly tried to climb onto the fence “we have planes in the air to defend British interests”. Surely Iran being prevented form obtaining nuclear weapons is very much in British Interests. A regime change very much in the Iranian people’s interests too.
Starmer’s appeasement to win Muslim votes will not work in the end. Just as Blair’s devolution did or will not will Labour votes in the end. They will have Muslim parties, SNP, Plaid…
Much talk or election leaflets in Urdu (or Welsh). The problem here is that the politicians can say one thing to one set of voters and the complete opposite to another. The EU used this all the time. Perhaps all political leaflets in other languages should have to give honest & accurate English translations.
March 1, 2026
What is the point of Laura Kuenssberg interviewing people like The Rt Hon John Healey MP
(Secretary of State for Defence) when he like Starmer simply refuses to answer any questions and just keeps repeating the evasive drivel he has already uttered. Laura did not even have the sense to ask why the USA was not allowed to use UK bases thus putting US personel at higher risk. Then we get the even worse still leader of Greens who suggests we should be telling the USA it was an illegal attack as he is clearly so in hock to the Muslim vote.
This position largely thanks (to a large degree) to the EU and non EU open door immigration policies of Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Boris, Sunak, Starmer. John Healy read a sort of PPE degree (Social and Political Science) at Christ’s Cambridge. I wonder what grasp he has of warefare, war planes, boats, tanks and weapons he has. I assume he will be pushing for them all to be made battery electric with recharge points on the battle fields. Perhaps the odd game of football with the enemy while the vehicles and weapons all recharge!
March 1, 2026
If you Google, “Is regime change illegal” you will find a huge range of organisations, academics and politicians screaming that Trump’s war on Iran is illegal. The UN and EU feature well. No surprise that these international and supranational organisations insist on the fantasy that all cultures are equal.
It is hard to believe that so many people are coming out in support of a murderous primitive and evil regime that is poisoning the middle east, intends to extirpate the Jews from middle east – a genocide – and itself interferes in the governance of other countries and spreads fear and terror around the world. There is a great sickness of mind in the West.
March 1, 2026
Indeed – where are the international police that enforce international law!
March 1, 2026
Iran is fighting against Israel, which warms them to the Jew haters in this country. That doesn’t just include the Islamists, but the hard left and hard right.
March 1, 2026
They did not have the same compunction in 2014 when they overturned the duly elected leader of Ukraine, Yanukovych.
Was that in breach of International law?
March 1, 2026
@Peter Gardner. Forget international law.
The US Constitution (Article I, Section 8) grants Congress the sole power “To declare War,” preventing unilateral presidential initiation of hostilities.
Trump described the current action as “major combat operations” to eliminate “imminent threats” from Iran. Trump frames the actions as defensive under his authority, bypassing Congress— but there are definitely grounds for suspecting constitutional violation.
This is a real issue for the people of any State. Has the leader overstepped what he is empowered to do? If Starmer did something like this we might want to check what rights he had to do it, and stop him if he was acting ultra vires. No shame in keeping the executive in line.
March 1, 2026
@Peter Gardner, yet none of them can cite an actual ‘Law’ to support thier ‘left wingh’ ideolagy. At best it just goes against their religious political belief their is a World Government. Treaties are just treaties with no actual law or international police force to impose them
March 1, 2026
The Spectator alternative Covid Inquiry video on U tube is far better than the sick joke of the £hundreds of millions Hale one.
Lord Matt Ridley, Lord Sumption and Sunetra Gupta best. Christopher Snowdon rather a dope. They did however avoid the issue of the Covid “vaccines” or even accept they did do some good.
All the figures I have seen (where released in other countries) suggest they did large net harm. Anyway easy to prove give the death and health outcomes (cancer rates, heart issue…) broken down by vaccine types, dates, age, vaccination type, number of, dates of death, gender…
The government has all this data so why are they hiding it?
March 1, 2026
They did largely avoid the issue of the Covid “vaccines” safely (were each of the vaccine types a net good or a net bad) is what I meant.
People saying “Trump has saved the World” far too early for that claim but let us hope for the best. The pathetic Two Tier Kier as usual on the wrong side of every argument.
March 1, 2026
Britain is a disgrace. Unlike America we hide behind the curtains.
We have just removed our only ship from the Gulf and don’t plan on replacing it. We are a complete irrelavence on the world stage. We rely on Qatar for LNG but are unable to protect the trade routes.
Trump is 10o% right to demand Europe provides its own defence.
March 1, 2026
It’s been reported that Starmer’s call to president Trump was a short one. It’s reasonable to assume Starmer got short shrift.
March 1, 2026
We could work towards becoming more insular and less woven into the fabric of worldwide religious movements if only we had moved more determinedly at being so much more self-sufficient rather than losing those activities and relying on others.
March 1, 2026
@Mickey Taking – becoming relient on others only works when it costs the others nothing. Even NATO is not a gaurantee, just a wish a perhaps a maybe
March 1, 2026
‘ The EU leaders and the UK PM were an annoying irrelevance to relieving the brutality of the Iranian regime.’
Trump must have thought the same about the US congress as the peace president did not seek its authority for his latest war.
His main concern is to keep the Netanyahu government happy.
March 1, 2026
Peter,
TDS is apparently very contagious.
But that the UK could have a leader with such acuity.
March 1, 2026
Trump also needs to salvage something from the mid-term elections this autumn. Let’s see how that plays out with US voters, when rising oil prices send the cost of imported goods and the cost of living still higher.
March 1, 2026
I think his main concern is the IRGC mustn’t be allowed to get nuclear weapons.
March 1, 2026
+1
March 1, 2026
“US-Israeli operation targeting Iran a ‘breach of international law,’ says Dame Emily Thornberry (Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee) urging Starmer to ‘call out’ violation“
Who enforces international law Emily?
Perhaps stick to your patriotic, white van man, hating agenda Emily! Or explaining to us that when the wind does not blow we can use wave power! She was shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change!
March 1, 2026
@Lifelogic – who made it an international, the none exsistant international government. With its none exsistant police force. Or is it in the mind of an unelected unaccountable ex barrister?
March 1, 2026
+1
March 1, 2026
In the meantime Sir Keir ‘set out that the UK was taking part in coordinated regional defensive operations to protect British people and regional partners. He’s done NOTHING to protect British people! What a clown. He’s put possibly dangerous, illegal boat people in luxury hotels.Who would listen to a word that weak useless lying sir kneelalot says? Weak useless lying sir kneelalot has the backbone of a jellyfish. Then you go to the other extreme of the leftist and have Jeremy Corbyn with his other nut job brother Piers Corbyn have joined hundreds of pro-Iran protesters who gathered in London carrying banners of the Ayatollah to demand an end to ‘Trump’s wars’. WTF is happening to this once great nation
March 1, 2026
Piers Corbyn is sound on climate alarmism, the net zero lunacy and the net harm Covid “vaccines” he said were dangerous and on lockdowns – true he is a lefty and can be very dodgy on several other issues.
He would be interesting to talk to to try to understand how he gets to these sensible conclusions yet hold other such other potty ideas. He read physics at Imperial College. Certainly more sound the dire Neil Ferguson the Imperial epidemiologist doom modeller.
March 1, 2026
Let us hope Trumps now finally kills his Chagos (worse than give away) lunacy. Not offering UK airbases to the USA make it a more dangerous operation for the USA – well done Sir Two Tier Kier. That Man United owner chap Sir? said Kier was a nice, decent and intelligent man – no Sir he is non of these!
March 1, 2026
Trump is shaping up to be the best President of the USA since Reagan. Meanwhile, Two-Tier is shaping up to be the worst and most treacherous embarrassment, masquerading as a British Prime Minister EVER.
Unfortunately, since the Establishment has imported so many violent Muslims (legally and illegally) we are very likely to get terrorist retaliation in the UK. WE will reap what THEY have sowed.
Two more brave Chagossians have transferred themselves to the bridgehead team at their homeland on Isle de Coin. I very much doubt that the oh-so-virtuous Human Rights Lawyer, who has completely ignored the human rights of the Chagossian people his Party had already dragged from their island homes once, is going to want to be held responsible for implementing another enforced ethnic cleansing.
March 1, 2026
@Donna +1
Where is the International Law know, when 2TK wants people removed from their homeland so he can give it to some one far a way with no connection to. Other than the money trail that leads back to buddies, of a man steeped in the world of personal feebies, suits, wifes wardrobe, glasses and flat loans… follow the money
March 1, 2026
+1
March 1, 2026
great
March 1, 2026
I’m astonished at today’s post. You welcome the idea of the hegemon going around murdering people it doesn’t like, ostensively because they are murderers too?
Ignore the real reasons behind the regime changes (resource stripping and, in this case, Israeli dreams of regional hegemony).
Ignore the fact that if we were genuinely only after murderous leaders, heads would be rolling everywhere.
Ignore the lies and manipulation that always surround such activities; the sanctions imposed to push people into discontent and initiate a cycle of repression and resistance; the arms, training and comms equipment given to catalyse a revolt or “colour revolution”. All this is part of the package.
Ignore the actual result of killing these unpleasant or uncooperative foreign leaders: mostly it leads to prolonged wars (involving us directly or indirectly) that eventually create failed states and waves of Europe-bound refugees.
Ignore the misery heaped on the populations of those states by our “liberating” actions: is the average Libyan, Syrian, Afghan, Iraqi, etc better off than before?
Ignore the monetary cost to us (and the US), and the hatred it creates across the world. That will come back to bite us. Nations will mobilise against us, and race to get nuclear weapons if they don’t already have them. More instability less trade.
Ignore the moral supremicism “They should be running their countries the way we run ours!”. Why? What if they said that to us?
This is an awful way to do business or run the world. Just look at Israel in the Middle East – this sort of foreign policy has not given them any meaningful security. It hasn’t worked there, it doesn’t work on the wider stage.
I admire you for many things, but not on your approach to this issue.
March 1, 2026
+1
March 1, 2026
Israel dreams of survival.
March 1, 2026
W,
You omitted the imminent collapse of the US dollar as a reserve currency. More and more countries now do business without it.
War is always an option when all else fails.
‘Lies and manipulation’ are all part of the package.
As is turning a blinding eye, or not reporting events that don’t suit. Look at Gaza.
March 1, 2026
The imminent collapse of the US dollar has been predicted for many years Peter
Wishful thinking that leads to nothing.
March 2, 2026
jpmorgan.com 01/07/2025 ‘De-dollarisation: Is the US dollar losing its dominance?’
businessinsider.com 29/12/2025 ´The dollar has been the weakest major currency in 2025. Here’s what that means for everyday Americans’.
MorganStanley.com 06/08/2025 ‘The depreciation of the dollar’.
But obviously the little guys at JPM or the dangerous lefties at businessinsider or Morgan Stanley had failed to consult our in-house currency wonk.
March 2, 2026
Is it possible for you to post without making chidish personal comments hefner?
PS
None of your internet trawl articles show “the imminent collapse of the dollar” as Peter claimed.
March 1, 2026
I agree with the blog.
Moreover it was right to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons. Indeed previous American Presidents Obama and even George W Bush were entirely wrong not to stop by bombing North Korea from getting nuclear weapons.
As for international law (which as Putin knows does not really exist other than as a myth) when according to those such as Emily Thornberry and Ed Davey who advocate the view that the action is illegal, when do they imagine military action would be legal under international law? I suppose in effect the answer is not before London has been destroyed by one of their nuclear weapons.
As Badenoch and Farage have said we should have allowed America to use their bases in British territory for these operations.
March 2, 2026
+1
March 1, 2026
zara sultana has been saying that Pakistan should give Iran one of its nuclear weapons, this really shows what we are dealing with in this country.
March 1, 2026
A strange piece today Sir JR (or should I address you as Lord JR ?) When I suggested the way to deal with Putin was target him. You took me to task ………….
March 1, 2026
OA,
Not really. Standard message of Conservatives Friends of Israel.
Labour Friends of Israel and Lib Dem Friends of Israel will say similar.
It may not go down so well with MAGA voters who see their president go full neocon.
Terrible economy also and small numbers of illegals deported – despite ICE.
March 1, 2026
Is 400,000 deported in the last year a small nimber Peter?
March 1, 2026
Good morning.
I do not entirely agree with our kind host. Here is why.
One should be very careful here. We here in the UK had a situation whereby people were locked up for peaceful protests and one, as a result, died in prison – Peter Lynch (RIP). He did not take part in the riots but was protesting nearby. The response of our government, especially to those who opposed it but were non-violent, was to lock them up. I will not cover much more ground than this, but we do need to let the people decide their fait and not outside forces.
So I guess with the fall of the Venezuelan Ex-President, Maduro, and soon be Iran, I guess China and India will be buying their oil from Russia and the USA ? Russia must also be perplexed as, if both Iran and Venezuela along with any Arab States flood the market with oil, the Russian economy could very well implode.
The domino’s are falling.
March 1, 2026
watching some of the flight paths planes are now taking from the UK and Europe to Asia the corridors are getting very thin, with limited diversion routes if they get an engine failure etc on route. having to avoid the Ukraine conflict, and now Iranian conflict. they are overflying countries like Afghanistan where every village idiot has anti aircraft missiles, depending on their height being enough to keep them safe, of course any loss of cabin pressure would force them down to 10,000 feet and well within range, so a non uncommon fault can easily lead to disaster. the route also assumes ex USSR states are neutral. it’s not good.
and of course all the flights back from the areas Iran has been hitting are now sold old, so there’s going to be a problem getting westerners out and safe.
March 1, 2026
I see Nigel has now come out firmly against commonwealth citizens being allowed to vote in this country, something I have been saying a long time. It is crazy that we give people here on student and work visas etc the right to vote here, from countries where Brits would never be allowed to vote.
March 1, 2026
Correct. And the ban should also include citizens from Eire. I can’t see any justification for them having the right to vote in a British election either.
Another reason to vote for Reform.
March 1, 2026
THEY ARE BRITISH!
There are two British passports, Irish and U.K.
March 1, 2026
@iain gill – its this thing called reciprocity, that has the answer. Does their own home nation, that they are citizens off allow the same interferance of UK citizens.
The Comonwealth, I was under the impression had moved on, so why doesthat former entity still get a free pas?
Although in that context it does help that 2TK sent his aggitators to the USA to help keep Trump out of office.
March 1, 2026
its also far harder for a Brit to get a work visa to India (commonwealth), than it is for an Indian national to get a work visa to the UK.
our clueless ruling class agree these things in stupid ways, and massively disadvantage our own people.
March 1, 2026
The murder of Ali Khamenei, and of several women and children in his family, gives Trump the off-ramp he desperately needed. He can now bring back the aircraft carriers without loss, and hope to de-escalate. Unfortunately, the Straits of Hormuz remain closed to oil tankers and other commercial shipping. Score so far: Trump 1, world economy nil.
March 1, 2026
The job will be finished.
March 1, 2026
‘Mission accomplished’, you mean? How did that go?
March 1, 2026
Not yet but looking v good. The Chinese carrier sinkers did not work.
Persia will remove the existential threat to Israel.
PS The regime in Iran has now confessed that the IRGC mistakenly bombed an Iranian school yesterday, killing many children.
To all the legacy media and pro regime influencers who peddled your fake news:
RETRACT and DELETE.
March 1, 2026
‘IRGC mistakenly bombed an Iranian school yesterday’, you say.
Source?
March 1, 2026
Lynn, you’ve just destroyed your credibility. Shame, I used to agree with you.
March 1, 2026
You put a reasonably fair argument for this type of intervention. Perhaps you might suggest other world leaders that might be taken care of in this way?
March 1, 2026
@Mickey Taking. If it’s open season on this assasination game then our leaders had better look out. If you are Russian, Chinese, or indeed Iranian, you might feel that “intervention” is justified.
March 1, 2026
The PM sitting on the fence to soften the wrath of Muslim voters – who does actually run this country.
March 1, 2026
Absolutely right.
March 1, 2026
I think the term “International Law” is very misleading. There is no elected global government to decide what is lawful and what is not. There are treaties between nations or (in a broader sense) an international ‘consensus’. Both can be (and often are) broken when it suits those in power. “International Law” is very convenient, until it isn’t – at which point those who choose to ignore it, usually do so with impunity.
I’m sure there are many who think that killing the Iranian leadership is “ilegal” – in fact murder. However, would these same people have said the same if Hitler had been “murdered”? These people are beyond the reach of ordinary law enforcement and make decisions knowing there will usually be no personal cost to themselves. In doing so, I believe they also place themselves outside the protection of any ‘law’ too. Khamenei ordered thousands of his own people killed recently. If you live by the sword, then you should also expect to die by it.
March 1, 2026
We should spend more time minding our own economic mess here at home without bothering ourselves with what is going on in the wider world. For instance we don’t see Finland Sweden Belgium or Norway getting involved with American / Israeli wars. We’ve had enough of that in the past and we don’t want it back – John Healey please note
March 1, 2026
I suppose a good deal depends on whether Ali Khamenei was the actual power or a figurehead for others who were the real masterminds behind the dictatorship, and will be able to continue with little interruption. There must be a very great deal behind the Iranian regime that we do not know. Importantly, is there any local opposition leadership, other than the absentee Reza Pahlavi?
When the late Shah was deposed, the revolutionary opposition had a very clearly focused leadership in the person of Ayatollah Khomenei, and that seems to me to be lacking today, so a change of regime may not be at all simple to achieve.
There is no doubt that, in large parts thanks to the efforts of the Americans to arm the late Shah, the existing Iranian regime is very well armed indeed, so I would say that the eventual outcome is still very uncertain.
It was pretty amazing watching GB News yesterday evening, seeing the sky over Tel Aviv, hearing the syrens and being urged to ‘Watch for interceptions’. War is being made a spectator sport; certainly much more exciting that the turgid Winter Olympics with its carefully nurtured synthetic slopes.
March 1, 2026
so we have people protesting on the streets of the UK in favour of the late Iranian leader, no doubt they will get violent and we will have to deal with another enemy within our country.
what a mad state of affairs our ruling class have engineered.
March 1, 2026
Oh come on. “Diversity is our strength, don’cha know.”
It’s a strength to have hundreds of thousands of potential foreign terrorists wandering our streets and protesting
Reply The number of terrorists is much lower but still very worrying
March 1, 2026
The number of identified terrorists JR. All might undertake terror unexpectedly, look at the Welsh Choirboy.
March 1, 2026
the numbers of people on the terror watch list are public domain, they are massive and far bigger than the size we are able to cope with.
March 1, 2026
We shouldn’t forget that there were one hundred school children killed yesterday in the name of Donald Trumps regime change and now it’s becoming clear that there was no legal basis either internationally or domestically in the US for this attack – meanwhile he has been calling for the Iranian people to rise up but with no Amerucan boots on the ground – some cheek
March 1, 2026
@Blazes. Quite. Imagine the furore if a school was hit in Israel or an American school in one of the neighbouring states, and dozens of children killed. Nobody has even apologised that I’ve heard.
March 1, 2026
The USA don’t waste expensive armaments.take Islamic propaganda with a pinch of salt. However the 20,000 plus protestors dead are numerically much more concerning. One woman hanged just before the strikes.
Proportionality. Ever heard of it?
March 1, 2026
The regime in Iran has now confessed that the IRGC mistakenly bombed an Iranian school yesterday, killing many children.
March 1, 2026
Very skewed comment. The Minab girls’ primary school was close to a IRGC. Factually.co 01/03/2026 ‘islamic revolutionary guard confirmed they bombed the school accidentally’ debunks LA’s statement. Tonight (22:00 BST) there is no definitive attribution due to lack of publicly available forensic proof.
March 2, 2026
Presumably hefner you will believe the Iranian regime’s claim until proven otherwise.
March 1, 2026
Only recently found your Diary and I have found your comments mostly spot on especially this one! I had always thought that you would have been a first-class Prime Minister, because you talk straight but of course that means common sense; of which we now seem to be sadly lacking. I still think the same way of you, so please keep up this diary and help keep this dictatorship helld (I misspelled that, but I think it is appropriate now!) to account.
Thank you
Bob Harris
March 1, 2026
+1 (but only mostly? almost invariable right for 50+ years but alas his advice was so rarely followed) though given that our wonderful justice system has absurdly found Lucy Letby guilty of 15 murders and attempted murders and twice denied her any appeal I am not a fan of capital punishment. With a possible exception for a tiny few people like Axel Rudakubana!
March 1, 2026
He is honest and very consistently correct – not a combination generally found in politicians!
March 1, 2026
A method recently used by Israel against the Hamas leadership …to great effect
March 1, 2026
I cant resist, The Greens latest MP and it unelected leader morn the loss of one of their ultra aggressive (in the guise of a peaceful religion) religious leaders. Now they can whip up more hatred of the British in their sectarian fight against the British people and its way of life.
Create a divide when their is none and you manipulate.
Although to a degree it is straight out of 2TK’s gangs playbook
March 1, 2026
Lost on some. This was not just about an effort to neutralise a wayward sect, a tyrannical leader that had been murdering his people. It was about the Nuclear Bomb, and Iran wishing to attain it after all Israel has one. POTUS is not being wayward as some like the BBC, The Guardian, The Greens and even worse our own UK Parliament and its own Government would have you believe. It about neutralising a perceived threat and helping the people of that country get their lives and their country back. POTUS has declared he wants the Iranian people to run the Country not a terrorist organisation.
Yes, all countries would be wishing for nuclear energy, the soft side of nuclear aspirations. But the question of the alternative use of nuclear, the bomb is different. The technologies are different in as much as the compounds/materials used are different. The concern arises from the situation that Iran hired ‘Abdul Qadeer Khan’, said to be the father of the Pakistani Nuclear Bomb program to help them (yes, Pakistan has nuclear bombs). He handed over/sold Pakistani bomb making secrets to Iran
Iran’s Nuclear Bomb making, might yet turn out to be as mythical as Tony Blairs weapons of mass-destruction that resulted 392 coalition deaths, 3000 civilian and said to be up to 20000 Iraqi military personnel. Some one else with an inflated destructive ego. But the risk is infinity greater due to Iran’s reluctance to open its facilities to UN inspection
Better safe than sorry? Nuclear is not as mythical as an unknown seemingly containable Blair fear campaign. Pity the UK Parliament and its chosen government can’t stand up for us and the world with strength and dignity.
March 1, 2026
The neocons have been spreading fears about Iran getting nuclear weapons for decades.
This attack was not about nuclear weapons. They claimed nuclear facilities were destroyed in the last attack.
This is about regime change. Iran was the last obstacle to Israel getting a free hand in the Middle East. Greater Israel can now expand into Lebanon, South Syria, the Sinai etc.
Israel will be the new hegemon in the area, with no rivals and huge oil resources and control of the important world trading routes.
America could have served its purpose for Israel in due course. Certainly the case for its dual citizens.
March 1, 2026
@Peter – then rebuilt. That maybe questionable, but in denying UN inspections if nothing is going on gives reason for concern
March 1, 2026
IAEA inspectors have seen the centrifuges spinning at Natanz and measured with geiger counters.
March 1, 2026
‘Senior Israeli security official: More than 40 senior Iranian security & regime figures were killed in the opening strikes this morning. This is one of the largest regime “decapitation operations” conducted in modern warfare history. Israeli intelligence managed to infiltrate the Iranian security echelon.’
Let’s hope the bombardment took out the Chinese ‘Gerald Ford’ weapons and that the carrier is safe.
Trump has courage. Wow.
Puts the decline and destruction of the British, mainly by German Europe and her British collaborators, into sharp contrast. The old grey mare ain’t what she used to be…
March 1, 2026
No we shouldn’t be targeting leaders in this way. That just declares open season on all world leaders. Dirty bomb anyone?
It is up to the Iranians to enact leadership change just as it should have been for Libyan, Iraqi and Syrian citizens.
We prevent regime change by the population by offering asylum. If there was no asylum they would have to make their lives better through rising up.
March 1, 2026
Not easy to do. Remember that more or less the whole population hated The Supreme Leader, and were happy to help the Jewish insurgents.
Now in Britain …. Well let’s not take the example of how much we love our supreme leader ….
March 1, 2026
LA,
There is no proof that the whole population hated the leader.
There were dissidents who were supplied with starlink communications and aided by Mossad agents on the ground (according to Mike Pompeo). Other US politicians say the Iranian currency was deliberately undermined to foment protest.
Yet the regime survived.
Don’t forget the Shah of Iran was not popular when he was eventually overthrown – without Western intervention. The SAVAK dealt harshly with his opponents and he was installed by the West in the first place to protect BP and Standard Oil. His son is being touted as the king across the water by some – but he is really a nobody.
March 1, 2026
Imagine living as a woman in Iraq Peter
Does your delightfully liberal politic not negatively react to that?
PS
Does everybody in Iraq have to hate their leaders in order to satify you?
March 1, 2026
Very noticeable that Sir Two Tier’s government (unplanned pro Iranian protests allowed yesterday) were quick to issue an “it wasn’t me” response when Israel got involved.
Shifting leftwards and more pro Islam as a result of losing Gorton and Denton. He has truly listened to that electorate.
March 1, 2026
The enemy within…
The Labour chairman of the foreign affairs select committee said she believed America and Israel’s initial strikes were illegal under international law.
Zack Polanski, the Green Party leader, described the strikes as an “illegal, unprovoked and brutal attack” and said the US and Israel were now “rogue states”.
The unelected unaccountable, Dame Emily Thornberry, who has previously served as shadow attorney general, said there was no “imminent threat” posed by Tehran. “I don’t think that there’s a legal basis for this action,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday morning. “They were not under imminent threat, and so it’s therefore difficult to see what the legal justification is.”
Labour MP Richard Burgon added: “The bombing of Iran by the US and Israel is an illegal act of aggression.”
International Law? Laws created by democratically elected accountable people? – or self serving ‘left-whingers’?
March 1, 2026
Got your hijab ready? No objection to the water boarding, strangulation and gang rape of 240,000 British women and children as young as 4.
Perfectly in line with the Rules and International law – must be else all these good people would have stopped it?
March 1, 2026
The US and Israel have for long time been rogue states – they conspired with Britain as far back as 1953 to overthrow the legitimate government of Iran that started all of this trouble and that that was 73 years ago ‘ and we could go even further back and cite the Balfour Declaration 1917 that heralded the zionist mix into the region – it’s hard to understand how these poor people living peacefully before in the Middke East could have had such barbarism heaped on them.
March 1, 2026
USA has an appalling track record of attacking foreign countries and leaving chaos behind, as Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan demonstrate. Will the Iranian people be abandoned in chaos and recrimination from a brutal wounded regime? Bombing and firing missiles then flying or sailing away is certainly not a guarantee for success and this regrettably is the US format. Will the wider region become destabilised? It’s far too early to judge.
March 1, 2026
Old news but still seen as current, as there is no change of mind or situation. The UN, referencing Iran
UN Council enacted resolutions against Iran as ‘the world’s collective judgement’ is that the country(Iran) posed a threat, UN News reported.
Is that a International Law then?
March 1, 2026
They had to wait to see who would win. Ursula doing same.
March 1, 2026
How about targeting Putin?
March 1, 2026
Appreciate your analogy Lord Redwood. Yes the War of the Roses ended in 1485, yet the Tudor period can hardly be described as all sweetness and light. And yes WW2 ended on the death of Hitler, yet it was surely the Allied armies that determined the end of the Nazi regime? Equally, peace did not break out upon the deaths of either Gaddafi or Saddam in their respective countries.
My point is the Iranian regime will elect a new leader, and will seek to stay in power, and it may well be to the discomfort of any insurrectionists there.
March 1, 2026
Dear Lord R,
Assassination is a dangerous game, open to all. Cutting off the head of the snake, like the persecution of former heads of government, is utterly alien to British political culture, including foreign and even former imperial policy. Let us keep it that way.
What others do is up to them. We shall judge the wisdom of America’s latest intervention, and ultimately its political morality, by whether it brings sustained freedom, domestic peace and dignity to the people of Iran and leads to more, rather than even less, stability in the Middle East.
For now , we should offer what help we can to Iranians seeking a transition and quietly avoid either applause or condemnation.
Reply It can be the lesser of two evils. The UK executed one King, deposed several others, killed one in battle. Modern PMs are removed from office when they cease to please.
March 2, 2026
Reply to reply: Let us hope that, in couple of years time, this will have proved the lesser of two evils in Iran. My problem is with embracing the assassination of a constitutional political leader as a matter of policy. With one or two exceptions (William Rufus?) regicide was usually the end of civil or dynastic wars, not the start.
I do not need to remind you that the IRA almost managed to assassinate our prime minister, having pre-emptively murdered the man who might have ended The Troubles a decade sooner. I would have been tempted to ask the SAS to remove the known leaders of the IRA in all its manifestations but it was probably never even considered. It is not our way. Such official actions can spark an increasing cycle of political violence , something that is already nearer the surface within England than at any time since the 1930s.
March 1, 2026
you have to admire the way @centcom (US Central Command) is trolling the accounts of the Iranian regime on X (Twitter)
no attempt to shut down the speech of the Iranian regime, just ruthlessly taking the Mickey out of their lies
wish they would do the same about the BS the British government posts
March 1, 2026
‘Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed’ (Genesis 12:3).
Cf. Psalm 2: ‘Why do the heathen rage…?’
Israel is God’s prophetic clock!
The country is also the only democracy in the Middle East. Whether her destiny will ultimately depend upon military might, however, there is no doubt that it will not. Meanwhile, thank God for the free world (or in Britain’s case, what’s left of it). Thank God for America!
‘Yet have I set my king on my holy hill of Zion’ (Ps 2:v.6).
March 1, 2026
A few years ago I visited Cambodia and Laos to see the ongoing programme for the clearing of the lands and forest floors of bomblets “bombies” where millions and millions were dropped by the US during the Vietnam war and that was fifty years ago and since then has killed and maimed hundred of thousands of men women children and animals – you’ll not find very many american tourists wandering around those parts.
March 2, 2026
Did you also visit the memorials to the millions of people killed by the evil communist regimes?