>>179564, >>179565, >>179566, >>179567, >>179568, >>179569, >>179570, >>179571, >>179572, >>179573, >>179574, >>179575, >>179576, >>179577, >>179578, >>179579, >>179580, >>179581, >>179582, >>179583, >>179584, >>179585, >>179586, >>179587, >>179588, >>179589, >>179590, >>179591, >>179592, >>179593, >>179594, >>179595, >>179596, >>179597, >>179598, >>179599, >>179600, >>179601, >>179602, >>179603, >>179604, >>179605, >>179606, >>179607, >>179608, >>179609, >>179610, >>179611, >>179612, >>179613, >>179614, >>179615, >>179616
To this day, 29 days to be exact, Iranians have been cut off from the world with almost no access to the Internet. Fearful of my courageous compatriots, Khamenei Junior and his cabal of criminals, have dragged Iran from the 21st century to the Dark Ages. They are afraid that when they do, the world will again see the defiant will of a nation united and determined to topple it.
Life can never go back to normal. There is a sea of blood between the people and the regime. After all the massacres, after all they have sacrificed, they will never agree to swap one tyrant for another.
And another anti-American tyrant will not serve American interests either. The only thing that the remnants of this regime can be relied on to do is to buy time, to cheat, and to steal. They will never be honest or true partners for peace. President Trump was right when he said, “We don’t want to come back every two years.”
But if a faction of the regime is left in power, that is exactly what will happen. It will buy time. It will pretend to negotiate. And then, it will return to its old, jihadist ways of threatening America, its security, and its interests.
They might promise a short period of artificial calm. But it would inevitably be followed by the same terrorism, the same nuclear blackmail, and the same cries of “Death to America.”
Because the truth is simple: The Islamic Republic cannot reform itself. You cannot reform a snake. Venom is in its DNA.
This extends to the corrupt and brutal thugs of the IRGC. Because the IRGC is not Iran’s national army. Indeed, it does not even have the word Iran in its name! It is the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. It serves its own poisonous ideology of terror, not Iran’s national interests. So it can certainly never be a partner to serve America’s interests.
The only path to lasting peace and stability runs through a clean break with this regime.
For the first time in 47 years, President Trump’s strategy has given us a real chance to achieve that outcome. For decades, every American president since Carter chose to try to manage this looming threat rather than resolve it. Each of them has failed. They have only made the problem worse. The result has been more dead Iranians and more dead Americans.
So the mullahs operated on the assumption that America didn’t have the stomach to confront them decisively.
That assumption began to collapse when President Trump ordered the strike on Qasem Soleimani.
And once the myth of the regime’s invincibility was shattered, possibilities began to move in a different direction.
Operations Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury have done something extraordinary. The killing of Khamenei and many of his henchmen, the destruction of more than 80% of the regime’s ballistic missile arsenal, and the obliteration of the nuclear sites have leveled the playing field.
This did not happen by accident. It happened because of President Trump’s resolve and the courage of American troops. On behalf of millions of Iranians, we thank them.
Their sacrifice was not in vain. For the first time in nearly half a century, the Iranian people have a fighting chance to end this regime’s terror and chaos. The regime’s repressive machine has been degraded, its terror network cut off, and its leadership decimated.
But for this all to be worth it — the sacrifices of both Americans and Iranians— for the goodwill between our two peoples which you see on vibrant display here today, to continue — we must finish the job. This regime, in its entirety must go.