A Strategy Without Boots, Without Betrayal
A Case for Regime Change
You can find Col Rahmani’s previous essay on this subject here.
The Mullahs are wounded, but wounded regimes, like wounded animals, are at their most dangerous when cornered. Their instinct will be to survive at any cost: through deception, through foreign sympathy, and if necessary, through brutal crackdowns on their own people. If we walk away now, we give them space to adapt, to regroup, and to rearm. But if we act with precision, wisdom, and resolve, we can help the Iranian people bring this chapter to a close—without starting a new war, and without compromising the peace President Trump has promised.
This is where America must be smart.
The Iranian regime has always depended on two things: control over information and control over fear. But both are collapsing. After the strikes, the people know their rulers are vulnerable. They know the world is watching. And they know the regime can be beaten. But what they don’t know is whether America will stand with them beyond the fire.
We don’t need to send troops to answer that question. We need to send a message—and follow through with action that empowers the Iranian people without exposing American lives or breaking our promise to avoid endless war.
First, we can break the regime’s digital and psychological grip. For too long, Tehran has survived by cutting off its people from the truth—by filtering news, censoring dissent, and isolating the country from the global conversation. That wall can fall. Satellite internet, open-source communication tools, and real-time translations of resistance voices can turn every home into a battlefield for truth. When people no longer fear speaking—and the regime can no longer control who listens—something powerful begins to shift.
Second, we must stop legitimizing the regime’s diplomats. Their foreign minister is not a moderate. He wears a smoother mask on the same brutal face. This is not the time for back-channel talks or quiet understandings. This is the time to say: the only conversation worth having is with those preparing to lead Iran after the Mullahs. That includes voices inside the country risking everything to organize, and leaders from the diaspora who understand democracy, who understand Iran, and who don’t want to replace one tyranny with another.
And third, we must give the Iranian people a vision of the day after. That doesn’t mean promising miracles—it means promising recognition. A free Iran will not be abandoned. It will be welcomed. Sanctions will be lifted. Frozen assets will be released to the rightful government, not to clerics with blood on their hands. Trade will reopen. Aid will flow. And Iran, rich in history, talent, and potential, will rejoin the community of nations not as a threat, but as a partner.
None of this requires boots on the ground. None of this violates the promise of peace. In fact, it strengthens it. Because real peace isn’t just the absence of bombs—it’s the absence of fear. And fear is what this regime has lived on for forty-four years.
President Trump has always believed in peace through strength. What we have now is strength through clarity. The battlefield phase is done. The political phase begins. If we get this right, we won’t just remove a threat—we’ll help free 80 million people who’ve waited too long to breathe.
Let’s not give the regime a chance to rise from the rubble. Let’s give the people of Iran the ground they need to stand.
History isn’t patient. It moves when we do.
Abdul Rahman Rahmani, from Afghanistan, is a seasoned counterterrorism and national security expert with over 16 years of experience. His work primarily focuses on Afghanistan and the broader Central and South Asian regions. Fluent in English, Farsi, Hindi, Pashto, and Arabic, Rahmani has provided intelligence support for the United States' counterterrorism initiatives in Afghanistan. Academically, Rahmani holds a master's degree in National Security Resources Strategy from the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., and an undergraduate degree from the Expeditionary Warfare School at Marine Corps University in Virginia. He also has a bachelor's degree in sociology from Kabul University. Rahmani began his military career in 2004, joining the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, where he served in various capacities, including a helicopter pilot. He rose through the ranks and was a colonel when Afghanistan collapsed to the Taliban in Aug 2021. Later, Rahmani served as the Head of the Presidential Intelligence Coordination Center and led the International Sanctions and Terrorism division within the Afghan National Security Council in Kabul. He is a published author, and his book 'Afghanistan: A Collection of Stories' was released in 2013. He has written multiple articles advocating for the U.S. mission and the establishment of a free and democratic Afghanistan.
When invoking the notoriously fickle American electorate it it well to exercise care - you might get what you wish for. The last time the Americans fiddled in Iranian politics they received the Shah. Fiddling in Afghanistan produced a victory for the Taliban. Rinse and repeat.